Dec 16, 2009

New gift shop focuses on quality, local and monastery-made goodsBy TheCatholicSpirit.com

For a long time, customers at Loome Theological Booksellers in Stillwater have asked if the store might consider selling religious gifts in addition to the more than 250,000 books that already line the store’s shelves.

And for a long time, the answer had been no.

However, co-owners Christopher Hagen and Andrew Poole have changed that response. The duo opened Loome Sacred Gifts Nov. 15.

The new store focuses on higher quality, local or monastery-produced goods, Poole said, including some goods “suited for sacramental occasions,” such as baptismal gowns.

“There are a lot of sacramental celebrations that happen in the St. Croix Valley here — weddings, baptisms. We want to be available to people who come in for that,” Hagen said.

Currently, a small tree in the store holds ornaments, including Ukrainian Easter eggs and glass orbs with icon-like scenes. Other gifts include carved wooden boxes, handmade clingstone pit rosaries and chocolate Trappistine Creamy Caramels from Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa.

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