Cavanagh History |
| The Cavanagh Company of Greenville, R. I. grew out of plea for assistance made by a Jesuit retreat master sixty years ago. Local priests in 1943 invited John F. Cavanagh Sr. and his son John to meet with the retreat master, the Reverend Peter Dolan, to discuss the plight of parish nuns. Father Dolan pointed out that the equipment used by the nuns for the baking of altar breads, the wafer distributed during Holy Communion in the Catholic Church, was antiquated and sadly in need of repair. John Cavanagh Sr., then in his sixties and an inventor of some merit, took up the challenge. He readily converted waffle irons, humidifiers, mixers and cutters into tools for the baking and cutting of the unleavened Communion offering. Cavanagh's kindness, skill and ingenuity would lead to the creation of a company that now spans four generations, and represents the largest supplier of altar bread in the country. |
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| John Sr.'s sons, John F. Jr. and Paul, eventually became part of the new operation. Both were fine artists and portrait painters who would apply their considerable talents to the growing company. In 1946, the brothers formed a partnership to produce the machines which their father had designed, keeping John Cavanagh Sr. on to advise them.The need for better equipment among convent bakers became even more pronounced during the post-World War II boom in the population, when returning servicemen married and raised families. Many of these families practiced within the Catholic faith, and their churches filled with the new Communicants. Nuns baking in convents could no longer keep up with demand. The Cavanagh Company petitioned Bishop McVinney of the Diocese of Providence for the special permission needed to become bakers of the symbolic breads. By the mid-1950s, volume dictated the purchase of a 10,000 square foot plant on Putnam Pike in Greenville, R.I. Symbols engraved by the two brothers stamped the first wafers distributed by the Cavanagh Company. Distribution during the early 1950s still passed through the convents, with the Sisters packaging Cavanagh's breads for distribution to churches. Two hundred and fifty convents continued to bake and supply altar breads at this time. |  |
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| The Second Vatican Council 1962 "really changed everything," said Brian Cavanagh, Paul's son and current head of management, sales and marketing for the company. The Catholic Church, like so much of society during that decade, re-evaluated its symbols. The Church's Council of Trent, which convened during the mid-sixteenth century to codify Catholic dogma, reaffirmed the significance of the seven celebrated sacraments. Communion wafers at that time became ethereal both in symbol and in substance: the wafers were one thirty-thousandth of an inch thick, notes Cavanagh, shiny and "white like milk glass," and were baked to dissolve on the tongue. These rarefied wafers fell out of favor during Vatican II, with an impetus toward celebrating the sacrament of the Eucharist with wafers that more closely resembled bread. The Catholic Church's modern philosophical stand presented the Cavanagh Company with a real engineering dilemma: how to make an unleavened product seem like food. Wafer baking ovens provided the solution, enabling the company to produce wafers that were two times as thick, with a sealed edge to prevent crumbs. John Cavanagh Jr. and Paul Cavanagh again applied their talents, this time to the development and subsequent patenting of a certain cutting technique for the new wafers. |
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| All of the breads currently produced pass through ovens that have been researched and fine-tuned by Peter Cavanagh, the son of Paul Cavanagh and brother of Brian Cavanagh. As their predecessors did, Peter and Brian use baking methods established by historical liturgical guidelines, combining only flour and water for the process. The mixture is then spread between flat, rectangular plates that compress the mixture as the plates move through a gas-fired oven. These ovens produce rectangular sheets of wafer-thin bread, which are then passed through a humidifier for dampening, enabling the bread to be cut into circles without crumbling. As the bread is cut, it passes under a turning drum of dyes that incise the wafers with religious symbols, such as a cross or a lamb, which is used as a symbol of Christ.The Cavanagh Company moved into its third generation in 1970, when Paul's son Brian joined the firm. An English major, Brian brought his own new ideas to the bread-making business. Using extruder equipment "like they use for cheese puffs," he produced the "Grainfield Biscuit," using only organic grains and sea salt. Ten national distributors moved 1,000 cases of biscuits a week, until the price of organic grains doubled, ending Brian's venture into the health food business. He then turned to the family altar bread business, focusing on promoting and marketing his father and uncle's highly respected products. He learned the business from the ground up, working in the firm's machine shop, bakery, shipping and marketing departments. |
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| A decrease in vocations among religious orders, dating from the late 1950s, led to fewer and fewer nuns as bakers for altar breads and a larger demand for Cavanagh Company products. By the early 1970s, the firm was producing six to seven million Communion wafers per week. "Convents that had twelve nuns doing the baking now had five," notes Brian Cavanagh. Rules for fasting also relaxed, allowing more Catholics to receive Communion more frequently. Paul's son Peter joined the firm in 1974, apprenticing, as his brother Brian had, in all of the firm's departments. Peter, a Liberal Arts major, brought his grandfather's love of invention to his new situation. He serves now as head of research and development for the firm. His grandfather, who loved experimenting with gadgets, had a list of 120 or so patents to his name, including a mechanical stapler, a roofing hammer, and the "bar switch" that can be found on lamps in many homes today. During the 1950s, long before the advent of fiber optics and sophisticated technological innovations, John Cavanagh Sr. spent hours perfecting a page turning machine for paraplegics. Cavanagh's inspiration for the devise, operated with the blink of an eye, came from a chance encounter with a hospital patient. His grandson Peter also branched out in unexpected ways, inventing both a tennis ball machine called the "Cannon" and a retrieval system for tennis balls. |
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| "We have more than enough to keep our hands full here," Brian Cavanagh says of the brothers' various creative departures from their main occupation, that of bread baking. The practicalities of producing and packaging altar breads present difficulties not encountered by other bakers. Unlike ordinary wafers and biscuits, altar breads require special dampening techniques to prevent the breads from crumbling. Peter is "constantly making improvements" to existing equipment, notes George Farrelly, general manager for the Cavanagh Company. Due to the uniqueness of the product, demands on company designers are particularly intense. Machines used for commercial baking must be modified to accommodate the bread's special characteristics. Peter's abilities also established Episcopalian and Lutheran churches as clients, when he developed a packaging machine designed to those denominations' design specifications. Company personnel still operate three of the machines, designed to produce rolls of 100 breads per second. Over time, the firm also added Southern Baptist churches to its client list.Farrelly joined the firm during the early 1970s, a period of intense growth for the company. Farrelly and Brian Cavanagh knew each other from high school days, when they played basketball and football together. In 1974, Farrelly moved into sales, joining Brian Cavanagh on sales trips to convents and religious orders around the country and overseas. The Cavanagh Company held sixty percent of the Catholic market for altar bread at this point. Brian especially remembers the advice of his Uncle John from this time: that the test of management would be the ability to manage operations "to a fine edge," after the excitement of expansion had died down. |
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| The Cavanagh brothers have evidently done a fine job of that. The company now runs round-the-clock shifts to produce 20 million Communion wafers weekly, representing eighty-five percent of the U.S. and Canadian markets for the product and fifty percent of the market in the United Kingdom. Requests even for large volume orders, as during papal visits, are routinely handled. Brian and Peter Cavanagh extend a good deal of credit to all of their employees, who figure strongly in the firm's success.In 1990, the firm expanded its operations to overseas, acquiring F. A. Dumont in Kent, England, on the Dover coast. The Cavanagh's brother-in-law, Steve Gilson, oversaw the acquisition of the British firm, which serves as a distributor both of altar breads and of an extensive line of candles, vestments, clerical garments, chalices and liturgical accessories. |
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| Brian Cavanagh speaks warmly of the working relationship shared by his father, Paul, and his Uncle John during their tenure with the Cavanagh Company. "I can't ever remember them having an argument," he said, noting that differences relating to business matters were dealt with calmly. Brian and Peter Cavanagh strive for the same level of mutual respect in their current running of the Cavanagh Company. Brian speaks with equal warmth of the next generation of Cavanaghs to join the firm, noting that their input is especially helpful, as they "see things that others don't." He characterizes Peter's son Dan, who joined the firm five years ago, as "the perfect complement" to Peter in terms of research and development. Peter's son Andy, who joined the company two years ago, will soon take over all in-house accounting. Andy also contributes to marketing and public relations efforts. Brian's daughter Kerri Frezza contributes her efforts in the firm's administrative offices. Brian Cavanagh notes that daily interactions with family members and staff regarding Cavanagh Company business matters constitutes for him one of the firm's most enjoyable aspects. A full art studio on company premises remembers its founders' talents and abilities. Upon discovering that artwork for profit yielded little profit, John and Paul Cavanagh both employed their gifts as liturgical artists by donating their efforts to numerous Catholic institutions. John worked primarily in silver, making chased vessels from "flat-stock silver" and donating gifts in the form of presidential medals and crucifixes to many universities. A fourteen foot bronze sculpture created by Paul, who worked in bronze, wood, and stained glass, now graces Salve Regina University. |
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| John Cavanagh Jr. withdrew from the firm in 1980, selling his interest in the company to his brother Paul. Paul remained active in the business even after his retirement, coming in to the plant every day until illness intervened. Brian Cavanagh notes that all of his efforts, and his brother Peter's, are designed toward making this generation of brothers "obsolete." Toward this end, they have invested a lot of thought into plans for passing on the company to its newer members and to the family as a whole. The brothers eventually implemented a stock-sharing plan involving one series of voting stock and another of non-voting stock to distribute assets evenly. Of plans for the future, Brian Cavanagh says that the brothers are "keeping their eyes open," a sentiment that is easily believed of this creative and dynamic family. Brian Cavanagh notes that as the company matures, the brothers are freed for charities on a local and diocesan level - and not incidentally, for the golf course as well. Cavanagh has served on the boards of several organizations, including Salve Regina University; the Mother of Life organization; the Harmony Hill School for disadvantaged youth in Chepachet, R. I.; and Amos House living shelter and medical clinic in south Providence, R.I. |
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| The Cavanagh Company offers its customers Christmas wafers during the holiday season, incised with depictions of the manger scene, the Madonna and Child, and the Holy Family. Company literature notes that "the spiritual lesson in this age old custom is unity of the family." The breaking of this bread by family members serves as a sign of "charity, unity and friendship," with a simple prayer of grace said for all members, present and absent, of the family. The baking and sharing of these wafers seems an especially fitting tradition for a company based on a long history of mutual interests, loyalty, and bonds that go well beyond those of most businesses. |
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