In brief
How Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches build incense from frankincense, myrrh, benzoin and storax, and why the recipes differ between traditions. Orthodox incense, called ladan or livani, is usually frankincense tears melted and re-poured with fragrant oils, often rose or jasmine, then cut into small colored pastilles once cool. Storax and benzoin are common softening additions. Russian recipes tend to be more resin-forward and less floral than Greek or Athonite ones, but frankincense remains the shared base. Most do not. Incense largely disappeared from English parish churches after the Reformation and was revived only in a minority of Anglo-Catholic parishes following the 19th-century Oxford Movement. Where it is used, it generally follows Roman Catholic patterns rather than a distinct Anglican formula, and Broad Church or Evangelical congregations typically use none at all.
Church incense recipes vary by tradition but nearly all share one core material: frankincense (olibanum) resin, tapped from Boswellia trees and valued since antiquity for its clean, balsamic-lemon smoke. Roman Catholic use tends toward frankincense alone or nearly so, sometimes cut with benzoin or storax for sweetness and a slower burn. Eastern Orthodox incense, called ladan or livani, is typically a more compounded product: frankincense tears are melted and re-poured with fragrant oils, often rose or spice, giving Greek and Russian church incense a softer, more floral character than plain olibanum. Anglican practice divides along churchmanship: Anglo-Catholic parishes generally burn Roman-style or Orthodox-influenced blends, while most Anglican congregations use no incense at all. None of these are fixed formulas. Monasteries, cathedrals and convents each keep their own recipes, adjusted for resin origin, grade and the maker’s taste.
What goes into a church incense blend?
The working base across all three traditions is frankincense, usually Boswellia sacra, B. carterii, B. papyrifera or B. serrata tears, chosen for hardness, color and low resin content in the wax. To that base, incense makers commonly add:
- Myrrh, for a bitter, medicinal edge, historically tied to penitential seasons such as Lent and to funeral rites.
- Benzoin, Siam or Sumatra, for sweetness, a vanilla-like softness, and as a fixative that slows the release of lighter top notes.
- Storax, for a leathery, cinnamic warmth that rounds off a sharp, resinous smoke.
- Labdanum, for an ambery, animalic depth, more common in Orthodox and some Anglo-Catholic recipes than in plain Roman incense.
- Elemi or other soft oleoresins, occasionally, for a citrus-pepper lift on first lighting.
The proportions, not the ingredient list, are what separate one tradition’s incense from another’s.
What does Catholic (Roman) incense smell like?
Plain Roman incense stays close to unadulterated frankincense: a cold, piney-lemon opening built on monoterpenes such as α-pinene and limonene, settling into a warmer, slightly balsamic body carried by boswellic acids and diterpene resin acids that do not fully volatilize. Many commercial “cathedral” or “Roman” blends soften this with a small proportion of benzoin and storax, which round off the sharpness and add a sweet, vanillic edge without masking the frankincense. The result is a scent most people would recognize immediately from Mass, even without knowing a single Latin name for a resin.
Orthodox incense: rose, spice and storax
Orthodox ladan is usually made rather than merely selected. Tears of frankincense, sometimes blended with other resins, are melted, mixed with fragrant oils and colorants, poured onto a flat surface, and cut or broken into small, often colored pastilles once cool. Greek and Athonite incense frequently carries rose or jasmine oil over the resin base, producing a floral top note that a straight lump of olibanum never has. Russian Orthodox ladan leans more resin-forward, with less floral perfuming and, in some regional recipes, a trace of pine or birch resin alongside the frankincense. Storax and benzoin both appear in Orthodox formulas as softening agents, much as in Catholic ones, but the routine addition of perfume oils is the clearest technical difference between Orthodox incense and the Roman kind.
Anglican incense: between Rome and reticence
Incense disappeared from most English parish churches after the Reformation and stayed marginal for roughly three centuries. The 19th-century Oxford Movement revived ceremonial practice in a subset of Anglican parishes, and with it came the thurible. Anglo-Catholic churches that use incense today generally buy Roman-pattern blends, sometimes sourced from Catholic religious suppliers or, less often, from Orthodox monasteries, rather than maintaining a distinct Anglican formula. Broad Church and Evangelical Anglican congregations typically use no incense at all, so “Anglican incense” describes a borrowed practice rather than an independent recipe tradition.
How the three traditions compare
| Tradition | Typical base | Common additions | Character | Usual form |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Catholic | Frankincense tears | Benzoin, storax (optional) | Clean, piney, lightly sweet | Loose tears or granules |
| Eastern Orthodox | Frankincense, often blended | Rose or floral oils, spice, storax | Resinous with a floral or spiced top note | Colored, scented pastilles |
| Anglican (Anglo-Catholic) | Frankincense, Roman-pattern blends | Occasionally benzoin, storax | Close to Roman Catholic incense | Loose tears or granules |
Why frankincense remains the constant
Every tradition discussed here keeps frankincense as its anchor, for reasons that are as practical as they are symbolic. Boswellia resin burns cleanly on a coal, produces a dense white smoke, and holds its scent through long liturgies better than most other aromatic gums. Its chemistry supports this: a fast-evaporating terpene fraction gives an immediate lift when the resin first meets heat, while heavier boswellic and other resin acids continue to smoulder and release scent for much longer. The biblical association with gift and offering, reinforced through centuries of continuous liturgical use, gave frankincense a status no substitute resin has displaced, even where local trade made myrrh, storax or benzoin easier to obtain than olibanum itself.
Raw tears or compounded blend: what changes on the coal?
A straight frankincense tear burns in a fairly linear way: a bright, resinous opening, then a longer, quieter balsamic tail as the harder resin fraction is consumed. A compounded blend behaves differently because it is built from ingredients with different volatilities. Rose or spice oils in an Orthodox pastille appear first and fade quickly; benzoin’s sweetness and storax’s warmth surface a little later, once the coal has had time to soften the harder resins. How incense is actually burned affects this as much as the recipe does: a coal that runs too hot scorches the top notes away almost instantly, while a gentler heat lets a compounded blend unfold in the sequence its maker intended.
A note on sourcing and substitution
Not every parish or monastery buys resin directly from producing regions, and grade varies considerably between suppliers. Cheaper commercial “church incense” sometimes replaces part of the frankincense with pine resin or other inexpensive fillers, which changes the burn and the scent, usually toward something sharper and less complex. Buyers who want to understand what they are actually burning, rather than trust a tradition-based label, are better served comparing grade and origin directly; the broader survey of how benzoin and related resins are used across incense cultures is a useful starting point for seeing how the same handful of materials recur, in different ratios, well beyond the church.
Frequently asked questions
What is Orthodox church incense made of?
Orthodox incense, called ladan or livani, is usually frankincense tears melted and re-poured with fragrant oils, often rose or jasmine, then cut into small colored pastilles once cool. Storax and benzoin are common softening additions. Russian recipes tend to be more resin-forward and less floral than Greek or Athonite ones, but frankincense remains the shared base.
Do Anglican churches use incense?
Most do not. Incense largely disappeared from English parish churches after the Reformation and was revived only in a minority of Anglo-Catholic parishes following the 19th-century Oxford Movement. Where it is used, it generally follows Roman Catholic patterns rather than a distinct Anglican formula, and Broad Church or Evangelical congregations typically use none at all.
Why is frankincense the main resin in church incense?
Frankincense burns cleanly on a coal, produces a dense white smoke and holds scent through long services better than most alternatives. Its terpene fraction gives an immediate lift, while boswellic and other resin acids smoulder slowly for a long tail. Centuries of biblical association and continuous liturgical use reinforced its status over other available resins.
Sources consulted
- Thurible
- Frankincense
- Incense
- Oxford Movement
- frankincense
- orthodox incense
- catholic incense
- liturgical incense
- benzoin
