Pope Innocent III, in one of his Sermons for the Feast of the
Purification, attributes the institution of this ceremony of
Candlemas to the wisdom of the Roman Pontiffs…the opinion
of Pope Benedict XIV that an ancient feast, which was kept in
February, and was call the Amburbalia, during which the
pagans used to go through the city with lighted torches in their
hands, gave occasion to the Sovereign Pontiffs to substitute, in
its place, a Christian ceremony, which they attached to the
Feast of that sacred mystery, in which Jesus, the Light of the
world, was presented in the Temple by his Virgin-Mother.
The mystery of today’s ceremony has frequently been
explained by liturgists, dating from the 7th century…the wax,
which is formed from the juice of flowers by the bee, always
considered as the emblem of virginity, signifies the virginal
flesh of the Divine Infant, who diminished not, either by his
conception or his birth, the spotless purity of his Blessed
Mother…in the flame of our Candle, a symbol of Jesus, who
came to enlighten our darkness. St. Anselm…speaking on the
same mystery, bids us consider three things in the blest Candle:
the wax, the wick, and the flame. The wax, he says which is
the production of the virginal bee, is the Flesh of our Lord; the
wick, which is within, is his soul; the flame, which burns on
the top, is his Divinity.
…The Church blesses the Candles, not only to be carried in the
Procession, which forms part of the ceremony today, but also
for the use of the faithful, inasmuch as they draw, upon such as
use them with respect, whether on sea or on land, as the
Church says in the Prayer, special blessings from heaven.
These blest Candles ought also to be lit near the bed of the
dying Christian, as a symbol of the immortality merited for us
by Christ, and of the protection of our Blessed Lady.

The Liturgical Year, Vol. III, Book II, From pages 473-475