A Very Short History of Prayer Beads in Period

presented at KWRCS 2009

Countess Rowan Berran McDowell

It is written that the earliest historical record of the use of beads to

aid in praying, by Christians at least, is by the Dessert Fathers. These
religious were ascetics who lived simply in small communities and
developed a need to keep track of how many times they said their
psalms. Monks were required to say 150 Psalms each day as a way of
praising God. The Egyptian Abbot Paul (d. CE. 341), used to take three
hundred pebbles into his lap as counters. Hindu and Tibetan Buddhists
used a Mala of 108 beads even earlier than that. Tesbihs are a bit more
mysterious to us. The monks of the Byzantine and Orthodox Greek
Church use the kombologion, or komboschoinion made of wool with a
hundred knots used to count genuflexions and signs of the cross. The
Russian Church has it’s vervitza (string), chotki (chaplet), or liestovka
(ladder), and in the Rumanian Church it is known as matanie
(reverence).There has even been found a sort of cribbage-board with
holes, thought to be an apparatus for counting prayers. It was found in
the tomb of a Christian ascetic, Thaias, of the fourth century.

There is increasing research surfacing about rosaries. Their use is

mentioned in Marco Polo’s writings about the King of Malabar. He's
reported to have worn a fine silk thread strung with one hundred and
four - (although probably one hundred and eight) large pearls and rubies
that he “prayed to his idols on”. We even have evidence from
archeological digs in South America that native Peruvian Indians used a
form of prayer beads called “Quipos”, according to Alexander von
Homboldt. It does seem that we can trace the earliest usage of Muslim
Tesbihs to the beginning of the 9th c.. Tesbih may be derived from the
Jewish form of prayer of 100 Blessings (which the Our Father may be
derived from as well.)

Bags of stones naturally evolved to a variety of stringing

techniques- both sliding and fixed, order of beads, number of beads,
quality of beads and what was prayed on them. In the roman church
Latin of the Middle Ages, many names were applied to prayer beads such
as: devotions, signacula, oracula, precaria, patriloquium, serta, preculae,
numeralia, computum, calculi, and others. In the Old English forms, bedes,
or bedys, (Saxon) meant mostly “to bed”. Prayers can be construed as a
from of benign begging. From the end of the 15th century and in the
beginning of the 16th, “paternoster” beads were replaced by “ave
beads” which were found in the forms of a “Rosary”, “chaplet”, or
“crown”.

Each of these were strings of varying length usually meant to

represent the Seven Sorrows of Mary, the years of her life- which can be
anywhere from 64 to 72 according to various Christian traditions or the
years of Christ's’ life. The 12th c. is really when the cult of Mary took off
and by the 14th c. rosaries became something that every well dressed
medieval person either owned or wore prominently as part of their daily
dress. In fact, a person was not considered “respectable” unless they
wore a rosary.

Martin Luther’s Reformation in the 16th c. brought a change to the

use and form of Rosaries mostly in England and than in the Lutheran
parts of Germany and the Lowlands. Queen Elizabeth banned rosaries
and other “Papist artifacts” in 1571. However many of her subjects
continued illegally making rosaries or importing them from other
“christian” countries. This is probably where the more discreet “decade
rings” came into being- a ring of ten small knobs and than a central bevel-
which could be worn or tucked away in a pouch or pocket. There is one in
the Victoria & Albert Museum dated 1500- 1520. The rings are sometimes
known as “soldier rosaries” and won’t break like regular strung rosaries.

Beads:Construction

Strings came in a variety of lengths- ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty -

three, sixty four, seventy two and one hundred and fifty beads. The most
popular during medieval times was a string of fifty beads, all alike and
finished with a tassle. This kind of string was used by both men and
women.

Beads were strung on wool, silk, cotton or linen threads, cords or

ribbons. The most popular choice was silk. Wool thread was used but it is
the weakest of these materials and therefore was least likely to be
used. Chris Laning suggests that hemp fibers may also have been
utilized. Textiles and Clothing has a rosary that is strung on a cord of
tablet-woven silk, dated from the 14th century. There is an ongoing
debate about the use of lucets as a stringing material.

Red stringing materials were fairly prevalent. Red symbolized

Christ's blood, destiny and the power of Pentecost or Martyrdom. Bright
pink, black, green and crimson mixed with gold are also recorded. Beads
usually appear to be able to slide along the cord to make it easier to
move each bead along the thread when the prayer was complete(“telling
their beads”). Beads on chaplets are sometimes separated by knots, so
we have evidence of both kinds of strings.
Straight strings of beads seemed to be mostly used by men, usually
very short “Tenners”, a single decade, without gauds, but finished with a
tassle or tassles at either end or a tassle and a cross. Closed looped
strings were more favored by women and would be worn as a necklace or
hung from a belt, a brooch or worn as a bracelet.

Early prayer beads were simple in construction, such as a single

chaplet with no gauds, finished with a tassle or cross that hung directly
from the end. The modern shape of a loop with the small line of five
beads before the cross at the end does not appear until the 15th or 16th
century.

What was used to decorate a string of beads was primarily up to

the owner and what they could afford. This would include small relic
pouches, pilgrim's badges, medals and figurines of various saints, heart
medallions, purses, tiny flasks of holy water, dirt from Jerusalem or other
holy sites, scent bottles, bells, pomanders and the quite familiar cross in
various shapes. There were also many and various medals that were also
attached to the strings to commemorate the saints, events in the owners
life or just small charms or special beads.

Beads came in all kinds of shapes, faceted or not, flat, rectangular,

lozenges, what we call bicones today, acorn shapes, cylinders, disks,
seeds and nuts. Marker beads were always a little grander than the
“aves” and were found in a wide variety of materials. Gauds could be
almost anything in any kind of design- rounds, facetted occasionally, but
not often, ovals, squares, cylindrical and ribbed, shells, clogs, flowers,
ears of grain, hearts, and skulls. Amber and glass were the most popular
although glass was much heavier to carry. Coral was the most popular
since it was the lightest. Remember the heavier the beads on the string,
the more easily it could break during daily use. Wood and bone were also
popular since it was so readily available from many sources. Bone was
slightly more popular than wood and could be carved into many
aesthetically pleasing shapes. It seems that jaw bones and leg bones
were the best for carving. Evidence of this can be found in the midden
heaps of the numerous guild sites across Europe.

Guilds developed throughout Europe and specialized in one or two

particular materials. The earliest was established in Cologne, France and
was open to both men and women.
The Prayers

Psalms, the Jesus Prayer, the first half of the Ave, the Our Father or
Paternoster, hence the name, the second half of the Ave prayer

It must be noted that the complete form of the Ave was not codified until
1569. A copy of the translation of this encyclical from Pope Pius is
appended to the end of these notes.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, dominus tecum. Benedicta tua in mulieribus. Et

benedictus frustus ventris tui Jesus Christus. Amen. (12th century)

Hail Mary Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pater noster qui es in coelis sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum

tuum. Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coela et in terra. Panem nostrum
quotidianum da nobis hodie. Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et
nos demittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in temptationem. Sed
libera nos a malo. Amen.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be they name. Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and deliver us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. (certainly
not exact)

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et

semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Glory be the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the
beginning, in now, and forever will be, world without end. Amen.

Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

The second half of the Ave came into use later in the 15th c.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis
nostrae. Amen.

Holy Mary, Mother of God! Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our
death. Amen.
Books and Websites

Bauman, Lynn. “The Anglican Rosary”, Praxis, Telephone, TX, 1998

Lovasik. “The Holy Rosary”, Catholic Book Publishing, NY 1980

Burns, Karima, "The Healing Power of Prayer Beads." Islam Online,

11/04/2002.

Peyton, Patrick “Father Peyton's Rosary Prayer Book”, The Family Rosary
Inc., Albany, NY 1996

Henry, Gray and Marriott, Susannah “Beads of Faith”, Carroll and Brown
Publishers, London, UK 2002

Dubin, Lois S. “The History of Beads, from 30,000 B.C. to the present. “,
New York: Abrams, 1987.

Miller, John D. Beads and Prayers: The Rosary in History and Devotion.
London: Burnes and Oates, 2001.

Faizani, Mawlana, “99 Names of Allah ”, University of Insight Into God

(http://www.faizani.com/articles/names.html)

Laning, Chris, “Bedes Byddyng: Medieval Rosaries & Paternoster Beads”,

Issue #135, the Compleat Anachronist.
And, of course Chris Lanings Paternoster Row, http://paternoster-
row.org and http://paternosters.blogspot.com and a number of Islamic

Prayer Texts

The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs, by Robert Beer, Boston:

Shambhala, 1999.

www.tibet.com, the Website of the Office of Tibet, the official agency of

His Holiness the Dalai Lama in London

Bön specifications are per His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima, spiritual
head of the Tibetan Bön tradition; courtesy of Sherab Palden and Judy
Marz.

http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/things/mala.htm

http://www.khandro.net/practice_mala.htm
Superstitions and Beliefs of the Common People, by Samuel M. Zwemer,
Emeritus Professor of Religion and Christian Missions at Princeton
Theological Seminary

http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Educational/Religion/DigitalTesbih-
72231.shtml
Consueverunt Romani

On the Rosary

Encyclical of Pope Saint Pius V

17 September 1569

The Roman Pontiffs, and the other Holy Fathers, our predecessors, when they were
pressed in upon by temporal or spiritual wars, or troubled by other trials, in order that they
might more easily escape from these, and having achieved tranquillity, might quietly and
fervently be free to devote themselves to God, were wont to implore the divine
assistance, through supplications or Litanies to call forth the support of the saints, and with
David to lift up their eyes unto the Mountains, trusting with firm hope that thance would they
receive aid.

1. Prompted by their example, and, as is piously believed, by the Holy Ghost, the
inspired Blessed founder of the Order of Friars Preachers, (whose institutes and rule we
ourselves expressly professed when we were in minor orders), in circumstances similar to
those in which we now find ourselves, when parts of France and of Italy were unhappily
troubled by the heresy of the Albegenses, which blinded so many of the worldly that they
were raging most savagely against the priests of the Lord and the clergy, raised his eyes
up unto heaven, unto that mountain of the Glorious Virgin Mary, loving Mother of God. For
she by her seed has crushed the head of the twisted serpent, and has alone destroyed all
heresies, and by the blessed fruit of her womb has saved a world condemned by the fall
of our first parent. From her, without human hand, was that stone cut, which, struck by wood,
poured forth the abundantly flowing waters of graces. And so Dominic looked to that simple
way of praying and beseeching God, accessible to all and wholly pious, which is called the
Rosary, or Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which the same most Blessed Virgin is
venerated by the angelic greeting repeated one hundred and fifty times, that is, according to
the number of the Davidic Psalter, and by the Lord's Prayer with each decade. Interposed
with these prayers are certain meditations showing forth the entire life of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, thus completing the method of prayer devised by the by the Fathers of the Holy
Roman Church. This same method St. Dominic propagated, and it was, spread by the ???
Friars of Blessed Dominic, namely, of the aforementioned Order, and accepted by not a
few of the people. Christ's faithful, inflamed by these prayers, began immediately to be
changed into new men. The darkness of heresy began to be dispelled, and the light of the
Catholic Faith to be revealed. Sodalities for this form of prayer began to be instituted in
many places by the Friars of the same Order, legitimately deputed to this work by their
Superiors, and confreres began to be enrolled together.

2. Following the example of our predecessors, seeing that the Church militant, which God
has placed in our hands, in these our times is tossed this way and that by so many
heresies, and is grievously troubled troubled and afflicted by so many wars, and by the
deprave morals of men, we also raise our eyes, weeping but full of hope, unto that same
mountain, whence every aid comes forth, and we encourage and admonish each member
of Christ's faithful to do likewise in the Lord.

[Pius goes on to confirm the indults, indulgences, etc., which his predecessors had granted
to those who pray the Rosary, and to explicitate several of these indulgences.]

Given at Rome at St. Peter's, under the Fisherman's ring, 17 September 1569, in the fourth
year of our Pontificate.