“ Prayer beads have enhanced my prayer life.”

Prayer ropes . . . Rosaries . . . Mala beads . . . Mantra beads . . . Knots

These are just a few of the many variations of prayer beads used by people all over the world. Using prayer beads is an ancient form of prayer. The word “bidding,” means prayer and it comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “bede”. The word “bead” derives from “bede”.

The early prayer beads were made from simple objects of nature such as stones, bones, seeds, clay, or berries. Jesus and St. Paul were familiar with the Jewish ritual of prayer-counting. St. Paul used pebbles to pray. He gathered 300 pebbles and then dropped one of them to the ground for each prayer he spoke. In the Middle Ages the strings of beads were called paternosters. “Pater Noster” means “Our Father.” Speaking the “Our Father” prayer one hundred-fifty times is called a paternoster. The knots or beads on the string allowed those who were praying to be sure all the necessary prayers had been prayed.

Since ancient times, people have used some form of prayer beads. The Egyptian word for bead is sha-sha. Sha means “luck.” The Spanish word, cuenta comes from “counting.” Bede means “a prayer” in Frisian (northern Netherlands) and in old English. The Sanskrit term japa-mala means “muttering chaplet” and refers to the use of beads while praying quietly.

Contemporary Anglican prayer derives from a contemplative group that met in the 1980’s. Their prayer beads, known as the Anglican Rosary, originated from the Marian rosary and the Orthodox Jesus Prayer Rope used by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Jesus Prayer Rope is a cord tied with thirty-three or one hundred knots and is used to pray the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

The rosary is the Roman Catholic form of prayer beads. There are at least two schools of thought on the origin of the rosary. It is said that the rosary was given to Saint Dominic by an apparition of the Virgin Mary. “Our Lady of the Rosary” derives from this apparition. However, most scholars believe that the rosary slowly evolved over time from the earlier forms of prayer beads. Some early forms of prayer beads were created from crushed roses and used in a crown for the Virgin. It is also said that in the eleventh century, Lady Godiva left money to the church for rosaries.

Today people of many different religions all over the world embrace this meditative, time-honored way to pray with prayer beads.