Blessed Beads
Beads are often used to make jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets and earrings, but local ladies are beading for reasons higher than accessorizing.
The ladies of St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church recently celebrated their first year of making rosaries. Since May 2007, 39 women have made 3,540 rosaries to send abroad and to sell or give to local Catholics.
"We were ecstatic that we made that many," said church secretary Marlene Angelo, who started the local chapter of Our Lady's Rosary Makers, a Kentucky-based nonprofit organization that produces more than 7 million rosaries yearly.
St. Michael's Rosary Makers meets monthly to plan production, assemble rosary kits, pack rosaries for shipping and plan for festivals and sales.
Supplies for plastic bead rosaries come free from Our Lady's Rosary Makers, and the plastic rosaries are given free to those who want them.
Other supplies such as glass and crystal beads, a variety of colored cords, crucifixes and medals must be purchased.
Originally the women took up collections at their monthly meetings to pay for supplies. After only a few selling opportunities like the church's fall festival, the group now pays for supplies and shipping with money from rosary sales.
"Some people have come by our booth and just given us money without taking anything. They just wanted to donate," Angelo said.
Members of St. Michael's Rosary Makers typically make the rosaries on their own time — whether in the evenings for an hour or two, or whenever they have 15 or 20 minutes to finish one. Some work on the rosaries during meetings.
Rosemary Questiaux of Butler makes rosaries almost every evening, completing about 10 per night.
The ladies move quickly when making rosaries."You have to make sure to count the beads," said Marylou Motko of Butler.It can be easy to get off track and put too many or too few beads in a decade, composed of 10 beads.Rosaries are made up of five decades separated by single beads. A crucifix is attached to that circular strand by another grouping of beads and a medal.Used as a meditation aid, each component of the rosary represents a specific prayer.The rosary takes from 15 to 20 minutes to pray, about as much time as it takes to make a rosary.Questiaux's sister Barb Macurdy of Butler makes rosary bracelets in many color and bead varieties, including Swarovski crystal.A traditional rosary is usually not worn as jewelry, but rosary bracelets serve a double purpose. They can be worn as jewelry and used for prayer.The bracelets have one row of 10 beads instead of five rows in a traditional rosary, so praying the rosary with the bracelet takes five rotations.Each month the church receives a list of organizations requesting rosaries from Our Lady's Rosary Makers. St. Michael's Rosary Makers send boxes of rosaries to convents, hospices and missions.Some make it overseas to foreign missions and soldiers."The missions want them because they don't have a way to get them. We are so fortunate here in the states," Questiaux said.
The ladies also make a knotted cord variety of rosary for those who want or need bead-less rosaries. Bedridden patients prefer them. Soldiers ask for dark-colored cord rosaries because they don't stand out or rattle in potentially dangerous situations, the women said.Before any rosary is sent out, the Rev. James Dolan, the church's pastor, blesses the rosaries.At a recent May crowning ceremony at the church, the ladies also gave rosary bracelets to girls that recently received First Communion.Macurdy reminds people that those praying the rosary are "asking her (Mary) to pray for us. But we are worshipping God."St. Michael's Rosary Makers is open to new members. Meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. in the school hall the third Wednesday of every month.Rosaries made of materials other than plastic cost $7, and bracelets cost from $5 to $20.The rosaries are available by calling Angelo at 724-282-4107.
