From WAY OF THE ROSE A rosary is an intensely personal item. This is less apparent in an age of mass production, when even rosary-making tends to be a standardized affair: 59 beads with 54 on the loop and 5 on the pendant, finished with a cross. In former centuries the rosarys design was much more fluid – even improvisational at times. The photograph below offers a good example. With all of its milagros and relicarios, it is obviously South American in origin. It has twelve decades instead of five or fifteen (which would have made it a full-length rosary) and is missing a couple of beads near the end. It has been restrung many times to accommodate new additions. These beads tell a story of pilgrimage, faith, and devotion, and – if the person who owned them were still alive to tell us – of miraculous healings and interventions as well. A rosary like this (and there are many in museums and private collections around the world) amounts to a spiritual autobiography written in beads, medals, relics, and amulets, instead of using words.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 15:17:38 +0000
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