Prayer beads - WikiHQ

thumb|right|The image depicts several Christian prayer beads; from left to right are a Roman Catholic [[Dominican rosary, a Lutheran Wreath of Christ, a set of Anglican prayer beads, a Celtic Church Pater Noster cord, and a Coptic Orthodox mequteria.]]

Prayer beads are a form of beadwork used to count the repetitions of prayers, chants, or mantras by members of various religions such as Christian denominations (such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Anglican Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Eastern Orthodox Churches), Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Umbanda, Sikhism, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam. Prayer beads may also be used by some Sephardi or Mizrahi Jews. Common forms of beaded devotion include the mequteria in Oriental Orthodox Christianity, the chotki or komposkini or prayer rope in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the Wreath of Christ in Lutheran Christianity, the Dominican rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Roman Catholic Christianity, the japamala in Buddhism and Hinduism, the Jaap Sahib in Sikhism and the misbaha in Islam.

Origins and etymology

Beads are among the earliest human ornaments and ostrich eggshell beads in Africa date to 10,000 BC. Over the centuries various cultures have made beads from a variety of material from stone and shells to clay.

The English word bead descends from the Old English noun bede . The oldest image of a string of beads in a religious context and resembling a string of prayer beads is found on the fresco of the "Adorants" (or "Worshipers") at the Xeste 3 building of the prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri, Santorini (Thera), Greece (Wall Paintings of Thera), dating from the 17th century BC (). It was used in Hindu prayers and meditation in India. Buddhism later on adopted this custom. As the Ancient Hindus migrated towards West Asia, this practice was carried to many parts of the world and became a part of different religions. The statue of a Hindu holy man with beads dates to the third century BC.

Use

Since the beads are fingered in an automatic manner, they allow the user to keep track of how many prayers have been said with a minimal amount of conscious effort, which in turn allows greater attention to the prayer itself.

Judaism

Although the use of prayer beads grew within other religions, it did not enter Judaism, perhaps because of its association with those religions, and to date Judaism does not normally use prayer beads. Although not used as counting device, many Jews touch the knots on the tzitzits attached to their tallit (prayer shawl) at specific points in their prayers. or because they simply like to. So long as the beads have and will not be used in prayers for a contradictory religion, such as Christianity, and do not bear symbols of such a religion, they are understood as acceptable to use.

Christianity

The Desert Fathers of the 3rd to 5th centuries, used pebbles or knotted ropes to count prayers, typically the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner"). The invention is attributed to Saints Anthony the Great or his associate Pachomius the Great in the 4th century. In the Vita of Saint Paul of Thebes (227 AD to 342 AD), written by Saint Jerome (347 AD to 420 AD) it states that Saint Paul of Thebes used pebbles and knotted cord to count prayers.

Around the 8th century, Paternoster cords were used to count the 150 Psalms of the Bible, but for those who could not read, they were used to count 150 recitations of the Lord's Prayer. The Catholic Encyclopedia thus mentions strings of beads, presumably for prayer, found in the tombs of Saint Gertrude of Nivelles (7th century) and Saint Norbert and Saint Rosalia (12th century). A more explicit reference is that in 1125 William of Malmesbury mentioned a string of gems that Lady Godiva used to count prayers. The oldest prayer beads to be found in Britain were discovered by archaeologists on Lindisfarne in 2022: made of salmon vertebrae, they date from the 8th or 9th century.

Roman Catholics came to pray the Dominican rosary with strings of 59 beads. The term rosary comes from the Latin rosarium "rose garden" and is an important and traditional devotion of the Catholic Church, combining prayer and meditation in sequences (called "decades") of the Lord's Prayer, 10 Hail Marys, and a Gloria Patri as well as a number of other prayers (such as the Apostles' Creed and the Salve Regina) at the beginning and end. The prayers are accompanied by meditation on the Mysteries, events in the life and ministry of Jesus. This traditional Catholic form of the rosary is attributed to Saint Dominic, though some Catholic writers have doubted this claim. but all parts can be made of any material. Catholics also use the standard Dominican rosary and prayer beads in other configurations to pray chaplets.

In Oriental Orthodox Christianity, especially among Ethiopian Christians and Coptic Christians, prayer beads known as the mequetaria/mequteria employ numbers such as 41, 64, and 100 as their length; the mequetaria is chiefly used for reciting Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy) during the seven fixed prayer times of Christianity. With regards to the first two numbers, the former represent the number of wounds inflicted on Jesus from scourging, the nails, and the lance while the latter represents Mary's age at her Assumption.

The Eastern Orthodox Church uses prayer ropes that usually come with 33, 50 or 100 knots. The loops of knotted wool (or occasionally of beads), called brojanica (Serbian, Macedonian), chotki (Russian) or komboskini (Greek) to pray the Jesus Prayer. Among Russian Old Believers, a prayer rope made of leather, called lestovka, is more common, although this type is no longer commonly used now by the Russian Orthodox Church. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "The rosary is conferred upon the Greek Orthodox monk as a part of his investiture with the mandyas or full monastic habit, as the second step in monastic life, and is called his 'spiritual sword'." invented by Martin Lönnebo, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Linköping of the Swedish Lutheran Church, is a set of 18 beads, some round and some elongated, arranged in an irregular pattern. Each one has its own significance as a stimulus and reminder for meditation, although they can also be used for repetitive prayer.

In the mid-1980s, Anglican prayer beads were developed in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, originating in the Diocese of Texas. According to some Salafis and members of the Ahmadiyya movement, the use of prayer beads is considered an innovation not practiced by early Muslims. However, Sunni scholar al-Suyuti mentions that early muslims like Abu Hurayra used a type of prayer beads. It is said that after Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib was killed in the Battle of Uhud, Muhammad's daughter Fāṭimah would visit his grave and then made a misbahah out of the soil on his grave.

Sikhism

Sikh worshipers may use mala (prayer beads) while reciting verses from the Guru Granth Sahib. These prayer beads are made from iron worn around the wrist; there are 27 such beads in a mala. where they are called japamala. Japa is the repeating of the name of a deity or a mantra. Mala ( ) means "garland" or "wreath".

Japamala are used for repetition of pure essence of mantras and scriptures, for other forms of sādhanā or "holistic spiritual exercise" and as an aid to meditation, yoga, to experience self-realization, harmony, peace, stability, and positivity in life. The most common mala have 108 beads. The most common materials used for making the beads are Rudraksha seeds (used by Shaivites) and Ocimum tenuiflorum (tulasi) stems (used by Vaishnavites). Other materials such as metals, seeds of a lotus and pearls are also used to make the beads.

While using the prayer beads, one bead is moved at a time until arriving to the terminal bead. Once the terminal bead is touched, the prayer beads are reversed and counted in the opposite direction. It is held in a particular manner using the middle finger and thumb only, deliberately avoiding the use of the index finger – considering it to be inauspiciousness. The user also covers the prayer beads with a cloth called bag called "gomukha."

Bahá’í Faith

The Baháʼí Faith stipulates that the verse Alláh-u-Abhá "God the All-Glorious" be recited 95 times daily after the performance of ablutions. To help facilitate this recitation Bahá’ís often use prayer beads, though they are not required to. Most commonly, Bahá’í prayer beads consist of 95 individual beads on a strand or a strand of 19 beads with 5 set counters. In the latter case, the person reciting the verses typically tracks the 19 individual verses in a set with one hand and tracks the sets of verses with the other (19 verses times 5 sets for a total of 95 total verses). Bahá’í prayer beads are made of any number of natural and man-made materials including glass, precious and semi-precious stones, various metals and wood. There are no traditions regarding the structure of the prayer bead strand or the materials used.

Materials used for making prayer beads

Seeds and fruitstones

Abrus precatorius
Afzelia species
Choerospondias axillaris
Dracontomelon dao
Rudraksha
Vyjanti

Gems and precious stones

Pearls
Rose Quartz
Amethyst
Lava stone
Onyx
Amber

References

Bibliography

Dubin, L.S. (2009). Prayer Beads. In C. Kenney (Ed.), The History of Beads: From 100,000 B.C. to the Present (Revised and Expanded Edition) (pp. 79–92). New York: Abrams Publishing.
Henry, G., & Marriott, S. (2008). Beads of Faith: Pathways to Meditation and Spirituality Using Rosaries, Prayer Beads and Sacred Words. Fons Vitae Publishing.
Untracht, O. (2008). Rosaries of India. In H. Whelchel (Ed.), Traditional Jewelry of India (pp. 69–73). New York: Thames & Hudson, Inc.
Wiley, E., & Shannon, M.O. (2002). A String and a Prayer: How to Make and Use Prayer Beads. Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
Winston, K. (2008). Bead One, Pray Too: A Guide to Making and Using Prayer Beads. Morehouse Publishing.

External links

Anthropology of beads Museum of Anthropology, University of Missouri