Both a craft and calling for rosary makers

Janet Fanucchi has made jewelry since her teenage years.

But it wasn’t until three years ago that, at age 50, she made her first rosary -- Indian amber beads with a golden vintage cross -- and came to understand its ability to forge an intimate connection between human and divine.

“I’ve always loved the rosary,” Fanucchi said. “It’s a spiritual experience to make one.”

Fanucchi joined the guild at St. Raphael’s Catholic Church here that makes rosaries for missionaries in impoverished areas of the world. She later recruited six people to start making rosaries for servicemen and women.

Thanks to the Internet, Fanucchi and her guild are united with rosary makers all over the world. They view one another’s work, share stories and make trades for elusive beads and crosses.

“It’s about this sisterhood of rosary makers,” Fanucchi said, adding that a Yahoo! group she joined, Rosary_Makers, prayed for her mother when she was diagnosed with cancer.

The group of about 300 people is shepherded by Margot Blair, the matriarch of her own rosary-making guild in Stephenson, Mich.

“It’s like a calling,” said Blair, 74. “That’s the common thread among rosary makers.”

The modern rosary, from the Latin rosarium or “garland of roses,” dates to the 13th century, when St. Dominic used it in his ministry, said Father Dorian Llywelyn, an assistant professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester. It is also known as the Dominican rosary because, according to Catholic tradition, the Virgin Mary asked St. Dominic to popularize it.

“It’s a form of prayer that people find incredibly consoling, because they feel close to God through the practice of the prayers that they say while holding the rosary,” Llywelyn said.

The Dominican rosary recitation traditionally consists of prayers spoken while handling five sets of 10 beads, separated by nine single beads with a crucifix at the end. Four sets of prayers are recited on different days of the week: the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous mysteries.

Catholics are traditionally buried with a rosary for protection.

For many rosary makers, the craft satisfies the artistic impulse to create while also soothing the soul.

On a recent Saturday morning amid errands clogging Fanucchi’s schedule, she squeezed in time to toil away on a few rosaries for the military.

“My whole family was in the military -- my father, brother and husband,” she said, stringing beads in her home studio. “But when you have a cause, your priorities can change.”

Fanucchi, a dental office manager, makes two types of military rosaries: the Ranger and the Army.

The Ranger rosary is made of green parachute cord, plastic beads and a black plastic crucifix. The Army rosary has no beads, instead consisting of sturdy twine tied in knots and the cross itself.

“They’re a labor of love,” Fanucchi said. “It takes two to three hours to make one.”

Some of the rosaries made by Tammy Kelly, an office manager from Bakersfield, are destined for Father Joseph Kimu, a missionary who works in his native Malawi.

Kelly started making rosaries in 2001 after fixing a broken one she found on sale.

“I started ordering replacement beads, but none fit, so I had all these leftover beads,” she said. “It ended up being enough to make some new rosaries.”

In the past, when rosaries would break, some Catholics would bury or burn them as a way of returning them to the Earth. But Llywelyn said that the church allows rosaries to be repaired and that they don’t need to be blessed again after they are fixed.

“It’s not like it loses its charge,” Llywelyn said. “Fundamentally, blessing it doesn’t make it into something magical.”

Kelly’s rosary repair quickly became a charity side project as people began mailing her broken rosaries, saying they didn’t know what to do with them. Kelly also sells rosaries on the Internet but donates the ones sent to Kimu, whom she learned about through a minister who had visited Malawi.

“A gift of a rosary brings immense spiritual and physical joy to the receiver,” Kimu said by e-mail. “He treasures it with pride and remembers the donor in a special way whenever he puts it around his neck or when he uses it for prayer.”

The rosaries themselves are as diverse as the people who make them. Darlene Kerfien, 58, a rosary maker in North Carolina, incorporates beads with letters or numbers on them to spell out names and messages. Her website, PersonalizedRosaries.com, shows a striking red, white and blue rosary that spells out “God Bless America,” with “USA” appearing on the three beads near the crucifix.

Though unconventional, Kerfien’s personalized rosaries are almost traditional when compared with creations from the world of fashion.

British lingerie designer Niki McMorrough recently launched her Rosary Collection line, which includes a Swarovski crystal-adorned rosary that can be suspended from the bra or underwear. The set costs about $800.

“The rosary is an age-old symbol of purity and peace, used for centuries by people seeking instant redemption,” McMorrough said on her website. “I couldn’t think of a better place to put one than on this devilishly decadent bra.”

Recently signed L.A. Galaxy soccer player David Beckham wore a $1,000 Dolce & Gabbana rosary in a bare-chested cover photo for Vanity Fair in 2004, reportedly fueling a bump in London rosary sales.

In the 1980s Madonna decorated her “Like a Virgin” corsets with rosaries, setting off complaints from some Catholics. Similar criticism has been leveled at other rosary-wearing celebrities.

“It’s not supposed to be a fashion statement,” Llywelyn said. “I don’t think God really has a problem with it, but it really is an insult to people who believe in the sacred nature of the religious object.”

And for those who create rosaries, the “rosary making process is about sharing faith,” Kerfien said, “sharing between those that make them and those who receive them. And of course, between God and the one praying.”

francisco.varaorta@latimes .com

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The rosary and how it is recited

The rosary is recited while meditating on one of four sets of mysteries of the faith, known as Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous. Each set contains five mysteries, or events from the lives of Jesus and Mary. Many Catholics complete one sequence of prayers daily, as shown below.

Sequence of prayers

1. The faithful start on the crucifix, make the sign of the cross and say the Apostles’ Creed.

2. Our Father (Lord’s Prayer)

3. Three Hail Marys

4. Glory Be to the Father

5. Announce the first mystery, then say the Our Father

6. Ten Hail Marys (known as a decade) while meditating on the first mystery

7. Glory Be to the Father

8. Announce the second mystery, then say the Our Father

Steps 6 through 8 are repeated, meditating on the third, fourth and fifth mysteries

9. Hail Holy Queen

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Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

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For more information on the rosary:

pacifier.com/~rosarweb/index.htm