[Sca-cooks] Rosaries, was :gum tragacanth

[Kirsten Houseknecht]

the "Rosary" is a more recent (by SCA standards <grin> ) term. very late in
period. like 1500s
BUT
the practice of saying "Ave Maria" or a related phrase, was concurrent with
saying the "Our Father" or Pater Nostre..... from... IIRC... about 1000?
certainly by 1100
the pater nostre as a repeated prayer... said with beads or knots or
scratches on wood to keep count. is in fact MUCH older, and i believe there
was some documentation that traces that back in to the 700?800?

the origens of this is the fact that those who couldnt attend mass every day
could say the psalms as a sort of liturgy of common.
BUT
the psalms are long, and most people couldnt read (and wouldnt take a
valuable book on trips) and did i mention they are long?? so the practice
arose of saying the  Pater Nostre...... or the hail mary.... 150 times, once
for each of the psalms evolved...... then the practice of breaking up the
150 psalm substitutes into groups, divided by a different bead, or
something.. so as not to lose your place most likely.

MY opinion is that the division for accounting predated the "insert
different prayer here" and the different prayer was added because the bead
was there.. but i digress.

the Rosary. as both a saying of Ave Maria, interspersed with the Patre
Nostre.. combined with some kind of meditations. actually pre dated St.
Dominic.

the best documentation on this is available from the book "Stories of the
Rose" which i reviewed on Amazon dot com........ and there is a recent book
out that covers similar materiel (the history of the Rosery and other prayer
beads) called.. praying with beads???

anyway, since i make Rosaries i am always interested.  the variations in
STYLE of Christian prayer beads was fascinating.  in archeology they tend to
make an assumption that beads found at the waist are prayer beads.... but
beads around the neck are "jewelry" but based on an exsisting sermon in the
1300s we KNOW it was considered appropriate to wear Rosaries AS a
necklace...... so i tend to be more liberal and assume that any bead
string..... which is evenly divided by "different" beads.. found in a
Christian grave MAY be prayer beads... and any bead circle of 150 probably
is.......
Kirsten
kirsten at fabricdragon.com
http://www.fabricdragon.com

"Did you vote?  No?   Then don't come whining to me...."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stefan li Rous" <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 3:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re:gum tragacanth


> Olwen commented:
>  > Mistress Bec and I have used gum tracaganth to make those spice beads
with.
>  > We plan on finding time to make the rose beads soon.  Thats kinds like
>  > incense.
>
> I don't remember gum tracaganth being required for rose beads, nor
> even called for in the directions.
> You might find this file in the Florilegium useful, though:
>
> rosaries-msg      (52K) 12/ 8/00    Period rosaries and their use. Making
rose
>                                         beads.
> http://www.florilegium.org/files/RELIGION/rosaries-msg.html
>
> What are "spice beads"? Are they period? What are they used for and how
> do you make them?
> --
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>      Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
>
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