Etsy Rosary Guild Team's January Giveaway!

Visit the link to see the beautiful bracelet donated by Heartfelt Rosaries, a member of our Etsy Rosary Guild Team. Participate by commenting...so easy. Good luck!

Garnet is January's Birthstone

Garnet is the Stone of the Apostle St. Andrew and the Guardian Angel Ambriel. St. Andrew's feast day is November 30th and garnet is the birthstone for January. Garnet is likely to have been the "carbuncle" of the ancients and in the first row of the Pectoral of Judgment or Aaron's Breastplate, representing one of the twelve Hebrew tribes. (Ruby is also sometimes said to have been "carbuncle.")


The garnet group includes a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. Garnets can be used by geologists as a gauge of how much temperature and pressure the rock has endured. As a gemstone, garnets are highly refractive, hard, have pretty colors, are wonderfully transparent, lack cleavage and are durable; thus making good candidates for gemstones. Garnets vary greatly in colors and varieties and many of these are both rare and beautiful, producing genuinely precious gemstones.