Prayer beads are a tradition in many faiths and historically have been used for meditative prayer and drawing closer to God in every age. Most of the religions of the world have used some physical method of counting prayers.
Most of the world's inhabitants, nearly two-thirds of the planet's population, pray with beads. Traditionally, prayer beads have been strings of similarly sized beads, seeds, knots, or even rose petals and beads made from crushed roses, from which we get the word "rosary." In addition to helping keep the place in structured prayers, prayer beads also symbolize the commitment to spiritual life. A circular form represents the interconnectedness of all who pray. Each bead counted is an individual prayer and repetition of prayers is meant to help maintain a sole focus on the prayer itself. According to history, lay brothers in monasteries who, unlike the monks, knew no Latin, were to say the Lord's Prayer a certain number of times per day, usually 150. To count the prayers, they used pebbles or beads strung on a cord, and this cord was known as a Paternoster. The Paternoster is the original Christian prayer rope. A Paternoster is a linear rope of beads, not in a loop. It has a cross at one end and a tassel at the other. It would be surprising to those who associate Lady Godiva merely with unusual horsemanship, but the first recorded mention of Christian prayer beads is in her will. She bequeathed her paternoster beads of precious gemstones to the convent she founded in 1057.
Most scholars believe that the use of prayer beads originated in ancient India with the Hindus. The strand of Hindu prayer beads, called a mala, was designed for wear around the neck, and consisted of 108 beads for repeating mantras or counting one's breath. The word mala means "rose" or "garland" in Sanskrit. The earliest known mala still in existence is around 2,000 years old.
