100,000 Rosaries

Rosary Makers of Vernon parish reach momentous milestone

VERNON  The Rosary Makers of St. Francis de Sales Parish in the McAfee section of Vernon sure know how to multitask. The small group that meets every Tuesday morning in Community Room 103 in the church has long mastered the ability to pray the rosary, while assembling several sets of rosaries — undertakings that together might seem overwhelming to many people.

But the Rosary Makers developed that deep level of concentration shortly after its inception in 1992, enabling them to achieve two goals: sending out heartfelt prayers — for their own intentions and those for the world — as they make rosaries to help encourage people to pray in many corners of the globe where they have been sent over the decades. And those prayers continue, as this faithful group reached a monumental milestone last month: having assembled its 100,000th set of rosaries, which Father Brian Quinn, St. Francis’ pastor, blessed during a recent Sunday Mass. Now in a frame, that rosary sits proudly displayed in the church vestibule.

“I never thought that the Rosary Makers would ever get to this number. It’s rewarding to know that people around the world are praying with our rosaries. We need prayers — now more than ever,” said Giovanna Villano, who founded the group, after having learned how to make rosaries during a visit to her husband’s aunt in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Two large binders sit on a table in Room 103 as a testament to the Rosary Makers’ lasting and far-reaching spiritual impact. They are stuffed with letters of thanks and prayers from missions around the world that have received the rosaries — from the U.S., Europe, Asia and Africa — as well as photos of people praying with them and a few gifts of gratitude, such as religious images. Members of the Rosary Makers — who include parishioners working on rosaries at home — track their considerable reach by poking a large map with red pins in the countries, where they have shipped rosaries, said Pat Pastore, who oversees the Rosary Makers’ quality control.

“Some of the letters [from war-torn or impoverished countries] are heart-wrenching. There is such devastation. When we get the letters, we know just how important our ministry is — to spread prayer, which is what the Blessed Mother wants us to do. The rosaries mean so much to people, who have much less than we do. They give them so much hope. They are small things that become big things,” said Pastore, who noted that, in these poor mission countries, entire families or villages might share one set of rosaries.

The Rosary Makers’ rosaries also have traveled to World Youth Day, prisons, hospitals, shut-ins and the military, as well as closer to home — to students of St. Francis’ religious education and Confirmation programs, participants of Antioch retreats and for visitors of St. Francis’ chapel. Recently, the group sent 30 rosaries to Ireland and 400 to Sri Lanka. Often, they send the rosaries to mission societies or individuals in the U.S. that ship them to foreign lands, Pastore said.

“I want to thank you for your continued support of our mission to [the poor of Trujillo] Honduras through the beautiful rosaries that you send to us,” Sandee Haslauer, mission director of Christ the King Church Honduras mission in Little Rock, Ark., wrote recently to the Rosary Makers. “Every family that is treated in our five clinics and hospital receives your wonderful rosaries. They are also distributed to church leaders in the villages where we hold Bible study classes…[and] that seldom see a priest. The Sisters of Charity Convent loves your rosaries and uses them in their ministry to the poor. So you can see that we really appreciate and depend on the supply of rosaries that you send year after year,” she wrote.

On Tuesday mornings, Room 103 bustles with the activity of about seven Rosary Makers. First, they organize the string, Our Father and Hail Mary beads, Blessed Mother medals and crucifixes that they need. They finish each rosary by attaching a Mary medal and tying a special knot, using the spokes of an old upside-down umbrella. Pastore checks that the knots are tight and the rosaries have the correct number of beads and medals. Then, she polishes each rosary before either Father Quinn or Deacon Dennis Gil blesses the rosaries with a special prayer. After, the rosaries get shipped, Pastore said.

“It’s very easy to say the rosary [with help from a rosary leader], while working on a set of rosaries. We never lose our places. It connects us to the mysteries of the rosary,” Pastore said. “We are an easy-going group. It’s our time to get together. Some of us have lost husbands or have husbands, who are sick, so we talk and are there for each in a compassionate way,” she said.

Over the years, the Rosary Makers have created rosaries in a variety of colors, including pink and white for girls and blue and white for boys as part of First Holy Communion, white and red for young people in the Confirmation program and regulation flat black for the military, which they make with longer string to go over soldiers’ helmets, Pastore said.

“This is a good ministry. We work hard to make sure that people get something that is perfect and will stay together,” said Madeline Gil, who started working with the Rosary Makers years ago to occupy her time on the evenings, when her husband was traveling for business. “This is a year I will never forget — the Rosary Makers made its 100,000th rosary and my husband, Dennis, was ordained a permanent deacon by Bishop Serrateli.”

Admiring the 100,000th rosary in St. Francis’ vestibule, Father Quinn remarked that “the scope of what the Rosary Makers do is amazing — to have gone to all the places where they have gone.”

“They are spreading Mary’s love. I have only gratitude for their ministry to the world,” Father Quinn said.