How Many Beads Are on a Rosary: the Structure Explained

A rosary of five decades has 59 beads: 6 large and 53 small, together with a cross and a centrepiece. Fifty of the small beads form the five decades of ten Hail Marys each in the loop; three more hang with the two remaining large beads on the pendant leading to the cross. If you know how the beads are arranged and which belongs to which prayer, you need not count while you pray. This guide shows the structure bead by bead, explains why the whole Rosary has 150 Hail Marys, and what the cross and the centrepiece are for.

How many beads are on a rosary?

A rosary of five decades has 59 beads. Six large beads belong to the Our Father, 53 small ones to the Hail Mary: fifty in the loop, arranged in five decades, and three on the pendant between the cross and the centrepiece.

The arithmetic is simple: five decades of ten beads make 50, and with the three beads on the pendant, 53 small beads. For the five Our Fathers of the decades there are four large beads in the loop; the fifth sits on the pendant just below the centrepiece. Then there is the first large bead above the cross. That makes six large beads. How to say the prayers that go with them is shown bead by bead in the Rosary prayer guide.

How is a rosary structured?

A rosary consists of a loop and a pendant. The pendant carries the cross, one large bead, three small ones and a second large bead. At the centrepiece the loop begins, with five decades of ten small beads each, separated from one another by four large beads.

1. On the cross: the sign of the cross and the Creed.
2. First large bead: the Glory Be and the Our Father.
3. Three small beads: three Hail Marys for the theological virtues, then the Glory Be.
4. Second large bead: announce the first mystery and pray the Our Father.
5. Centrepiece: here the loop begins and ends.
6. Ten small beads: ten Hail Marys with the mystery, then the Glory Be, the Fatima Prayer and “O Mary, conceived without sin”.
7. Large bead in the loop: announce the next mystery and pray the Our Father of the next decade. After the fifth decade come the Salve Regina and the prayer to St Michael the Archangel.

The Catholic Catechism of the German Dioceses of 1955 has the same beginning: sign of the cross, Creed, Glory Be, Our Father, three Hail Marys, Glory Be, Our Father. Into the first three Hail Marys it inserts after the name of Jesus: “who may increase faith in us”, “who may strengthen hope in us”, “who may kindle charity in us” (translated from the German). An English-language book of guidance for Catholics from 1892 describes the beginning in the same way: the Creed on the crucifix, the Glory Be and the Our Father on the large bead, three Hail Marys on the three small ones.

What do the large and small beads of the rosary mean?

The large beads of the rosary belong to the Our Father, the small ones to the Hail Mary. The beads are a counting device: they spare you counting on your fingers when a prayer is repeated many times. So the mind stays free for meditating on the mysteries.

Strings of prayer beads are older than the Rosary. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912, following Palladius, tells of a hermit named Paul who in the fourth century imposed on himself three hundred prayers a day and for this gathered three hundred pebbles, throwing one away after each prayer. Of the monks of the Greek Church a cord with a hundred knots is recorded, on which they counted genuflexions and signs of the cross. Around 1075 Countess Godiva of Coventry bequeathed to a statue of Our Lady in a monastery a circlet of precious stones which she had threaded in order to count her prayers exactly.

In the Middle Ages such strings were called “paternosters” throughout Europe, because for a long time it was chiefly the Our Father that was counted on them; the Hail Mary came to be prayed generally only around the middle of the twelfth century. In Paris there were four guilds of paternoster-makers in 1268, and in London Paternoster Row preserves the memory of the street where their English fellow craftsmen gathered. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the English word bead goes back to the old Saxon word bede, which means prayer.

Why does the whole Rosary have 150 Hail Marys?

The whole Rosary has 150 Hail Marys because it is modelled on the Psalter, which numbers 150 psalms. It comprises fifteen decades, five each for the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries. The ordinary chaplet of five decades is a third of it.

On 17 September 1569, in the bull Consueverunt Romani Pontifices, Pope St Pius V describes the Rosary as the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which the Angelic Salutation is repeated one hundred and fifty times, according to the number of the Psalms of David, with the Lord’s Prayer at each decade. On 7 October the Roman Breviary speaks of fifteen decades of the Angelic Salutation, divided by the Lord’s Prayer. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains the background: monks prayed 150 or 50 psalms for deceased brethren; according to the customs of Cluny, recorded in 1096, those who were not priests said instead fifty psalms or the Our Father fifty times.

“The Rosary is to keep its genuine form, so that the chaplets consist of nothing other than five, ten or fifteen decades of beads.”

Leo XIII, Ubi primum, 2 October 1898, no. XIII · our translation from the Latin

In the Latin it reads coronae non aliter quam ex quinque aut decem aut quindecim granorum decadibus coalescant (Acta Sanctae Sedis 31, p. 261). A rosary of five decades therefore carries a third of the Psalter, one of fifteen the whole. The Raccolta of 1943 attaches a partial indulgence of five years to a third of the Rosary devoutly prayed (no. 360); the state of grace is presupposed (CIC 1917, can. 925 § 1).

What is the role of the cross and the centrepiece?

At the cross the Rosary begins with the sign of the cross and the Creed. The centrepiece joins the loop and the pendant and marks the beginning and end of the five decades. Usually it bears a medal, such as the Miraculous Medal, the St Benedict medal or the Holy Face of Christ.

Because the Creed is prayed on the cross, it is the first part of the rosary you take in your hand. Many of our paracord rosaries carry a crucifix, such as the Pardon Crucifix, others the St Benedict cross. With us, centrepiece and cross can be combined freely.

A blessed rosary is a sacramental, that is, one of the things the Church makes use of in order to obtain, through her intercession, effects chiefly of a spiritual kind (1917 Code of Canon Law, can. 1144). It does not work of itself but through the prayer of the Church and the devout disposition of the one who uses it. According to the Raccolta of 1943, whoever uses in prayer a rosary blessed by a Dominican or another priest with special faculties gains additional indulgences (no. 360, note 2).

Mentioned in this article St Benedict Paracord Rosary, anthracite Hand-knotted from 550 paracord, Hail Mary beads 10 mm, Our Father beads 12 mm, with St Benedict medal. View the rosary

Frequently asked questions about the beads of the rosary