FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — In the coming months, world mission rosaries created by the Precious Blood Rosary Guild in Fort Fairfield will be sent to students in the Dominican Republic.
Ruth Oakley, director of missions and Catholic relief services for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, contacted the group in the spring to see whether members would be interested in helping create the rosaries.
While attending a Pontifical Mission Societies meeting, Oakley met Sister Annita Peter, principal of St. Luke’s Primary School in the Dominican Republic community of Pointe Michel.
“She shared her dream that she could provide a mission rosary for each of her students at the school,” Oakley said. “When I offered to help find people willing to make them for her children, she was so touched that kind people would help her prayers be answered by creating these mission rosary beads.”
The Precious Blood Rosary Guild, as well as a group from Augusta, will share the goal of making 900 sets of world mission rosary beads.
“We’re going to make and send 450,” said Mary Ruth Nichols, who attends the Precious Blood Parish and is a member of the Fort Fairfield guild. “Our guild is in its fourth year, and we just started up Sept. 2, after taking the summer off, so we’ll be busy working on the beads.
“The goal is that we’ll have these all done in time for the students to receive them for Christmas,” she said. “We’ll probably be done mid-October or the first of November.”
While rosaries normally are one color, world mission rosary beads are composed of five colors, representing five different areas around the world: red for North and South America, green for Africa, white for Europe, yellow for Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands.
“When the children are praying this rosary, they are — in effect — praying for world peace and everybody in the world,” Nichols said. “And when you consider the condition of the world today, with all the wars breaking out, I think that’s a nice message for the next generation to contemplate.
“We send a lot of our rosaries around the world to all missionaries, and we also send some stateside to prisons, pregnancy centers and hospitals,” she said. “We would never consider turning down a request. We are not able to sell our rosaries — we do this all through donations — and we’ve been very fortunate that we’ve been able to keep going as well as we have. Over the last four years, we’ve made over 12,000 rosaries.”
The colorful plastic beads are strung on a 60-inch cord.
“Each rosary has 59 beads, each with its own special meaning, as well as a crucifix,” Nichols said. “They’re cord rosaries, and even soldiers take them to war. The whole trick is to learn to make the knots.
She said it takes 15-20 minutes for a skilled person to make one rosary.
The Precious Blood Rosary Guild consists of about 20 active members, who meet 2-4 p.m. Tuesdays twice a month at Knights of Columbus Hall.
“It’s gratifying, spiritually, but it’s also wonderful to watch some of these women who live alone. … Many of them are widows and live in senior living apartments, and they get a chance to come out and socialize and find out what’s going on in the community,” Nichols said.
Anyone interested in learning how to make the rosaries or in joining the guild should contact Mona Lynch at 473-7909. Donations to the guild can be mailed to Andrea Pelletier, 60 Fort Hill St., Fort Fairfield, Maine 04742. Checks should be made out to the Precious Blood Rosary Guild.