Hierarchy classification:

1. top of the aat hierarchies
2. Objects Facet
3. Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name)
4. Visual Works (hierarchy name)
5. visual works (works)
6. [visual works by function]
7. religious visual works
8. prayer beads

Additional parents:

1. top of the aat hierarchies
2. Objects Facet
3. Object Genres
4. object genres
5. object genres by function
6. ceremonial objects
7. religious objects
8. devotional objects

Narrower term/s

• chaplets (rosaries)
• finger rosaries

Anotations

Scope note:

Refers to strings of beads or knotted cord used for a religious exercise in which prayers are recited and counted on the beads or knots. The term is most often used to refer to strings of beads used in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, although it may also be used to refer to prayer beads employed in Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and other religions. In Christianity, the practice was adopted in the 3rd century by Eastern Christian monks, and various forms of the rosary were developed. In Roman Catholicism, the rosary became a popular method of public and private prayer. The most common rosary is the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, comprising beads arranged in five decades (sets of 10), each decade separated from the next by a larger bead. The two ends of the string are joined by a smaller string holding a crucifix, two large beads, and three small beads. The devotions consist of the recitation or chanting of fifteen decades of Aves, each decade being preceded by a Paternoster and followed by a Gloria.