THE STRING OF BEADS that Catholics use as a prayer aide to recite the Rosary, the sequence of mediations and prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, are popular gifts for big days like First Communion as well as for Mother’s Day, birthdays and other special occasions. For many, rosaries also become cherished family heirlooms.
OC Catholic asked readers to submit photos and explanations about rosaries that hold special meaning to them. The following five stories are part of an ongoing series that illustrate why rosaries are much more than strings of beads and crucifixes.
MIKE CHAMBERLIN
Our Lady of Fatima, San Clemente
Once a week, Mike Chamberlin dedicates an hour to reciting the Rosary that belonged to his mother, Eva Kathryn (Brenner) Chamberlin, in the chapel of his family’s longtime parish.
“As my fingers work the wooden beads, I think of the many Rosaries my mom prayed on this very same one,” Chamberlin said. “I imagine she used it a lot while I served in Vietnam.”
Chamberlain, raised in Illinois until his family landed in Manhattan Beach and, ultimately, San Clemente, was drafted into the U.S. Army and served with the 9th Infantry Division in Dong Tam from 1968-1970. The rosary was always at his mother’s bedside. When she died in 2010 at age 93, Chamberlin made sure to “make good use of it.”
He spent 40 years as a TV newsman before retiring in 2008. After that, the San Clemente High School graduate returned to his first love, playing the guitar and singing, and since then has performed more than 3,000 concerts – many of them for free at nursing homes. The music he hears in his head when he recites the Rosary is a true love song to not only Mary, but his mom.
JOANNA RONAN
St. Angela Merici, Brea
Joanna Ronan and her family love to walk Sunset Beach. In May 2023, she found a rosary washed up in the surf.
“The smoothed crucifix and miraculous medal suggested that it had been tumbling in the waves for quite a while,” Ronan recalled. “The day I found this rosary had been a stressful one, and I took it as God’s not so-subtle nudge to seek peace in prayer, especially in the Rosary. Whenever I use it, I say a prayer for its previous owner.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOANNA RONAN
MARTHA SCHNIEDERS
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Irvine
“Can you fix my rosary?”
Martha Schnieders often hears these words as founder of a small ministry at her home parish. The ministry’s focus? Repairing damaged rosaries.
Over the last five years, Schnieders figures she’s “prepared 150 rosaries for prayerful action,” as she put it.
“I hear heart-filling stories of loving and deceased parents, First Communions, devoted pilgrimages,” she said. “Most of the time, you can readily repair a rosary. Making the effort as part of your prayer life can have a rewarding blessing.”
Schnieders’ unique ministry was inspired by fellow St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parishioner Steven Caswell, who asked her to fix his broken rosary. A short time later, both were at a pro-life rally, and Steven saw a stranger with a broken rosary.
“He went up to him, practically snatched the rosary from the startled fellow, and told him, ‘She’ll fix it!’ Schnieders recalled. “Then Steven alerted me to the likelihood that there are probably broken rosaries lying in drawers all over Orange County with no one to fix them. What a sad thought!”
What does Schnieders charge for fixing broken rosaries?
“One very devoted Hail Mary.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARTHA SCHNEIDERS
IRENE HIRSCH
Holy Family, Orange
It’s hard to read the gold writing on the small case that holds the rosary that belonged to Irene Hirsch’s Hungary-born grandmother, Anna Nieszer.
The inscription reads: St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans.
Hirsch’s grandmother and other relatives came to America in 1952 after being displaced and losing their home and other property during World War II. They were refugees in Austria when the Catholic Relief Services helped them connect with St. Stephen Catholic Church in Los Angeles, who then sponsored our family, as well as many others.
The ship Hirsch’s family came on docked in New Orleans.
“We never thought to ask her,” she said, “but the church must have given them these rosaries as welcome gifts. That’s the only time she was in New Orleans.”
She added, “Like my grandmother, I keep the rosary in my purse. I feel a deep connection to her whenever I use it.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF IRENE HIRSCH
SANDRA STOCKALPER
St. Hedwig, Los Alamitos One day, Sandra Stockalper will inherit her mother’s rosary – making her the third in a generation of devout Catholic women to cherish it.
The rosary, with the original crucifix missing, belonged to her mother’s grandmother, Josefa Chavez de Medina, and dates to the 1800s.
Stockalper’s mother, Maria Ines Alvarado, and Sandra’s family have been parishioners of St. Hedwig Catholic Church since 2020, which is the year her son, Liam, also started school there. He’s an altar server.
The rosary was gifted to Stockalper’s mother by her mother, Margarita Medina de Alvarado, who was born in January 1900.
“My great grandmother, I am told, would go to daily Mass to recite the Rosary in her hometown of El Paso, Texas,” Stockalper says. “She asked my mother protect it for the rest of her life.”
That’s something Stockalper is certain to do, too.
PHOTO COURTESY OF STOCKALPER