Cord Rosary Instructions
You will need 6 yards of rosary cord twine to make one rosary.
Start with the body of the rosary:
1. Begin about 6 inches from the end of the cord. With cord held in your left hand, wrap cord clockwise 3 times over the cord and first finger. Pull entire length of the cord through and tighten. This is the first Hail Mary.
2. Repeat step one, placing the second knot close or against the first knot and tighten. Then maneuver the knot for spacing.
3. Repeat for the next 8 Hail Mary’s. This completes the first decade.
4. The Our Father: wrap cord 4 times (4 loops instead of 3) to make a larger knot. Remember to space before and after the Our Father knot.
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the second, third, fourth and fifth decades.
6. After the five decades are completed, it is time for the joining. Taking both the first Hail Mary and the last Hail Mary in your left hand, wrap both cords around your finger twice, pull both ends through and tighten, pulling short cord first.
7. With the long cord, knot 1 Our Father - space - 3 Hail Mary’s - space - 1 Our Father.
THE CROSS
A short distance from the last completed Our Father make another Our Father, then leaving a small space, make 2 more Our Fathers very close (touching) together. The cord that is remaining at the joining knot should be burned off and used for the cross bar of the cross. If for some reason this piece is not quite large enough (for the cross bar) then simply cut another appropriate length of cord from the spool for this.
THE CROSS BAR
Lay the piece you just burned off flat on the table, place the rosary over it between the last Our Father and the last 2 Our Fathers. Hold the ends with each hand, cross them, bring over rosary and tighten. With each end of the cord make an Our Father on either side to form the crossbar of the cross. Make these knots very tight. This is very important.
IMPORTANT: ANY TIME YOU CUT ENDS OF THE
CORD YOU
MUST ALSO SEAL THEM BY BURNING THE ENDS
WITH A
CIGARETTE LIGHTER. OTHERWISE THEY WILL FRAY
ORDERING
CORD: Rosary cord is
available from FNT INDUSTRIES, Inc. 927 First Street,
PO Box 157, Menominee Michigan 49858-0157. Telephone 1-800-338-9860
You may also email: teena@fnt-victory.net
FNT now offers 19 solid colors, 20 variegated colors including 2 camouflages approved for rosaries for the military, and they also have over 250 two-color and three-color combinations! Custom colors are available using any of their solid color twine. With about 500 ft. per roll, that averages out to about 25 rosaries per tube, and even a bit more if you cut the twine shorter than 7 yards. There is also a military page with specific information gathered by various resources as to the specs for military rosaries and addresses on where to send them.
Additional sites with instructions on how to make cord rosaries:
How to Make Knotted
Cord/Twine Rosaries - excellent new instructions with photos and using
a metal crucifix. This is a pdf file and you will need the free Acrobat Reader
to open it.
