Why are there fifty nine rosary beads?
Rosary beads were originally a loop of 150 beads although smaller more compact rosaries of 50 beads were created that were repeated thrice to thus pray the entire Rosary devotion. These 150 beads were to parallel the 150 Psalms of the Old Testament, thus, the Rosary is the Psalter of the New Testament for Catholics. “Our Fathers” and “Glory Be’s” were said between the decades and were eventually marked by a bead of their own, thus adding four more beads on the 50 bead Rosary. In addition to this, an introductory string of prayers was made which added four more beads again for the “Glory Be” and three “Hail Mary’s” said after the initial opening with the Creed. Thus the 59 beads now on a standard Rosary.
