JV writes: “I recently came across a website that featured a painting of St. Vincent Ferrer holding Buddhist mala beads. How can this be?”It can’t - and it isn’t!
The image you are referring to, which appears on the Golden Lotus Mala website, mistakenly claims that the beads held in the hand of St. Vincent Ferrer in a painting from 1437 are mala beads. Although they certainly don’t look like today’s Rosary, the beads he’s holding were known as Paternoster beads which was a very common Christian prayer bead strand at the time.
Paternoster beads were popular among medieval Christians before the Rosary was formally standardized to count their daily prayers. St. Vincent, who was a Dominican Friar who died in 1419, would routinely carry this strand as part of his monastic habit.
The painting that appeared on the site was created during the era when the Western Church was shifting from the use of paternoster strands toward what we now recognize as the Dominican Rosary. Because the paternoster was so similar to the Eastern mala, modern New Age and holistic websites frequently present this image as proof of the adoption of Eastern practices into Christianity.
For those who have never head of Mala beads, mala (a Sanskrit work meaning “meditation garland”) beads are used in Hindu and Buddhist prayer to count mantras. They are usually in strands of 108 beads although there are bracelet-length strands and rings that are used for shorter meditations.
Mala beads have been used for centuries by yogis to help them stay focused during meditation. Some sites claim that the first malas were made in India 3000 years ago and were used in a special style of meditation called Japa which means “to recite.”
The number of beads on a mala – 108 - is said to have deep meaning. For example, the “1” represents supreme consciousness; the “0” represents the cosmos and the entire field of creation; and the “8” represents the eight aspects of nature.”
Other scholars believe the number 108 represents the number of skulls worn on the garland by Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, and is said to symbolize the 108 reincarnations of the jiva (individual consciousness) after which an individual will become self-realized.
St. Vincent Ferrer is well-known for extraordinary miracles attributed to the recitation of the Rosary, having often proclaimed, “Who observes this practice is beyond the reach of adversity.”
It defies both the historical record - and common sense - that such a staunch supporter of the Rosary would have endorsed the use of mala beads.
These sites are mistaken and, much like what is being done to St. Hildegard of Bingen, his practices are being misconstrued by New Age marketers who are eager to cash in on the Christian market.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
Send your New Age questions to newage@womenofgrace.com
