CRANSTON – In Marilyn Nash's life , art is a form of prayer and prayer is a form of art. In recent years, they have merged in a unique art form. She has created a small business out of her home designing and creating custom, hand-beaded rosaries.
"As an artist, I couldn't view making rosaries as a simple thing,” she said.
The rosaries she creates in a multitude of shapes, sizes and colors each speak to a different theme and have a unique focus.
A rosary called “Late have I loved you” was inspired by her husband's conversion to Catholicism from Judaism a few years ago, as well as by the writings of St. Augustine. The dark gray beads, spaced with smaller rust-colored beads, are heavy and have a masculine feel.
On her website Nash offers an explanation of each rosary's elements as well as relevant scripture reading. For this particular rosary she writes: “Although visually heavy, this is a joyous rosary. Elements are symbolic of timing and the contrast of one’s life before and after union with God.”
Another rosary, called “Friendship,” is inspired by Saint Catherine of Siena's conversations with God. The delicate rosary is light pink and includes some small heart-shaped beads. The description for “Friendship” explains that “the hearts of friends share in brokenness and happiness and experience, with each other, the joys and sorrows of life,” which is why the soft-colored heart-shaped beads were selected.
“One of the things about our rosaries that we feel is unique is that they're made with a particular focus. A rosary is not made just because it's pretty,” Nash explained. The design of each is deeply meaningful and “much more than aesthetics.”
Nash and her husband, Melvin, attend Immaculate Conception parish in Cranston, where she is a Eucharistic minister and a reader at Sunday Masses.
Nash suffers from fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes chronic, widespread pain. Her condition dictates how much work she is able to do.
“There are some days that I can sit and do things and work at the computer. And, there are some days that I can do not a lot of anything,” she said.
When they work on the rosaries, Marilyn is in charge of design and her husband does the beading. Each is lovingly hand-strung and packaged with a unique prayer card in keeping with the theme of the rosary. There is no mass production. Many of the designs are one-of-a-kind and the Nashes take custom orders.
They recently created an entirely wooden rosary for an older man who had come to the Church and wanted something very simple to pray with. Nash also has designed a special rosary for priests. The black and white beads are meant to reflect the colors of priests' vestments and the rosaries are packaged with a Prayer for Priests by St. Therese of Lisieux.
Nash said her inspiration for the unique creations comes from several sources. “I may be in prayer and something comes to me that says 'you should do a rosary on the transfiguration' [for example]... and then I go out and look for the beads and parts to put it together.”
Sometimes seeing a particular bead will inspire an entire rosary.
The rosary was not always an integral part of Nash's prayer life. She describes herself as a “cradle Catholic. I've always had one by my bed, but it was not an absolute part of my prayer life.”
That changed when she felt personally called by Mary nearly three years ago. “It was, for lack of a better term, a mystical experience that brought me to a devotion to Mary, and that devotion brought me to rosaries,” she said.
Eventually, she came to believe that Mary wanted Nash to reach out to her husband of more than 30 years and encourage his conversion. “Of course, I understand now that what she wanted wasn't me, it was him,” Nash said.
“I did not have the reverence for Mary that I should have had, I didn't know her. [Now] I've come to know her and that makes a very big difference.”
Her devotion to Mary, which she lives out by creating rosaries, is “truly a mission” she added.
Each benefits more than its new owner. The Nashes donate bags of simple mission rosaries to charities and churches with each sale. Also, a portion of the proceeds is donated to La Casa de los Ninos, a Honduran charity. It is a residential community for children and young people with HIV/AIDS run by the Sisters of Mercy.
Nash says that one of the most important things people need to keep in mind about rosaries is that they are meant to be prayed. Too often, she said, people wind up with collections of idle rosaries. In the packaging of each rosary Nash asks the recipient to give any of their idle rosaries to someone who has none.
“We do this to encourage somebody's prayer,” she said. “They need to be seen and they need to be touched.”
The handmade rosaries range in price from around $40 to more than $100. For more information, visit www.gardenias4lina.net or call 401-943-8639.
