Crucifixes, Knots, and Twine (Oh My!)

While there are many ways you can make an all-twine knotted Rosary (and we encourage you to experiment and have fun), if you’re going to send any to Rosary Army, please make them according to our instructions, which includes using metal Crucifixes. This is important in order to maintain some sort of uniformity and consistency among the Rosaries we send out to people.

Because we get so many questions about what kinds of crucifixes, knotting, and twine are acceptable, we’ve put together the following guidelines about Crucifixes, Knots, and Twine.

Crucifixes
We prefer metal crucifixes for our Rosaries, as opposed to plastic ones or knotted crosses. Please note that crosses and crucifixes are different — a crucifix includes the body (corpus) of Christ, while a cross does not include Christ’s body.

First, we prefer crucifixes because, as pointed out by Pope John Paul II, “Here the first thing to note is the way the beads converge upon the Crucifix, which both opens and closes the unfolding sequence of prayer. The life and prayer of believers is centered upon Christ. Everything begins from him, everything leads towards him, everything, through him, in the Holy Spirit, attains to the Father.” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, paragraph 36)

Since one of the primary reasons to pray the Rosary is to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ, we’ve found that looking at a crucifix while praying helps us tremendously in our meditations. So, we encourage Rosary makers to put actual crucifixes on their Rosaries. We even offer to cover this expense — just make your Rosary except for the very last Our Father knot, and we’ll make that knot and add a crucifix for you.

Second, we prefer metal crucifixes because of their attractiveness and durability. We do gladly accept Rosaries with plastic crucifixes, but we don’t distribute as many of these — we tend to hold onto them until a request comes in for these specific types of crucifixes.

While requests are few and far between for those, we believe that if the Rosaries are there, then Mary will find a use for them. As a caveat, military branches prefer the black plastic crucifixes on dark twine, and prisons usually ask for white Crucifixes on white Rosaries.
For a list of Crucifixes we regularly use and recommend, please visit our supplies page.

Knots
Please make your knots using three loops for the Hail Marys, and five loops for the Our Fathers. See our detailed instructions here.

Twine
For a list of Twine Resellers, please visit this page.