The Orthodox Prayer
Rope

Prologue

In the Orthodox Church, a prayer rope is an almost indispensable aid
for the individual Christian in the practice of private prayer and
spiritual growth, particularly in reciting the Jesus Prayer. While the
use of a prayer rope is not required, it is certainly recommended.
However, it must be understood that the prayer rope is not an amulet—nor
is the Jesus Prayer a mantra—but a means to focus one’s attention on
prayer. By keeping a prayer rope with you everywhere and at all times,
it serves as an ever-present reminder to pray without ceasing. By
holding a prayer rope during prayer, it serves as a means to help
overcome distraction. By counting with a prayer rope—specifically in
terms of the number of times the “Jesus Prayer” is said—it is a way to
fulfill a prayer rule.

While the details may be murky, historically the Orthodox prayer rope
appears along with the rise of monasticism in Egypt in the Third or
Fourth Century A.D. The use of a prayer rope was first fostered by
angelic visitations. Furthermore, a Biblical type (prophetic symbol) for
the prayer rope is found in the sling that King David used to kill
Goliath. And it almost goes without saying that the Jesus Prayer that is
so central to the use of the prayer rope is exemplified many times over
in Scripture.

Introduction

In Church Tradition, a prayer rope
is used to assist the individual worshipper in their performance
of various types of prayer, as will be outlined below. In all such
cases, it is intimately tied with and used to recite the Jesus Prayer,
either vocally or silently (Prayer of the Heart). Simply put, integral
to the prayer rope are a number of knots, and for each knot the Jesus
Prayer is said. Repeating the prayer a large number of times (preferably
continually!) as a part of personal ascetic practice is an integral part
of the eremitic tradition of prayer known as Hesychasm (Greek:
ἡσυχάζω,
hesychazo, “to keep stillness”).

Because of the close tie between an Orthodox prayer rope and the
Jesus Prayer, a few words in regards to the prayer itself are in order.
In its simplest form, the Jesus Prayer is just calling out His Name:
Jesus! Eleven Scripture verses in the New Testament refer to and
associate power and authority with the name of Jesus, while
thirteen more do so for the name of the Lord; consider, for
example:

Wherefore God also exalted Him exceedingly, and freely gave
to Him a name that is above every name, that in the name of Jesus
every knee should bow…(Phil. 2:10


[1] )

…whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be
saved. (Rom. 10:13)

Furthermore, this idea is exemplified in Scripture multiple times,
such as when blind men (Matt. 9:27, Matt. 20:30-31, Mark 10:47-48, Luke
18:38-39) and a distraught mother (Matt. 15:22) called out to Him
variously as Son of David, Lord Son of David, or Jesus
Son of David, with a plea for mercy. It might also be noted that
this prayer is very similar to that of the publican: “God, be gracious
to me the sinner” (Luke 18:13).

Healing of the two blind men.	Christ heals the Canaanite woman’s daughter.	The Publican and the Pharisee.
Virgin Nativity Cathedral of the St. Ferapont Monastery, Belozersk, by Dionisy in1502. Commemorated on the 7th Sunday after Pentecost.	Provenance unknown. Commemorated on the 17th Sunday after Pentecost (also the Sunday before the Triodion begins when there are four Sundays between the Sunday after Theophany and the First Sunday of the Triodion).	Virgin Nativity Cathedral of the St. Ferapont (Therapont) Monastery, Belozersk, by Dionisy in 1502. Commemorated on the first Sunday of the Triodion.

Consider, for example, Luke 18:38, in the Greek, includes the
following five word phrase: ∆Ihsouv
ui˚e Dauid, e˙lehso/n me; in English this translates as (1)
Jesus (2) Son-of (3) David (4) have-Mercy-on (5) me. By replacing
David with God in this phrase in confession that Jesus is
God’s Son (cf. 1 John 4:15), we have
∆Ihsouv ui˚e

Θεοῦ , e˙lehso/n me (or
Jesus Son of God have Mercy on me), which can be considered to be
the most basic form of the Jesus Prayer as it has been handed down by
the Church Fathers. (For reference, in Russian this phrase remains five
words long as in the Greek:

Иисусе, Сыне Божий, помилуй мя.)
Other variations of this prayer exist—such as Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of God, have Mercy on me—but that is another subject.

The Prayer Rope & Prayer of the Heart

Turning back to the discussion on the use of a prayer rope, we will
begin by considering private, or interior, prayer—the Prayer of the
Heart. The Scriptural motivation for such prayer is perhaps best
typified by the injunctions of the Apostle Paul:

Be persevering in prayer…
(Colossians 4:2)

…be praying unceasingly.
(1 Thessalonians 5:17)

This is not unlike what King David had to say:

I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall
continually be in my mouth. (Ps
33:1)

Achieving such a goal—continuous prayer—is what the practice of
hesychasm (“stillness”) is intended to help one to achieve (see, for
example, the Philokalia, the Ladder of Divine Ascent, the
collected works of St. Symeon the New Theologian, and the works of St.
Isaac the Syrian). However, one big problem that affects everyone—except
perhaps for the most spiritually advanced—is the distraction that comes
at us from all sides, physical and spiritual. In the words of several
Church Fathers:

Until we have acquired genuine prayer, we are like people teaching children to begin to walk. Try to lift up, or rather, to enclose your thought within the words or your prayer, and if in its infant state it wearies and falls, lift it up again. …If you constantly train your mind never to wander, then it will be near you during meals too. But if it wanders unrestrained, then it will never stay beside you. A great practiser of high and perfect prayer says: ‘I wish to speak five words with my understanding,’ and so on. But such prayer is foreign to infant souls. (St. John Climacus [ca. 525-606], [2] with a quote from 1 Corinthians 14:19).

St. John Climacus

 

If you pray with your lips but your mind wanders, how do you benefit? ‘When one buildeth, and another pulleth down, what profit have they then but labour?’ As you labour with your body, so you must labour with your intellect, lest you appear righteous in the body while your heart is filled with every form of injustice and impurity. St. Paul confirms this when he says that if he prays with his tongue—that is, with his lips—his spirit or his voice prays, but his intellect is unproductive: ‘I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray also with the understanding.’ And he adds, ‘…I wish to speak five words with my understanding,…than myriads of words in a tongue.’ (St. Gregory of Sinai [ca. 1260s-1346], [3] with quotes from Ecclesiasticus (the Wisdom of Sirach) 31:23 [4] and 1 Corinthians 14:15,19).

St. Gregory of Sinai

The Apostle Paul’s “five words”—as quoted here by St. John Climacus
and St. Gregory of Sinai—is generally understood by hesychasts as
reference to use of the Jesus Prayer, such as given above. But what
guidance do the Fathers have concerning training for our wandering mind?
St. Anthony the Great [ca. 251-356]—the “father of all monastics”—too,
wrestled with this problem, out of which came a solution.

When the holy Abba Anthony lived in the desert he was beset
by accidie [lethargy] and attacked by many sinful thoughts.
He said to God, ‘Lord, I want to be saved, but these thoughts do not
leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be
saved?’ A short while afterwards, when he got up to go out, Anthony
saw a man like himself sitting at his work, getting up from his work
to pray, then sitting down and plaiting a rope, then getting up
again to pray. It was an angel of the Lord sent to correct and
reassure him. He heard the angel saying to him, ‘Do this and you
will be saved.’ At these words, Anthony was filled with joy and
courage. He did this, and he was saved.


[5]

St. Anthony the Great.


[6]

One interpretation of this story is that it represents the origin of
the prayer rope: guidance sent from Heaven to the Father of all monks!
This, however, is not the only angelic visitation associated with the
prayer rope. St. Pachomius the Great


[7] [ca. 292-346]—a Desert Father from the Thebaid and the
“founder of cenobitic monasticism”—was visited by an angel who gave him
direction to form a community, along with rules to govern it by.


[8] One of these rules addressed the prayer life to be
followed by the monks. The version of this prayer rule handed down
through the Slavic tradition reads as follows:


[9]

Begin with the

Trisagion.

After the

Our Father: Lord, have mercy

[12].

Glory, Both now: O come, let us worship

, thrice. Psalm L,

Have mercy upon me, O God; I believe in one God;

one hundred prayers,

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.


And then,

It is truly meet

, and the Dismissal. And this is one prayer. It is commanded to
perform twelve of these in the day, and twelve at night.

An Angel Delivers the Monastic
Rule to St. Pachomius the Great.
Fresco by Andrei Rublev ca. 1400, Assumption
Cathedral on the Gorodok, Zvenigorod, Russia

There is an obvious question concerning this rule: how is one to keep
track of the number of times the Jesus Prayer is said? Paul “the Simple”
of Pherme (Ferme), a disciple of St. Anthony, used pebbles to count the
300 prayers he said daily (as discussed further below).


[10] While this may be functional, it does not seem very
practical. The obvious answer—following after tradition—is with a prayer
rope. In fact, there is archaeological evidence in the form of grave
goods from the 3^rd-4^th Century A.D. Antino


[11] that beaded prayer ropes,


[12] at least, were in use in Egypt contemporaneous with St.
Anthony and St. Pachomius.

Finally, there is a third story involving an angelic visitation and
the traditional method of making an Orthodox prayer rope: “The story is
told of a monk who decided to make knots in a rope, which he could use
in carrying out his daily rule of prayer. But the devil kept untying the
knots he made in the rope, frustrating the poor monk’s efforts. Then an
angel appeared and taught the monk a special kind of knot that consists
of ties of interlocked crosses, and these knots the devil was unable to
unravel.”


[13]

But there is an earlier, Biblical type (prophetic symbol) of the
prayer rope that is found in the story of David and Goliath (see 1 Kings
17 LXX; 1 Samuel 17 KJV). When St. David [ca. 1040–970 B.C.;
commemorated on the Sunday falling on 11 December or the first Sunday
after the 11^th along with the Holy Forefathers, and on the
Sunday before Nativity of Christ along with the Holy Fathers] went out
to slay the giant Goliath, he took a sling and five stones. As a type,
the five stones represent the five words of the Jesus Prayer, while the
sling represents (and even resembles) a prayer rope. This typing becomes
even stronger if we recall the words that David spoke to Goliath:

And David said to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with
sword, and with spear, and with shield; but I come to thee in the
name of the Lord God of hosts [emphasis added] …And all
this assembly shall know that the Lord delivers not by sword or
spear, for the battle is the Lord’s, … (1 Kings 17:45-47)

David and Goliath.
Byzantine plate, ca. 628-630 (Metropolitan Museum
of Art).

Carrying this to the spiritual level—perhaps beginning by imagining
the prayer rope hanging at your side as casting a shadow not unlike a
sword—it should not take too much to see the prayer rope “sling” loaded
with Jesus Prayer “stones” as being part of our arsenal that will help
in waging spiritual warfare.

Put on the full armor of God, for you to be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil; because for us the wrestling is not
against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the
powers, against the cosmic rulers of the darkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts of evil on account of the heavenly things.
For this cause take up the full armor of God, in order that ye might
be able to withstand in the day, and having counteracted all things,
to stand. Stand therefore, having girt your loins with truth, and
having put on for yourselves the breastplate of righteousness, and
having shod your feet in readiness of the Gospel of peace; on the
whole, take up the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God—by means of every prayer and entreaty, praying in
every season in the Spirit, and being vigilant toward this same
thing with all perseverance and entreaty for all the saints,
[emphasis added] (Ephesians 6:11-18).

While this Scripture provides a clear connection between sword and
prayer (the emphasized text), a closer reading of the text is
instructive. Since we know that salvation can only be found in
the name of Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4:10-12), and that He is the Head of
the Church and we are the body (cf. Eph 5:22-33), we can understand that
the helmet of salvation refers to Jesus. Scripturally, it is also
true that the word of God can be a reference to Jesus Christ (cf.
John 1:1-5), Therefore we can interpret the last verse quoted above as
referring to prayer that calls on Jesus.

But there is more. Consider St. John Chrysostom’s commentary on this Scripture: “With all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance for all the saints.” Limit it not, I say, to certain times of the day, for hear what he is saying; approach at all times; “pray,” saith he, “without ceasing.” [14] So here we have another injunction from the Apostle Paul to be in continual prayer (as in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 and Colossians 4:2 quoted above)—specifically calling on Jesus—as part of the armor we need (sword and helmet) to defend ourselves from evil. This sounds a lot like what the Jesus Prayer and prayer rope have to offer!

St. John Chrysostom

The connection between a sword, the Jesus Prayer, and spiritual
warfare is also found explicitly stated in the liturgical material
(specifically, the Euchologion) of the Church. When a monk is
tonsured into the Order of the Great and Angelical Schema, at one point
in the service he is given a prayer rope with these words:

Our Brother, N. taketh the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God, for continual prayer to Jesus; for thou must always
have the Name of the Lord Jesus in thy mind, in thy heart, and on
thy lips, ever saying: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy
upon me. And know that thou must ever henceforth have the word of
God upon thy lips, in prayer, in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs; and may no vain words go forth out of thy mouth;


[15]

Hieroschemamonk Ephrem of
Valaam with prayer rope ca. 1900.


[16]

In summary to this point, we can see that the prayer rope is an
important tool in helping to train us up in constant, undistracted,
interior prayer—spiritual warfare—as we are called to do by the Holy
Scriptures and Church Fathers.

The Prayer Rope & Liturgical Prayer

Now we will turn the discussion to the use of the prayer rope in
liturgical or corporate prayer. In both Old Testament and New Testament
times, it was a custom to pray, privately or publicly, at fixed times.
Consider, for example, the following quotes from Scripture:

…three times in the day he [Daniel] knelt upon his
knees, and prayed and gave thanks before his God… (Dan 6:10)

As for me, unto God have I cried, and the Lord hearkened unto
me. Evening, morning, and noonday will I tell of it and will declare
it, and He will hear my voice. (Ps 54:18-19)

Seven times a day have I praised Thee for the judgments of
Thy righteousness. (Ps 118:164)

And having risen up very early at night [i.e., in the
very early morning], He [Jesus] went out and departed
into a desolate place, and was praying there. (Mark 1:35)

And after He dismissed the crowds, He went up into the
mountain apart to pray. And evening having come to pass, He was
there alone. (Matt 14:23)

…and He [Jesus] was passing the night in prayer
[vigil] to God. (Luke 6:12)

And while the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were
all with one accord in the same place… the third hour of the day.
(Acts 2:1-15)

And… Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth
hour. (Acts 10:9)

And Cornelius said, “Four days ago I was fasting until this
hour, and I was keeping the ninth hour of prayer in my house; …”
(Acts 10:30)

And at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns
to God; … (Acts 16:25)

While we can say little or nothing regarding the specific content of
the prayers and praise on these particular occasions, Scripture does
provide a brief, general description of the types of liturgical material
in use:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual odes, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
(Col 3:16)

…keep on being filled with the Spirit, speaking to one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
chanting in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all
things to the God and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
(Eph 5:18-20)

… Whenever ye come together, each one of you hath a psalm,
hath a teaching, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an
interpretation. (1 Cor 14:26)

It probably comes as no surprise that the practice of liturgical
prayer at fixed times through the day is also well attested to by the
early Church Fathers. For example:

One time when he [Pachomius] was sitting in his cave
an angel appeared to him and told him: ‘…call the young monks
together… Rule them by the model which I am now giving you.’ … He
commanded that they pray twelve prayers each day and twelve at
lamp-lighting time, and that at all-night devotions they say twelve
prayers, and three at the ninth hour. When the group was about to
eat, he commanded them to sing a psalm in addition to each prayer.
(“Pachomius and the Tabennesiotes”


[17] )

What then is more blessed than to imitate on earth the anthems of angels’ choirs; to hasten to prayer at the very break of day, and to worship our Creator with hymns and songs; (St. Basil, Letter to Gregory of Nazianzus [18] ) Prayers are recited early in the morning so that the first movements of the soul and the mind may be consecrated to God… Again at the third hour the brethren must assemble and betake themselves to prayer, … It is also our judgment that prayer is necessary at the sixth hour, in imitation of the saints… The ninth hour, however, was appointed as a compulsory time for prayer by the Apostles themselves… When the day’s work is ended, thanksgiving should be offered for what has been granted us… Again at nightfall, we must ask that our rest be sinless and untroubled by dreams. … Paul and Silas, furthermore, have handed down to us the practice of compulsory prayer at midnight, … Moreover, I think that variety and diversity in the prayers and psalms recited at appointed hours are desirable for the reason that routine and boredom, somehow, often cause distraction in the soul, while by change and variety in the psalmody and prayers said at the stated hours it is refreshed in devotion and renewed in sobriety. (St. Basil, The Long Rules, “Question 37” [19] )

St. Basil the Great

…at the crowing of the cock… they stand up, and sing the
prophetic hymns with much harmony, and well composed tunes. … And the
Psalms of David, that cause fountains of tears to flow… express[ing]
their ardent love to God. And… they sing with the Angels, (for Angels
too are singing then,) “Praise ye the Lord from the Heavens.” …
[Afterwards] these holy men, having performed their morning prayers and
hymns, proceed to the reading of the Scriptures. … Then at the third,
sixth, and ninth hours, and in the evening, they perform their
devotions… with psalms and hymns, … After their meal they again pursue
the same course, having previously given themselves a while to sleep. …
Then after sitting a short time, or rather after concluding all with
hymns, they each go to rest upon a bed made for repose only and not for
luxury. (St. John Chrysostom, “Homily XIV on 1 Timothy v. 8”


[20] )

St. John Cassian the Roman [ca. 360-435], [21] in The Monastic Institutes devotes two entire books (Two and Three) in discussing these prayer offices.
	St. John Cassian the Roman

Some idea of the importance of these prayer offices (as if Scripture
was not enough) can be found in the writings of the Church Fathers:

When thou instructest the people, O bishop, command and
exhort them to come constantly to church morning and evening every
day, and by no means to forsake it on any account, but to assemble
together continually; neither to diminish the Church by withdrawing
themselves, and causing the body of Christ to be without its member.(Apostolic
Constitutions, Book 2, LXI


[22] )

But, if some, perhaps, are not in attendance because the
nature or place of their work keeps them at too great a distance,
they are strictly obliged to carry out wherever they are, with
promptitude, all that is prescribed for common observance… None of
these hours for prayer should be unobserved by those who have chosen
a life devoted to the glory of God and His Christ. (St. Basil,
Ascetical Works


[23] )

The reason for this importance is tied up in the Orthodox
understanding of ecclesiology and God’s economy, topics that are beyond
the scope of this paper. In short, during corporate worship, we as
members of Christ’s Body—the Church Militant—join together mystically
with the rest of the Body, regardless of where we are physically
located, as well as with that part of the Body that is in Heaven—the
Church Triumphant—in offering up praise and prayers to God. But how does
all this relate to the prayer rope? If you live near a church where you
can attend these services, one might guess nothing, other
than perhaps as an aid during the service to refocus your prayers after
being distracted; our holy Fathers tell us otherwise.

	The Elder Moses of Optina (1782-1862; commemorated 16 June, and 10 October along with the other Optina Fathers), for example, related an exhortation he had heard from St. Seraphim of Sarov (1754-1833; commemorated 02 January, and on the opening of his relics on 19 July): While you are standing in church, you must say the Jesus Prayer. Then you will also hear the church service distinctly. [24]
St. Seraphim of Sarov

However, if you are on travel, part of the Orthodox Diaspora, or a
religious hermit, consider the following. As passed down to us by the
Church Fathers, the basic framework for saying these Offices is
contained in the Horologion. To fill out the framework, it is
also generally necessary to have a Psalter, Octoechos,
Menaion, Triodion, Pentecostarion, Evangelistarion,
Apostolos, and liturgical calendar, as well as rubrics from a
Typicon. There have been a few Saints who had a God-given ability to
memorize this vast amount of material. Consider for example, St. Joseph,
Hegumen of Volokolamsk [ca. 1439-1515]:

	Contemporaries were astonished at his exceptional memory. Often, without having a single book in his cell, he would do the monastic rule, reciting from memory from the Psalter, the Gospel, the Epistles, and all that was required. [25]
St. Joseph, Hegumen of Volokolamsk

However, such feats of memory are beyond most of us, and we must rely
on the texts. But therein lies a quandary, for one can easily spend
several thousand dollars building up such a library, to say nothing of
carrying it with you! This, too, is clearly beyond what an average
person can afford. What, then, is a person to do if one or more of these
prayer services form part of their prayer rule as established in
consultation with their spiritual director? The answer can be found in
the church’s service books (e.g., the Russian Orthodox Service
Psalter) where the Offices can be replaced by praying the Jesus
Prayer a specified number of times. One scheme for this is as follows:


[26]

• Vespers: 600 prayers
• Great Compline: 700 prayers
• Small Compline: 400 prayers
• Midnight Office (Nocturn): 600 prayers
• Matins: 1500 prayers
• The Hours without the Inter-Hours: 1000 prayers
• The Hours with the Inter-Hours: 1500 prayers
• A Canon or Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos: 300 prayers
• Reciting the entire Psalter: 6000 prayers
• One kathisma of the Psalter: 300 prayers
• One stasis of the Psalter: 100 prayers

This solves one problem—how to pray the Offices when the prayer books
aren’t available—but creates a new one: how to keep track of counting
hundreds (or thousands) of prayers. One solution can be found in the
Church fathers:

Paul dwelt at Ferme [† ca. 339], a mountain of Scetis, and presided over five hundred ascetics. He did not labor with his hands, neither did he receive alms of any one, except such food as was necessary for his subsistence. He did nothing but pray, and daily offered up to God three hundred prayers. He placed three hundred pebbles in his bosom, for fear of omitting any of these prayers; and, at the conclusion of each, he took away one of the pebbles. When there were no pebbles remaining, he knew that he had gone through the whole course of his prescribed prayers. [27]

St. Paul the Simple

Needless to say, while this certainly works, there is a more
practical solution: using the knots on a prayer rope for keeping count
of the Jesus Prayers said when praying an Office without the service
books.

	The elders now living among us [at the end of the 19th century] in sketes or special kellia in places such as Valaam or Solovki serve the entire service according to this [method]. [28] (Theophan the Recluse [1815-1891])
Theophan the Recluse

Other Prayer Rope Applications

There are two additional but similar uses of the prayer rope. First,
monastics are often given cell rules that involve reciting a particular
number of Jesus Prayers, often along with prostrations (such as the cell
rule of five hundred [Jesus Prayers] of the Optina Monastery


[29] ). Second, when saying an Office (or the Liturgy) with
the service books, there are times when certain prayers are repeated
enough times that a prayer rope can help keep count (e.g., saying “Lord
have mercy” forty times).

Prayer Rope Description

The earliest form of the prayer rope was, we can easily imagine, like
that apparently used by St. Anthony the Great: a plated rope with knots
made from palm fronds,


[30] or perhaps from reeds gathered along the Nile River or
Red Sea that he used in weaving baskets.


[31] This type of prayer cord is still seen in portions of
the Middle East, particularly in the desert monasteries.


[32]

While the actual details are buried in history, as the use of the
prayer rope spread, the preferred materials used in its making changed
to leather and plaited wool yarn. We can surmise that such changes
reflected both material availability and a desire for durability. In
today’s world, the materials used by many have again changed—to
synthetics—primarily for cost considerations.

It might be noted here that the most prevalent forms of traditional
Orthodox prayer ropes are NOT an adaptation of the technique of Paul (of
Ferme), i.e., a string of stones or beads—although, strictly speaking,
there is nothing wrong with using a beaded prayer rope, and they can be
found in use, e.g., among the Russian Fathers, where they are known as
чётки,
chotki. However, the traditional technique of using fronds, leather or
wool is intended to produce a prayer rope that is quiet.
Consider that practicing the Prayer of the Heart—hesychasm—is the
practice of stillness such that one can hear their heart beat; the
clicking of beads would only serve to distract and not to focus.

The Elder Moses of Optina holding a
beaded prayer rope (чётки,
chotki).

Probably the most common prayer rope found is a cord of 100
knots—which supports reciting the Offices by praying the Jesus Prayer a
specified number of times as given above—that is ~2-feet long, formed
into a loop (Greek:
Κομποσκοίνι
, komposkini; Russian: 
вервица ,
vervitsa, “small rope”); this is the type, e.g., found in use by the
monks on Mt. Athos. The knots, ~” diameter, are generally closely
“strung” together and are quite complex in form (knots of interlocked
crosses as related earlier).

Typically there is a knotted cross where the prayer rope is joined
together to form a loop. Frequently there is also a tassel at the end of
the cross. In some prayer rope designs, additional strings with moveable
beads—”martyria” (witnesses)—are attached to the main loop in order to
keep track of the hundreds of times the prayer is recited. For those who
recite a shorter rule (e.g., involving multiples of 10, 25, or 50), the
prayer rope may be divided up in sections using larger than normal knots
or, more typically, beads. In addition to prayer ropes of 100 knots, it
is also possible to find prayer ropes of 10, 12, 33, 50, 150, 300, and
500 knots. The most important thing is to use a prayer rope of a
suitable length and with appropriate dividers (or martyria) that matches
one’s prayer rule (noting that if it is only being used to practice
interior, Prayer of the Heart, the length or divisions thereof is
immaterial).

In
keeping with Orthodox tradition to associate every day things with the
Heavenly—and so direct our mind there—the knotted cord prayer rope has
its own symbology. The prayer rope is traditionally made out of wool,
symbolizing the flock of Christ, a reminder that we are rational sheep
of the Good Shepherd, Christ the Lord, and also a reminder of the Lamb
of God Who takes away the sins of the world (cf. John 1:29). The most
prevalent (but not only) color of a prayer rope is black, symbolizing
mourning for one’s sins. The tassel at the end of the cross is to dry
the tears shed due to heartfelt compunction for one’s sins (or, if you
have no tears, to remind you to weep because you cannot weep); it can
also be said to represent the glory of the Heavenly Kingdom, which one
can only enter through the Cross. The beads (if they are colored)—and
possibly a portion of the tassel—are traditionally red, symbolizing the
blood of Christ and the blood of the martyrs. And of course the cross
itself speaks to us of the sacrifice and victory of life over death, of
humility over pride, of self-sacrifice over selfishness, of light over
darkness. Finally, the manner of tying the knots may produce either
seven or nine crosses in each separate knot, symbolizing the seven
heavens or the nine ranks of angels.

There is also a leather form of the prayer rope that is still in
use—albeit rarely—which comes down to us through traditions of the
Russian Orthodox. This leather prayer rope is made of strips ~” wide
that are cut, intertwined, and sewn (or glued) together to form a flat
rope ~2-feet long, whose ends are also sewn together. The strips
themselves are folded into a series of small loops ~

” in diameter, each often containing a short length of
small-diameter dowel to help it keep its shape; one small loop forms one
prayer counter. The main loop of a leather prayer rope normally contains
100 such small loops. This sequence of 100 is divided into four, shorter
groups of counters: 12, 38, 33, and 17. These sections are separated by
three divider loops of ~” diameter (i.e., larger than the small
counting loops). Each end of the main loop of the prayer rope also
includes three divider-sized loops (for a total of nine) that are
separated from the counters by a ~”-long space. To complete the prayer
rope, four triangular leaves are attached to the point where the ends
are joined; these are sewn together two and two, the upper pair
overlapping the lower.

Lestovka.

Like the knotted cord prayer rope, the leather version has its own
symbology. At the macro-scale, this prayer rope is intended to resemble
a ladder, which is its prevalent name in Church Slavonic:
лѣстовка (lestovka). Thus the
form of the prayer rope itself reminds its user that prayer is a
spiritual ascent into heaven. Association may also be made with the
practice of hesychasm as found in the Ladder of Divine Ascent
written by St. John Climacus. The four different sized groups of
counters are also given meaning as follows: 12 for the number of
Apostles; 38 plus the dividers on each end total 40, which is the number
of weeks for human gestation and thus reminds us of the pregnancy of the
Theotokos; 33 for the years of Christ’s life on earth; and 17 for the
number of prophets. The nine dividers represent the nine ranks of
angels. The four triangular leaves represent the four Gospels.

The lestovka form of the prayer rope is also suited for counting
litany responses and prostrations. For example, the groupings of 12 and
40 (38 plus 2 dividers) can be used for counting “Lord have mercy”
responses that are found in many of the Offices. Other combinations,
such as 30 and 50, are also possible. For such liturgical purposes it is
clearly more practical than the more familiar variety of knotted cord
prayer rope.

Tradition tells us that the lestovka came to Russia from Jerusalem.
We can speculate that its arrival there coincided with the work
of St. Cyprian, metropolitan of Moscow and Kiev, when, at the end of 14^th
century, he undertook actions to replace the Studite liturgical
practices originally introduced in the 11^th century through
the efforts of St. Theodosius with the Jerusalem Typicon (or Typicon of
St. Sabbas). However, little can be said of its actual introduction or
prevalence in use. While “Old Believers” would have you believe that the
lestovka was the form of prayer rope in use in Russia prior to the
reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1652, it is easy to show that this was not
the case (just as they are wrong about early Russian traditions
concerning how to make the Sign of the Cross). Consider, for example,
Saint Euphrosynus of Blue Jay Lake ( Cв.
Евфросин Синеезерский
),
a schemamonk and abbot who was martyred by the Latins on March 20, 1612.
When his relics were uncovered in 1655, they were found to be incorrupt;
also preserved with him were the Schema-epitrachelion, -cowl, and two
prayer ropes that the Saint was wearing when he was martyred and buried
(note that, although the photograph shown below is of poor quality,


[33] the prayer ropes appear to be

чётки (chotki), but in any case, they are clearly not lestovka).

St. Euphrosynus of Blue Jay Lake and his monastic cowl and two prayer ropes.

Using the Prayer Rope[34]

When praying, the prayer rope is normally held in the left hand,
leaving the right hand free to make the Sign of the Cross. When not in
use, the prayer rope is traditionally wrapped around the left wrist so
that it continues to remind one to pray without ceasing. If this is
impractical, it may be placed in the (left) pocket, but should not be
hung around the neck or suspended from the belt. The reason for this is
humility: one should not be ostentatious or conspicuous in displaying
the prayer rope for others to see.

Epilogue

The hesychast’s practice of repeatedly praying the Jesus Prayer is
considered to be second only to the Divine Liturgy in terms of
importance to the spiritual well being and development of an Orthodox
Christian. That inevitably means that the devil will be hard at work
trying to cause distractions while we are at prayer, and, insofar as he
becomes successful in that regard, he will attempt to lure us to neglect
and eventually supplant our prayer with other activities. If we let our
prayer life wane, it won’t be long before spiritual things in their
entirety begin to slip away. And if that happens, how will we prevent
the devil from completely dominating our life and avoid alienating
ourselves from God? The watchword: persevere in prayer.

The Elder
Joseph the Hesychast with his “sword” (prayer rope; photograph
provenance unknown).

There is also one other point I would like to stress: saying the
Jesus Prayer is important for all Orthodox Christians. The
discussion to this point has invoked examples and sayings from many
monastic fathers that may lead one to erroneously believe that it is
really not meant for lay people. This would be wrong. Consider the
following entry from the Prologue:


[35]

Does the Lord’s commandment about unceasing prayer (Lk.18:1)
apply only to monks, or to all Christians? If it applied only to
monks, the Apostle would not have written to the Christians in
Salonica: ‘Pray without ceasing’ (I Thess. 5:17). The Apostle, then,
reiterates the Lord’s command word for word, and gives it to all
Christians without distinction of monk or layman. St Gregory Palamas
lived for some time as a young man in a monastery in Beroea. There
lived in those parts a well-known ascetic, the elder Job, who was
venerated by all. It happened at one time that St Gregory, in the
elder’s presence, quoted the Apostle’s words, asserting that
unceasing prayer was a necessity for all Christians, not only for
monks. The elder Job replied to these words, saying that the Jesus
prayer is a necessity only for monks, and not for all Christians.
Gregory, being a young man, ceded the argument, not wishing to
quarrel, and withdrew in silence. When Job had returned to his cell
and was standing in prayer, an angel of God appeared to him in great
heavenly glory, and said to him: ‘Old man, don’t doubt the truth of
Gregory’s words; he spoke truly. So, hold your peace and advise
others to do the same.’ Thus, then, both the Apostle and the angel
underlined the commandment that all Christians must pray to God
without ceasing. If not unceasingly in church, then unceasingly in
every place and at every time, in the depths of your heart. If God
does not for a moment tire of giving us good things, how can we tire
of thanking Him for these good things? If He is constantly thinking
of us, why do we not think constantly of Him?