By Mary Frances McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 1/22/04)

Some Catholic schools set aside time to gather as a school and pray the rosary, each student supplying their own personal rosary. Some gather for living rosaries, creating a greater sense of community among the students.

The Cathedral of St. Thomas More School prays the "extreme" rosary, using a 150-foot rosary created by a group of parish women under the direction of Father Matthew Zuberbueler, parochial vicar. The extreme rosary includes a plaque for each of the 20 mysteries of the rosary. The mysteries can be unlinked so that individual ones can hang in classrooms, and on special occasions they can be linked together to form the rosary.

The rosary was first used by the school on the 25th anniversary of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II last October. A plaque at the junction above the crucifix bears an image of the pope, because the rosary was created in response to him dedicating 2003 as the Year of the Rosary. Father Zuberbueler wanted to create the rosary because, "It was nearing the end of the Year of the Rosary and we hadn’t done much. I couldn’t allow that."

A high school student in Front Royal had made Father Zuberbueler a 20 mystery rosary and Father wanted to make one large enough so that school students could join as a community and participate in the prayer.

Father Zuberbueler said that under his direction, approximately 1,000 rosaries are made each year. He provides the materials, and crocheted rosaries are returned to him. Among his workers are people in parishes where he has been assigned, and occasionally the Daughters of St. Paul. Father Zuberbueler takes the rosaries and carries them with him, handing them out where they are needed. He also ships them to missions, and sends them to countries he hears people are visiting. Most recently rosaries were sent with a parishioner to Minorca, an island off the coast of Spain.