To celebrate the beatification of Bishop Fulton Sheen on September 24, several convents and monasteries of sisters are planning to make and distribute 75,000 rosary beads to the people attending a morning program at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri. That prayerful moment will take us back to 1951, when Sheen introduced this distinctive, multi-colored, eye-catching rosary to remind the faithful to pray to Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, for the success of the Church’s missionary efforts around the world. He was the one who suggested the World Mission Rosary 75 years ago, and it is expected that 75,000 people will come to St. Louis and Peoria, Illinois, to celebrate Sheen’s beatification. The colors which Bishop Sheen had suggested are green, blue, white, red and yellow, and each color has a specific connection to the continents, thereby making it a mission rosary bead.
The beads of the first decade or mystery are all green, for specific forests and grasslands, because when we pray the first, we remember the missions in Africa. The second bead is blue for Oceania and all the Pacific Islands. The third mystery’s beads are white because the Pope is in white and the Pope is in Europe. We pray for the continued and deeper evangelization in Europe, especially today in an age in which so many are growing up seduced by secularism. The fourth set of beads are red for America — North, Central, and South — that has given back to God so many martyrs as missionaries came to try to evangelize the Indigenous and often preached by their blood. The fifth decade is yellow for Asia, representing the morning sun in the East. All the beads that are not taken during this historic event, will be sent to the missions.
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