Wearing the Rosary... redux

Is it sacrilegious?
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Not necessarily.  I'm not talking about the above photo of the guy with all the rosaries on his head - which I found on a Hallowed Ground post featuring a variety of photos from World Youth Day events.  Perhaps in his case it is a bit over the top, but the idea of wearing a rosary is an old one, and once carried an indulgence - which may explain in part why many active religious orders once wore a blessed rosary as part of their habit.  ("Those who openly wear the Holy Rosary out of devotion and to set a good example may gain one hundred days' indulgence." - Secret of the Rosary: Confraternity Privileges.)  Wearing the rosary by a religious, usually on the belt, but sometimes around the neck (Ven. Maria Agreda, shown below), was seen not only as an act of devotion, it was a form of evangelization and  propagation of the devotion.

Questions regarding wearing the rosary come up every so often.  I get a little impatient sometimes when people automatically assume a pious custom outside of one's cultural experience is somehow inappropriate or sacrilegious.  Wearing rosaries, medals and relicarios is a long standing custom amongst Latinos the world over.  I believe some Catholics in Africa and India may also share similar customs, depending upon what countries the missionaries who originally evangelized them came from.
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When this issue comes up I like to tell the story of the Missionaries of Charity from the hospice begun by Mother Teresa in Manhattan who gave rosaries to their patients to wear around their necks.  Some of the men either converted or returned to the faith, afterwards continuing to carry their rosary about their necks.  A blessed rosary is not a talisman or a lucky charm, nor is it superstitious.  When it is blessed, it is a sacramental, not unlike the scapular of Mt. Carmel, or the Miraculous Medal of the Immaculate Conception.  Many conversions have come about by wearing such sacramentals - accompanied by the prayers of the person wearing it, or by another - frequently an anonymous intercessor.  Saints such as Therese and Catherine Laboure 'sneaked' Miraculous Medals into unsuspecting workman's pockets, hoping for their conversion.  (I've hidden Miraculous Medals in numerous coat pockets and homes.)  Modern Catholics, and not infrequently, converts to Catholicism tend not to believe these things, or at best they simply do not understand them.

Several years ago Dolce and Gabbana featured a shirtless David Beckham wearing the designer's jeans I think, sporting a rosary they had designed, around his neck as a fashion accessory.  Madonna kind of kick-started the rosary as a fashion accessory thousands of pop-culture years before that - the idea may have come from Latino gangs.  I genuinely doubt these folks had their rosaries blessed, and I'm fairly certain that in Madonna's case, she wasn't wearing the beads out of devotion.  The silver lining in this was the fact the rosary became news - people wanted to know what it was - what it meant.  I'm quite sure there were at least a couple of souls whose interest led them back to prayer as well.  All of that aside, Catholic stores on and off line all sell a form of rosary jewelry: bracelets, rings, and so on.  They are worn as an accessory in the same way a beautiful cross or medal is worn around the neck - yet the beads can be used for prayer as well.
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In St. Louis De Montfort's day these same issues arose.  He tells the story of the Spanish King Alphonso who always wore a large rosary on his belt to encourage his servants in devotion to Our Lady by praying her rosary.   Though at the time the king never prayed the rosary himself, his servants did.  The king fell ill and experienced a vision of his sins - it was shown to him that all the rosaries prayed on account of his example of simply wearing the beads outweighed his sins.  The king recovered and spent the rest of his life continuing to propagate the rosary and prayed it faithfully every day.  De Montfort has many other such stories about the graces received by those wearing a blessed rosary.

Catholics should read St. Louis De Montfort in order to learn true devotion to Our Lady.  Catholics ought to be encouraged not only to have devotion to the Rosary, but to pray the Rosary as well.   And if you feel so moved - wear it like Beckham - or not.  ;)