This past Friday morning, Sept. 29, Bishop David P. Talley blessed several hundreds of rosaries at our Diocese’s Catholic Center Office (Chancery) for the Memphis section of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. Here is part of their story that will be in the next issue of our award-winning Faith West Tennessee magazine:
Twenty years ago, this school year, the Memphis section of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre began its treasured project, Rosaries for Peace in the Holy Land. Each year, beginning in 2004, with the vision, and under the direction of Clare Schaedle, one of the Order’s members, the Order has purchased rosaries made with olive wood in Jerusalem and distributed them to Catholic school and parish religious education students throughout the Diocese. In the project’s first year, the Order distributed 7,500 rosaries, and over the last 20 years, the Order has distributed approximately 44,500 rosaries. Currently, all second-grade students throughout our Diocese receive rosaries.
The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, an Ecclesiastical Order, tracing its origins to the first Crusade, is one of the oldest Orders in the Church. The primary purpose of the Order is “to strengthen in its members the practice of the Christian life, in absolute fidelity to the Supreme Pontiff and according to the teachings of the Church observing as its foundation the principles of charity of which the Order is a fundamental means for assistance to the Holy Land.” The primary way the Memphis-Middle Atlantic Lieutenancy seeks to fulfill this purpose is through its rosary project. The Order purchases the olive wood rosaries, handcrafted by local artisans in Bethlehem giving the local Christian population work, and the Order prays the Rosary monthly for peace in the Middle East.
