A call for rosaries sparked by hospital chaplains has lit a fire under the people of Western Sydney, who responded to the call by handmaking rosaries to give to the sick and those in need.
Organised by the Diocese of Parramatta and headed by Lucy Woodbury, the Office for Worship administration specialist, the program has been running since October 2025, with its popularity and purpose growing steadily over time.
Woodbury said the initial call for rosaries came from a chaplain who was struggling to supply them to hospitals and has grown significantly over the past few months, now providing rosaries to an Indigenous ministry and other institutions as well.
“They said, ‘we give rosaries to all the sick patients that we meet, and we’ve been making them ourselves, but we just can’t meet the demand for them and we need help,’” she told The Catholic Weekly.
“Kristal Moses, who also works in the chancery of the Diocese of Parramatta, knew how to make rosaries, suggested ‘what if we learn how to make rosaries and teach others how to do it too?’”
Starting just before the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Rosary on 7th October 2025, the workshops have been mainly run out of the Diocese of Parramatta’s Bishop Bede Heather Centre in Blacktown, but the program is expanding.
“I’ve also been going to a number of parishes and schools to teach people how to make handmade rosaries which are then donated to those in need,” Woodbury said.
“People come to learn how to make rosaries, and some of the attendees enjoy the experience so much that they keep coming back.”
Over the month of May, which is dedicated to Mary, the Office for Worship team ran several workshops in various locations.
Woodbury said around 35 people attended just one of the Blacktown sessions, with 30 more at a class in St Madeleine Sophie Barat’s parish in Kenthurst.
The classes run for an hour and a half, with beginners taking up roughly the whole session to handmake one rosary, while more experienced creators can make one in just 15 minutes.
Over the eight months the program has been running, Woodbury estimates 900 rosaries have been created and distributed to hospitals and other aid organisations.
She said Parramatta Diocese was open to receiving handmade rosaries from outside the classes. The diocesan chancery will distribute them.
