Staten Island Students to present Pope Benedict with Handmade Rosaries

Pope Will Receive Homemade Staten Island Rosaries - Tara Lynn Wagner, NY1 News. March 19, 2008:

Fingers are flying at Our Lady Queen of Peace Elementary School in New Dorp, where roughly a dozen children from the island's only Junior Legion of Mary, a religious youth organization, spend their afternoons beading their very own rosaries.

“You can go to mass and get them blessed so they'll be special rosary beads. So it will be even more special knowing that you made them,” said student Hugo Fernandez.

The students have been stringing rosaries beads for five years, and their handiwork has traveled around Staten Island and around the world.

“We usually send [the rosaries] to people that need it, need the prayers,” said student Kristine Lauro. . . .

Their students aim to make 600 sets that they will bring to a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, who will be addressing a youth rally at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers next month.

“When I told them that the pope was coming, they were like ‘We have to go!’ and they were so excited,” said Annette Viso, president of the Staten Island Legion of Mary. “So this will be fun for them because they’ve never done anything like this.”