Beads of Hope: Handmade Rosaries Comfort Intermountain Health Patients
Intermountain Health St. Mary’s Regional Hospital
Grand Junction, Colo.
The simple rosaries given to patients at Intermountain Health St. Mary’s Regional Hospital offer comfort far beyond their modest appearance. Though traditionally Catholic, the rosaries provide a sense of calm and grounding for people of all faiths — or none — offering quiet reassurance during moments of uncertainty. Patients often accept them even when they decline formal spiritual visits, finding hope and peace in the steady rhythm of the beads. Spiritual care staff say the rosaries can lift spirits and change how patients experience their hospital stay, reminding them that healing includes emotional and spiritual support alongside medical care.
“Sometimes people are just having a bad day,” said Alan Amos, St. Mary’s manager of Mission Integration and Spiritual Care. “We can hand them a rosary, and it changes their entire outlook from the hospital stay.”
Meeting monthly with a small group and working daily at home, volunteers carefully craft about 70 rosaries each month. Often in bright, cheerful colors, the rosaries are in constant demand and quickly distributed throughout the hospital, with extras sent to churches and missionaries.