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Dear Friends,
I thought I'd post this here.
I've noticed more and more, Latin Catholics having rosaries hanging from their rear view mirror. I myself have one that belonged to my Grandmother (of blessed memory) that was a souvenir from Lourdes. I've often thought about the reasons for this as I have a few of my own.
1)to remind me to pray. I say a decade on my drive to work
2)if I'm ever involved in a serious accident, hopefully someone will notice my rosary and call a priest
3)for protection while driving

I've also noticed many Eastern Christians (EO, EC etc,) with icons and prayer beads as well.
Does anyone have any info or more exact reasoning for these traditions (note small "t")

Brad

Dear Brad,

This is associated with the tradition of keeping an image of the various patrons of travelling for their protection.

St Nicholas is the Eastern patron of travellers and especially of people travelling by sea.

In the West, there is the tradition that says that if one gazes upon an image of St Christopher, nothing evil will happen to them that day.

The practice of including beads also comes from the medieval practice of "rosary bags" where people would have a large bag slung over their shoulder with their hand in it counting their beads.

This practice was so wide-spread at one point that it became a way to establish distance - one would say that such and such a city is "fifteen rosaries away from here" or "three rosaries away" or how many rosaries one could pray through as one walked to that destination.

Alex

Brad, I have several icon buttons and small devotional items like that stuck in my car. I've always considered #1 to be my main reason; having them is like a portable icon corner. #3 is another reason, but I've never thought of #2 (probably because most in the general public won't know to call an Orthodox priest).

Maybe I'll take a picture of my "car shrine" and post it here later.

Dave

To be honest I had no real reason for hanging a rosary in my first car...it was just something that was done. Later, when I started wearing the scapular, I hung a spare one from the mirror, incase I ran out of the house without putting it on first. Over the years though the rosary on the mirror has taken on more of a meaning for me...hard to curse the driver who cuts me off or stops short in front of me when I am looking at cross while glaring at the other car...a reminder to pray when I see an ambulance, fire truck, or funeral go by while driving;

My husband had an Icon of Christ velcroed on the dash board in his Toyota...when he had his accident in January, he had slammed into the steering wheel and the doctors were a bit amazed that there was not even a bruise on his chest, considering what the dash board looked like and the force he hit with...everything else in the front of the car was damaged, but not the Icon..so for us personally, that Icon is now our Miracle Icon...
Vie

I took a pic of my "car shrine" and uploaded here:

http://www.holytrinitypoconos.org/caricons.jpg

I have a Cross; buttons of Christ the Good Shepherd and the Bridegroom, the "Sweet-Kissing" and Mariapocs icons, Raphael and Tobit, David of Thessalonica, and Seraphim of Sarov; and, my latest addition, a visor clip with an Armenian cross and the text "May the Holy Cross be our refuge" which my dad bought for me at St. Vartan's in NYC.

Dave

Simply amazing !!! What a wonderful story.

Thanks

Those are my reasons too ! Good post ! It's little acts of piety that often help us to sanctify the day.

--John

I once heard that the practice of hanging a rosary from the rearview mirror came about before Vatican II when the Mass was said in Latin. People were encouraged to pray the rosary during Mass because they couldn't understand what was going on. So they put the rosary on their rearview mirror to keep it handy for Sunday.

I don't know how true that is. It seems to me that even if you didn't understand the language, you would learn the cues and the Latin responses, and participate even if you didn't know exactly what you were saying.

I keep a rosary on my rearview mirror so that if I'm ever in an accident, hopefully someone will notice it and call a priest.

Tammy