Hail Mary devotional prayers including the Hail Mary. Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheranism, believed that Mary should be held in highest reverence. Although he did not agree with Mary's veneration, he did advocate the use of the first half of the Hail Mary (that is, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.") as a sign of reverence for and devotion to the Virgin. Only after his death was the second part ("Holy Mary, Mother of God, prayer for us sinners now and at the
Prayer beads were presumably used to count repetitions of the Lord's Prayer. Later, Roman Catholics and eventually Anglicans prayed the rosary with strings of 59 beads. The term "rosary" comes from the Latin "rosarium" "rose garden" and is an important and traditional devotion of the Catholic Church, combining prayer and meditation in sequences (called "decades") of the Lord's Prayer, 10 Hail Marys, and a Gloria Patri as well as a number of other prayers (such as the Apostles' Creed and the Salve Regina) at the beginning and end. The prayers are accompanied by meditation on the Mysteries, events in the life and