Prayer Bead with the Adoration of the Magi and the Crucifixion Prayer Bead with the Adoration of the Magi and the Crucifixion Prayer Bead with the Adoration of the Magi and the Crucifixion (MS 17.190.475) is a small south Netherlandish prayer nut, carved in fine-grained boxwood, and dated to c 1500–10. It is now in the collection of The Cloisters, New York. Originally the bead would have been part of a complete rosary set, and its size suggests its use as an "Ave bead", where the supplicant would recite the "Hail Mary". Objects of this type were in great demand in the early sixteenth century. Apart from use in private veneration,
Hail Mary to Mary, originally written in Koine Greek. The opening word of greeting, , "chaíre", here translated "Hail", literally has the meaning "rejoice" or "be glad". This was the normal greeting in the language in which Saint Luke's Gospel is written and continues to be used in the same sense in Modern Greek. Accordingly, both "Hail" and "Rejoice" are valid English translations of the word ("Hail" reflecting the Latin translation, and "Rejoice" reflecting the original Greek). The word , ("kecharitōménē"), here translated as "full of grace", admits of various translations. Grammatically, the word is the feminine perfect passive participle of the