A friend of mine tells me that once upon a time the severely infirm and disabled, those completely unable to work to provide for themselves, were supported by the Cathlic Church in some places by the practice of requiring them to spend a certain amount of time each day praying the Rosary or similar prayers for the dead souls or whomever. When the prescribed prayers were completed, these ‘beadsmen’ as the indigent were called were given a daily ration of food. The person who led the ‘beadsmen’ was called a ‘beadle’ a name apparently made notorious in one of Charles Dickens’ works.
Can anyone verify this story? And to the degree it is true–does it seem a fair way to help the poor, to ask those who could otherwise do nothing for their daily bread to at least pray for those even worse off than themselves for a few minutes or so a day? Would something like this demean a poor person or help affirm them as doing at least a little something worthwhile?
Thanks!
There are a lot of misconceptions about this practice, the first of which is what the term “beadsman” actually means.
Some people will naturally assume that the word “bead” refers to the beads in a rosary. The word “beads” is a derivative of the middle english word for prayer, “
bede.” In both the case of rosary beads and “beadsmen,” the word “bead” literally referred to “prayer.”
This was never a formal vocation or officially sanctioned practice in the Church, as far as I know, and so there isn’t a specific systematic explanation of the parameters, but the basic template involved a benefactor who supported people who had committed themselves to daily prayer.
A benefactor could have been an organization or an individual. In some cases, the benefactor might have been a member of the nobility or some other wealthy individual. In other cases, the benefactor might have been a religious group, or even a political body.
The “beadsman” could be anyone, but was generally a person who, for any number of reasons, including injury or advanced age, but also personal piety, had committed themself to daily prayer. Think of the retired people you might see in the modern day who go to daily mass in the morning, and then come back each day for adoration, and again to say the rosary as a group- and then also help out in the parish several times a week serving in one capacity or another.
The arrangement itself could have taken several different forms, but in historically it began as something fairly simple and informal. Keep in mind that it was common during this time for the faithful to spend time praying in the Church when they weren’t otherwise engaged with work or personal business
What followed from this was the informal occurrence in which money was given directly to the poor or other people of modest means who spent their days praying at their local Church. The modern day equivalent of this would be to ask a panhandler to pray for you when you hand him a couple of bucks. You wouldn’t be paying him to pray for you, but it might look that way to an outsider.
However, over time personal devotions tended to become quite involved and could consume a great deal of one’s time. While it those with nothing else to do with their time could spend most of their time praying, some people didn’t think they had time to commit themselves to lengthy devotional prayers. These people might have specifically asked a “bedesman” to say a few prayers on their behalf, and the practice degraded from there into a more formal system.
I don’t doubt that something like what you described might have existed at one time or another. While some people point back to this kind of thing with the same indignation as they might feel about indulgences, the fact that this practice did not persist over time is a good example of how the Church has been able to continue on the right course throughout time and shed off the periodic development of inappropriate religious practices within different communities.
