History

If you want to live a truly holy life today, one of the best ways is to imitate the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her Ten Evangelical Virtues shine through the Holy Scriptures as a glorious way to salvation for each of us.

We can reflect on Mary’s virtues and invoke her powerful, maternal intercession by praying the "Chaplet of the Ten Evangelical Virtues of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary", a great Marian devotional tradition.

For compete information on the origins of the Chaplet of Virtues, consult the Marian Resources page.

Prayers

The White Marians carried their chaplet or decima with them all their lives, and were buried still holding it in their hands. This chaplet was given to each White Marian on the first day of his religious life, when he was vested in his habit.

"The Chaplet of the Ten Evangelical Virtues of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary" was the Marians’ everyday prayer for almost two and a half centuries. In fact, in Marian iconography, paintings of our Marian Founder, Fr. Stanislaus Papczynski, and Fr. Casimir Wyszynski typically depict them holding their chaplet beads.

A prayer for all
Perhaps the Venerable Servant of God, Fr. Casimir understood and expressed best the spiritual significance of this powerful prayer when he wrote in the introduction to the book called The Morning Star: Although our most beloved Lady was shining with innumerable virtues, all but ten were difficult not only to imitate, but even to understand, because, through them, Our Lady surpassed the angels themselves, let alone the holiest of men. The Holy Spirit desired that the Gospels recount for us only those ten virtues since they can be acquired not by Mary alone, but by all of us.

With these stirring words of encouragement to each of you as our Marian Helpers, here are simple directions for praying the Chaplet. I encourage you to pray it with all your heart and reflect on Our Lady’s virtues:

Method of Prayer 

This prayer, contained in the Rule of the Ten Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has been passed on by tradition in the Marian Order. 

First of all we make the sign of the Cross, 
then we recite one Our Father,
followed by ten Hail Mary’s, mentioning after the words " Holy Mary, Mother of God ", one virtue, in the following order:

1. Most pure, 2. Most prudent, 3. Most humble, 4. Most faithful, 5. Most devout, 6. Most obedient, 7. Most poor, 8. Most patient, 9. Most merciful, 10. Most sorrowful,

"pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death."

V. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
R. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.
V. In Your Conception, O Virgin Mary, You were Immaculate.
R. Pray for us to the Father whose son, Jesus, you brought forth into the world.
Let us pray.
Father, you prepared the virgin Mary to be the worthy mother of your Son. You let her share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by his death, and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception. Help us by her prayers to live in your presence without sin. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
R. Amen.
V. The Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception
R. Be our Health and our Protection.