Catholic chaplets compared: how many beads and prayers in each

Published 14 November 2026 · 7 min read

Catholic chaplets, counted by bead and by prayer

The tool for this guide: Open the Divine Mercy chaplet counter

Short answer

Counted by prayer, the Chaplet of St Michael is 40 Our Fathers and Hail Marys, the Seven Sorrows rosary 59, the Divine Mercy chaplet 61 and the Franciscan Crown 79. A chaplet's bead count and its prayer count are different numbers: the Franciscan Crown has seven decades but 72 Hail Marys, not 70.

The four chaplets counted by prayer

Counted by prayer, the four chaplets this site keeps counters for run from 40 to 79. A prayer here is one Our Father, one Hail Mary, one Creed or one of the chaplet's own invocations. Counting prayers is the figure a person praying needs, because it says when the chaplet is finished; the number of beads is a fact about the strand, and it is a different one.

Four Catholic chaplets counted by prayer, with the arithmetic
Chaplet	One round	Our Fathers	Hail Marys	Prayers in one round
Chaplet of St Michael	9 salutations, each 1 Our Father and 3 Hail Marys, then 4 Our Fathers	9 + 4 = 13	9 × 3 = 27	13 + 27 = 40, then the closing prayer
Seven Sorrows rosary	7 sorrows, each 1 Our Father and 7 Hail Marys, then 3 Hail Marys for the tears	7	7 × 7 + 3 = 52	7 + 52 = 59
Chaplet of Divine Mercy	Our Father, Hail Mary, Creed; 5 decades; the Holy God three times	1	1	3 + 5 × (1 + 10) + 3 = 61
Franciscan Crown	7 joys, each 1 Our Father and 10 Hail Marys, then 2 Hail Marys	7	7 × 10 + 2 = 72	7 + 72 = 79, before any prayers for the Pope

The Divine Mercy row is the one that is not made of Our Fathers and Hail Marys: its decades are one "Eternal Father" and ten "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion", so the 61 counts those invocations as prayers. It is the form in Diary 476; a card that adds the optional prayers before and after has more. The Divine Mercy chaplet counter lets you switch them on and off and shows the total each way.

A chaplet's beads are not its prayers

A bead count and a prayer count disagree for almost every chaplet, and the gap is the usual reason two sources give two numbers. Three of the four show it plainly.

The Franciscan Crown is called a seven-decade rosary, and seven decades of ten is 70, but the crown is 72 Hail Marys because two more are said for the 72 years Franciscan tradition gives Mary on earth. A reader who counts beads by decade and a reader who counts Hail Marys will not agree.

The Seven Sorrows rosary shows it the other way. Wikipedia's list describes its beads as seven groups of seven, which is 49. The prayers are 59: the seven Our Fathers and three Hail Marys for Mary's tears are not among those 49. Neither source is wrong; they count different things.

The Divine Mercy chaplet has no beads of its own at all. Wikipedia says it uses ordinary rosary beads, the set used for the Dominican Rosary, so a count of its beads is a count of a rosary's: 59 for a standard rosary, as the guide to prayer beads by religion sets out. The 61 prayers are a different number again. It was given in the Diary of St Faustina Kowalska, which records the first words of the offering on 13 September 1935 in Vilnius (Diary 474 and 475) and the chaplet in Diary 476.

What is a chaplet, and how is it not a rosary?

A chaplet is a form of Christian prayer that uses prayer beads, similar to but distinct from the Rosary, in Wikipedia's wording. What makes one chaplet different from another is its own set of prayers and its own arrangement of beads, so the count that matters changes with the devotion. The rosary itself has a fixed layout of 59 beads, which is why it is easy to quote; the chaplets have no common layout, which is why they are not.

That is also why a "how many beads on a chaplet" search finds no single answer. The honest answer is a table, one row for each devotion, and a note on what each row counts.

Bead counts for a dozen more chaplets

Wikipedia's list of chaplets gives a different strand for almost every devotion, from nine beads to 33 small beads and more. The counts below are the ones that page states, for beads and groups of beads, not for prayers. They are quoted as the page gives them: other sources describe some of these strands differently, and where a chaplet's prayers per bead are not stated, this page does not guess them.

Bead counts for selected chaplets, as Wikipedia's Chaplet (prayer) page states them
Chaplet	Beads, as stated
Chaplet of the Sacred Heart	33 small beads and 6 large beads, with a centrepiece, a crucifix and a medal
Little Chaplet of the Holy Face	A cross, 6 large beads and 33 small beads
Chaplet of the Precious Blood	33 beads in 7 groups
Little Crown of the Infant Jesus	3 beads and 12 beads
Chaplet of St Philomena	3 white beads and 13 red beads
Chaplet of St Anthony	13 sets of 3 beads
Chaplet of St Joseph	15 groups of 4 beads
Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception	3 groups of 4 beads, with a medal
Bridgettine Rosary	6 decades of 10 beads, plus 3 additional beads
Chaplet of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa	9 beads, with a crucifix and a medal
Chaplet of St Anna Schäffer	1 large bead and 24 smaller beads
Chaplet of St Kateri Tekakwitha	8 brown, 8 red and 8 crystal beads

Two things stand out. The counts are for the strand, not for what is said on it. And the same total can mean two different strands: three groups of four and 12 beads are the same number laid out differently.

Where the sources disagree, and what each counter does about it

The four chaplets each have at least one point on which printed forms differ, and a count that ignores the difference will be wrong for someone. The counters on this site make each of these a setting, so the total shown is the total of the form in your hand.

Where printed forms of the four chaplets differ
Chaplet	The difference	What it changes
Seven Sorrows	The three Hail Marys for the tears come at the end in the Raccolta, and at the start in Kibeho booklets	Where the chaplet is said to begin and end, not the total of 59
St Michael	The fifth and sixth choirs are Powers then Virtues in the Raccolta, Virtues then Powers in many leaflets	The order of two salutations, not the count
St Michael	Sources give the date of the vision to Antonia d'Astonac as 1750 (Wikipedia), 1751 (catholic.com) or the nineteenth century (Aleteia)	Nothing in the count; catholic.com says a primary source for the apparition seems impossible to find
Divine Mercy	Diary 476 has no prayer before the Our Father and none after the Holy God; many cards add both	The total: 61 in Diary 476's form, more with the optional prayers
Franciscan Crown	Some cards end with prayers for the Pope, and the list of seven joys was revised in 1968	The total, if the Pope's prayers are included; the subjects of the decades

The practical rule is to count the prayers of the form you actually pray, and to treat a quoted total as a statement about a printed card. The St Michael chaplet counter, Seven Sorrows rosary counter and Franciscan Crown counter each name the card they follow.

Which beads to use

The Divine Mercy chaplet needs nothing but a rosary. The others are easier on a strand made for them, but the beads do no counting that a prayer count cannot do. If you pray the Franciscan Crown on a five-decade rosary, you count seven joys and 72 Hail Marys, and the strand's five decades are only a place to put your fingers.

For a chaplet with a layout of its own, such as nine groups of four for St Michael, beads help by showing where the salutations fall. For any chaplet, a counter that moves on one prayer at a time, and keeps the place when the phone locks, answers the question the beads cannot: how many of the prayers are left. The rosary counter does the same for the five-decade rosary, and the guide to prayer beads by religion compares rosary, tasbih, mala and prayer rope in one table.

Frequently asked questions

How many beads are on a Divine Mercy chaplet?

None of its own. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is said on an ordinary five-decade rosary, the same set used for the Dominican Rosary: one large bead and ten small beads for each of the five decades. Counted by prayer instead of bead, one chaplet is 61 prayers in the form given in Diary 476.

How many Hail Marys are in the Franciscan Crown?

Seventy-two. Seven decades of ten Hail Marys make 70, and two more are added for the 72 years Franciscan tradition gives Mary on earth. Each decade also has one Our Father, so one crown is 7 Our Fathers and 72 Hail Marys, 79 prayers in all, before any prayers for the Pope.

How many Hail Marys are in the Seven Sorrows chaplet?

Fifty-two: seven for each of the seven sorrows, 49 in all, and three more for Mary's tears. With the seven Our Fathers that is 59 prayers. Wikipedia describes the beads as seven groups of seven, which is 49, so the three Hail Marys for the tears fall outside the count of beads in the groups.

How many prayers are in the Chaplet of St Michael?

Forty Our Fathers and Hail Marys: nine salutations to the nine choirs of angels, each with one Our Father and three Hail Marys, then four more Our Fathers. That is 13 Our Fathers and 27 Hail Marys, followed by the closing prayer. It is the shortest of the four chaplets compared here.

What is the difference between a chaplet and a rosary?

Wikipedia calls a chaplet a form of Christian prayer that uses prayer beads, similar to but distinct from the Rosary. A chaplet has its own prayers and its own arrangement of beads. A standard rosary has 59 beads, 53 small and 6 large, while the chaplets here run from nine groups of beads to seven decades.

Why do sources give different counts for the same chaplet?

Some count beads and some count prayers, and the two differ. Others follow different printed forms: the Seven Sorrows chaplet places its three extra Hail Marys at the end in the Raccolta and at the start in Kibeho booklets, and Divine Mercy cards add optional prayers that Diary 476 does not include.

Do I need special beads to pray a chaplet?

Not always. The Divine Mercy chaplet is prayed on an ordinary rosary. A chaplet with its own layout, such as the nine groups of the St Michael chaplet, is easier on beads made for it, but any strand, or a counter that keeps your place prayer by prayer, can be used if you count the prayers rather than the beads.