Prayer rope counter · Free · No sign-up
Prayer Rope Counter
A prayer rope counter keeps count of prayers on an Orthodox prayer rope (chotki or komboskini): one knot, one prayer, with beads every 10 or 25 knots and finished ropes tallied. This one also counts towards a service replaced by the Jesus Prayer and walks the Optina rule of five hundred, prostration by prostration.
Free, no sign-up, works offline, and nothing leaves this browser.
- Prayers today
- 0
- Prayers in all
- 0
- Ropes
- 0
- Prostrations
- 0
- Bows
- 0
- Rules completed
- 0
Rope and rule
Space, Enter or + moves on one knot, so you can pray with your eyes closed; B counts a bow and Ctrl+Z goes back one. Keys do nothing while a field has focus, and a held key moves on once.
Tap once per knot, or press Space with your eyes closed. The screen names the prayer, calls each bead, and in the Optina rule says before each prayer whether it takes a prostration, a bow or neither, by today’s date.
A prayer rope (Russian chotki, Greek komboskini) is a loop of knotted wool used in the Orthodox Church to count repetitions of the Jesus Prayer and the prostrations and bows said with it. A prayer rule is the set number of each that a person keeps daily.
- No sign-up
- No ads
- Counts never leave your browser
- Works offline
- Unlimited counters
Key facts
| Detail | Answer |
|---|---|
| Price | Free, no sign-up, no ads |
| What one tap does | Moves on one knot; in the Optina rule, one prayer of the rule |
| Ropes | 33, 50, 100, 150 or 300 knots, a bead every 10, 25 or 50, or none |
| In place of a service | Vespers, Compline, Matins, the Hours and more, by either Horologion table or the Old Rite |
| The Optina rule | 500 prayers, 67 prostrations and 100 bows on a weekday, each marked as it comes |
| The day | Sundays, Holy Week, Bright Week, Pentecost and Christmas computed; Pascha by the Julian reckoning |
| Totals | Prayers today and in all, ropes, prostrations, bows, rules completed |
| Keyboard | Space, Enter or + moves on; B counts a bow; Ctrl+Z goes back |
| Where your count is kept | This browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere |
How to use the prayer rope counter
Choose how you count once, then tap a knot at a time.
Choose what you count
Open Rope and rule: a rope knot by knot, Jesus Prayers in place of a service, or the Optina rule of five hundred.
Match your rope
Set the knots and the beads to the rope in your hand, and the prayer you say on it.
Tap after each prayer
Tap Next knot, or press Space, Enter or +; each bead is called as you pass it, and a finished rope is counted.
Count bows when your table has them
With the Horologion’s first table, tap Bow +1 or press B for each bow; the target needs both.
In the Optina rule, follow the mark
The board names each prayer and shows Prostration, Bow or No bow, changed to bows on the days the rule says.
Go back after a slip
Undo or Ctrl+Z steps back one tap, as often as needed, and also brings back a reset made by mistake.
Who uses a prayer rope counter
Anyone keeping a count of prayers on a rope who wants it kept, with or without the rope.
A daily rule of the Jesus Prayer
Three hundred, five hundred or a thousand a day, kept across ropes without losing the hundreds.
Praying a service you cannot read
Travelling, ill or without books: the number of Jesus Prayers for Vespers or Compline, counted to the end.
The Optina rule of five hundred
Every prayer with its prostration or bow, and the day’s season read for you.
Learning a new rule
The board shows which prayer comes next and what goes with it, so the rule is learned by praying it.
A 33-knot wrist rope
Hundreds counted across ropes, so three times round is never mistaken for a hundred.
Counting prostrations
Bows and prostrations kept apart from prayers, on their own key.
Praying with eyes closed
Space or Enter moves on from anywhere on the page, and vibration marks each bead.
Old Rite home prayer
The lestovka’s hundred steps, or the services with a bow on each prayer.
The Optina rule of five hundred: 500 prayers, not 450
This counter keeps your place, counts prayers, prostrations and bows, and reads the date. It does not give anyone a rule; that is set out below. What it does do is follow one rule exactly, the cell rule of five hundred kept at Optina monastery, as orthodox.net prints it. Pravoslavie.ru carries the same rule in its “Instructions to Nuns”, from Archbishop Juvenaly’s Monastic Life, which says it “takes about an hour to complete”.
The version passed around forums gives the rule as 300 Jesus Prayers, 100 to the Theotokos and 50 to the Guardian Angel. That adds up to 450. The printed rule has a sixth group, fifty “All Saints, pray to God for me a sinner”, and that group is what makes it five hundred. Every prayer also carries a mark, and the marks are the part a bare count cannot keep:
| Group | Prayer | Prayers | With a prostration | With a bow | Without |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First hundred | “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner” | 100 | 11: the 1st to 10th and the 100th | 20: the 11th to 30th | 69 |
| Second hundred | The Jesus Prayer | 100 | 11 | 20 | 69 |
| Third hundred | The Jesus Prayer | 100 | 11 | 20 | 69 |
| Fourth hundred | “My Most Holy Lady Theotokos, save me a sinner” | 100 | 11 | 20 | 69 |
| First fifty | “O Holy Angel of God, my Guardian, pray to God for me a sinner” | 50 | 6: the 1st to 5th and the 50th | 10: the 6th to 15th | 34 |
| Second fifty | “All Saints, pray to God for me a sinner” | 50 | 6 | 10 | 34 |
| The rule | Six groups | 500 | 56 | 100 | 344 |
Around the groups come eleven more prostrations: three at the beginning with the publican’s prayers and a fourth in the cell to the Theotokos, one with “My Most Holy Lady Theotokos, by thy holy and all-powerful entreaties” after each of the six groups, and one with “It is truly meet”. So a weekday rule is 500 prayers, 67 prostrations and 100 bows, and the counter keeps all three. The board names the prayer and its mark before you say it: Prostration, Bow or No bow.
Where the two printed texts differ
The Pravoslavie.ru translation gives the hundredth Jesus Prayer “a bow from the waist” where orthodox.net gives “a full prostration”, calls the unmarked prayers of each fifty “the remaining thirty-five” (five, ten and thirty-five make fifty only if the last is counted twice), and ends with four more prostrations with the opening prayers. orthodox.net says of the third hundred only “likewise as the first and second”; the counter reads that as including the prayer to the Theotokos after it. It follows orthodox.net throughout, and the beginning and ending are one tap each, so the 500 taps between them are the 500 prayers.
When the rule is said with bows, and when not at all
The rule says when it is said in full, when its prostrations become bows, and when it is not said at all. Most of those days move with Pascha, which is the part a reader cannot do in their head, so the counter computes them and the board says which kind of day it is:
| Day | What the rule says | How the counter knows |
|---|---|---|
| Weekdays | “all of the above-mentioned bows and prostrations are performed” | The default |
| The days of Pentecost, Thomas Monday to the eve of Pentecost | Full prostrations replaced with bows | Computed from Pascha |
| The week of Pentecost, to its leave-taking on the Saturday | Bows, “for the duration of the Feasts” | Computed from Pascha |
| Other feasts, forefeasts and afterfeasts; vigil, polyeleos and Great Doxology days | Bows | A setting for today: no counter can read the Menaion of your parish |
| Sundays | Not said, “even if the all-night Vigil has not been performed” | The date |
| Holy Friday and Holy Saturday | Not said (“the last two days of Passion Week”) | Computed from Pascha |
| Bright Week | Not said | Computed from Pascha |
| 24 December to 7 January | Not said | On your church calendar: 24 December to 7 January on the New Calendar, 6 to 20 January by the civil date on the Old |
Pascha is computed by the Julian reckoning that nearly every Orthodox church uses (the Church of Finland is the best-known exception), whichever calendar it keeps for fixed feasts, so the setting changes only the Christmas row. The next four years:
| Year | Pascha | Not said until (Bright Saturday) | Pentecost | Bows until (its leave-taking) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 2 May | 8 May | 20 June | 26 June |
| 2028 | 16 April | 22 April | 4 June | 10 June |
| 2029 | 8 April | 14 April | 27 May | 2 June |
| 2030 | 28 April | 4 May | 16 June | 22 June |
The rule gives its reason as the canons, beginning with canon 20 of the First Ecumenical Council, Nicaea in 325: since some “kneel on the Lord’s Day and in the days of Pentecost”, “prayer be made to God standing”. A rule begun before midnight is read for the day it was begun on. On a day the rule is not said the counter still counts if you pray, and marks a bow wherever the rule has a prostration; whether to pray it is the question the rule itself leaves to the elder or spiritual father.
Jesus Prayers in place of a service: two tables in one book
“As is now generally known”, wrote Fr John Shaw on orthodox.net, “a given number of repetitions of the Jesus Prayer can be substituted for any of these services”. How many depends on which page you read. The Great Horologion (the 1964 Jordanville edition, an offset reprint of a 19th-century Kiev Caves printing) has two tables under the same heading, on pages 465 and 468, and they do not agree. The Old Rite home rule gives a third:
| In place of | Horologion, p. 465: prayers and bows | Horologion, p. 468: prayers only | Old Rite: a bow with each |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vespers | 100 and 25 bows | 600 | 300 |
| Small Compline | 50 and 12 bows (“Compline”) | 400 | 200 |
| Great Compline | 50 and 12 bows (“Compline”) | 700 | 300 |
| Midnight Office | 100 and 25 bows | 600 | 300 |
| Matins | 300 and 50 bows | 1,500 | 700 |
| First Hour | 50 and 7 bows | — | 150 |
| Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours | 50 and 7 bows each | — | 500; with the Inter-Hours, 750 |
| The Hours | — | 1,000; with the Inter-Hours, 1,500 | — |
| Typika | 100 and 10 bows | — | — |
| Akathist canon to the Theotokos | 70 and 12 bows | 300 (printed as “bows”) | — |
| Paraclesis canon | 30 and 5 bows | — | — |
| One kathisma; one stasis | — | 300; 100 | — |
| The whole Psalter | — | 6,000 | — |
So Vespers is 100 prayers with 25 bows, or 600 prayers, in the same book three pages apart. Fr John merged the two tables into one and thought the second table’s “300 bows” for the Akathist canon “may have been a typographical error” for prayers. Wikipedia and parish pages reproduce the second table, some with the Akathist at 500, and rarely mention the first. The Old Rite figures are from Vladimir Basenkov’s “Edinovertsi’s Treasure” (Pravoslavie.ru, 2019), which gives the prayers-only column as the second table does and a column with bows at about half; the counter reads its “Vespers: 300 bows” as 300 prayers with a bow each.
Choose the service and the table under Rope and rule. The counter counts across ropes, so 600 on a 33-knot rope is 18 ropes and 6 knots without your keeping track, and starts the next one at the cross. For the first table, count the bows on the Bow key or with B: the table gives their number but not where they fall. A table with no line for a service gives no target, rather than a number borrowed from another table.
33, 50, 100 or 300 knots: which rope for which count
“How many knots on a prayer rope” has no single answer. Wikipedia gives 33 as the usual rope today, for the years of Christ’s life, and 100 as the historical one, with ropes of 150, 60, 50, 64 and 41 also in use and 300 or 500 for hermits. Beads sit “usually every 10 or 25 knots”, as markers to count by. Which rope suits which count:
| Knots | Usual beads | Counts well | A hundred prayers is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | None, or one by the cross | A wrist rope; short prayer through the day | 3 ropes and 1 knot |
| 50 | Every 10 or 25 | Each fifty of the Optina rule | 2 ropes |
| 100 | Every 10 or 25 | Each hundred of the Optina rule; one stasis of the Psalter | 1 rope |
| 150 | Every 10 or 50 | Prayers to the Theotokos (Wikipedia notes a 150-step lestovka for them) | Two thirds of a rope |
| 300 | Every 25 or 50 | The three hundreds of Jesus Prayers together; Vespers with bows in the Old Rite | A third of a rope |
The 33-knot row is where counting by hand goes wrong: three times round is 99, not 100, so any rule set in hundreds needs a running total that the rope does not keep. The counter keeps the knot, the rope and the total separately, and calls each bead as you pass it.
The Old Believers’ lestovka counts in “steps” rather than knots: Wikipedia describes a hundred small steps in groups of 12, 38, 33 and 17, between three larger counters at each end used for the prayers said with bows; set the counter to 100 knots and no beads to follow it (Wikipedia, Lestovka). The rope itself is traditionally credited to St Pachomius in the fourth century, as a way for monks who could not read to count prayers and prostrations; before it, Wikipedia says, they cast pebbles into a bowl. It is held in the left hand, leaving the right free for the sign of the cross.
A rule is given, not chosen: what the counter cannot do
A prayer rule is given, not chosen, and this counter does not give one. The Optina rule ends: “Any change in the composition of this cell rule, as well as deduction from it or addition to it, is left to the will and blessing of the Elder or Spiritual Father of the individual.” The counter follows the printed text so that the board and the book agree; it cannot know what your confessor has blessed, and nothing on this page is a reason to take on a rule without asking.
St Ignatius Brianchaninov put the danger plainly in his Offering to Contemporary Monasticism: “Abandoning a prayer rule is usually the result of a prayer rule accepted or assigned that is beyond one’s strength”, and “some may tire after thirty prostrations more than others would after three hundred.” Prostrations are physical work; a count that climbs is not a measure of anything but the count.
- It does not decide feast days. Sundays, Holy Week, Bright Week, the Pentecost season and the Christmas days are computed; any other feast, vigil or polyeleos day is your setting, for today only.
- It does not reconcile the tables. Where the two Horologion tables disagree, it shows both and uses the one you pick.
- It does not listen. It records which key was pressed, in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere, and Reset clears it.
Online counter vs a clicker, an app, paper and a spreadsheet
Every counting method trades something away. This is what each one actually costs you.
| Feature | This online counter | Handheld clicker | Counter phone app | Pen and paper | Spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | $5–$15 | Free with ads, or paid | Cost of paper | Subscription |
| Anything to install | No | Buy the device | App store download | No | Yes, or a web login |
| Several counts at once | Unlimited | One per device | Usually limited | Yes, messy | Yes |
| Fix a miscount | Undo and redo | Start over | Sometimes | Cross it out | Edit the cell |
| Counts by more than one | Any step size | One at a time | Sometimes | Manual maths | Yes |
| Below zero | Yes | No | Rarely | Yes | Yes |
| Keeps the count if you close it | Saves automatically | Until you reset the dial | Yes | If you keep the paper | Yes |
| Works with no signal | Yes, after first load | Yes | Yes | Yes | Often not |
| Keyboard and shortcuts | Full | None | None | None | Partial |
| Sends your data anywhere | Never | Never | Often, for accounts and ads | Never | Yes, to the cloud |
Other counter types
The same counter, set up and explained for a specific job. Your counters are shared across all of them.
Everyday7
The general-purpose counters: one number, many numbers, or counting on a timer.
Online counter
The all-purpose counter. Any step size, any number of counters, negative values allowed.
Open online counter →Tally counter
Tally marks in groups of five for surveys, stock takes and wildlife counts.
Open tally counter →Click counter
A browser clicker that replaces the handheld thumb counter for door headcounts.
Open click counter →Multi counter
Run as many counters as you like at once, side by side in a grid.
Open multi counter →Auto counter
Counts on its own from every 0.1 seconds to once an hour, and stops at your limit.
Open auto counter →Yes/No counter
Two options, a live percentage, and the sample size and caveats the percentage needs.
Open yes/no counter →Sticker album counter
Stickers you have and spares to swap, missing lists to copy, and the packs still to go from your count.
Open sticker album counter →
Sport & scores44
Scoreboards that know the rules of their game, not just two numbers that go up.
Score counter
A scoreboard for cards, darts and board games. One counter per player, negatives allowed.
Open score counter →Pitch counter
Count pitches, then get the rest days owed and the next eligible date.
Open pitch counter →Golf scorecard
Strokes per hole with the course handicap allocated by stroke index, net and Stableford.
Open golf scorecard →Badminton score counter
Rally scoring with the service court and doubles positions, for 3x21 and the 2027 3x15 system.
Open badminton score counter →Pickleball score counter
The 0-0-2 call with the right server and side, in side-out or 2026 rally scoring.
Open pickleball score counter →Squash score counter
Point-a-rally to 11 with the server, the service box, hand out and lets.
Open squash score counter →Penalty shootout counter
Five kicks each that stop the moment a team cannot catch up, then sudden death.
Open penalty shootout counter →Basketball score counter
Points by period with team fouls and the bonus as FIBA, NBA, NCAA or high school count them.
Open basketball score counter →Baseball score counter
Balls, strikes, outs and the line score, with foul bunts, dropped third strikes and walk-offs.
Open baseball score counter →Cricket score counter
Runs, wickets and overs by legal balls, with wides, no-balls, free hits and the chase.
Open cricket score counter →American football score counter
Touchdowns and the try at each level, with NFL, college and high school overtime rules.
Open american football score counter →Boxing score counter
Three judges' 10-point must cards and the verdict they give, split and majority draws included.
Open boxing score counter →Hockey score counter
Ice hockey goals and shots by period, with each league's overtime, shootout and standings points.
Open hockey score counter →Pool score counter
Straight pool with the breaking foul and three-foul penalties, and 8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball races.
Open pool score counter →Rugby score counter
Union, sevens and league points, conversions tied to tries, golden point and bonus points.
Open rugby score counter →Soccer score counter
Goals by minute, five subs in three windows, second yellows, extra time and aggregate.
Open soccer score counter →Table tennis score counter
Games to 11 with the server named, doubles order, the swap at 5 and the expedite system.
Open table tennis score counter →Tennis score counter
Love to game with the server's court, every change of ends, tie-breaks and doubles order.
Open tennis score counter →Padel score counter
The 2026 Star Point, golden point or advantage, who serves and receives, and every change of sides.
Open padel score counter →Volleyball score counter
Rally scoring with the six-position rotation, the next server, time-outs, subs and beach mode.
Open volleyball score counter →Americano padel score counter
Rotating partners for 4 to 16 players, matches to a points total, and every player's running total.
Open americano padel score counter →Field hockey score counter
Goals by minute, a clock that stops, card timers in playing time, the 2026 card rules and shoot-outs.
Open field hockey score counter →Free throw counter
Make or miss, the percentage with its likely range, runs of makes, sets and make-50 goals.
Open free throw counter →Futsal score counter
Accumulated fouls per half with the 10 m kick, timeouts, a stopped clock and the red card timer.
Open futsal score counter →Handball score counter
2-minute suspensions a goal does not end, the third a red card, three warnings and team time-outs.
Open handball score counter →Judo score counter
The 2026 IJF rules: yuko back, a hold timer that scores itself, shido that never decide, golden score.
Open judo score counter →Kabaddi score counter
Players on court kept for you: revival in order, all outs, the bonus line, super tackle, do-or-die.
Open kabaddi score counter →Karate score counter
WKF kumite 2026: senshu kept for you and lost in the last 15 s, the 8-point lead, chui to hansoku.
Open karate score counter →Lacrosse score counter
Penalty timers that know which one a goal releases, by code: high school, NCAA, PLL, box and sixes.
Open lacrosse score counter →Netball score counter
Whose centre pass is next, kept through every break, plus the Super Shot and extra time.
Open netball score counter →Roundnet score counter
Who serves to whom under the 2026 IRF equal serving or the classic rules, with every rotation.
Open roundnet score counter →Cornhole score counter
Cancellation scoring bag by bag, who pitches first next round, ACO Skins and house-rule busts.
Open cornhole score counter →Water polo score counter
Exclusions a goal or the ball won ends early, personal fouls by cap, the possession clock, shootout.
Open water polo score counter →Wrestling score counter
Folkstyle, freestyle or Greco: 3-point takedowns, riding time, the technical fall, overtime, criteria.
Open wrestling score counter →Curling score counter
Points by end, the hammer next end, the mixed doubles decision, and the club scoreboard drawn for you.
Open curling score counter →Fencing score counter
Hits on a bout clock in fencing time, the priority minute, cards by group and the 2026-27 P-cards.
Open fencing score counter →Gaelic football score counter
Goals, two-pointers and points by the 2026 rules, a 45 valued by code, extra time, and the scorers line.
Open gaelic football score counter →Spades score counter
Bids and tricks per player, bags to the bag-out, nil and blind nil, and the disputed house rules as settings.
Open spades score counter →Taekwondo score counter
WT kyorugi 2026: 6 for a turning head kick, best of three rounds, the 15-point gap and the round tiebreak.
Open taekwondo score counter →Cribbage board counter
A peg board for 2, 3 or 4: the play, then each hand in counting order to 121 or 61, with skunks and muggins.
Open cribbage board counter →Euchre score counter
Who called, alone or not, and the tricks: loners, euchres and the disputed house rules, plus a progressive tally.
Open euchre score counter →500 score counter
The bid and the tricks, scored by the Avondale table: misère, slams and how a game is won as settings.
Open 500 score counter →Gin rummy score counter
Who went down and both deadwood counts: undercuts, gin, boxes and shutouts, plus Hollywood and Oklahoma.
Open gin rummy score counter →Hearts score counter
Hearts and the queen per hand, refused until it adds to 26: five moon rules, the jack of diamonds, Black Maria.
Open hearts score counter →
Fitness & health7
Reps, laps, breaths and daily habits, where the count is part of the activity.
Lap counter
Count pool lengths, track laps and treadmill intervals without losing your place.
Open lap counter →Rep counter
Track reps and sets during a lifting session, with a step size for supersets.
Open rep counter →Click speed test
Measure your clicks per second over 1 to 60 seconds, with your personal best kept on-device.
Open click speed test →Habit counter
Count toward a daily target and keep the streak, with a day boundary you choose.
Open habit counter →Breath counter
Count breaths one to ten for meditation, with lost count recorded, or time breaths per minute.
Open breath counter →Craving tracker
Time each urge, rate it 1 to 10, and log whether you rode it out or acted on it.
Open craving tracker →Water intake counter
Drinks logged in ml or oz by the cup you used, against a goal or a fluid limit, paced over your day.
Open water intake counter →
Work & field5
Counting that produces a record someone else relies on: stock, occupancy, lab work.
Differential counter
Six keys for a manual white cell differential, with an auto-stop and live percentages.
Open differential counter →People counter
In and out at a door, with live occupancy against a capacity and a fix for drift.
Open people counter →Bird counter
A row per species recording the high count, so a circling flock is not counted twice.
Open bird counter →Inventory counter
A count sheet holding the book quantity beside the counted one, with the variance per line.
Open inventory counter →Knitting counter
Rows, pattern repeats and a shaping schedule that names the increase rows and then ends.
Open knitting counter →
Faith8
Counts with their own rules about when a day turns over and what completes a set.
Tasbeeh counter
A digital dhikr counter that stops at 33, 99 or 100 and keeps each dhikr separate.
Open tasbeeh counter →Omer counter
The 49 days of Sefirat HaOmer, in days and weeks, with the blessing state tracked.
Open omer counter →Mala counter
108 beads to a round, credited as 100 or 108, with dorje and bell counter strings and a bell.
Open mala counter →Rosary counter
Prayer by prayer through the decades, with the day's mysteries by the 2002 or the older schedule.
Open rosary counter →Divine Mercy chaplet counter
The chaplet in Diary 476's order, a tap a prayer, with the novena from Good Friday kept day by day.
Open divine mercy chaplet counter →St Michael chaplet counter
The nine salutations in the Raccolta's order, a tap a prayer, with the Michaelmas novena kept.
Open st michael chaplet counter →Seven Sorrows rosary counter
Seven sorrows of seven Hail Marys, a tap a prayer, the three for Mary's tears where your card puts them.
Open seven sorrows rosary counter →Franciscan Crown counter
Seven joys of ten Hail Marys and two to make 72, a tap a prayer, with the Pope's prayers and Lent's sorrows.
Open franciscan crown counter →
Frequently asked questions
How do you use a prayer rope?
Hold it in the left hand, leaving the right free for the sign of the cross, and say one prayer on each knot, usually the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Move to the next knot after each prayer. The beads are markers to count by, and a rule may add a prostration or a bow to some prayers.
How many knots are on a prayer rope?
Most ropes today have 33, for the years of Christ’s life, and the older standard is 100. Ropes of 50, 150 and 300 knots are common too, with 500 for some hermits. Beads usually sit every 10 or 25 knots. Any count works; what matters is the rule it is kept for, so set the counter to the rope in your hand.
What are the beads on a prayer rope for?
Counting. A bead every 10 or 25 knots lets you keep your place by touch without counting every knot, much as the fives do on tally marks. Coloured beads, and part of the tassel, are traditionally red. The counter calls each bead as you reach it and keeps the running total that the rope cannot.
What is the Optina rule of five hundred?
A cell rule kept at Optina monastery: 300 Jesus Prayers, 100 “My Most Holy Lady Theotokos, save me a sinner”, 50 to the Guardian Angel and 50 “All Saints, pray to God for me a sinner”. In each group the first prayers take prostrations, the next bows, and the last a prostration. Versions that leave out All Saints add up to only 450.
How many Jesus Prayers replace Vespers?
It depends on the table. The Great Horologion gives two: 100 prayers with 25 bows on one page, 600 prayers on another. The Old Rite home rule gives 300, each with a bow. Compline is 50 with 12 bows, or Small Compline 400, or 200; Matins 300 with 50 bows, 1,500, or 700. Ask which your confessor means.
Why don’t we make prostrations after Pascha?
Canon 20 of the First Council of Nicaea, in 325, asked that on the Lord’s Day and in the days of Pentecost “prayer be made to God standing”. So from Pascha to Pentecost, and on Sundays, prostrations are left out or replaced with bows. The Optina rule is not said at all on Sundays or in Bright Week, and is said with bows until Pentecost.
What is a chotki?
Chotki is the Russian name for the Orthodox prayer rope, a loop of knotted wool, usually with a knotted cross, used to count the Jesus Prayer. The Greek name is komboskini. Each knot is woven with small crosses, and tradition credits the design to St Pachomius in the fourth century, for monks who could not read.
Can I use a prayer rope if I’m Catholic, not Orthodox?
Yes. The Jesus Prayer and the prayer rope are used by Eastern Catholics, and many Latin Catholics pray it too; the rope is a counting aid, not a sacrament. What the Orthodox tradition stresses is the other half: a rule taken on with the blessing of a spiritual father, not chosen alone.
What if I lose count or my mind wanders?
Start again from the last bead you are sure of, without worry: the count serves the prayer, not the other way round. On this counter, Undo steps back one tap at a time, and the place is kept if the phone locks or you are interrupted, so a lost count is rarely more than a knot or two.
Counting guides
Longer answers to the questions behind the counting.
- Swimming
How to count laps while swimming
Why swimmers lose count at length 14, and five methods that actually hold up.
- Tallying
Tally marks explained
Groups of five, the five-bar gate, and why the convention has survived for centuries.
- Events
How to do an accurate headcount
Counting people is easy. Counting them accurately, twice, is not.
- Habits
Track a daily habit streak
Why streak apps fail, and what a plain daily counter does better.
- Click speed
How to click faster
Hardware and grip account for most of the gap. Practice accounts for less than people think.
- Inventory
How to do a stock take
Counting is the easy part. Preparing, and knowing your count is right, is the job.
- Reference
Types of counters explained
Synchronous vs asynchronous, mod-N, ring and Johnson, industrial and PLC counters, plus mechanical and software counters.
- Build it
How to make a counter
Twenty lines gets you counting. Here is what to add after that, and why.
- Baseball
How to keep an official pitch count
Little League requires an official recorder at every game. Almost nobody explains the job.
- Dhikr
One tasbeeh is equal to how many?
The same phrase means a count of a hundred, a bead loop, a single dhikr, or the set after salah. Which one is meant, and when.
- Haematology
How to do a manual differential count
Why the pattern matters, how many cells is enough, and the imprecision built into the method itself.
- Birding
How to count a flock of birds
Blocks, tens, and why the number to report is the most seen at one time.
- Knitting
How to read knitting shaping instructions
Every 4th row, alt rows, at each end, AT THE SAME TIME — translated, with the rows they land on.
- Golf
Stableford points and net scores
Stroke index, strokes received, net score, points — in the order you actually need them.
- Surveys
How many people do you need to survey?
Why 385 answers a city and 45 answers a club, and the margin each sample size buys.
- Rules
How to read fencing pool results
V and V3, the indicator, why the ranking is V/M and not wins, ties at the cut and the seeded table.
- Rules
How to fill in a FIBA basketball scoresheet
The running score, team fouls, time-outs and the new 2026 foul marks, DI, FL and the circled T.
- Rules
Futsal rule changes 2025-26
Penalty-kick fouls stop counting, the dropped ball follows possession, and the 8-second rule is not futsal's.
- Rules
Futsal timekeeper and third referee
The stopped clock, the fifth-foul sign, the time-out slip, the two-minute entry slip and the eight signals from the table.
- Scorekeeping
How to write a GAA match report
The result line, the scorers line with 2pt, f and 45, what the brackets mean, team lists and subs, and how to check the sums.
- Rules
Handball timekeeper and scorekeeper
The clock, the suspension cards, the green card, the whistle that stops play, and the three attacks after an injury.
- Rules
Hockey rule changes from 1 November 2026
No second green or yellow, coaches' cards that cost a player, and what is not new since March.
- Rules
Netball scorer and timekeeper
The quarter and interval timetable, goals and missed shots, the centre pass column, holding time and the suspension clock.
- Training
Reps and sets explained
What 10 reps and 3x10 mean, where 3 sets of 10 came from, and what the 2026 ACSM review changed.
- Rules
Roundnet rule changes 2025-26
Equal serving, the bigger ball, a boundary at last and three touches on the serve, edition by edition.
- Rules
How to fill out a volleyball score sheet
The X in box 1, checkmarks and exit scores, time-outs, subs, the libero triangle, penalty points and the T-bar.
- Rules
Water polo table officials
Who runs which clock, the 18-second exclusions, the four flags, the third personal foul and the 45-second whistle.
- Rules
How to keep score in wrestling
T3 not T2, near falls by the second, riding time, the circled first points and how a result is written.