In a collection of rosaries that numbers 860, the prayer beads that started it all look like supporting players amid the headliners. There are the shimmering (with garnet beads from Bavaria), the miniature (just three inches long), and the relics (filled with soil from Italy's catacombs).
The plain ebony strand that travelled with her grandfather from Ireland and the silver beads that spent decades in a mother's handbag have history on their side.
"I bought it for my mother when I was 19," said Gloria Hoffner, 82, about the silver rosary. With the black one belonging to her grandfather, it forms the root of a collection that is still growing.
Her rosaries are part of a seemingly endless permutation of beads, medals, and crucifixes that are instruments of prayer and devotion for Catholics and other Christians. The crosses open like lockets, contain holy water from the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, and are carved with holes that, peeped through, show images from the life of Mary.
Hoffner's first memory of buying a rosary is from a missionary visiting her school. Hoffner's upbringing was strict and steeped in the Roman Catholic Church.
"People got rosaries for birthdays and anniversaries. People carried them," Hoffner said. "I think of my grandfather and my father and those days when someone died and the priest came and everyone knelt down to pray the rosary."
Hoffner scours flea markets, antiques stores, estate sales, and the Internet. When she travels, her trip inevitably involves shopping for rosaries. Then the research starts. Hoffner wants to know everything she can about the materials, the manufacturing, and the history. Her notes, clippings, and computer printouts stuffed three big folders until her daughter Helen, a professor of education at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, had an idea to write a book.
"I always wanted to get her a coffee-table book on rosaries, but I couldn't find one," Helen Hoffner said. "There were all kinds of books on praying the rosary, but none on the history."
So in January 2009, mother and daughter went to work. Helen Hoffner, the author of several education textbooks, was on sabbatical to write yet another. She devoted some of that time to compiling The Rosary Collector's Guide, a 181-page book featuring the Hoffner collection and a history of the rosary.
Gloria Hoffner keeps her collection in flat compartmentalized boxes stored in a safe at a friend's house.
"I think she feels a real sense of accomplishment at how much she's collected and the expertise she has built," said Hoffner's daughter Nancy Catania. "It's her own little niche. It's not something a lot of people spend time putting together."
Gloria Hoffner sometimes gives rosary demonstrations. She travels to clubs and senior citizen centres to show off her collection. "Sometimes people ask if we're going to pray the rosary," she said. But she makes it clear that she's not there to conduct a service. "I'm not an expert on religion. I just like collecting."
But the rosary means a lot to Gloria Hoffner. She prays it in times of trouble, and when things go right, using the silver strand with blue enamel beads that belonged to her mother.
Learn more about Gloria Hoffner's rosary beads at philly.com/gloriahoffner
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