Franciscan Crown

The Franciscan Crown (or Seraphic Rosary) is a rosary consisting of seven decades in commemoration of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, namely, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity of Jesus, the Adoration of the Magi, the Finding in the Temple, the Resurrection of Jesus, and finally, either or both the Assumption of Mary and the Coronation of the Virgin. Devotion to the seven joys of Mary is found in a variety of forms and communities. It is especially popular with the Franciscans, Cistercians, and the Annunciades of St. Joan of France. The devotion was granted many indulgences by different Popes, becoming the most heavily indulgenced devotion in the Church. Whereas other rosaries required blessed beads to be used in order for any associated indulgences to be received it was unnecessary for a Franciscan rosary to have been blessed or even to use beads at all in specific instances.