This Massachusetts Shrine Is Home to the World’s Largest Rosary

A Catholic shrine is not where you would expect to see world records set, but not all shrines are like Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Holliston, Massachusetts.

Many of us are probably most familiar with Our Lady of La Salette Shrine in Attleboro, perhaps because of our religious teachings or the fabulous annual Christmas Festival of Lights, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2023.

Our Lady of Fatima Shrine is a ministry of the Xaverian Missionaries USA on Summer Street in Holliston. The shrine is one of seven included by Catholicplaces.org on its list of 10 shrines and holy places in Massachusetts.

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Our Lady of Fatima Shrine is home to a record-setting heart-shaped rosary. The rosary, generally a string of beads representing prayers and used to count while reciting the prayers, is 950 feet long. It is so big that you can walk through it.

Boston's WBZ-TV reported that, "According to the World Record Academy, it's the largest sculpture of rosary beads on Earth."

"The rosary was built with large rocks taken from the construction of Interstate 495," reported WBZ.

"The whole project took about a year to complete," according to the Word Records Academy.

Father Carl Chudy, the shrine's co-director, told the station, "Usually when we hold a rosary, we go through it with our hands. This is a chance for people to be on a kind of pilgrimage."

The rosary consists of 60 large boulders connected by chains.

Our Lady of Fatima Shrine is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.