Early Christians are said to have used knotted cords, berries, sticks and beads as they counted and recited their prayers. Other religions also used bead strings, including the Moslems, Buddhists of Japan, and monks of the Greek Church. During his many travels, Marco Polo was surprised to find that the King of Malabar used a rosary of 104-108 precious stones to count his prayers. Japanese Buddhists also used rosaries extensively, as did the early monks and aesthetics of the early Christian and Greek churches. Often, monks said prayers numbering into the hundreds, making it a necessity to count them to keep track.

By 800 A.D., the recitation of all 150 Psalms became an institution in the Catholic Church among both the monastic orders and the laity. Fifty prayers, or the first 50 Psalms, were said as the morning prayer, followed by the second 50 at noon, and ending with the last 50 as the night prayer. In order to keep track of all 150 prayers, the laity kept 150 pebbles in a pouch and tossed one to the ground after each prayer. This method evolved into a large rope with 150 knots, and eventually into a shorter rope with 50 knots, said three times a day.