Mary Vieira Rose wears her heart on her sleeve, and the result can be seen around the world.

For nearly 70 years, the 96-year-old Onset resident has shared her love of God and her passion for providing peace to the world through giving away handcrafted rosary beads.

The beads are shipped out and given away for free all over the world in places such as Guam, Haiti, India, the Cape Verde islands, and France. The rosaries are crafted from nylon thread and made using a variety of colored beads that are then mailed to Catholic Missionaries to deliver.

Rose said she found making rosaries very relaxing and peaceful, and that it quickly became her favorite pastime.

Rose has made her passion a family tradition. She taught her daughter, Marian Rose, and granddaughter, Jennifer Rose, to make rosaries.

“When you learn to do it, it just keeps going and you reach out to more people,” said Marian. “It’s doing good for people, and my mother has always been that way.”

A retired nurses aid, Rose said she has always felt a calling to help people. Rose believes the beads help people cement their relationship with God, and that has motived her to keep up with the hobby. She said the demand for the beads is astounding and the response from those who receive a rosary is touching. Rose receives dozens of letters thanking her for her donated creations.

“Maybe it brings them peace,” Rose said. “I feel like I have done something.”

Rose, a lifelong Catholic, began crafting the beads in 1963 when she was working in the New Bedford Aerovox factory creating transistors for NASA.

After work one evening, Rose was looking through a Catholic magazine and noticed an article about making rosaries with instructions.

In those days, the directions were difficult to understand, Rose explained. But that didn't stop her. Inspired by the article, she was determined to learn. Disregarding the jumbled directions, Rose instead deconstructed her favorite rosary. Through putting it back together, she taught herself how to make one.

Rose began giving the beads out to coworkers, where her design styles really caught on.

"People could not believe she made them as they resembled those found in jewelry stores," said Marian.

But it was Rose's friend, Katherine Fernandes, who inspired her to take her designs to the next level. Fernandes suggested they start a rosary club. The ladies wasted no time and shortly after the Our Lady's Rosary Circle was started with six members in Onset.

It is now 28 years later and the beads have gone global.

Rose, her family, and the Rosary Circle send out anywhere from 50 to 100 rosaries a week. Rose said it takes about ten minutes each to make one.

Residents of Wareham don't have to leave Onset Village to get their own rosaries. Rose gives them out each Sunday to parishioners of St. Mary's Church in Onset.