December 22, 2001
By GARRET CONDON, Courant Staff Writer

Many Roman Catholics say the rosary for their spiritual well-being. Now a group of European researchers has found that repeating the centuries-old "Ave Maria" is also good for one's body.

A study in today's British Medical Journal suggests that reciting the Latin "Hail Mary" prayer - or an Eastern mantra - slows breathing and improves heart health.

Dr. Luciano Bernardi, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Pavia in Italy and lead author of the study, has found that slow, rhythmic breathing - about six breaths per minute seems optimal - synchronizes internal heart-lung rhythms. It is linked to improved blood oxygen levels and cardiovascular responsiveness. Better mobilization of heart muscles can also result, Bernardi said, and this might help people with heart failure. He said that heart patients in a previous study who learned slow-breathing techniques were able to exercise more.

The researchers, working with a group of 23 adults and monitoring various cardiovascular functions, discovered that it takes about 10 seconds to recite either the Ave Maria or a mantra, which is a repeated phrase used in Eastern meditation. Thus, both recitations slow the breath to the healthful six-per-minute rate. The researchers compared prayer and mantra to periods of free talking, spontaneous breathing and controlled, slowed-down breathing.

In the study, half of the Ave Maria prayer was spoken by one participant and finished by another - in the style of a rosary, in which the priest says part of the prayer and the congregation completes it. The yoga mantra was one used by several Eastern traditions: "om mani padme om."

The practice of repetition in prayer and meditation - and the use of beads to count repetitions - is widespread in religious traditions. The authors of today's study note that the history of the Christian rosary can be traced to the Crusaders, who adopted the practice of using beads from the Arabs, who may have borrowed it from India.

The small Italian study adds to a body of research on the health benefits of meditation and prayer. A key figure in this field is Dr. Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Benson uses the term "relaxation response" to describe the physiological state induced by meditation and other practices in which breath rate, metabolism, blood pressure and heart rate all decrease. The state is marked by distinctive, slower brain waves. Typically, these changes are induced by the repetition of a word, sound, phrase or muscle motion.

Most recently, Benson has written about what he calls the "faith factor." The relaxation response, he said, can be deepened when the meditative phrase used has some personal, religious significance.

Catholics who say the rosary regularly aren't surprised by the finding that devotional prayer can induce a state of rhythmic calm. Mary Murphy, 92, of Hartford, leads a rosary group most mornings at St. Augustine Church in Hartford and often says the rosary on her own during the day.

"The rosary is very relaxing," she said. "To me, the rosary is my life."

The Rev. Joseph O'Neil, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Hartford's Parkville section, called the rosary "a Catholic form of Transcendental Meditation," although he said it does not have the following among Catholics that it did 40 years ago.

The European researchers used an abridged form of the rosary in Latin - Ave Maria prayers only - for their study. In the rosary as it is traditionally said, beads are used to count off between 50 and 150 recitations of the "Hail Mary" and other prayers, while those praying meditate on episodes from the lives of Mary and Jesus.

Bernardi said he could not say whether the rosary would have the same calming effect in English or another language. But Benson said the language of the rosary did not matter, because all such prayers have evolved to fit the rhythm of the breath.

The Rev. Frank Carter, pastor of St. Brigid Church in West Hartford, said that in a high-speed world, most people need some slowing down - especially during the holidays. A rosary, slowly and carefully recited, calms not just the body, he said, but the mind and soul. For believers, the physiology of the rosary is only the beginning.

"If we make the time and open our heart, mind and soul to God, then God comes and we will know that God is with us," he said.

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