JENNINGS — Estelle Monic of Evangeline has collected rosaries for half a decade.

The collection has grown to include 70 rosaries and other historical artifacts of the Catholic faith from all over the world, including a 1900 leather-bound Latin altar Missal given to her by the late Father Frederick Webert after St. Jules Catholic Church in T-Mamou was destroyed by fire in 1974.

“I always had a devotion to the rosary,” Monic said. “I’ve had a lot of prayers get answered by saying the rosary. I felt I have been blessed.”

A few years ago, her brother and other family members began giving her rosaries.

“If they go somewhere they always bring me back a rosary,” she said.

Her niece gave her one from Notre Dame.

Others have come from France, Rome, Italy, Russia, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Japan and Mexico.

“One year my brother brought me 30 rosaries and gave them to me for Christmas,” she said.

The collection has changed over the years from antique rosaries to more historical rosaries, reliquaries and other relics of the Catholic faith, Monic said.

More than half of the collection is 100 years old or older, she said. The oldest in the collection is an antique 1700s Spanish Galleon silver rosary from the Philippines.

“They believed strongly in the rosary because they were being attacked by the Muslims and were afraid they were going to be killed,” she said.

Monic and her family have researched and documented the history and origin of each of the rosaries and labeled them so that she and others will know where they came from.

“Each one is different, and each one is special with a different story,” she said. “I have found rosaries I didn’t even know existed.”

There are rosaries from different countries and rosaries made of different types of beads, dried cherries, crushed rose petals, bones, Baltic amber and other materials.

There are historical ones blessed by different priests and monks. One is a child’s first communion rosary from France and another a World War I soldier’s rosary made to withstand the rigors of the battlefield.

“The majority of them come from or belong to a religious order,” she said.

The most precious in her collection include a Jubilee rosary blessed and handed out by Pope John Paul II and an 1800s Franciscan crown seven-decade belt rosary with rare King Saint Louis medal given to her by Sister Rita Michael of St. Elizabeth’s Motherhouse in Allegany, N.Y.

Parts of Monic’s collection are on display by the Diocese of Lafayette. She also shows off the collection to area churches and schools.

“My mission is to share these rare and special artifacts of our Catholic faith with lay members and religious,” Monic once wrote. “I want the faithful to have the opportunity to learn more about our various religious orders, saints and their histories.”

Monic hopes to one day donate the collection to different churches.

Cassidy and Katelyn Roy