A paternoster is a closed string of beads with a small cross or tassel pendant at the bottom, used for meditation and prayer. It’s a period charge, found in the arms of Ruswörmb or Rußworm, 1605 [Siebmacher 144]. If the pendant cross hangs from a short beaded string, it may also be blazoned a “rosary” in Society armory; and this is the modern term for both forms of the charge.
The paternoster’s beads may be uniform in size, or may have larger beads at regular intervals: both forms were found as period artifacts, and it is considered an artistic detail in Society heraldry. See also jewelry.
Christian de Holacombe bears as a badge: A paternoster gules, its cross Or.
Elizabethe Alles bears: Argent, a paternoster purpure tasseled Or and on a chief dovetailed purpure three escallops argent.
Poplyr Childs bears: Or, two arrows in saltire vert within a rosary gules.