A man, especially an elderly or poor man, hired or employed to pray for others, often using prayer beads; a religious mendicant.
From bead (prayer) plus man. Beadsmen were common in medieval and early modern Europe—they were often poor men supported by charitable donations or testamentary provisions to pray for the souls of benefactors.
Beadsmen had a genuine role in medieval spiritual economics: wealthy people would leave money in their wills to support a beadsman who would literally spend years praying for their soul's salvation—it was outsourced afterlife insurance.
Variant of beadman; similarly gendered default for a lay religious functionary role historically performed by both men and women.
Prefer 'beadsperson' or 'prayer functionary'. Use 'beadsman'/'beadswoman' only when gender is historically documented and contextually relevant.
["beadsperson","prayer functionary"]
Female beadswomen managed significant liturgical and administrative duties but were often subsumed under masculine historical terminology.
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