CV NEWS FEED // Actor and comedian Russell Brand this week shared a video on his social media of him praying the rosary, after inviting his podcast listeners to pray it with him.
Brand is not Catholic, but has expressed interest in Catholic traditions and in being baptized.
Brand is also a highly controversial public figure who faces numerous sexual abuse allegations, including allegations involving a minor, which are currently under police investigation. He has denied all allegations.
On April 18, Brand posted a video clip from his podcast to his X account in which he shows the viewers a wooden rosary he is holding.
The post is captioned, “I pray the Rosary, have you tried it before?” He has over 11 million followers on X.
In the X video excerpt, Brand says, “For our meditation today, we’re going to do something a little bit different, we’re going to chant the rosary. Now, I don’t know all of the prayers, it begins and ends with certain prayers, but today we’ll be looking at the chant itself.”
Brand explains that the rosary he is holding was given to him by a friend named Joe. The crucifix on the rosary is slightly bent in the video, and Brand says that Joe told him, “even though the crucifix is broken, Christ remains intact.”
“So you’ll note that there are five sets of ten beads, with little interruptions. Now I know that you chant ‘Hail Mary’ on each of these,” he says, showing the ten bead sets, “and you chant [the] Lord’s prayer and ‘Glory be’ on the [in between] pieces.”
Looking at the camera Brand says, “You can join in with me if you choose to, or you can just listen, plus you can add the additional beginning and closing prayers which I don’t know so well.”
“Let me know what you think of this prayer,” Brand said. The video cuts to Brand praying the Our Father prayer, several Hail Mary prayers, the Glory be prayer, and the optional Our Lady of Fatima prayer out loud, with the wooden rosary in hand.
After these prayers, the video cuts to Brand saying, “These are the prayers we do as part of our community. If you’d like to become a member of our community, click the link in the description.”
In the same X thread, Brand posted, “Did these prayers with my community last week,” and included a link to his podcast episode titled, “Hey, here’s a meditation on praying the Rosary.”
Catholic convert and founder of non-profit institution “Eternal Christendom” Joshua Charles wrote on his X account about Brand’s video on the rosary:
Time will tell where this goes.
But I can say the Rosary has changed my life; and I’ve seen many, many conversions when it is prayed for people.
No one wants souls to come to Jesus more than His Mother.
