Marian: Rosary & Prayer

Marian is a quiet Rosary app for iPhone and iPad from an independent Catholic developer. It does three devotions and does them well: the Holy Rosary with all four sets of mysteries, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Holy Wounds Chaplet.

You pray along on a visual rosary. Each bead lights up as you go, the prayer text sits right inside the beads, and a gentle tap of haptic feedback marks your place, so you can pray with your eyes half closed and still know where you are. If you get interrupted, it picks up where you left off.

It picks the mysteries for you, too, and it's smarter about it than most. Marian follows the traditional days but adjusts for liturgical seasons and major feasts. If you'd rather pray a different set, swipe to change it. Each decade shows its spiritual fruit, which is a nice prompt for meditation if your mind tends to wander.

The day's Mass readings open in a clean in-app reader, pulled from Universalis, with adjustable text size. They need a connection to download but stay available once cached. The devotions themselves work fully offline.

It's refreshingly clean. No ads, no account, and the developer reports collecting no data at all. Everything above is free. The optional Marian Patron upgrade ($4.99 a month, $14.99 a year or $29.99 once) adds Prayer Lock, which keeps distracting apps locked until you've met a daily prayer goal like a full Rosary, a single decade or the day's readings, plus statistics and widget extras.

It's a good fit for anyone who wants a calm, focused Rosary with no clutter, and especially for anyone drawn to the Holy Wounds Chaplet, which few apps include. There's no audio, so if you like to pray along by ear, look at iRosary instead.

Marian: Rosary & Prayer is free on the App Store, by Daniel Szojka.