A Hundred Knots Tied to Keep the Jesus Prayer Honest

The komboskini, also called a chotki in Slavic usage or simply a prayer rope, is a knotted cord, most commonly a loop of one hundred knots though shorter and longer forms exist, used by Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians to count repetitions of the Jesus Prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner, or shorter forms of the same address. Each knot is tied in an intricate woven pattern rather than a simple overhand knot, traditionally called the shepherd's knot, made by a repeated sequence of loops that produces a small cross like form; Orthodox teaching commonly explains the complexity of the knot as a deliberate obstacle against the evil one, who is said to try to untie it as it is made.

Ware's history of the Orthodox Church situates the prayer rope within the wider practice of the Jesus Prayer, describing repetition on the knots as a physical discipline meant to keep attention anchored to the words rather than letting the mind wander, so the rope's function is closer to a counting and concentration tool than to decoration. Prayer ropes are also made in shorter lengths of thirty three or fifty knots for convenience, though the hundred knot loop remains the form most associated with regular daily use.