silicates
Rhodonite
CaMn3Mn(Si5O15)
- Also known as
- orletzmanganese spar
- Crystal system
- triclinic
- Hardness
- 5.5–6.5 on the Mohs scale
- Lustre
- vitreous
- Colour
- Pink to rose red with black veining
- Where it forms
- In manganese-rich metamorphic rocks and in the oxidised parts of manganese ore deposits.
- Chiefly from
- Ural Mountains, RussiaNew South Wales, AustraliaMassachusetts, United States
Why it is that colour
Manganese for the pink; the black veins are manganese oxides formed as the stone weathered.
Safety
Safe to handle. Harder and much more stable than rhodochrosite, which it is regularly confused with.
Where it comes from
Russian Ural material is historically the finest. Australian and American sources supply the current market. Not a stone with acute sourcing concerns.
Historical use
A favourite of the Russian imperial lapidary works. The sarcophagus of Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna in the Peter and Paul Cathedral was carved from a single seven-tonne block of Ural rhodonite, and took seventeen years to complete.
Recorded as history and attributed where possible. That a stone was used for something establishes that people used it, not that it worked.
What is attributed to it, and since when
Used decoratively in Russia from the eighteenth century, where it was called orletz, but without a documented symbolic tradition. Modern associations with compassion and forgiveness are New Age.
Described, not endorsed. Dating a claim is not the same as assessing it — but an association that first appears in a book published in 1985 is not an ancient inheritance, whatever the label says. A sincere account of feeling better is compatible with the stone doing nothing — see the placebo effect.
Sold as this, but not
Worth knowing
Rhodonite and rhodochrosite are constantly confused, including by sellers, and the difference is easy to test. Rhodonite is a silicate, hardness around 6, and will not react to vinegar. Rhodochrosite is a carbonate, hardness around 4, and will fizz. One is pink and durable; the other is pink and dissolves.
Both names come from the Greek for rose, which does not help.
Identity checked against IMA-CNMNC master list, June 2025.