Crosses in history.

An image of two lines crossed at right angles has long had symbolic value in pre-Christian and non-Christian cultures, but as a symbol of the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it is safe to say that the cross is the most recognized and unifying symbol in all of human history. Two billion of the world's five billion people now accept the cross as a sign of the historical event upon which hangs the whole meaning of Creation: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. . ." (John 3:16)

Another billion people recognize the cross as a sign of the life of a great prophet, descended from Abraham and born of a virgin six centuries before Mohammed. Among the remaining two billion people in the world, there may be some isolated pockets where the Christian cross is an unfamiliar cipher; elsewhere its identity may be known but regarded with indifference, or even hostility. However, most non-Christians will recognize it as a symbol of belief in a miraculous incarnation and a unique philosophy of goodwill and reconciliation.

For the first three centuries of Christianity, the image of the cross was used primarily in private devotion. The closest thing to a cross found on the walls of early Christian structures such as the catacombs of Rome or Syria is the anchor. Its shape suggests (or disguises) a cross, but also carries its own layers of meaning.

Reluctance by the early Christians to display the cross motif was due in part to their fear of detection during periods of persecution. They also feared that the symbol might be profaned by non-believers--with good reason: what may be the earliest extant representation of a crucifix is a 2nd-century Roman graffito scratched into a stone wall. The crude caricature shows a Christian named Alexamenos worshipping a crucified figure with the head of an ass.

When the cross finally took its place among popular devotional motifs in places of public worship during the 4th century, it was still simple and understated. The crucifix (a cross with a corpus, the representation of the body of Jesus) was seldom publicly displayed until a century later.

This was because, first of all, the Jewish roots of Christianity would have given no precedent for visible images of the Deity, such "graven images" being considered blasphemous. When the faith eventually spread to other cultures, simple iconography was permitted to assist the Word. But there remained some cultural barriers to graphic representation of the Crucifixion.

St. Paul explains it best: ". . . we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles." (I Corinthians 1:23) For the Gentiles, especially the Greeks, for whom physical strength and heroic posture were traditional measures of greatness, it was difficult to see God in the image of a broken and murdered man. To the Jews, a Jesus who had suffered a shameful Roman execution like a common criminal was too far removed from the promised Messiah, whom they expected to free them from all their oppressors. His nakedness and humiliation distracted from the salvific meaning of his sacrifice.

Thus the emphasis in the early Church was on the cross as a symbol of victory over death, both the physical death of Christ and man's spiritual death to sin. It was the emblem of atonement and redemption, designed to evoke thoughts of its consequences more than its temporal realities. Of course, stressing the Resurrection over the Crucifixion was not simply a convenience to make the faith more palatable to new adherents. It was a reflection of the further teaching of St. Paul, that ". . . if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain." (I Cor. 15:13)

Devotion to the image of the cross began in earnest in the mid-4th century when St. Helena, mother of Constantine, declared in 326 that she had found the true cross upon which Christ was crucified. Large sections of it were brought out of Jerusalem, first to Rome and later to Constantinople. For centuries they served as the source of relics of all sizes, coveted by cathedral foundations and private citizens alike, lovingly encased in elaborate reliquaries now considered among the finest treasures of Christian art. Liturgical feast days honouring the cross date from the time of St. Helena, and persisted until the calendar reforms of 1960. They are still celebrated in some Eastern rite Churches.

Medieval devotional emphasis on the humanity and suffering of Jesus caused the cross to give way to the crucifix, with the body of Christ either painted on or sculpted in three dimensions. At first the figures were stylized, but they became increasingly realistic. Portraits of a brutally battered Jesus were particularly evident during the periods of the Black Plague. It was thought that people could draw comfort from the knowledge that the God to whom they prayed for relief had intimate understanding of what it means to feel pain.

A number of variations on the shape and design of the cross reflect both the history of the Church's founding and the embrace of the faith by the world's many cultures. At least fifteen major saints are pictured with the cross as one of their personal symbols or "attributes," usually indicating martyrdom.

The four most common configurations are:

(1) Latin, (2) Greek, (3) the cross of St. Andrew, (4) the Tau (or cross of St. Anthony, abbot). "Tau" is a letter of the Greek alphabet, but as a cross the symbol is Egyptian in origin. It represents a crutch, and is associated with the ancient Egyptian "ankh" as well as with St. Anthony, the desert hermit. Tradition holds that St. Andrew was martyred on a cross configured like an "X."

The Catholic Source Book, by Rev. Peter Klein, illustrates 70 different styles of crosses used in Christian iconography. Some of the more wellknown ones are:

(5) the cross of St. Peter, an upside-down Latin cross said to be the instrument of martyrdom requested by Peter because he thought himself unworthy to be executed the same way that Jesus was; (6) the Celtic cross, with a circle representing eternity; (7) the Maltese cross, with eight points representing the Beatitudes; (8) the Jerusalem or Crusader's cross, made up of four Greek crosses around four joined Taus, representing the five wounds of Christ, and evangelization to the four corners of the world; (9) the Eastern cross, one of the earliest, still used in Russian Orthodox and other eastern Churches; the upper bar represents the "INRI" inscription; (10) the Patriarchal cross, processional cross used by Patriarchs and Archbishops; (the Papal version has a third crossbar).