The Cross of the East

Ethiopia: Inside Ethiopia's Wonder Churches

2012-01-12T15:36:00.001-06:00

Ethiopia: Inside Ethiopia's Wonder Churches

Paul Juma - Daily Nation on the Web

12 January 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201201120607.html

Deep in the rugged mountains of Ethiopia, a small village carries enormous historical and religious significance -- and wonder.

Lalibela village, 700 km north of Addis Ababa, has 11 mystical churches that bear the soul of Ethiopia's religious heritage.

On January 7, thousands of Ethiopian Orthodox Church pilgrims made a journey whose significance has outlived generations: the pilgrimage to Lalibela to mark the Ethiopian Christmas.

The same day, they celebrated the birthday of King Lalibela, who is believed to have received instructions from God to carve from rock the 11 churches.

Located in a valley in the mountains of Ethiopia's Amhara state, the small village has a mix of traditional huts and tin-roofed buildings, and it is dry and quiet.

It is surrounded by rocks and a few trees, swaying to a breeze that pours into the valley from the hills to neutralise the heat of the scorching sun.

A dusty road across the village leads to the main entrance of a cluster of six of the historic rock-hewn churches.

The main church in this cluster now has a shelter constructed over it by Unesco to protect it from adverse weather.

It is supported by pillars on the outside. According to our guide, some of the original pillars, as had been carved by the King, had fallen off but were later reconstructed.

Before we get in, our guide informs us that we will have to remove our shoes first -- it is a holy place.

It is cool inside, and dark too, but there's enough light coming from a fluorescent tube on the Eastern corner of the rocky ceiling, adjacent to the holy of holies, a curtained section where a replica of the Mosaic Ark of the Covenant is kept.

Two monks are sitting close to the entrance to the holy of holies. According to our guide, only priests are allowed into the holy of holies.

On the right side is a huge painting of Jesus on the cross, and on the left that of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.

The church is dedicated to Jesus, and is called 'Saviour of the World'.

A tunnel leads into a second rock-hewn church: the 'House of Mary'. It is smaller, but has a resident monk.

Adjacent to it is the 'House of the Cross', another church in the cluster. Here, cameras with flash cannot be used inside the church, we are told. The two churches share a rectangular hole which acts as a baptism pool.

There are more tunnels that lead to the rest of the churches on this complex.

The 'Church of St George' stands alone across the road. From a distance, its roof, which is at the ground level, looks like a huge cross placed on the ground.

This is because the church, like all other Lalibela churches, is hewn on the ground rock going downwards.

The churches have a masterful Ethiopian architecture with hints of Hebrew influence.

But it is their religious significance and history that inspire awe among thousands of Ethiopian pilgrims and tourists from all over the world.

According to Ethiopian legend, King Lalibela's brother tried to kill him by poisoning him.

However, the King only fell into a comma and came to a few days later. It is during the comma that God gave him the vision of the rock-hewn churches, according to the legend.

In the 12 Century BC, when he is said to have begun carving out the churches, Ethiopians would go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Having made the journey himself and having seen how difficult and dangerous the journey was, the King is said to have found motivation to create a replica of Jerusalem in Ethiopia, thus saving the pilgrims from the long journey.

And so, this tiny village has come to be Ethiopia's Jerusalem.

By using just a hammer and chisel, and with the help of angels, King Lalibela carved out the churches from pure rock, according to legend. That took him about 23 years to accomplish.

The villagers and pilgrims consider a seasonal river which splits Lalibela River Jordan, the biblical river where Jesus was baptised.

Like those who were there before them, the pilgrims will come and go. But the churches, the solid rock that they are, will certainly carry the soul of Ethiopia's religious heritage and significance into the unforeseeable future.

The Ethiopians living on the roof

2011-12-10T11:16:00.000-06:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8931700/The-Ethiopians-living-on-th
e-roof.html

The Ethiopians living on the roof
Saturday 10 December 2011

Sacred mysteries: An ancient African monastery is perched above the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

I went to see the Ethiopians on the roof of the church of the Holy Sepulchre
in Jerusalem this week.

The way up is not easy for a stranger to find. Stone steps double back from
the Souk Khan el-Zeit in the Old City, where the jumble of goods for sale,
hanging from the low canopies – scarves, shoulder-bags, T-shirts,
full-length Muslim women's dresses, camel-tack, racks of postcards –
obscures the street plan.

From the steps, those who know where to look may see remnants of the first
church of the Holy Sepulchre, built by Constantine in the 330s. At the top
is a flat roof looking towards the great domes of the church.
Some green wooden doors in adjoining walls stand open, up rickety wooden
steps. At one side, a bulgy rectangular hut apparently made of whitewashed
adobe, is fitted with eaves of corrugated iron above the tiny windows.

Monks in black habits come and go, and keep an eye open for interlopers, for
even this Ethiopian church territory on the marginal exterior of the church
is subject to rival claims from Copts.
The stone surface of the roof slopes gently in this dry climate. In the
middle is a dome with windows fortified with ancient iron bars. This dome
(once the confusing maze of the interior of the church has been
mastered) turns out to be the roof the chapel of the Holy Cross discovered
by St Helena, Constantine's mother. The Ethiopians kept its feast devoutly
in September

One of the doors on the roof leads to the Ethiopian monks' chapel. This is
separated from a passageway by a green-painted railing, leaving just room
for four pairs of benches on each side of a Persian carpet-runner before a
simple screen of dark, silver-painted wood. In the centre, a horseshoe-arch
opens to the high altar, hung with white silk, beneath an icon of the Virgin
and Child.

Ethiopians speak the ancient Semitic language of Amharic. They worship in
the even more ancient dead language of Ge'ez. Their liturgy if full of
surprises. As well as Sunday, Saturday is a holy day, and in each church the
Ark of the Covenant is revered. Indeed Axum cathedral is said to house the
Ark once kept in the Holy of Holies of the Jewish Temple.

Evelyn Waugh tells of sitting next to an eminent professor at Haile
Selassie's coronation in 1930, who kept up a commentary on the ceremony:
"They are beginning the Mass now." "That was the offertory." "No, I was
wrong; it was the consecration." "No, I was wrong; I think it is the secret
Gospel." "How very curious; I don't believe it was the Mass at all."

No liturgy was in progress on the morning I visited, since the 4am worship
had long finished. At the back of the chapel, in front of a sort of shed, on
top of which lay a ladder and a green plastic bath, sat a monk in an old
armchair draped with a multi-coloured blanket. On an old brass dish he had
arranged two dollar bills crosswise, scattered artistically with some coins.
This was by way of ground bait, so that pilgrims passing through would know
where to bestow alms, which a little flock of Americans did. Their few
dollars were soon tidied away ready for the next group.

The Ethiopians are not well off. Once, they had a chapel inside the church
of the Holy Sepulchre. They lost that centuries ago during the long Ottoman
rule of Jerusalem, when political influence and payment of taxes counted for
much. It seems odd that the Copts later wrangled with them for their space,
for the Church in Ethiopia always took its chief bishop from Alexandria, the
Coptic see.

The Ethiopians hung on. In 1923 there were only 100 in Jerusalem, all told.
They are stronger today, although the Christians are far outnumbered by the
30,000 Ethiopian Jews flown in from peril in the 1990s. But that is another
story.

Christopher Howse's "A Pilgrim in Spain" is published by Continuum (£16.99).

Thousands in line to view 'Mother of God's Belt'

2011-11-23T13:21:00.001-06:00

http://www.dailyamericannews.com/topstories/x45853324/Thousands-in-line-to-v
iew-Mother-of-Gods-Belt

Thousands in line to view 'Mother of God's Belt'.
Daily American News
Posted Nov 20, 2011 @ 07:32 AM

MOSCOW — Thousands of Muscovites are lining up to worship one of the most
revered Orthodox Christian relics - The Mother of God's Belt – as it goes on
display at the Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The Orthodox Church believes in a legend that Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
wore a belt woven from camel wool, and, after her death and Assumption, it
came into the hands of the Apostle St Thomas.

The Christian relic, which came to Russia from Greece, is believed to have
divine powers to cure infertility and disease.

In the first centuries of the Christian era, the Belt was held in
Jerusalem.

By the end of the 4th century, the relic was taken to Constantinople (now
Istanbul).

It had been repeatedly cut into parts throughout history. And only three
pieces remain.

One of them is kept in Georgia, the two others are in Prato, Italy, and at
Vatoped Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece. The latter is believed by
Orthodox Christians to be under protection of the God`s Mother.

The Belt has never been taken from Athos before, with an exception only made
for the month-long Russian tour across 14 cities this year.

The relic will be on display for more than a week.

video:
http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=90108&sitesection=gat
ehouse&VID=23549418

Jerusalem dig unearths Christian icon

2011-11-01T22:49:00.001-05:00

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/jerusalem-dig-unearths-christian-icon/story-e6frg6so-1226181938178

Jerusalem dig unearths Christian icon

From: AP
November 01, 2011 12:00AM

A TINY, exquisitely made box found on an excavated street in Jerusalem
is a token of Christian faith from 1400 years ago, Israeli archeologists
say.

The box, carved from an animal bone, decorated with a cross on the lid
and measuring 2cm by 1.5cm, was probably carried by a Christian around
the end of the 6th century AD, according to Yana Tchekhanovets of the
Israel Antiquities Authority, one of the directors of the excavation
where the box was found.

When the lid is removed, the remains of two portraits are visible in
paint and gold leaf. A man and a woman, they are probably Christian
saints and possibly Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

The box was found outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City in the
remains of a Byzantine-era road. Uncovered two years ago, it was treated
by preservation experts and researched before it was unveiled at an
archeological conference last week. The box offers the first
archeological evidence that the use of icons in the Byzantine period was
not limited to church ceremonies.
Free trial

Part of a similar box was found in Jordan three decades ago, but this is
the only well-preserved whole example found so far. Similar icons are
carried today by some Christians, especially from the eastern Orthodox
churches.

The relic was found in the City of David excavation, named for the
biblical monarch thought to have ruled a Jewish kingdom from the site.

The politically sensitive dig is in the Palestinian area of Silwan, just
outside the Old City walls in east Jerusalem, the section of the city
captured by Israeli forces in 1967 and still claimed by Palestinians as
their capital.

Spiritually Minded Cross Messages

2011-10-03T20:12:00.002-05:00

Spiritually Minded Cross Messages

"To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace." Romans 8:6

Fr John Brian uses the timing of Meskel, the Ethiopian festival of the
cross, to talk about the spirituality of the cross.

This sermon uses and refers to scripture readings appointed by the Syrian
Malankara calendar and was give on Sunday, October 02, 2011 by Fr. John
Brian Paprock at Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Mission Chapel, Madison,
Wisconsin.

"We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency may be of the
power of God and not of us." 2 Corinthians 4:7.

PODCAST OR DOWNLOAD: http://feeds.feedburner.com/frjohnbrian or
http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/spiritual_reflections_or_fr_john_brian.xml

Listen on-line here:
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/10/spiritually-minded-cross-messages.html

Last week:
Still Following Material Things?
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/09/still-following-material-things.html

Previously:
OPF Conference:
Fr. George: The Harvest of Forgiveness
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/09/fr-george-harvest-of-forgiveness.html
Fr John-Brian's Opening prayers for the conference:
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/09/opening-prayer-forgiveness-finding.html
A Reflection on Forgiveness by Fr John-Brian after the conference:
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/09/prose-reflective-prayer-on-forgiveness.html

Bring No More Vain Offerings (Isaiah Chapter 1)
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/09/bring-no-more-vain-offerings-isaiah.html

Letting Go - It All Gets Done
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/09/letting-go-it-all-gets-done.html

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/08/devil-and-deep-blue-sea.html

Knowing Spiritual Success
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/08/knowing-spiritual-success.html

Receive the Crown of Glory (1Peter5)
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/08/receive-crown-of-glory-1peter5.html

On the Fruit of Transfiguration
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/08/on-fruit-of-transfiguration.html

Recent Writings:
Good Night Hospital (reflection of a night chaplain)
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-night-hospital.html

Opening Prayer - Forgiveness: Finding Wholeness Again
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/09/opening-prayer-forgiveness-finding.html

ST. GEORGE : A CHRISTIAN HERO FOR THE MODERN WORLD
http://www.lightoflife.com/LOL_Article_AChristianHeroForTheModernWorld.htm

A Question About Confession
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2010/12/question-about-confession.html

An Assurance of God's Love
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2011/02/assurance-of-gods-love.html

Top FIVE sermons with some Honorable Mentions (November 2005 through May
2009)
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-five-audio-sermons-of-fr-john-brian.html

PODCAST OR DOWNLOAD all sermons: http://feeds.feedburner.com/frjohnbrian or
http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/spiritual_reflections_or_fr_john_brian.xml
For more articles and sermons, visit http://www.frjohbrian.blogspot.com/

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Mission Parish
621 N. Sherman Avenue, Suite B3
Madison, Wisconsin - Sundays 9:30am
608.242.4244 ~ transfiguration@usa.com
http://www.maruroopa.blogspot.com/
o HEALING LIFE o DEEPENING FAITH
o ENRICHING PRACTICE o REFRESHING SPIRIT
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
FULLY ALIVE - a Pastoral Book by Fr John Brian, includes transcribed texts
of sermons. Read the introduction and see the table of contents:
http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com/2010/12/fully-alive-introduction.html
Other pastoral books: http://lulu.com/transfiguration

Ethiopia: Christians Celebrate Discovery of Jesus Crucifix

2011-09-28T21:46:00.002-05:00

Ethiopia: Christians Celebrate Discovery of Jesus Crucifix
Luc Van Kemenade
28 September 2011
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201109281231.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tens of millions of people in Ethiopia celebrated their annual Meskel
eve on Tuesday, an Orthodox Christian festival that landmarks the
discovery of the "true cross" of Jesus Christ by Saint Helena and the
end of the rainy season.
In Addis Ababa the streets are strewn with fresh, yellow-coloured,
daisies, called Meskel flowers in Ethiopia's national language
Amharic, turning the capital city into a colourful bouquet.
On every corner people dressed in white, pile wood, grasses and daisy
flowers into pyramid-like bundles, called demera to make into bonfires
later.
Saint Helena
Ethiopians are honouring Saint Helena's discovery of Jesus' crucifix
in Israel in the fourth century. Helena, who was the first Christian
empress of Rome, is believed to have given the right wing of the cross
as a gift to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
The flank is buried near a monastery in Wollo in Ethiopia's northern
highlands, says the church. Ethiopia has a population of over 80
million people, almost half of which are Orthodox Christians.
The heart of the celebration can be found Meskel Square in Addis
Ababa's town centre. Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians dressed in
elegant robes flock to the slopes of the square to attend a mass led
by the Ethiopian patriarch Abune Pawlos.
Parade
Priests and deacons clap, sing and parade to the sound of large drums.
Crowd members, often held back by policemen, sing, pray and hold up
their eucalyptus candles, turning the stairs into a carpet of light.
In the grand finale of the celebration, the patriarch sets fire to a
giant demera at the centre of the square, symbolising the way Saint
Helena was said to have found the cross that Jesus was crucified on.
According to the legend the smoke from a fire guided her in the right
direction.
Once the fire is lit, there is no way to hold back the frenzied crowd.
People storm into the square to dance around the bonfire and then
reach into the ash to draw small crosses on their foreheads.

Two ancient churches discovered in Failaka Island of Kuwait

2011-09-23T11:21:00.001-05:00

Two ancient churches discovered in Failaka Island of Kuwait

The Department of Antiquities and Museums in the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters discovered two churches on the island of Failaka reports Al Watan daily. The first consists of three large rooms and three entrances and a tomb of a monk with a cross on it, and the second consists of one room, daily reported.

Al Watan reported, quoting the Director of the department Shihab Abdulhamid Shihab, that a study is being conducted on the churches and other monuments that have been discovered on the island which backdate to the early Islamic era. Additionally, an Islamic village established on the island which includes a mosque, two Mihrab were also found besides and a large Islamic castle called Al-Zour Castle. He pointed out that there are monuments dating back to more than 2200 years BC.

Shihab said that the inhabitants of the Kuwaiti coast before Islam were Christian fishermen, who moved to the islands near Kuwait, including the island of Failaka after the spread of Islam. He added that there are also other ancient civilizations on the island including the Macedonian civilization led by Alexander the Great, who called the Island Icarus.

From: [SOCM-FORUM]

Source: http://indiansinkuwait.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=12772&SECTION=0#ixzz1YkBNVemX

__._,_.___

4th century meditation on the cross

2011-09-16T10:23:00.000-05:00

The tree of the cross is for me the tree of eternal salvation. It feeds me
and I feast upon it. With its roots am I rooted and with its branches I
stretch out my arms. It's sap cleanses me and its breeze, like a fragrant
wind, makes me fruitful. Beneath its shadow I have set up my tent and,
escaping the terrible heat, I find there a haven of coolness. It is with its
flowers that I myself blossom and with its fruit that I take my greatest
delight. Yes, those fruits were kept for me from the beginning and I enjoy
them without end... When I tremble before God, this tree gives me shelter;
when I waver, it is my stay. It is the price of my battles and the prize of
my victories; it is my narrow way, steep path, Jacob's ladder where angels
ascend and descend and at whose top the Lord is supported indeed (Mt 7,14;
Gn 28,12).

This tree of heavenly dimensions has been raised up from earth to sky; it is
an immortal plant, set between heaven and earth. Upholding all things,
bearing the universe, support of the inhabited world, it embraces the cosmos
and gathers together the diverse elements of human nature. For itself, it is
assembled of the invisible planks of the Spirit that it may not waver in its
conformity to the divine. Touching the heights of heaven with its top,
grounding the earth with its feet, and encircling with its great arms the
innumerable spaces of the atmosphere, it is wholly in all and around all...

It would have been of no account that the universe was blotted out, melted
with terror before the Passion, if our great Jesus had not infused the
divine Spirit in it when he said: "Father, into your hands I commend my
Spirit" (Lk 23,46)... Everything was shattered, yet when the divine Spirit
rose again the universe was re-animated, brought back to life and recovered
the firmness of its stability. God filled everything, everywhere, and the
crucifixion penetrated all things.

-- A Greek homily of the 4th century
On the holy Paschal mystery, 51, 63 ; PG 59, 743, SC 27 (inspired by a lost
sermon of Hippolytus)

At the Center of Syriac Christianity is the Cross

2011-07-14T02:13:00.001-05:00

In Syriac Christianity, however, the theology of symbols continued [sic] to play a leading role in the Church's life at whose center stands the cross. In the cross all elements of theology are present. One can justly say that Syriac theology is truly a theology of the cross.

[...]

The cross is also a living reality to be reflected in our daily life. This is possible because we live in a liturgical time which makes the fruits of the cross present here and now. This presence, however, can be felt in two different ways. There is a positive one, through which we benefit from the blessings of the cross, as a protector, a builder of the Church, a teacher, and a sign of peace. There is also a negative way in which we experience the narrow path which leads us to the cross which causes the fall of its enemies.

It is the eschatological dimension that makes the cross all the more important. We will fully know and experience the cross in Paradise, where all symbols will find their fulfillment. The cross will open to us the way to the Father by opening the doors of Paradise, and will guard us in our journey towards eternal life. It will lead us to the kingdom of heaven, because it is the sign of that kingdom, and of the King who is going to come for the second time. Only then, will the cross have fulfilled its mission by bringing us to the fullness of our salvation which we have acheived and lived in our earthly life. The cross thus becomes, as Ephrem says, everything in our life:

    The cross is our weapon and will,
     it is our life and light.
     The cross reconciles and renews everybody,
     it consecrates and sanctifies everyone.
     The cross has become a breakthrough, by which
     the two sides which were angry, are reconciled.
     (Hymni Dispersi XX,2)

From:
Symbols of the Cross in the Writings of the Early Syriac Fathers
by Cyril Aphrem Karim (Archbishop of the Diocese of the Eastern United States, Syriac Orthodox Church)
2004, published by Gorgias Press http://www.gorgiaspress.com/

The Victory of the Cross

2011-05-28T08:53:00.001-05:00

The world has value only in so far as through it we see and receive the
revelations and the energies of the person of God who in Himself, in His
essence, cannot be described, but whose energies are already at work in all
creation and will be fully revealed in the transfigured world of the age to
come. Until the last day, God is at work in this world, leading it towards
its
resurrection, above all by means of the cross.

Dumitru Stăniloae
The Victory of the Cross

Armenian Cross Stones Consecrated - April 2011

2011-04-12T14:29:00.002-05:00

Primate Presides over St. Leon Cathedral Services – Cross Stones Consecrated

http://www.armenianchurchwd.com/primate-presides-over-st-leon-cathedral-services-cross-stones-consecrated/?utm_source=newsletterBeta&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Text&utm_campaign=News

On Sunday, April 3, 2011, the Primate presided over the church service at the St. Leon Armenian Cathedral in Burbank. Rev. Fr. Zareh Mansuryan celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Archpriest Fr. Sipan Mekhsian, Cathedral Pastor Rev. Fr. Khajag Shahbazyan and Youth Director Rev. Fr. Avedis Abovian participated in the service.

In his spiritual message, the Primate reflected on the parable of the Unjust Judge and stressed the importance of constant prayer through which we strengthen our relationship with God...
Following the service, the clergy led the Primate in a procession to the southeast wall of the St. Leon Armenian Cathedral where the Primate, with the participation of the Choir, dedicated and consecrated the crosses carved on the wall. In his message to the faithful, the Primate reflected on the power and the importance of the Holy Cross in the life of an Armenian Christian. He extended his blessings to the donors who were treated to a reception at the Hampar Reception Room. The Primate's signed Certificates of Blessing and Commendation were gifted to the donors during the reception.

[An "Image Gallery" is at Armenian Western Diocese news web site listed above.]

Depictions of the Cross before 10th Century

2011-04-05T17:26:00.000-05:00

"Christian art seldom shows Christ suffering on the cross before the Tenth Century... A cross without Christ was, however, acceptable..."

Charles Freeman
(from cutline on illustration page of photo of crucifixion detail of 5th Century door of Santa Sabina in Rome)
A New History of Early Christianity
Yale University Press - 2009

The Sign of the Cross

2011-03-27T01:06:00.001-05:00

The Sign of the Cross
Saturday, 26 March 2011 13:40
http://www.holytheotokosgreenville.org/pastoral-notes/36-pastoral-notes/128-
the-sign-of-the-cross

Dear Friends in Christ,

Positions of the Fingers While Making the Sign of the Cross, Licensed from

I'm writing this message the week before the Third Sunday of Lent, when we
commemorate the Holy Cross. The Holy Cross has such an important meaning to
us, that we celebrate it twice a year. Back in September's bulletin, I wrote
about the appearances of the Cross in history. Appearances of the Cross led
to such miracles as the conversion of the Emperor St. Constantine in AD 312.
Since we've so recently covered the appearances of the Cross, I would like
to take this opportunity to speak about a related subject, namely, the Sign
of the Cross.

Humans seem to have a natural desire to identify themselves as part of a
group. One of the ways that members of a group identify themselves to one
another, and cement their ties, is by the use of signs. A well-executed
performance elicits a thumbs-up, the peace sign became a symbol of a
generation opposed to war, and a certain obscene gesture can be used to
insult others. The handshake is used to greet and to seal a deal, and a
salute is used to show obedience to a superior.

Christians from the time of the Apostles have had their own unique sign as
well. This is the Sign of the Cross, which we should make many times a day.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (+ AD 386) writes:

Let us then not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the Cross our seal,
made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in every thing; over the
bread we eat and the cups we drink, in our comings and in goings; before our
sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are traveling, and when
we are at rest.

In other words, making the Sign of the Cross should become second nature to
the Christian, because Christ should be Lord over all aspects of our life.

This Sign should be executed attentively, however; it should not be done out
of habit without reflecting on its action. Each of the many times that we
make the Sign, it should be done deliberately. Let us not fall into the trap
of thinking that by doing something often it will become rote; let us do it
often and with attention! Tertullian (+ AD 220) writes: "We Christians wear
out our foreheads with the Sign of the Cross."

We make the Sign of the Cross properly by taking the thumb, index finger,
and middle finger of our right hand, and joining them together. This
represents the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We then take the
ring finger and pinky finger of our right hand and close them into the palm
of our hand, representing the two natures of Jesus Christ: divine and human.
With our fingers in this formation, we move our hand to our forehead, to the
solar plexus (navel area), then to our right shoulder, then to our left
shoulder (it should be noted that Roman Catholics make the Sign from the
left to the right, but this is an innovation dating to the 13th century). We
should avoid what some call the "banjo" Sign of the Cross, where the Sign
appears to be more akin to a man strumming an instrument rapidly with no
discernable pattern!

The Sign of the Cross identifies us as Christians, and it wards off the
demons. In fact, in some lives of the saints, we see that when an "angel"
appeared to a monk, he would be naturally cautious and ask the "angel" to
make the Sign of the Cross. At this moment, in many cases, the "angel" would
reveal its true nature, that of a demon, and flee. Demons cannot make the
Sign of the Cross, because of the power of Jesus Christ that the Sign
communicates. In fact, we know that in the last times, some men will take
the Sign of the Beast, or the Devil, instead of the Sign of Christ, upon
themselves: ".that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or
the name of the beast, or the number of his name" (Revelation 13:17). We
perhaps should not understand this mark to be literal in a physical sense,
but a figurative mark or sign that mimics in opposition the Cross of Christ
that Christians have made since the beginning of the Church. At the same
time, there is a spiritual reality that many of us cannot see because of our
sinfulness, such that the Sign we make with our hand may make a spiritual
impression that is visible to God and the Angels.

As a visible sign to other humans, making the Sign of the Cross marks us as
Christians. It is a mini- "confession of faith." We should never be ashamed
to make the Sign of the Cross in front of other people who are not
Christians (while of course keeping humility in mind). The Sign of the Cross
is seen by the patristic quotes above to be something that dates back to the
beginning of the Church, and should be performed by all Christians. Finally,
in the lives of the Saints, we see the power of the Cross. Many more
examples from the saints' lives could be elicited if there were space in
this column to include them. I encourage you all to do some research on the
topic!

Let us make the Sign of the Cross our own; let it adorn us in everything we
do. May it lead us to greater repentance, and to focus our lives even more
on Our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

In Christ,
Fr. Anastasios

Inward Sign of the Cross

2011-03-23T12:58:00.000-05:00

Throughout its history the sign of the cross has been seen as a mark of Christian identity. From this perspective it is performed so that the sign may be seen by others. This was the case especially in earlier Christian centuries, as well as during times when Christianity became threatened.

According to the sign's other meaning, which has become more prominent in the last twelve centuries, the gesture of the cross is also a self-blessing, a gesture that imitates and reflects the sacramental blessing of the priest.

As both interpretations suggest, it is not directed towards God - unlike the gesture of the outstretched arms. In the first case, as the mark of Christian identity, it is directed at someone else. And in the second case, as a gesture of blessing, the sign is turned toward the self. In both cases, since it is traced over the body, its conceptual start is the most graspable sense of the self, which is the body. Where the gesture of the outstretched arms formed an invocation, the inward direction of the sign of the cross creates a gesture of profession of and acceptance of the faith. Both the sign of the cross and the gesture of the outstretched arms signify prayer, but the direction, and therefore the meaning of the prayer formed by the gesture, is different in each case.

Lifting the hands is something we do when we address God in heaven. This form of address works similarly to the way we communicate among oursleves. We speak, and our words are sent, offered toward and heard by the other person. Tracing the sign of the cross over one's body is different. We gesture the sign of the cross when we invite God to talk to us, to accept and clean our body and our entire being, so that our body becomes a temple for God to dwell in. This kind of prayer is more contemplative in nature. It starts with the self and is directed to God in heaven through an inward journey.

Andreas Andreopoulos
The Sign of the Cross: The Gesture, The Mystery, The History
Paraclete Press, 2006
pp 72-73

Orthodox Church Celebrates 358th Anniversary of Bent Cross Oath

2011-01-12T04:25:00.001-06:00

Orthodox Church Celebrates 358th Anniversary of Bent Cross Oath

Written By: B.J.Mathews on Jan 11th, 2011

MATTANCHERY: Orthodox Church celebrated the 358th anniversary of historical Bent Cross (Coonan Cross) Oath on Monday January 3, 2010 at the Mattanchery Church.

Metropolitan of Kochi Diocese Dr. Yakob Mar Irenaeus inaugurated the meeting. Fr. Geevarghese Kochuparambil Ramban delivered the keynote address. Fr. P.I. Varghese, Fr. Sunil Jacob, and Fr. Simon Joseph spoke on the occasion.

Special Holy Qurbana and prayers were conducted earlier to mark the remembrance of those fathers, who pledged 358 years back holding on to the rope tied upon the stone cross as a symbol of their renunciation of foreign dominance in faith.

The procession with 358 lighted candles donned a new experience of history to the faithful.

Fr. Geevarghese Thomas Panickasseril welcomed the gathering. Number of faithful from all neighboring parishes participated in the event.

http://www.orthodoxherald.com/2011/01/11/orthodox-church-celebrates-358th-anniversary-of-bent-cross-oath/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+orthodoxherald+%28Indian+Orthodox+Herald+-+Breaking+Church+News+And+Doctrinal+Information%29

The Finding of the True Cross

2011-01-03T22:31:00.001-06:00

+ The Finding of the True Cross +

According to Ethiopian Orthodoxy, after the ascension of Jesus, the
cross on which he was crucified began performing extraordinary
miracles. This raised the ire of the people who crucified Jesus, who
then ordered the cross to be removed and buried in the outskirts of
town. Residents living in the surrounding areas were commanded to dump
their garbage on the site, and for the next three centuries the area
turned into wasteland.

Three hundred years later, in the early fourth century, the Roman
Empire was being ruled by Constantine the Great. His mother, St.
Elleni (Helena), concerned about the plight of Christians, beseeched
her son to allow the free practice of Christendom in her son's empire.

The Emperor consented, and St. Elleni traveled from Constantinople to
Jerusalem to look for the buried Cross. Once in Jerusalem, however, no
one could tell her the exact spot where it lay. It is said that she
went into seclusion and prayed for God's guidance.

As a result of her prayer, St. Michael the Archangel appeared unto her
and gave her certain instructions. She ordered her soldiers and the
local residents to gather a pile of firewood. After a prayer, a fire
was set ablaze the wood. Clergymen doused incense on the flame and the
smoke of the incense rose up towards the sky then arched down to the
earth, pointing out the exact spot where the Holy Cross was buried.

Following this miraculous sign, digging began and commenced for six
months until the True Cross was discovered.

This has been the premise of the celebration of "Mesqel" in the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Since then, clergy and parishioners have
dressed in traditional, colorful clothing to sing ancient hymnals
dating back to the sixth century. A bonfire is lit up to memorialize
the finding of the True Cross.

http://www.ethiopianorthodoxchurch.info/CalanderFastsFeastsDays.html

pectoral cross

2010-12-14T11:39:00.001-06:00

Eastern Orthodox practice

Russian Orthodox Palladius, wearing gold pectoral cross with jewels (1888).

In Eastern Orthodox practice, the pectoral cross is worn by all bishops but not necessarily by all priests. In the Greek tradition, the pectoral cross is only given to specific priests for faithful service; in the Russian tradition, the silver cross is worn by all priests. Whenever the cross is put on, the wearer first uses it to made the Sign of the Cross on himself and then kisses it and puts it on.

The priest's cross depicts the crucified Christ, whether in painted form as an icon, or in relief. However, the Orthodox crucifix differs from the Western type by the fact that the soma (body of Christ) is not in full three-dimensional form, but in no more than three-quarter relief. It also bears the inscription INBI (the titulus that Pontius Pilate placed above the head of Jesus at the crucifixion) and the letters IC XC NIKA around the four arms of the cross. Orthodox pectoral crosses are almost always on chains of either silver or gold, sometimes with intricately worked links. Priest's crosses will often have an icon of Christ "Made Without Has" at the top. This is the icon before which Orthodox Christians usually confess their sins. In Russian practice, the back of a priest's cross is usually inscribed with St. Paul's words to St. Timothy: "Be an example to the believers in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim. 4:12).

Orthodox pectoral crosses are awarded in several degrees (particularly in the Russian tradition):

The Silver Cross is awarded to all priests by their bishop on the day of their ordination. This tradition began with the last Tsar, Nicholas II, who awarded a silver cross to every priest in the Russian Empire. Even after the fall of the Romanov Dynasty, the practice of awarding the Silver Cross to Russian priests at their ordination has continued to this day. This practice helps to distinguish priests from deacons or monks, all of whom wear the same type of riassa(cassock), and are otherwise indistinguishable when not vested. The Silver Cross is not enameled or decorated in any manner except for engraving or relief. Russian Orthodox priests do not wear the cross by right of their priesthood, but only by permission of their bishop. One way a bishop may punish one of his priests is to forbid him to wear the priest's cross.

The next-ranking award is the Gold Cross. This is a simple gold cross, similar to the Silver Cross, and similarly without enameling or other decoration. The Gold Cross is worn by archpriests, abbots and abbesses as a mark of their office, and may be awarded by the bishop to other priests, both married and monastic, for distinguished service to the church.

The highest pectoral cross, is With Decorations?that is, jeweled, and sometimes enameled?and normally has a depiction of an Eastern-style miter at the top. This type of pectoral is also referred to as a "Jeweled Cross". This type of cross is worn by bishops, archimandrites and protopresbyters as a sign of their office, and may be awarded to other priests as well. All bishops are entitled to wear the pectoral cross with decorations, although most simply wear a Panama when not vested for services.

When vesting before celebrating the Divine Liturgy, the pectoral cross is presented to the bishop who will bless the pectoral, cross himself with it, kiss the cross and put it on. Meanwhile the Protodeacon, swinging the censer says the following prayer:

He who would be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24, etc.); always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

A priest may be granted the right to wear a second pectoral cross.

A priest who has been given the pectoral cross will typically wear it at all times, whether vested or not.

In Russian practice, a nun who is not an abbess may also be granted the privilege of wearing a pectoral cross, as an honorary award (however, this award is not granted to monks who are not priests).

St. Gregory of Nareg's Vision of the Cross

2010-12-04T14:25:00.001-06:00

Only in Armenian: Roberta Ervine on Gregory of Nareg

Posted on March 15, 2010

St John the Baptist Armenian Church (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

http://stjohnarmenianchurch.org/blog/?p=32

By David Luhrssen

(Milwaukee, Wis.) The cross is the universal symbol of Christianity, but as Roberta Ervine pointed out in her talk at St. John the Baptist Armenian Church of Milwaukee, the word has a particular richness in Armenian. In her March 14, 2010, presentation, “Only in Armenian: St. Gregory of Nareg’s Vision of the Cross,” the Armenian studies professor at St. Nersess Seminary began by contrasting the often negative associations of the English word cross with the richer meanings of the Armenian khach and its synonyms. In English, cross is a torture device, a cross to bear, especially if one is at cross-purposes. In Armenian, the word takes on associations with living and positive things such as Khachen Genarar (Life giving Cross) Pergoutyan Khach (Saving Cross), with trees and with staffs to support our burden.

Ervine focused on the 11th century mystic whose prayers and poems offer a vivid spiritual vision. St. Gregory of Nareg was in ill health and had reason to be resentful over the poor treatment of his father, a bishop driven into exile. And yet, as Ervine stressed, Gregory was able to love a church that was sometimes led by hateful men.

In St. Gregory’s writings, the cross took on many positive connotations. He visualized it as a knife’s edge freeing us from the bonds of oppression. He noticed that the unique configuration of the Armenian cross radiated like the rays of the sun to light our consciousness. The cross represented sacrifice in the form taken by altars in Armenian churches, where a horizontal plane meets a vertical support. For St. Gregory the cross was also like a wine press, transmuting grapes under steady pressure into wine. The wild horses that roamed near his monastery on the shore of Lake Van reminded him that their wildness could be tamed by a bridal, much as the cross can train human nature if Christ holds the reins to guide us. The cross symbolizes the key to our inner nature and the kingdom of heaven.

Illustrating her talk with visuals of Armenian religious art, Ervine summarized St. Gregory of Nareg’s views by saying that the cross for him was not an instrument of death, holding the dead body of the Son of God, but the Tree of Life, and is often represented in Armenian iconography as a living thing bearing branches and grape vines. The writings of St. Gregory, she concluded, are an invitation to see the deeper meaning of the cross in our world.

The Miraculous Power of the Cross and Prayer - A Scientific Study

2010-09-15T12:59:00.001-05:00

The Miraculous Power of the Cross and Prayer - A Scientific Study

Moscow, March 17, 2006 - Interfax - Scientists have proved experimentally
the miracle-working properties of the sign of the cross and prayer.

'We have ascertained that the old custom to make a sign of the cross over
food and drink before a meal has a profound mystical meaning. Standing
behind it is the practical use: the food is purified literally in an
instant. This is a great miracle, which happens literally every day,'
physicist Angelina Malakhovskaya said as cited by the Zhizn newspaper on
Friday.

Malakhovskaya have studied that power of the sign of the cross with the
blessing of the Church for nearly ten years now. She has carried out a great
number of experiments, which have been repeatedly verified before their
results were made public.

She has discovered in particular the unique bactericidal properties of water
after being blessed by an Orthodox prayer and a sign of the cross. The study
also revealed a new, earlier unknown property of the word of God to
transform the structure of water, increasing considerably its optical
density in the short ultra-violet spectral region, the newspaper writes.

The scientists have verified the impact the Lord's Prayer and the Orthodox
sign of the cross make on pathogenic bacteria. Water samples from various
reservoirs - wells, rivers, lakes - were taken for the research. All the
samples had goldish taphylococcus, a colon bacillus. It turned out however,
that if the Lord's Prayer is said and a sign of the cross is made over them,
the number of harmful bacteria will decrease seven, ten, hundred and even
over thousand times.

The experiments were made in such a way as to exclude a possible impact of
mental suggestion. The prayer was said by both believer and non-believers,
but the number of pathogenic bacteria in various environments with different
sets of bacteria still decreased as compared to the reference templates.

The scientists have also proved the beneficial impact that the prayer and
the sign of the cross have on people. All the participants in the tests had
their blood pressure stabilized and blood indexes improved. Strikingly, the
indexes changed towards the healing needed: hypotensive people had their
blood pressure raised, while hypertensive people had it reduced.

It was also observed that if the sign of the cross is made off handedly,
with the three fingers put together unscrupulously or placed outside the
necessary points - the middle of the forehead, the center of the solar
plexus and the recesses in the right and left shoulders - the positive
result was much weaker or absent altogether.

http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/05/miraculous-power-of-cross-and-prayer
.html

Siberian Orthodox Cross

2010-09-06T17:03:00.002-05:00

Courtesy of Gary Ivan Cabral Flores

Archaeologists find oldest Orthodox Christian church

2010-06-26T21:36:00.001-05:00

From: OrthodoxNews@yahoogroups.com

http://www.directionstoorthodoxy.org/n/archaeologists_find_oldest_orthodox_c
hristian_church.html

Archaeologists find oldest Orthodox Christian church

Posted on Tue Jun 10 2008

The Jordan Times reports that a group of archaeologists have unearthed the
world's oldest Orthodox Christian church in Rihab, Jordan. Rihab is in
Northern Jordan. Rihab is home to a total of 30 churches and Jesus and the
Virgin Mary are believed to have passed through the area.

The church, which was built underground, dates to somewhere between 33 and
70 AD. Rihab is located about 30 miles east of the Jordan River and a
roughly equal distance north of the Jordanian capital, Amman. The region is
home to 30 other ancient churches.

"We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world,
dating from 33 AD to 70 AD,"
Abdul Qader al-Husan, the head of Jordain's Center for Archaeological
Studies said.

He said it was uncovered under Saint Georgeous Church, which itself dates
back to 230 AD, in Rihab in northern Jordan near the Syrian border.

"We have evidence to believe this church sheltered early Christians -- the
70 disciples of Jesus Christ," Husan said.

These Christians, who are described in a mosaic as "the 70 beloved by God
and Divine," are said to have fled persecution in Jerusalem and founded
churches in northern Jordan, Husan added.

He cited historical sources which suggest they both lived and practiced
Christian rituals in the underground church and only left it after
Christianity was embraced by the Roman Empire.

Archimandrite Nektarious, a representative of the Greek Orthodox Church,
described the discovery as an "important milestone for Christians all around
the world."

Researchers recovered pottery dating back to between the 3rd and 7th
centuries, which they say suggests these first Christians and their
followers lived in the area until late Roman rule.

Inside the cave a circular area of worship with stone seats separated from
living quarters were found. This circular element, called an apse, is
important says Dr Al-Hassan because there is only one other example of a
cave with a similar feature, which was also used for Christian worship. The
stone seats are believed to have been for the use of clergy.

Al-Hassan said: "We found beautiful things. I found the cemetery of this
church; we found pottery shards and lamps with the inscription 'Georgeous'".
There is also a tunnel that leads to a cistern which supplied water to the
dwellers. The excavation of the tunnel and the cistern may yield yet more
evidence about the lives of these early Christians.

"From the tunnel to the cistern is very important. We want to clean it and
make an excavation inside it. We found a very old inscription beside it and
coins also, and crosses made from iron."

Other experts say they are cautious about the claim. They want to examine
the artifacts and obtain solid dating evidence. The earliest confirmed
examples of churches date from the third century.

Bikers in Belarus Process with Cross

2010-06-14T14:43:00.000-05:00

June 2. (Wednesday). 15:39:59
In Bobruisk, before the gathering of bikers, a religious procession on
motorcycles was held

Last night Bobruisk hosted the national gathering of bikers "Motofest 2010",
organized by the local club "Night Wolves". As the site of the Diocese of
Bobruisk mentions, the program activities included motorcycle and show
rides, demonstrations of the Cossack the art of riding, concerts and
socializing by motorsports enthusiasts in the open air 2 km from the new
bridge across the Berezina River.

The event began with Procession of the Cross on motorcycles over the
distance of 27 kilometers on the ring road around Bobruisk. In the event's
organization, in addition to fans of two-wheeled vehicles, also took part
local Cossacks and representatives of youth and information departments of
the Bobruisk diocese.

It should be noted that the Moto-Procession of the Cross was organized in
accordance with ancient canons: first came the lantern, then processional
crosses and banners. Priest Dmitry Pervyj, who participated in procession,
sprinkled holy water on path and accident-prone crossroads of the city ring
road on the Berezina.

Upon completion of the Procession of the Cross motorcycle equipment and
venues were blessed. Bikers are lovers and fans of motorcycles. Unlike
conventional motorcyclists, for bikers motorcycles are part of their
lifestyle. Characteristic is also the association with like-minded people on
the basis of this way of life.

The biker movement was born in 1950 in the U.S., and penetrated into Europe
(in the USSR in the 1980's they were called "rockers"). Until recently, the
term "biker" applied exclusively to the owners of choppers and always was
associated with a remotely extended front wheel, plenty of chrome, leather,
long hair and bearded motorcyclists. However, since the late 90-ies on the
road one began to see motorcycles with high-performance engines covered in
plastic fairings - sportbikes.

The stereotypical look of a biker: bandana (headscarf) in dark colors, tied
at the back of the head pirate style) or black knit cap, black leather
jackets (leather jacket with a closure off-center) or leather motojacket
(often worn denim or leather vests with no sleeves are worn over the
motojacket) with colors (symbols) of the motorcycle club), leather pants.
Bikers often let their hair grow long, and have a mustache and beard. To
protect their eyes from the wind they wear goggles, while helmets are often
ignored.

/ sobor.by/ Viktor Melnichenko / photo from the website: bobruisk.hram.by

==============================================================

http://sobor.by/idnews.php?id=2010-Jun-2-15:39:59

Note the photo: the altar servers on the backs of the bikes (holding the
lantern and processional crosses) are wearing their stikharions (but no
helmets).
With love in Christ,
Prot. Alexander Lebedeff

The Cross is an Ascension Symbol

2010-05-13T11:43:00.001-05:00

Happy Ascension! This a sermon given a few years ago that delves into the importance of the Ascension and the Cross in the East:

http://maruroopa.blogspot.com/2007/05/cross-is-ascension-symbol-festal-sermon.html

your servant,

Fr John Brian

http://frjohbrian.blogspot.com

The Stone crosses of Kerala

2009-06-10T14:01:00.000-05:00

The Stone crosses of Kerala

http://nasrani.net/2007/01/16/smaller-carved-crosses-in-the-churches-giant-crosses-sitting-atop-plinths-in-kerala-syrian-churches/

Written by NSC- Admin on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 3:15 - 20 Comments

Kerala has many churches of antiquity. It is recorded that before the arrival of Portuguese there were more than 150 ancient churches in Kerala.

The Synod of Diamper conducted in 1599 had a representation of more than hundred churches of the St. Thomas Christians. Though not all of these churches are preserved, many of them gave indication to the importance stone crosses had in early Kerala Christian life.

Christian art and architecture in Kerala in the pre-European periods are developed by nourishment from two sources. From the countries in the near-east including Greece, Rome, Egypt and other Middle East countries from which ideas and practices were imported by missionaries and traders, and secondly from the indigenous forms and techniques of art and architecture that existed in the land. The nourishment of these two sources can be seen in the Stone crosses of Kerala.

There are two types of rock crosses in Kerala Churches broadly classified as St. Thomas cross and Nazraney sthambams.

1. St. Thomas Cross

The small interior type rock cross is called St Thomas cross or Nasrani Menorah or Syrian Cross. This crosses are found at St. Thomas Mount, Kottayam [ 2 nos ], Kadamattam, Muttuchira, and Alangad. This has been venerated by all St Thomas Christians from ancient times. They have inscriptions in Pahlavi (Middle Persian) and Syriac which indicate that they date to before the eight century. http://nasrani.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/stonecrosses.jpg

These older carved crosses are located inside the churches and are considered particularly sacred and worthy of veneration by the St Thomas Christians. These crosses are very decorative and are not typical crucifix. These are plain crosses which doesnot show Christ on the cross. In Eastern Christianity and Syrian Christianity, the plain cross is the symbol of the triumph of Christ’s life over death. It is of symbolism in Eastern Christianity.

These crosses are also sometimes called Leaved Crosses or Persian crosses as they symbolise at the bottom a set of leaves. The leaves usually flow upwards either side of the base of the cross symbolizing the cross as the tree of life. But some of these crosses from Kerala the leaves are downward pointing. This is indigenous and this symbolism and tradition is not find in Persian or Middle East or even in Byzantine art.

2. Nazraney Sthambams

The giant open air rock cross are called Nazraney Sthambams. The plinth of these crosses represents lotus petals and lotus flowers and has a square base. It also has a variety of iconographic motifs, including elephants, peacocks and various other animals, depictions of the Holy Family and of the Crucifixion, to name a few. http://nasrani.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/nazraney_sthambams_nsc.jpg

These crosses are found in Kottekkad, Enammavu Mapranam, Puthenchira, Parappukkara, Veliyanad, Kalpparambu, Angamaly, Kanjoor, Malayattoor, Udayanperur, Kuravilangad, Uzhavoor, Chungam, Kaduthuruthy [2 Nos.], Muttuchira, Kudamaloor, Niranam, Kothamangalam, Chengannur, Thumpamon, Chathannur and many other places.

These crosses are very large, freestanding crosses found outside the churches. They are usually aligned to the west end of the church. On festival days and during processional days when people process around these crosses. People also burn coconut oil as an act of offering and reverence at the base of these large crosses on their pedestals.

The plinths represent lotus petals and lotus flowers as the cross is sitting on top of a lotus flower. There is a square base, it’s a circle on a square with a cross on top. The circle as the lotus flower represents the divine, heavenly aspect, on the square which represents the earth.

There are depictions of the holy family. There are imags of Mary and the Christ Child, also of the Crucifixion in these crosses. There is a variety of iconographic motifs including fish, various animals, elephants. The elephants are very much part of an Indian context.

There are even archway’s in older churches which shows two elephants either side of the cross on a plinth. The elephants are coming to venerate the cross. And on the other side of the archway, there are peacocks sitting either side of the cross. This represents the indigenisation of stone crosses and Christian symbols in India.

There are depictions of the holy family, images of Mary and the Christ Child and also of the Crucifixion.

Reference

Ancient Kerala Christian Art- Prof. George Menachery

Stone crosses of Kerala- Dr Ken Parry, Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University, Sydney

Rock Crosses of Kerala- Prof. George Menachery

Meaning of the Mid-Lent Cross

2009-03-26T02:22:00.001-05:00

Meaning of the Mid-Lent Cross
(special sermon)

There are four powerful prayers in each of the four directions with the Mid-Lent Cross. This sermon is on the meaning of the Mid-Lent Cross, the golgatha, King Abgar and the healing power of the prayer for this auspicious time.

This sermon was given for Mid-Lent, March 18, 2009 by Fr John Brian Paprock at Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Mission Chapel, Madison, Wisconsin.

PODCAST OR DOWNLOAD: http://feeds.feedburner.com/frjohnbrian or http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/spiritual_reflections_or_fr_john_brian.xml
LISTEN ONLINE HERE:

The Blessing Cross

2009-03-26T01:48:00.001-05:00

Dear Father John,

I want to express my thanks for the beautiful article you wrote on the
glorious Cross. I have emailed it to many people, because I think it truly
captures the significance of our blessed symbol of redemption and salvation.

In the Ethiopia Orthodox Church we pray the Prayer of the Cross every day:
The Cross is our power.
The Cross is our strength.
The Cross is our redemption.
And the Cross is the salvation of our souls. Amen

May Our Lord and Our Lady bless you as you continue to use your gift of
writing to proclaim the glorious truths of the Orthodox Faith.

Selam,

Gebre Menfes Kidus

The article "The Blessing Cross" by Fr John Brian was recently published on
the ICON website:
http://www.icon.org.in/jsp/icon/resources/BlessingCross.pdf

Saint Nino's Cross - The Grapevine Cross

2009-01-27T09:38:00.002-06:00

On January 26, Saint Nino's Cross was brought to the Dusk Prayer and put down at the center of the temple. This is the very cross with which the saint baptized the whole Georgia. The believers will have a chance to visit the cathedral in the evening of January 27 and worship the miraculous cross.

http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=14873

...

The Grapevine Cross ("Jvari Vazisa" or ჯვარი ვაზისა in Georgian), also known as Saint Nino's cross, is a major symbol of the Georgian Orthodox Church, and dates back to the 4th century AD, when Christianity became the official religion of the ancient Georgian kingdom of Iberia, thanks to the missionary work of St. Nino.

Legend has it that Nino received the Grapevine Cross from the Virgin Mary and bound it together with her own hair. This was the cross Nino brought with her when she came to evangelize the Georgians. The Grapevine Cross is recognizable by its slightly drooping horizontal arms.

http://georgianwines.blogspot.com/2007/04/patron-saint-comes-bearing-grapevines.html

...

...in the night the Holy Mother of God appeared to Nino in a vision and said to her, "Depart into the land of the north and preach the gospel of my Son, and I will guide and protect you." But she answered in alarm, "Queen, how may I accomplish this ? For I am a worthless and ignorant woman." Then the Holy Queen stretched out her hand upon a vinebranch which grew close to Nino's bed and cut it off and fashioned it into a cross and gave it to Nino, saying, "Let this be your protection. By it, you may overcome all your foes and preach your message. I will be with you and not abandon you."

After this vision, Nino awoke and found the cross in her hands. When morning came, she went out and told all this to the Patriarch and showed him the cross, and the Patriarch gave thanks to God. Then Nino begged the Patriarch to send her with the noble lady who was leaving for Ephesus. So she received the Patriarch's blessing, and set off in company with the noble lady.....

When the blessed Nino saw this, she began to sigh towards God and shed tears because of the errors of this northern land, for the light was hidden from its people and the reign of darkness enclosed them. she lifted up her eyes to heaven and said, "O God, by Thy great might throw down these enemies of Thine, and make this people wise by Thy great mercy, so that the whole nation may worship the only God through the power of Jesus Christ Thy Son, to whom belong praise and thanks for evermore."

After St. Nino had uttered this prayer, God immediately sent winds and hurricanes out of the west, with clouds sinister and grim in appearance. The noisy roar of thunder was heard, and at sunset a wind blew with a fetid and unpleasant smell. When the crowd saw this, they ran away as fast as they could towards their homes in the city. God granted them but little time, and when they were all safely home, His anger burst fiercely out from the sinister cloud. Hail fell in lumps as big as two fists on to the abode of the idols, and smashed them into little pieces. The walls were destroyed by the terrible gale, and thrown down among the rocks. But Nino remained unharmed, watching from the same spot where she had stood at the beginning.

Three days later she got up, crossed the River Kura, and found outside the walls of the city a bramble bush growing in the shape of a small tent. she made a cross of vine-shoots and stayed there to pray.....

Now when the king and queen severe baptized with their Children and all the people, there stood on the crest of a remote crag a tree of wondrous beauty and sweet scent. It was a miracle-working tree, for wild animals wounded by arrows used to come to it and eat its leaves or its seeds which had fallen to the ground, after which they acre healed, even if they had suffered fatal wounds. The common folk, who had previously been pagan, considered this a great marvel, so they told Bishop John about the tree. Anal the bishop said, "Behold, this tree has been planted by God specially for this occasion. Now that the grace of God has shone forth upon Georgia, from this tree shall be carved the holy cross which all the multitudes of Georgia shall adore." Then Rev, the king's son, went with the bishop and many of the people and cut down the tree, and a hundred men carried it to the city with all its branches and leaves. The people collected to see it, because of the fresh green leaves which it had at a time when all other trees were bare. Its foliage had not fallen and it was sweet-smelling and beautiful to look at. They stood the tree up on its base at the southern door of the church, where the breezes wafted its fragrant scent about and unfolded its leaves. There the tree stood for thirty-seven days, and its leaves did not change colour. It looked as if it was standing immersed front root to topmost twig in a stream, and remained thus until all the tress of the forest were clothed in verdure, and the fruit trees were in blossom. Then on the first of May they fashioned three Crosses from it, and on the seventh thus raised them up in the king's presence amid popular rejoicing on the part of the crowds gathered in the church. Soon afterwards, the people of the city saw a fiery Cross Come down from heaven. Round about it was what appeared like a crown of stars. The cross of fire rested on the church until claws. When daylight came, two of the stars separated from the others—one going eastwards and the other towards the west. The brighter of the two went gently towards a spot near a stream on the far side of the river Aragvi, and Stood over the rocky hill out of Which a rivulet had sprung from the tears of Nino. From there the star rose up to heaven. They asked the blessed Nino, "What is the meaning of these bright stars, one of which as gone eastwards towards the mountains of Kakheti, and the other to the western outskirts of this city?" St. Nino answered, "When you have found where the stars are Shining over those hills, there let two crosses be raised to Christ." The king acted accordingly, and melt went to inspect the highest mountains, one after another. Some went to the West, where they climbed the hill called Cavern's Head. These men reported to the king that one star had parted company from the others to take up a position over Mount Tkhoti by the pass of Caspi, after which it was lost to their sight. Similarly, those who had been sent to the hills of Kakheti returned to tell hoes they had seen a star move in that direction and stand over the village of Bodbe in the district of Kakheti.

Then St. Nino said to them, "Take two of these crosses, and raise one in Tkhoti where God revealed His power. Give one to Christ's handmaiden Salome to be erected in the town of Ujarma. The village of Bodbe in Kakheti should not be given preference over the royal city of Ujarma, where there arc great numbers of people, but Bodbe also shall later witness God's grace." So they did as Nino directed.

In Mtskheta also they raised the wonder-working holy cross, and they went dozen to the stream which flows past the mound, and there they passed the night praying to God. Next day, the countless multitude knelt and worshipped the cross, and confessed the Crucified to be the True Son of the Living God, and they believed in God Almighty, Three in One. And on Easter Sunday, King Mirian and all Mtskheta offered up prayers and thanksgiving. On that day they instituted the service of the Cross at Easter, which is observed throughout Georgia to this day. And many pagans in distress Were healed by the cross, a number of whom were baptized and gave cheerful praise to God...

King Mirian fell sick, and felt his death drawing near. He said to his son Bakar, "My son, my darkness had been turned into light, and death into life. To you I give the Cross n of my kingdom. May God, who created heaven and earth strengthen you in perfect faith. Obey all the commands of the Son of God, and rely entirely upon thorn and upon Christ's name. Wherever you find those fire-worshippers with their idols, burn the idols and make them swallow the cinders. Carry the honourable cross before you to overcome your enemies, as the true believers do. Honour the divinely raised column, and direct your hopes upon it. May you fall asleep at last in the faith of the Holy Trinity." Then they caused St. Nino's cross to be brought, the cross which she had at the beginning, and they hung the royal crown upon it. They led forward Bakar, and made the sign of the cross upon his head, and took the crown from the cross and placed it on his head....

http://www.georgianweb.com/religion/stnino.html - From the book "LIVES AND LEGENDS OF THE GEORGIAN SAINTS" selected and translated from the original texts by DAVID MARSHALL LANG (M.A., Ph.D. Professor of Caucasian Studies University of London).

Making Cross More

2008-09-22T00:27:00.001-05:00

Making Cross More
2nd Sermon on the Cross
Festival of the Cross continues

The Festival of the Cross is also called the Exaltation or Elevation of the Cross. It is an important occasion of Holy Church. This sermons continues a focus on the history and the power of the cross.

This sermon given on Sunday September 21, 2008 by Fr John Brian Paprock at Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Mission Chapel, Madison, Wisconsin.

PODCAST OR DOWNLOAD:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/frjohnbrian or
http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/spiritual_reflections_or_fr_john_brian.xml

LISTEN ONLINE HERE:

Cross Making More

2008-09-22T00:25:00.001-05:00

Festival of the Cross begins

The Festival of the Cross is also called the Exaltation or Elevation of the Cross. It is another important occasion of Holy Church. The history and the power of the cross is the focus of this sermon.

This sermon given on Sunday September 14, 2008 by Fr John Brian Paprock at Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Mission Chapel, Madison, Wisconsin.

PODCAST OR DOWNLOAD:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/frjohnbrian or
http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/spiritual_reflections_or_fr_john_brian.xml

LISTEN ONLINE HERE:

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh: the Way of the Cross

2008-03-29T10:07:00.000-05:00

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh: the Way of the Cross

Extracts from a talk at Essex University (14 March 1996)

I have taken the subject of the Way of the Cross partly because it is
an essential part of our Christian faith and partly because it is a
very appropriate time for us to think of Christ and His ascent to the
Cross, His gift of Himself and of His life for our salvation as we are
moving gradually step by step towards the Resurrection and the final
victory of God. I would like to take up a certain number of points
because I am not going to do either a total survey of the problem or
indeed even less a pious discourse.

In the Incarnation, when God becomes man in the Babe of Bethlehem, God
delivers Himself into the power of man totally vulnerable, totally
helpless, totally defenseless. He is given and He can not even resist
whatever may be done to Him. At that moment it is a one-sided act of
God, in a sense: in His humanity the Babe of Bethlehem cannot take
upon Himself this divine act by which God delivers Himself into the
power of man. What happens then? Then something very important
happens. We always think with the sense of slight bewilderment, at
least I do, you may be wiser but I do, about the event of the Jordan
and the Baptism of Christ.

We may say to ourselves, Why does Christ come to John? Why does He say
that all must be fulfilled in His baptism? What is the point of His
being baptised? We can understand very well what happened to the Jews
or others who came to be baptised of John: they proclaimed their
sinfulness, they confessed their sins, they renounced their sins, and
then as an act of symbolic cleansing they plunged themselves into the
water of Jordan that to them was an image of being washed clean, and
come out into newness of life. But what about Christ? We know of
Christ that He was sinless. Why did He need go into these waters of
Jordan? I got the answer many years ago from a Presbyterian pastor of
France. He was the minister of a small village which to me has got as
though a prophetic name - the place was Dieu-le-Fоt which in French
means "God has made it", and there was this man - a very simple
ordinary minister with whom we discussed that. And he said, "Don't you
realise what happened? All these people came to Jordan with all their
sins in their flesh, in their soul, in their mind, in their will, in
their hearts. They proclaimed their rejection of all they had been,
and John said to them, ▒Merge into these waters, wash yourself clean,
let all the filth of your sinfulness be washed into the waters, and
you will come out clean." And to use the imagery of so many Russian
and, I think, other folk stories, these waters became heavy with sin,
heavy with mortality, heavy with evil, which these people washed away
but which stayed in these waters. And when Christ came, said this
pastor to me, what happened is that He merged Himself into these
waters of death heavy with the mortality and the damnation of all
these people, heavy with the sins of all these people, in the way in
which we can plunge into dye a clean sheet of wool: we plunge it
white, it emerges out of it coloured with the dye. And Christ merging
into these waters of death comes out of them carrying the mortality
and all the consequences of the sin of mankind. He is ready to die,
because, to use the words of St. Maxim the Confessor, even in His
humanity before that He was immortal because a human body, a human
being can not be submitted to death when it is pervaded, filled with
divinity which is life itself. Here is the death of mankind that He
assumes upon Himself and this happens when He reaches full human
maturity, at thirty years of age He is ready to make this decision,
not as God but as man because in Christ the two natures coincide. His
humanity is true and real as much as His divinity is true and real.
And this is the moment when He starts as of His own choice the Way of
the Cross.

I will not mention the temptations in the desert when He rejects all
the attempts which the power of evil makes to conquer Him at that
moment on a threshold of the Way of the Cross. He rejects to prove His
divinity by working a miracle, to prove His divinity by casting
Himself down from the pinnacle, and He refused to renounce His
divinity for the sake of power by worshipping Satan. Later another
temptation will come upon Him. Here He is tempted, as it were, by
power. He has come out of Jordan and the Spirit of God has descended
upon Him, filled His humanity, now He feels, all things are possible
unto Me. But later will come a moment when on the way from Caesarea
Philippi another temptation will come. He speaks with His disciples of
His coming crucifixion, death, and Peter says, "Don't allow that to
happen to You. Have mercy on Yourself." And Christ answers him exactly
in the words He used for Satan, "Get away, Satan, thou thinks of
things which are human but of the things divine."

And so there He begins his Way of the Cross, His ministry. And where
does it culminate? It culminates in Jerusalem and on Golgotha. And
what happens there? What happens there is that Christ finds Himself
ultimately at one with fallen mankind that needs salvation. As St.
Athanasius the Great says, "What He has not taken upon Himself He has
not saved." So He takes all that is the predicament of mankind, not
only the ordinary things like hunger and thirst, and tiredness, and
rejection, and being misunderstood, and being betrayed by Judas, and
being renounced by Peter, and so on. No, the ultimate tragedy of
mankind is not even death, it is the loss of God, which is death,
because God is the only ultimate and eternal source of eternal life.
And so He takes upon Himself all that is man in total solidarity with
us, and He stands before God saying, "I am one of them." But at the
same time He stands before men and saying, "I stand for God, for all
that is God's, for God's truth, for God's ways, for all that God
stands for." And the result is that He is rejected by man. He dies, as
an Anglican hymn has it, on the little hill outside the walls. He can
not die in the midst of the city of man, He is an alien to the city of
men because the city of men does not wish to become the city of God at
the cost of the message, which Christ has brought - love unto death,
sacrificial, total gift of self.

And on the other hand, He dies as a man with all the consequences of
His solidarity with man. He is crucified as a criminal. And there is a
moment when in order to die and indeed in order through His death to
participate in everything, which is the tragedy of man, and assume it
and conquer it He must experience within His humanity what everyone of
us knows more or less - the loss of God. He could not die otherwise.
And His words, "My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?" are
probably the most tragic words, which the world has heard, which
mankind has brought to God because it is the One who was at one with
God from whom God retires for Him to experience what it means to be
without and to die of this loss of God.

And this has got an immense importance for us not only in Christian
terms as we use them always but in another way. So often, going to
Russia, meeting there atheists that are of quite different stamp than
the vague atheism one meets in the West - people who have never met
God, who have no notion of God, for whom God doesn't exist, I have
felt an agony about them: what about them? And then the thought came
to me that when Christ died God-less on the cross, He plumbed the
depth of Godlessness as not one atheist has ever experienced or known
it, and even an atheist is not outside of the mystery of the saving
God in Christ. This is something which to me is the Way of the Cross.

* * *

* All texts are copyright: Estate of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh Library
http://www.metropolit-anthony.orc.ru/eng/

* * *

The Order of Zuyoho - "Elevation" of the Cross

2008-03-18T05:33:00.000-05:00

The Order of Zuyoho

http://sor.cua.edu/Feast/Zuyoxo.html

It is difficult to provide an English equivalent to the Syriac word Zuyoho. It is derived from a verb which means "to put in motion", "to move something", "to lift up something". The Order of Zuyoho embodies all of these meanings. During the ceremony, the celebrant lifts and moves the object on which Zuyoho is performed, usually a cross (but water on Epiphany, Palms on Palm Sunday, etc.). Hence, we refer to the Zuyoho of the Cross, or the Zuyoho of the Palms, etc. In the following, the celebrant carries a cross.

The Celebrant enters the sanctuary in the company of the clergy and the deacons. He holds the cross high and waves it in the four directions.

Zuyoho

Turning to the East, the celebrant chants:

Priest: He Whom the angels minister.
People: Holy are You, O God.
Priest: He Whom the cherubim bless.
People: Holy are You, O Almighty.
Priest: He Whom the seraphim sanctify.
People: Holy are You, O Immortal. The sinners entreat with repentance saying "You Who were crucified for us, have mercy upon us."

Note: When the people chant the word "crucified", shown in italics above, the celebrant moves the cross in the form of a cross blessing the people. This word is replaced by another phrase in some feast days (e.g., "baptized" in Epiphany).

The celebrant turns to the West:

Priest: He Whom the fiery hosts praise.
People: Holy are You, O God.
Priest: He Whom the spiritual beings magnify.
People: Holy are You, O Almighty.
Priest: He Whom the mortals worship.
People: Holy are You, O Immortal. The children of the faithful Church entreat saying "You Who were crucified for us, have mercy upon us."

The celebrant turns to the North:

Priest: He Whom the heavenly beings glorify.
People: Holy are You, O God.
Priest: He Whom those between [heaven and earth] exalt.
People: Holy are You, O Almighty.
Priest: He Whom the earthly beings below bow to.
People: Holy are You, O Immortal. The sinners entreat with repentance saying "You Who were crucified for us, have mercy upon us."

The celebrant turns to the South:

Priest: Our Lord, have mercy upon us.
People: Our Lord, have mercy and compassion upon us.
Priest: Our Lord, accept our services and our prayers, and have mercy upon us.
People: Glory to You, O God.
Priest: Glory to You, O Creator.
People: Glory to You, O Christ the King, Who has pity on His sinful servants. Amin.

Source:

Ma'de'dono: The Book of the Church Festivals (1984).

Adoration of the Cross during Lent

2008-03-18T05:22:00.001-05:00

Third Sunday of Lent-Adoration of the Cross (Mark 8:34-38; 9:1).

http://lent.goarch.org/articles/lent_week_by_week.asp [Greek Orthodox Website]

by Rev. Fr. George Mastrantonis

This Sunday commemorates the venerable Cross and the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Cross as such takes on meaning and adoration because of the Crucifixion of Christ upon it. Therefore, whether it be in hymns or prayers, it is understood that the Cross without Christ has no meaning or place in Christianity. The adoration of the Cross in the middle of Great Lent is to remind the faithful in advance of the Crucifixion of Christ. Therefore, the Dassages from the Bible and the hymnology refer to the Passions, the sufferings, of Jesus Christ: The passages read this day repeat the calling of the Christian by Christ to dedicate his life, for "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Christ)" (v. 34-35). This verse clearly indicates the kind of dedication which is needed by the Christian in three steps:

To renounce his arrogance and disobedience to God's Plan,
To lift up his personal cross (the difficulties of life) with patience, faith and the full acceptance of the Will of God without complaint that the burden is too heavy; having denied himself and lifted up his cross leads him to the,
Decision to follow Christ.

These three voluntary steps are three links which cannot be separated from each other, because the main power to accomplish them is the Grace of God, which man always invokes. The Adoration of the Cross is expressed by the faithful through prayer, fasting, almsgiving and the forgiveness of the trespasses of others. On this Sunday the Adoration of the Cross is commemorated with a special service following the Divine Liturgy in which the significance of the Cross is that it leads to the Resurrection of Christ.

2008-03-18T05:07:00.001-05:00

http://www.lightstalkers.org/images/show/285675

poklonny krest - large eastern crosses near the arctic circle

2008-02-26T02:22:00.002-06:00

"poklonny krest" - also called memorial crosses are common throughout lands
of the eastern churches.
Many of them are ancient reminders and all of them are places of prayer.
There are few being constructed and erected in this modern era. This post
highlights a special one just erected in 2007. -note- Fr John-Brian

Wooden cross erected to commemorate victims of Stalin's purges
BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA
Associated Press
Posted AT 12:30 PM EST on 08/08/07
MOSCOW - Russian Orthodox priests consecrated a wooden cross Wednesday at a
site south of Moscow where firing squads executed thousands of people 70
years ago at the height of Josef Stalin's political purges. Created at a
monastery that housed one of the first Soviet labour camps and brought by
barge to Moscow along a canal built on the bones of gulag inmates, the large
cross has been embraced as memorial to the mass suffering under Stalin.

Huge cross marks Stalin purges
BBC report
The cross honours the memory of tens of thousands of Stalin's victims
A giant cross commemorating the victims of Stalinist purges in the 1930s has
been erected at a ceremony near Moscow. The wooden cross - 12.5m high (41
ft) and 7.6m wide (25 ft) - was placed in Butovo, at the site of a former
execution ground.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6936478.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6933401.stm

Other Northern Crosses of the East

The landscape of the Solovki is filled with signs of religious revival. One
such sign stands smack in the middle of the harbor: a towering wooden cross,
called a poklonny krest (cross of worship), which rises up from a rocky
platform to greet ships as they arrive on the island. These distinctively
shaped crosses are something of a specialty in the Russian North; you can
find dozens of them throughout the Solovki. Many of them were made by a
retired architect named Georgy Kozhokar. When I met Kozhokar, he was oiling
up his mountain bike for a ride across the island. With his thick, slightly
graying beard, he wouldn't have been out of place in an Orthodox monastery.
Indeed, he has lived on the Solovki for the past 17 years - but he was
originally born in far-off Moldova. "The Solovki is my spiritual homeland,"
he explains.

Later, Kozhokar took me on a tour of his cross-making workshop. Besides the
cavernous space where he assembles his monumental crosses, there is also a
room where he creates small, intricately carved crosses that will hang on
the walls of churches and private houses. Kozhokar never signs his work; he
considers himself a servant of God, rather than a commercial craftsman.

From: Ghosts of the Solovki By Alex Osipovich

http://www.passportmagazine.ru/article/121/

See also:
Stalin's victims honored in emotional memorial
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/08/AR2007080801
422.html
Gulag site now a museum to purges and a spiritual haven
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/08/08/russia.gulag.reut/index.html
Moscow ceremony remembers people killed in Soviet purge
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/29/europe/memorial.php
Stalin's victims honoured
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22214187-5005961,00.html

San Damiano Icon Crucifix - a Cross of the East

2008-02-12T13:09:00.002-06:00

San Damiano Icon Crucifix is a Cross of the East. It is sometimes known as
the Saint Francis Crucifix.

Excerpts below from:
San Damiano Cross - A Brief Explanation By: Fr. Michael Scanlon, T.O.R.
http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/stfrancis/stf_san_damiano_cross.htm

The History of the San Damiano Crucifix

An unknown Umbrian artist painted the Crucifix Icon in the 12th Century.
There is strong Syrian influence, and history tells us that there had been
some Syrian monks in the area.

It is painted on wood (walnut) to which cloth had been glued. It is about
190 cm high, 120 cms wide and 12 cms thick. It is more than likely it was
painted for San Damiano to hang over the Altar as the Blessed Sacrament was
not reserved in non Parish Churches of those times and especially those that
had been abandoned and neglected as we know San Damiano had been. In 1257
the Poor Clares left San Damiano for San Giorgio and took the Crucifix with
them. They carefully kept the Cross for 700 years.

In Holy Week of 1957, it was placed on public view for the first time over
the new Altar in San Giorgio's Chapel in the Basilica of St Clare of Assisi.

The Icon of the Transfigured Christ

For Eastern Christians the Icon is a representation of the living God, and
by coming into its presence it becomes a personal encounter with the sacred,
through the grace of the Holy Spirit. The San Damiano Icon is then a
personal encounter with the transfigured Christ - God made man. The Crucifix
contains the story of the death, resurrection and ascension into glory. It
expresses the total and universal Paschal Mystery of Christ. It invites us
all to take part in it with a lively and lived faith, just as St Francis
did. Christ's saving death is shown in John's Gospel in its serene majesty,
and this Crucifix portrays this in picture form. It is not surprising that
Saint Francis was attracted to this Icon and that the inspiration for his
life came from this Christ who spoke to him "Go repair my Church ... ".

The Figure of the Christ

The central figure of the icon is Christ, not only because of the relative
size, but because Christ is a figure of light dominating the scene and
giving light to the other figures "I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. "
(John 8:12). Christ stands upright, not nailed. The eyes of Jesus are open:
He looks out to the world, which He has saved. He is alive, the one who is
eternal. Jesus' vestment is a simple loin cloth - a symbol of both High
Priest and Victim. The chest, throat and neck are very strong, Jesus gives
power of re-creation to His Disciples (John 22:23). He breathed on His
Disciples (John 20:22), the Greek word used recalls the moment of Creation
(Gen 2:7). The shadow over the face of Jesus is increased by the fact the
halo and face are tilted forward on the original Icon. The humanity of
Christ veils the true glory of the Word who lives in the super illuminous
darkness of the Godhead. Behind the outstretched arms of Christ is His empty
tomb, shown as a black rectangle.

The Shape of the Cross.

The shape of the Cross has changed to enable the artist to include all who
participated in the drama of the Passion. Note that the arms of the cross
lift to Christ's right indicating that the Good Thief (traditionally called
Dismas) went to Heaven; while the left hand dips - the other thief did not.

The Origins of Khachkar: First crosses and cross compositions.

2008-01-28T09:20:00.003-06:00

The Origins of Khachkar

First crosses and cross compositions.

http://www.khachkar.am/en/origins/#First_crosses

In early Christian art, the origins of the depiction of the cross is thought
to be the vision of Constantine the Great, which provided the basis for
making official the monogrammatic cross (chi-ro), and following it, the
equal-winged or, so-called Greek cross. The decorated and tree of life
philosophy and iconography of a cross is connected with Constantine the
Great's mother Helena, who found the wood of the cross, from which
originates the proportionately stringed (with longer lower wing) or Latin
cross

The oldest documented crosses in Christian Armenia were the monogrammatic
crosses. These are crosses encircled in a wreath, surrounded by doves that
represented the souls of the believers, and situated in a garden-paradise
environment. But in early medieval Armenian art, encircled crosses with
radial enlarged wings are more characteristic. These became widespread both
as a type of free-standing cross-bearing stele, and as an architectural
detail on different sacred structures. Starting already from the earliest
examples, the solar-illuminated design was paralleled with an essentially
vegetative one, which became one of the bases for the further development
and eventual emergence of the cross composition.

The cross with pulled proportions (the two elements of the cross - the
horizontal and vertical pillars, do not intersect in the middle, but rather
the horizontal element transects the vertical element at a point above the
center), which spread a bit later than the equal-winged cross (beginning
from the mid-fifth century) had better prospects of development in Armenia.
These crosses were depicted on hills, on stairs, placed on a ball, decorated
with palmettes and lilies. The wings and the crossing of the cross were
accented with jewels or buttons.

The interpretation of these details allows us to come to the conclusion that
the cross with pulled proportions incorporated both the victorious and
savior philosophy, and was presented in the center of the universe as a tree
of life on the paradise mountain, referencing the crucifixion and showing
the future.
Many examples of standing cross-bearing steles from the 4th - 7th century
have survived to the present. These steles can be divided into 6 groups:
- Stele with carvings;
- Memorial columns;
- Memorial structures;
- Free-standing crosses;
- Stone crosses erected on altars;
- Crosses on a pole.

Steles, as a rule, were concluding with a stone cross with three-dimensional
or free wings, attached on pilasters, or on special cross-holders that were
positioned on pilasters. Sometimes their bases, columns or pilasters bear
cross carvings or more sophisticated cross compositions. The
three-dimensional cross, due to a prolonged lower vertical wing, has a more
extensive look, which aimed to present the Exalted cross of Golgotha. The
composition of the free crosses included the palmette ornament, which
started from the bottom of the cross and continued until the tips of the
horizontal wings, with round holes or buttons on the wings and a pair of
buttons on the ends of the wings.

The holes or buttons originated from jewelry, where the small holes were
intended to bear precious stones or to place holy relics under a glass, and
the buttons were made from precious stones. The three-dimensional crosses
that originate from northern Armenia are decorated with delicate carvings of
Christ and saints, lily flowers, grain-like ornaments and rosette bouquets.

The crosses on the pole can be divided into two types: movable and
immovable. In the first case they have a large base, short stick, sometimes
even a pilaster under the cross, and in some cases the cross-bearing circle
is based on two sticks. Probably precisely such crosses on a pole were
considered to be the crosses that were erected by Gregory the Illuminator
and King Trdat. A large part of these crosses was made from wood, and some
examples or some of their parts from iron.

Together with three-dimensional crosses, the cross compositions carved on
church structures, steles and memorials, were widespread. These compositions
provide an opportunity to restore the process of philosophical and
iconographical popularization of the cross in Armenia. Early Christian
propaganda in Armenia placed great importance as much in the oral and
written word, as in the image. The latter, in the first place, was intended
to target uneducated peasants and aimed to play the same role for them as
the book played for educated people. Another goal of the compositions was
the presentation of God's history and order through different carving
themes, images and symbols. But obvious issues were emerging with the
presentation of the basic idea of Christianity - Christ's salvational
crucifixion. It was difficult to present to the new believer a crucified but
still powerful god. To popularize the idea of salvation through crucifixion,
the Armenian Church chose to emphasize not the image (Christ) but the sign
(cross). Despite on this the sign alone could not tell much about the idea.
Detailed analysis shows that to make the prospect of salvational crucifixion
understandable, Armenian priests used allegories which were familiar to
agricultural societies: just as the grape becomes an "immortal" liquid after
squeezing, Christ poured his blood on the cross for the sins of the
humanity; just as the birds and animals enjoy themselves in the vineyards,
the true believers will enjoy heaven that will come as a result of the
crucifixion of Christ. Or, Christ's dogma itself is like a vineyard, and
Christ is like a grape, and with learning that dogma opens the road to
heaven. Thus, early cross compositions took on garden-grape iconography: the
cross is pictured as a new tree of life, which either grows in a vineyard,
or gives beginning to the vine, or bears Christ, his teaching and the vine
symbolizing the followers. This heaven-garden-grape understanding of the
cross became the basis of the khachkar composition.

The ideology and iconography of the cross in early Christian Armenia.

2008-01-28T09:20:00.002-06:00

The Origins of Khachkar

The ideology and iconography of the cross in early Christian Armenia.

http://www.khachkar.am/en/origins/#ideology

To understand the origins of the composition of the khachkar it is necessary to pay special attention to ideological-religious and cultural processes that were taking place in the 4^th-7^th centuries in Armenia. As a result of these processes, together with a number of complexes of national identity like Armenian alphabet, book, etc., the principles of the organization of sacred space, the national worship of the cross, and the iconography were shaped. The development of these complexes and the specific historic-cultural environment led to the emergence of khachkars. According to the evidence presented in the “History” by Agatangeghos, which is a presentation of the proclamation of Christianity as a state religion in Armenia in the beginning of the 4th century, in process of spreading of Christianity an important role had played the temple and an open-air stele. The Vision of Grigor the Enlightener, which is a part of mentioned “History”, states, that the first cross-bearing steles and temple appeared in the center of the capital of Armenia as a result of a miracle. If the temple was the symbol of the surrounding holy territory, to a certain extent it was in opposition to secular, non-holy territory. Thus the cross-bearing stele aimed to give holiness to the open air, to secular territory, easing the conflict between the holy and non-holy, and eventually between the believer and the non-believer. It was thought in medieval Armenia that the Armenian letters were depicted to Mesrop Mashtots (father of the Armenian alphabet) by a miracle. Thus, the stele, the temple, and the letters, were given to Armenians through a miracle and represent the three main, equal directions and means in the process of spreading and strengthening of the new belief. The first stele in the vision of Grigor the Enlightener comes as a result of the victory over pagan forces, the remaining three as the result of the martyring of the virgins. Hence, in this vision, which has a keynote nature for Armenian Christianity and the Armenian church, demonstrates the victorious (first stele) and savior (the steles of the virgins) symbolization of the cross, which fully corresponds to the symbolism of the cross created in the 4^th century.

There are no details on the form or appearance of the cross in early Armenian written sources. Its form and general appearance and its symbolic meaning, are issues, which can be addressed by a comparative analysis of the general symbolism of the cross in the first centuries of Christianity, by a restoration of the graphics and corresponding materials. In the New Testament we see the first attempts to interpret the crucifixion as salvation and victory, which constitutes the general wisdom of Christology. But these are indefinite references, which do not rule out the clear practice of the holy cross and do not describe its outer appearance. In the antique world the death penalty through crucifixion was considered to be the most humiliating form of capital punishment. This perception of the cross as a tool for a shameful death was shared by the early Christians as well, and it took some time for this to be overcome. We should consider as accepted the opinion that until Constantine The Great the cross had been considered a tool for murder and disrespect, and was used rarely as a symbol of Christianity and as complementary for the other symbols. It is characteristic that in 4^th-5^th centuries, among the most important instructions by the first creators of the cross philosophy was that there was no need anymore to be ashamed of accepting and worshiping the cross. Due to wide-ranging preaching, the cross quickly was transformed into an exclusive sign of Christian identity, by which started, proceeded and finished every thought, ritual and beginning. In the popularization of cross worship and the emergence of the khachkar, an important role was also played by the particular kind of cross worshiping of the Armenian Church. Another basis for the emergence of the khachkar and for the development of popular reverence toward it was the worshiping of a free standing outdoor rock, a mountain and eventually simply a stone.

Nasrani Cross

2008-01-26T22:11:00.000-06:00

Nasrani Cross

The symbol of the Nasranis is the Syrian Cross, also called the Nasrani Menorah or St Thomas Cross or Mar Thoma sleeba in Malayalam. It is based on the Jewish menorah, the ancient symbol of the Hebrews, which consists of a branched candle stand for seven candlesticks. (Exodus 25). In the Nasrani Menorah the six branches, (three on either side of the cross) represents God as the burning bush, while the central branch holds the cross, the dove at the tip of the cross represents the Holy Spirit. (Exodus 25:31). In Jewish tradition the central branch is the main branch, from which the other branches or other six candles are lit. Netzer is the Hebrew word for "branch" and is the root word of Nazareth and Nazarene. (Isaiah 11:1). The menorah (Hebrew: מנורה), is a seven branched candelabrum to be lit by olive oil in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem.

http://nasrani.wordpress.com/category/christianity/cross/

Fracas over the origin of the `Marthoma Cross' or `Manichaen Cross'

2008-01-26T22:03:00.000-06:00

Friday, April 24, 1998 ~ Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

Row over `Mar Thoma Cross' may take unholy turn

Bonnie James

KOCHI, April 23: The fracas over the origin of the `Marthoma Cross' or `Manichaen Cross,' as it is termed by the respective factions in the Syro-Malabar Church, threatens to turn ugly. It is the decision of the Nazrani Catholica Paithruka Samrakshana Samithi to consign to flames the Manichaen symbol and the new parish council rules on May 7 that lends a strong emotional touch to the issue. The consequences of the samithi's move are unpredictable. The name `Marthoma' comes from St Thomas who propagated Christianity in India while the latter term is derived from Mani, who lived in Persia in the third century and founded the Manichaen sect, a mixture of Christianity and Zoroastrianism. Incidentally, a pastoral letter of Changanassery Archbishop Joseph Powathil, the bete noire of the samithi, with an exhaustive explanation on the need to respect the `Cross' had imparted a new twist to the dispute.

According to him, the Holy Cross was a revered object in the Church from ancient times. While refuting theallegation that the Cross opposes the Crucifix, he made clear his stand for the installation of the former in the altar instead of the latter. ``The devotion to the Crucifix was propagated here only after the 16th century by missionaries. Although it is not necessary to stop venerating the Crucifix, it is clear that it cannot express the mystery of Christ fully. The cross, the symbol of resurrection, is the apt object to be installed in the altar,'' the Archbishop who wears the same cross as his pectoral cross maintained.

In this context, it has to be recalled that move to install the disputed cross in the churches of the Archdiocese of Changanassery has been creating tension.

Terming Mani as an `absurd prophet,' Archbishop Powathil contested the view that the `Marthoma Cross' was Manichaen. After the letter, which also `warned' against `those conducting misinformation campaigns,' was read on March 29 in the churches of the Archdiocese, there was a flurry of activity in the rival camp. The All IndiaCatholic Association unit, Changanassery, challenged the Archbishop to prove that the cross in question was `brought' by St Thomas himself. ``Has this cross been approved by the Synod ?'' and ``If so, then why it is not being installed in the altar of churches in all dioceses?'' were among the other questions. In the opinion of Fr C J Varkey, director, Charismatic Retreat Centre, Kulathuvayal, the `Manichaen Cross,' is not to be exhibited at all in churches and altars. ``This was brought to Kerala by Mani himself. Abandoned during sixth century it surfaced as `Marthoma Cross.'

There is no dearth for varied arguments and counter arguments on the issue. But one thing is certain. As Thrissur Archbishop Jacob Thoomkuzhy said before a Synodal session, it is the duty of the Synod to remove the doubts in the minds of the faithful. Till then, the situation in the Church would continue to be volatile.

The Most Beautiful Cross in the World - The Lalibela Ethiopian Cross

2008-01-25T02:09:00.000-06:00

The Most Beautiful Cross in the World - The Lalibela Ethiopian Cross

http://www.tecolahagos.com/faith.htm

Professor Tecola W. Hagos
Washington DC
July, 2002

There is no other cross in the world that even remotely shares any design commonality with the Lalibela Ethiopian Cross. This Cross is unique in its highly sophisticated design and how ingeniously the greatest Biblical story is incorporated within its matrix. The first time I saw the Lalibela Cross was when I was a high school student some forty years ago--in another life. Since then until very recently, I thought of the Lalibela Cross as very mysterious and puzzling. Thus, over the years I tried to learn more about this great Cross. At times, I even wondered how it could even be considered a cross.

There are two basic designs of crosses: the Latin Cross and the Greek Cross. Every cross in the world is built around these two underlying designs. I checked thousands of variations, some improvised and others strictly traditional designs of crosses, in books, catalogs, and recently through the Internet. From thousands of cross designs that I checked there is not a single design that could even remotely compare with the originality and beauty of the Ethiopian Lalibela Cross. Thus, I think the Lalibela Cross is a third group that stands for its unique matrix as a third basic design next to the Latin and Greek, all on its own.

Few religious artifacts, as tangible corporeal symbols of Faith, are as venerated, adored, loved, and “worshiped” as the Cross in Ethiopia. Not only the Christian Faithful adorn themselves with a small cross about their person (usually worn on a string or chain around their necks), but also often times non-Christian females wear the Cross as part of their jewelry, at least those young girls I saw in my part of Ethiopia (Dessie, Wollo). Of course, since the cross has a very close design resemblance to the “Anuak,” the symbol of life from ancient Pharonic civilization, the attraction of the cross for Ethiopians maybe explained as a deep primordial recognition of an ancient symbol through communal subconsciousness.

In this one design the Christian dogma and history of the Church is encapsulated in an exquisitely balanced expressive design. The Cross is based on two elongated circles intertwined with each other, where one simply continues or merges into the other, symbolizing the temporal and the eternal, or Heaven and Earth, or the Spiritual and the Physical aspects of Creation. The Trinity (God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is represented by the three crosses on the vertical axis. The thirteen triangles with small circles on top of each arranged around the crown of the upper oval/circle represent Christ and his Twelve Disciples. And the three pairs of wings on the opposite sides of the lower oval/circle balance the crowning upper design of the Christ with his Disciples. The effect is stunning, that of flawless beauty that transcends time and space.

The simplification of the human body into geometric design of a triangle and a circle is a perfect choice, for the artist could have chosen any number of simplifications. The choice of a triangle with a little circle on top seems to suggest a sitting figure. Thus the over all design not only fully represents the Christ and his Disciples but also suggests a particular historical time in the life of the Christian Church that of the Last Supper--the last communion of man and God.

The wings play a more abstract role suggesting spirituality as opposed to representation of a particular concept of God as the Holy Spirit. This is quite obvious in later developments where the artist seems preoccupied in purely creative search in perfecting this unique design of the Lalibela Cross more than any form of narration. For example, in both Processional and Priest Crosses we see the six side wings simply being integrated in the matrix of the Cross with decoration as a primary motif. This is a significant departure from the spiritual to the aesthetic. In fact, such distinction may even be too shallow to describe the process of metamorphosis underway in the minds of the Ethiopian artists who created such wonderful masterpieces.

The Christ is represented by a triangle that is superimposed on the first cross on top of the oval dome. And the Twelve Disciples are arranged six on each side of the Christ. The genius of the Ethiopian artist is to be seen also in the subtle suggestion one feels from the arrangement of the Christ and the Twelve Disciples, the presence of the “crown of thorns” that the Christ was forced to wear on his way to Golgotha. This Cross is truly a testament of love and faith. The overall effect is of indescribable harmony and beauty.

Within this new or original matrix of the Lalibela Cross you can see variations that are more impressionistic in execution than symbolic representational. For example, the Christ and the Disciples are transformed into a rhythmic vein. Some people might dismiss this further abstraction a result of sloppy craftsmanship, but I believe that it is an aesthetic development of much higher magnitude of abstraction of the basic representational work into an impressionistic and further on as pure design. Whether one looks at these features of the cross as purely decorative the fact remains that the creativity, originality, sense of balance and harmony of the Lalibela Cross is awe inspiring. When it comes to the adulation of the cross, the Ethiopian artist or artists who designed such masterpieces have no equals anywhere in the Christian World.

All great works of art suspend time for there is nothing outside of such works that could be added to enhance or embellish because such masterpieces are self defining and self contained, and we are totally immersed with such works. In their great beauty, they contain all of human experience of the Universe. These artifacts become the center that pulls our human experience and the mystery of existence together; in a way, through art we are forced into becoming one with the Universe.

One may generalize that the genius of the Ethiopian artists who created the Lalibela Cross is not limited to their great structural abstraction, but also extends to their absolute control of the religious symbolism integrated in the cross from overwhelming the over all design. There is absolute balance between each part of the Lalibela Cross. In fact, the Cross seems to be contained by far more profound and subtle narrative just touching the subconscious represented in the general matrix of the artifact. However, one should not forget the fact that the Lalibela Cross is an item of devotion, thus essentially utilitarian. Is that not what religion is supposed to be? A kind of guide to achieve eternal communion with the Creator of the Universe?

I searched far and wide for years going through books and catalogues checking (comparing) thousands of all kinds of Cross designs, but could not find anything that is as sophisticated and as complete, as unique and as beautiful as the Lalibela Cross. It is now clear to me why scholars wrote about the Lalibela Cross scantly and cryptically. They were all as puzzled and as stunned as I once was, that is what I would like to believe had happened.

Some Scholars were quite dismissive in their evaluation of the artistic achievement of those Ethiopian masters. Even Richard Pankhrust, one of Ethiopia’s most distinguished historian, does not seem to pay much needed attention to those great Ethiopian artists who created the Lalibela Cross. Pankhurst wrote, “the basic design of the processional cross, irrespective of the material out of which it was fashioned, was that of an often highly elaborate, and Ethiopianized, Greek or Latin cross…. Though all crosses were of course cruciform in conception, many processional crosses gave the appearance of other forms. Some were thus almost entirely round, and others diamond-shaped. Others again, particularly characteristic of the Lalibela period, were enclosed in an elongated pear-shaped frame, almost like a highly decorated leaf.” Richard Pankhurst, “Ethiopian Crosses, and Their History: Processional, Hand and Neck Crosses,” Addis Tribune, 1997. http://archives.geez.org

In my quest for connection to my nation’s awesome history, I asked few Ethiopians for their ideas of the Lalibela Cross, and their response is very interesting. Almost everyone said that the Lalibela Cross is the most beautiful cross of all of Ethiopian crosses. However, very few were able to tell me what form of symbolism or message was incorporated in the design of the Lalibela Cross. Some did not even know the designation of the cross as the “Lalibela Cross.” That fact did not bother me at all, for by not knowing such narrative, they seem to have experienced the beauty of the cross transcending history and our pedantic categorization of a great masterpiece on its own. In fact, I am more envious of such direct emotional experience of spirituality than the rigor and certainty born out of searching for an illusive truth.

Professor Tecola W. Hagos
Washington DC
July, 2002

Art That Heals: The Rampart of the Cross

2008-01-24T22:38:00.000-06:00

Art That Heals: The Image as Medicine in Ethiopia

The Rampart of the Cross
http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/medmuseum/galleryexhibits/artthatheals/11thecross.html
________________________________

Two images, both very rich in the Ethiopian context, come together
to define the status of the cross: first, the cross is the "seal" of Christ
(and the Trinity) and therefore has always existed and always will; second,
its wood having been sanctified by Christ's blood, it is a sacrificial being
endowed with an infinite power of sanctification. This sacrificial status
gives its eternity a triumphal quality. Medium of Christ's rebirth, it tends
to act as His worldly double, still more than any place with which he is
associated. In Ethiopia, as opposed to Western Christian churches, the cross
is far more an image of triumph than one of death. And the Church, in
signing every baptized person with the cross, makes them share in God's
victory over death and over Satan.

Each church has one or several large processional crosses, which are used
during sacramental activities, services, and processions. Westerners who
have stayed in Ethiopia know the procession of the Epiphany: moving toward
the brook where the ceremony will take place, the deacons walk first,
wearing ceremonial clothes, crowned, and holding a cross; they are followed
by priests wearing on their heads an altar tablet wrapped in cloth. No less
celebrated is the procession around the bonfire on the feast of the finding
of the True Cross. In the past, processions used to take place on Saturdays
and Sundays, according to the testimony of the chaplain Alvarez, who was
part of the first Portuguese diplomatic expedition to Ethiopia, in the early
sixteenth century.

Processional Cross

http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/medmuseum/galleryexhibits/artthatheals/images/21processionalcross.gif
21. Processional cross. The cross is honored by its placement under atriumphal arch, following the antique fashion, and thus suggesting aprototype of great age. Cross, twelfth to thirteenth century, 34.92 x 15.87cm. Collection: The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 54.2889

Cross with rounded extremities
http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/medmuseum/galleryexhibits/artthatheals/images/22roundedcross.gif
22. Processional cross. The doubling of the lateral ends of this cross's arms is a development seen in a type of cross from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, characterized by rounded extremities. Cross, thirteenth to fourteenth century (?), bronze, 33 x 17 cm. Collection:
Richard J. Faletti Family, Clarendon

Four-lobed processional cross
http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/medmuseum/galleryexhibits/artthatheals/images/23fourlobed.gif
26. Four-lobed processional cross, particularly finely executed. Serpents appear on the edges. Like all bronze crosses, this one was made by the lost-wax process. Cross, fifteenth century, bronze, 26.03 x 15.87 cm. Collection: The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 54.2894

Interlacing processional cross
http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/medmuseum/galleryexhibits/artthatheals/images/24interlacing.gif 27. The interlacing of this processional cross, in beaten and cut brass, reveals a Muslim influence. On the front, according to the inscriptions, "Mary" and her child between "Michael" and "Gabriel"; on the back, the "Ancient of Days" between "Peter" and "Paul." Cross, early sixteenth
century, brass, 28 x 21.5 cm. Private collection. Photo courtesy of Guy Vivien

Benediction cross
http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/medmuseum/galleryexhibits/artthatheals/images/25benediction.gif 28. Benediction cross with engraved motifs: above, the Trinity, with, at their feet, a dignitary armed with a curved sword, and accompanied by a soldier at either side; at the right, Mary and her child; at the left, Saint George, and below, a holy hermit and a soldier. Carving wood does not demand the sophisticated technique of working in bronze, and is practiced by monks, whose talents can be inventive, if sometimes crude. Cross, seventeenth century (?), wood, 57 x 30 cm. Collection: Robert and Nancy Nooter. Photo courtesy of Jerry L. Thompson

Text courtesy of Mercier, Jacques. Art That Heals: the Image as Medicine in Ethiopia. New York: Prestel Books and The Museum For African Art, 1997.

The Sacred Central Point of This World

2008-01-16T18:03:00.000-06:00

The Cross

The world of Christian symbols is a hierarchy of signs that have their origin in divine forms of which they are images, according to St. John of Damascus [Three Apologies Against the Iconoclasts]. The sacred central point of this world is the sign of the Holy Cross, symbol of the New Testament, symbol of victory over death, and the intersection of the heavenly and the earthly. As St. John Damascene further states: As the four ends of the Cross are held together and united by its center, so are the height and the depths, the length and the breadth, that is, all creation visible and invisible, held together by the power of God. This is affirmed by St. John Chrysostom, who pointed out that the Cross is the joining of the heavenly and the earthly and the defeat of Hell. [Works, Vol. II, Bk. 1, St. Petersburg, 1905, p.953].

The whole purpose of a man's life is knowledge of the Cross, that, at the end of his road, he might say: I have been crucified with Christ:, it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). In order to become a temple, a repository of the Spirit of God, the soul should follow the Lord step by step along the way of the Cross until, at last, all that remains for it is to be lifted up on the Cross in spirit, after which follows spiritual resurrection in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did not the Lord Himself tell us, that he who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me (Matt. 10:38)?

The Holy Apostles, having heard the Savior speak of His own crucifixion and death on the Cross, and knowing the words of Old Testament Scripture that had been fulfilled, were wont to say: What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He thus fulfilled (Acts 3:18). And the early Fathers, faithful to the Apostolic Tradition, explained that, as the forces of death had entered into man with the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, even so would eternal life enter into the world with the tree of life which, on earth, has been transformed into the Cross of Christ.

This Tree of Life, united in the Cross of Golgotha, was seen in the Old Testament as the brass serpent which Moses made on the tree in obedience to God's command, by which those who had been bitten by poisonous serpents, upon looking at this brass serpent would remain alive. This was referred to by the Lord, Who said: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15).

Now everyone who looks to the Cross with faith receives salvation and protection; and as pointed out in the words of the Savior earlier, it is bound up with the idea of bearing a Cross (Matt. 10:38). The only way to union with Christ is union through an imitation of His death; to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is to be baptized into His death. Thus all the preaching of the Apostles is of Christ crucified: We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:23-24). This teaching of the Apostles led to the transformation of mankind into the Body of Christ.

The Holy Apostles created the Church, the destiny of which was to suffer crucifixion together with Christ and, like Him, to be buried and to rise again from the dead. This process, then, is the Church's meaning and justification, summed up in the words of the Apostle Paul: For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him (Rom. 6:5-8).

The earliest forms of the Cross in Christian art took the form of the depiction of the Cross as a monogram of the name of Jesus Christ. One of the earliest pictorial form of the Cross, for example, was the Greek letter X (dating from the 2nd Century), which later became known as the Cross of St. Andrew. Later this X was bisected vertically by the Greek letter I, forming, in Greek, the name Jesus Christ. By the middle of the 3rd Century, the meaning of this Cross as a monogram gave way to the idea of a six-pointed Cross symbolizing the original image of the universe, for its six points represented the six days of the creation of the world.

The actual instrument of execution used in the Roman Empire, however, normally consisted of a three-pointed cross made of two planks knocked together in the shape of the Greek letter T. According to Tertullian (2nd Century), both the Greek letter T and the Latin T were images of the Cross of Christ. According to Church Tradition, St. Anthony the Great (f 356) wore the T-Cross on his clothing and St. Zeno, Bishop of Verona, had a T-shaped Cross erected on the dome of a basilica built by him in 362 A.D. Thus, with a greater desire of Christians to imitate the actual Cross of Christ, the T-Cross became prevalent.

By the 5th Century, however, the four-pointed Cross became more popular under two forms: the so-called Greek Cross (+) and the Latin Cross (t). In the Greek the cross-piece is of equal length to the upright, in the Latin the upright is of greater length. The tradition that the Cross of Golgotha had four points was upheld by St. Irenaeus of Lyons and by St. Augustine; but the Church did admit a variety of forms of the Cross. As St. Theodore of Studium says, a cross of any shape is a true cross!

By the 6th Century, Christian art had arrived at the direct representation of the crucifixion; but even then, almost three hundred years after the Emperor Constantine had abolished execution by crucifixion, for many the direct representation of the crucified Christ remained a stumbling block. Only gradually was the symbolic representation of Christ on the Cross replaced by the depiction of the actual crucifix (i.e., the crucified Christ), which in the East, culminated in the eight-pointed Cross most common in the Russian Orthodox Church. The first written mention of the veneration of the crucifix only occurs at the end of the 7th Century.

According to St. John of Damascus: By the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ death was overcome, original sin was absolved, hell deprived of its prey, resurrection given and the strength to despise the present and even death itself, and the way was prepared to the blessedness that had been in the beginning, the gates of Paradise opened, our nature took up its seat upon the right hand of God and we became the children and heirs of God. All this was done by the Cross. The instrument of shameful execution was transformed into the gateway of Paradise and it became the sacred task of Christian art to express all of this. For this reason the use of gold and precious stones was connected with the desire to represent the Cross as the radiant beginning of a world transformed, as the tree of immortality, as the torch of the knowledge of God.

To the Inner Liturgical Tradition of the Church belongs the teaching of the liturgical use of the Cross and the significance of the Sign of the Cross. According to the Blessed Augustine: Unless the Sign of the Cross is made on the foreheads of the faithful, as on the water itself wherewith they are regenerated, or on the oil with which they are anointed with chrism, or on the sacrifice with which they are nourished, none of these things is duly performed [From A Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship. London, 1972, pp. 185-186]. By the Sign of the Cross the gates are opened through which the grace of the Holy Spirit is poured forth upon the faithful, transfiguring the earthly and the heavenly in their souls, laying low sin, conquering death and breaking down the barrier, invisible to the sensual eye, that separates us from the knowledge of God.

In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the Priest receives the power to celebrate the Sacraments from the moment of the laying-on of hands when the Bishop, making the Sign of the Cross over him three times, calls upon the Holy Trinity to send down the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit upon him. A newly-erected church building is transformed into a temple of the Lord only after the Altar and walls have been signed with the Cross in Holy Oil.

At the Divine Liturgy, the Priest makes the Sign of the Cross with the Holy Lamb, and this is one of the most mysterious moments of the Eucharist. The first Sign of the Cross at the elevation of the whole Lamb sanctifies the air. The second Sign of the Cross, made as the four parts of the Lamb are arranged upon the paten, sanctifies the ground. The third Sign of the Cross, as the particles are placed in the chalice, sanctifies the four corners of the world. After this, the warmth (warm water) is added to the chalice, poured in the Sign of the Cross. The communicants approach the chalice with crossed arms. Thus, without the Cross, there is no sacrament, no life and no salvation. It is for this reason that we sing the triumphant hymn of the Holy Cross: Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection, we glorify!

Excerpt taken from "These Truths We Hold - The Holy Orthodox Church: Her Life and Teachings". Compiled and Edited by A Monk of St. Tikhon's Monastery. Copyright 1986 by the St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, South Canaan, Pennsylvania 18459. http://www.stots.edu/article.php?id=52

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Ethiopia: Inside Ethiopia's Wonder Churches

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The Victory of the Cross

Armenian Cross Stones Consecrated - April 2011

Depictions of the Cross before 10th Century

The Sign of the Cross

Inward Sign of the Cross

Orthodox Church Celebrates 358th Anniversary of Bent Cross Oath

Orthodox Church Celebrates 358th Anniversary of Bent Cross Oath

The Finding of the True Cross

pectoral cross

St. Gregory of Nareg's Vision of the Cross

Only in Armenian: Roberta Ervine on Gregory of Nareg

The Miraculous Power of the Cross and Prayer - A Scientific Study

Siberian Orthodox Cross

Archaeologists find oldest Orthodox Christian church

Bikers in Belarus Process with Cross

The Cross is an Ascension Symbol

The Stone crosses of Kerala

The Stone crosses of Kerala

Meaning of the Mid-Lent Cross

The Blessing Cross

Saint Nino's Cross - The Grapevine Cross

Making Cross More

Cross Making More

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh: the Way of the Cross

The Order of Zuyoho - "Elevation" of the Cross

Adoration of the Cross during Lent

Third Sunday of Lent-Adoration of the Cross (Mark 8:34-38; 9:1).

"A Russian woman places a coin on an ice cross outside Moscow." ©Alana Marcu | Lightstalkers

poklonny krest - large eastern crosses near the arctic circle

San Damiano Icon Crucifix - a Cross of the East

The Origins of Khachkar: First crosses and cross compositions.

The ideology and iconography of the cross in early Christian Armenia.

Nasrani Cross

Fracas over the origin of the `Marthoma Cross' or `Manichaen Cross'

Row over `Mar Thoma Cross' may take unholy turn

The Most Beautiful Cross in the World - The Lalibela Ethiopian Cross

Art That Heals: The Rampart of the Cross

The Sacred Central Point of This World