The Eastern Orthodox Cross

[Amazing Rando]

Every time I see a cross used as the symbol for Eastern Orthodoxy, it almost always is an odd looking shape- there's three crossbars on it rather than one. There's the big normal one, a little one above the big one, and a little crooked one below the big one. What's the significance behind this symbol? Why is it different than the cross of the RCC and Protestants?

[ManM]

Summarized from http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Q-and-A_OLD/The-Russian-Orthodox-Cross.html

The top bar was the sign that was placed above Christ's head. The middle bar was where his arms were nailed. The bottom bar was his footrest. I've heard that the bottom one is slanted as a reminder of the two folks crucified with Him, one ascending and the other falling.

[Amazing Rando]

Ah, that would explain it, thanks!

[George Blaisdell]

Ah, that would explain it, thanks!


That cross is commonly known as the Russian Orthodox Cross, or three bar cross, but has an even more ancient lineage back to Constantinople and the Byzantines. I do not think the Roman See embraced it, and so it just didn't show up in the west. The Greek Cross, of course, is shaped more like a plus sign [+]...

Another nuance of it, is that from Christ's perspective, the slanted bar always is up, and down is to His left, a point which was lost in Mel Gibson's Passion, I am told... [I didn't see it.] He had the penitent thief on Christ's left, which is not where he was... Yet the image is stark, for with Christ, we will be divided according to how we bear our own Crosses, either up or down... Either confessing Christ, or mocking Him...

And yet again, the slanted cross depicts the slope of the foot "rest", which gets slippery with blood, as the victim ties to support his weight on his feet, yet the rest is sloped away, and the additional cruelty is inflicted, for the feet and the hands are what is pierced, in a way the specific objects of punishments, for our crimes are with our hands, when our feet walk in sins...

So that the three bar cross has the double agony of being sloped not only foreward, but down and to the left...

geo-Arsenios