The Russian Orthodox Cross (or just the Orthodox Cross by some

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

traditions) is a variation of the

Christian cross The Christian cross, seen as representing the crucifixion of Jesus, is a religious symbol, symbol of Christianity. It is related to the crucifix, a cross that includes a ''corpus'' (a representation of Jesus' body, usually three-dimensional) a ...

since the 16th century in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, although it bears some similarity to a cross with a bottom crossbeam slanted the other way (upwards) found since the 6th century in the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

. The Russian Orthodox cross has three horizontal crossbeams, with the lowest one slanted downwards. Today it is a symbol of the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

Фещин А. Довірся Хресту // Християнский голос. — 2002. — № 18 (2854). С. 232. and a distinctive feature of the cultural landscape of Russia.Бурштын Я
Ірына Дубянецкая: Дзякуючы намаганням РПЦ пачынае мяняцца культурны ландшафт Беларусі (Фота і відэа)
// Служба інфармацыі «ЕўраБеларусі», 16 ліпеня 2016 г. Other names for the symbol include the ''Russian cross'', and ''Slavonic'' or ''Suppedaneum cross''. The earliest cross with a slanted footstool (pointing upwards, unlike the Russian cross) was introduced in the 6th century before the break between Catholic and Orthodox churches, and was used in Byzantine frescoes, arts, and crafts. In 1551 during the canonical isolation of the Russian Orthodox Church,

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar of all Russia, Tsar and Grand Prince of all R ...

, Grand Prince of Moscow, first used this cross, with the footstool tilted the other way, on the domes of churches. From this time, it started to be depicted on the Russian state coat of arms and military banners. In the second half of the 19th century, this cross was promoted by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in the former

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

as a symbol of its

Russification Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy. Russification was at times ...

policy. One variant known as the Russian cross has only two horizontal crossbeams with the lower one slanted; another is the cross over

crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase (as it appears in the northern hemisphere) in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hindu iconography, Hind ...

variant. Some Russian sources distinguish the Russian Orthodox cross from the Orthodox cross. In

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

the symbol (☦) is denoted as ''Orthodox cross''. The same USVA headstone emblem is called ''Russian Orthodox cross''.

Name

According to many sources the name of the three beam slanted cross is Russian (Orthodox) cross ( Святейший Патриарх Московский и всея Руси Кирилл. Воздвижение Честного и Животворящего Креста Господня /
Тихвинский листок №41, 27 Сентября 2017.
/ref>). Sometimes it is also called the Byzantine cross.Becker U. The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols. — New York London, 2000. P
71
Alternatively, "Byzantine cross" is also the name for a Latin cross with outwardly spreading ends, as it was the most common cruciform in the

. Other crosses ( patriarchal cross, Russian Orthodox cross, etc.) are sometimes denominated as Byzantine crosses, as they also were used in Byzantine culture. Sometimes it is also called just Orthodox cross.Chwalkowski F. Symbols in Arts, Religion and Culture: The Soul of Nature. — Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016. P
112
/ref> At the same time the various Orthodox churches use different crosses, and any of them may be called an "Orthodox cross". Moreover, there are no crosses universally acknowledged as "Orthodox" or "Catholic": each type is a feature of local tradition. The cross has also been referred to as the "Eastern Cross", and "has a special place in Ukrainian religious life" and has been used by Ukrainian Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches. For example, this particular cross is dates back to

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

, and is used by Ukrainian Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

Meaning

The topmost of the three crossbeams represents Pilate's inscription which in the older

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

tradition is "The King of Glory", based on John's Gospel; but in later images it represents . The middle crossbeam is the main bar to which the victim's hands are fixed, while the bottom crossbeam represents the footrest which prolongs the torture. In many depictions, the side to Christ's right is higher, slanting upward toward the penitent thief St. Dismas, who was crucified on Jesus' right, but downward toward impenitent thief Gestas, who mocked Christ on the cros
(Luke 23:39–43)
Their names are preserved not in the Gospels, but in the apocryphal tradition.Яременко В. Золоте Слово: Хрестоматія літератури України-Русі епохи Середньовіччя IX—XV століть. Книга перша. — Київ: Аконіт, 2002. С. 485. It is also a common perception that the foot-rest points up, toward Heaven, on Christ's right hand-side, and downward, to Hell, on Christ's left. The cross is often depicted in icons "of the crucifixion in historic Byzantine style". One variation of the Russian Cross is the 'Cross over Crescent', which is sometimes accompanied by "Gabriel perched on the top of the Cross blowing his trumpet." Didier Chaudet, in the academic journal '' China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly'', writes that an "emblem of the Orthodox Church is a cross on top on a crescent. It is said that this symbol was devised by

, after the conquest of the city of

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

, as a symbol of the victory of Christianity over Islam through his soldiers". Another variation is the monastic ''Calvary Cross'', in which the cross is situated atop the hill of

Calvary Calvary ( or ) or Golgotha () was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, Jesus was crucified. Since at least the early medieval period, it has been a destination for pilgrimage. ...

, its slopes symbolized by steps. To the viewer's left is the

Holy Lance The Holy Lance, also known as the Spear of Longinus (named after Longinus, Saint Longinus), the Spear of Destiny, or the Holy Spear, is alleged to be the lance that pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross during his Crucifixion of Jes ...

, with which Jesus was wounded in his side, and to the right, the pole topped by a hyssop sponge with which he was given vinegar. Under Calvary are

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

skull and bones Skull and Bones (also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death) is an undergraduate senior Secret society#Colleges and universities, secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior-class ...

; the right-arm bone is usually above the left one, and believers fold their arms across their chests in this way during Orthodox communion. Around the cross are abbreviations in

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...

: — «Царь Славы», Lord of Glory; - Иисус Христос, Jesus Christ; — «Сын Божий» Son of God; НИКА - Victor; К - копьё, spear; Т - трость, pole (with a sponge); М Л Р Б — «место лобное рай бысть» "place of execution is paradise", Г Г — «гора Голгофа» "mount Golgotha" (Calvary), Г А — «глава Адамова» "Adam's head". This type of cross is usually embroidered on a schema-monk's robe.

Current usage

The Russian (Orthodox) cross is widely used by the

, and has been widely adopted in the Polish Orthodox and the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Churches, which received their autonomous status from the Patriarch of Moscow in 1948 and 1951 respectively. It is also sometimes used by the

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is heade ...

(e.g. in the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese). "Though commonly associated with the Russian Orthodox Church, this rossis found also in the Greek and Serbian Orthodox churches" and is also used by Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. This cross is also found in Byzantine frescoes in churches now belonging to the

and

Serbian Orthodox The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the populat ...

churches. Also the Cross is used by the AIPCA churches in Kenya.

History

The slanted cross with three horizontal crossbeams existed already in the 6th century, long before the Great Schism. However, it was used only in church paintings, arts and crafts, and never on church domes. There are old frescoes depicting this type of cross in the regions of modern

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. One Byzantine icon featuring the three-bar cross, with the slanted crossbeam for the feet of Christ, is an 11th century mosaic of the resurrection. The three-bar cross "existed very early in Byzantium, but was adopted by the Russian Orthodox Church and especially popularized in Slavic countries." At the end of the 15th century this cross started to be widely used in Russian Tsardom when its rulers declared themselves the " Third Rome", successors of Byzantium and defenders of Orthodoxy.Гнідець Р
Св. Хрест, його форма та різновиди в Україні
// Греко-Католицька Традиція №9 (193), вересень 2013 р. In 1551 at the council of the canonically isolated Russian Orthodox Church, the Grand Prince of Moscow

decided to standardize the cross on Russian church domes to distinguish Russian Tsardom from the " Lithuanian, Polack cross". Белы А.br>Крыж Еўфрасінні Полацкай
// Наша Слова. № 29 (817) 1 жнiўня 2007 г. This was the first time the Russian Orthodox Cross was used on church domes. During 1577–1625, the Russian Orthodox cross was depicted between the heads of a

double-headed eagle The double-headed eagle is an Iconology, iconographic symbol originating in the Bronze Age. The earliest predecessors of the symbol can be found in Mycenaean Greece and in the Ancient Near East, especially in Mesopotamian and Hittite Empire#icon ...

in the

coat of arms of Russia The coat of arms of Russia derives from the earlier coat of arms of the Russian Empire. Though modified more than once since the reign of Ivan III (1462–1505), the current coat of arms is directly derived from its medieval original, with the d ...

. It was drawn on military banners until the end of the 17th century. In 1654, the Moscow council, erasing the vestiges of the canonical isolation of 1448–1589, coordinated Russian Orthodox liturgy with that of other Orthodox churches.Мицик Ю. Московський Патріархат // Енциклопедія історії України : у 10 т. / редкол.: В. А. Смолій (голова) та ін. ; Інститут історії України НАН України. — К.: Наук. думка, 2010. — Т. 7 : Мл — О. С. 87. At this council, Patriarch Nikon ordered the use of the

Greek cross The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Jesus, Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a crucifix and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' (La ...

instead of Russian Orthodox cross. These reforms provoked the Raskol schism. Replacement of the Russian Orthodox cross by Greek cross was caused by Russian disrespect for the second one.Русский крест: символика православного надглавного креста. — Москва, 2006. С. 147. Soon, however, the Russian Orthodox Church began to use the Russian Orthodox cross again. According to the Metropolitan of Ryazan and Murom Stefan, the Russian Orthodox cross was worn by Czar Peter I (1672–1725), who transformed the

Moscow Patriarchate The Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus (), also known as the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, is the title of the Primate (bishop), primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It is often preceded by the honorific "His Holiness". As the Ordinar ...

into the Most Holy Synod. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Russian Orthodox cross was promoted by the

and

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

as a part of Russification policies.Щербаківський В. Чи трираменний хрест із скісним підніжком – національний хрест України? // Визвольний шлях. — 1952, листопад. — Ч. 11 (62). С. 33—34.Білокінь С. Українська форма хреста // Укр. слово. — 1994. — № 17 (2713). At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, the Russian Orthodox Church replaced many traditional Greek Orthodox crosses in Belarus with Russian Orthodox crosses. This suggests that it was understood as an nationalist Russian symbol rather than a religious Orthodox one. The Russian Orthodox cross is depicted on emblems of several Russian ultra-nationalist organizations such as Brotherhood of Russian Truth and Russian National Unity.

Gallery

File:Descent into Hell. John the Evangelist. Vani Gospels A-1335, 210v, 12th c.jpg, A folio from the Vani Gospels manuscript, copied at the behest of Queen Tamar. File:Battle of Kulikovo 17th century miniature.jpg, A 17th-century miniature of the

Battle of Kulikovo The Battle of Kulikovo () was fought between the forces of Mamai, a powerful Mongol military commander of the Golden Horde, and Russian forces led by Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy, Dmitry of Moscow. The battle took place on 8 September 1380, at Ku ...

(1380). A warrior bears a red banner with a cross. File:Coat of Arms of Russia 1577.png,

Coat of arms of Russia The coat of arms of Russia derives from the earlier coat of arms of the Russian Empire. Though modified more than once since the reign of Ivan III (1462–1505), the current coat of arms is directly derived from its medieval original, with the d ...

from the seal of Ivan IV (the Terrible), 1577 File:Russia03.gif, Coat of arms of Russia from the seal of Fyodor I, 1589 File:01 130 Book illustrations of Historical description of the clothes and weapons of Russian troops.jpg, Russian military flag, 1696–1699 File:Знамя Войсковое Донского казачье 1706 года.jpg, Russian military flag, 1706 File:Orth Kreuz.gif, A copper cross typical for

Old believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

File:Orthodox priest cross.png, A cross of a

priest File:The True Cross. Saint Cyril and Methodius.jpg, A modern memorial to Ss.

Cyril and Methodius Cyril (; born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (; born Michael, 815–885) were brothers, Population of the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Christian theologians and Christian missionaries, missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs ...

Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk (, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a city in west-central Russia. Technically, it is situated on the eastern bank of the Irtysh River, from its confluence with the Ob, in the oil-ri ...

, Russia File:Coat of arms of Moscow Oblast FULL.svg, Coat of arms of

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast (, , informally known as , ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). With a population of 8,524,665 (Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census) living in an area of , it is one of the most densely populate ...

, 2005 File:Coat of Arms of Perm Krai.svg, Coat of arms of

Perm Krai Perm Krai (, ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (a Krais of Russia, krai), located in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is Perm, Russia, Perm. The population of the krai was 2,532,405 (2021 Russian census, 2021 ...

, 2007 File:Eglise notre dame de l assomption 7.jpg, Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery, the resting place of many eminent Russian émigrés File:Podlaskie - Białystok - Białystok - Antoniuk Fabryczny 13 - Cerkiew św. Ducha - ENE - Widok - v-W.jpg,

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

(Poland): Crosses on the domes of the Church of the Holy Spirit File:Christ the Saviour Orthodox Cathedral - Johnstown, Pennsylvania 05.jpg,

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is the largest city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, it is the principal city of the Metropolitan statistical area ...

: Christ the Saviour Cathedral of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese (under the

) File:Svidnik pravoslavny kriz.jpg,

Svidník Svidník (, , , ) is a town in eastern Slovakia, the capital of the Svidník District in the Prešov Region. It has a population of around 11,000. There is a monumental Soviet Army Memorial in the city, in memory of Battle of the Dukla Pass. Geog ...

(Slovakia): Cross in front of a church File:Brotherhood of Russian Truth.png, Flag of the Brotherhood of Russian Truth File:Russian National Unity Flag.svg, Flag of RNU File:USVA headstone emb-05.svg, USVA Headstone Emblem5 "Russian Orthodox cross"

References

External links

* * {{Christian crosses Byzantine Rite Crosses by form Crosses by culture National symbols of Russia