The Holy Cross is a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each truly believing person, at the sight of him, is involuntarily filled with thoughts of the death throes of the Savior, adopted by him to deliver us from eternal death, which became the lot of people after the fall of Adam and Eve. The eight-pointed Orthodox cross carries a special spiritual and emotional burden. Even if there is no image of a crucifixion on it, it always appears before our inner gaze.
A tool of death that has become a symbol of life
The Christian cross is an image of the instrument of execution that Jesus Christ was subjected to under a forced sentence imposed by the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. For the first time, this kind of killing of criminals appeared among the ancient Phoenicians and already through their colonists - the Carthaginians fell into the Roman Empire, where it was widely used.
In the pre-Christian period, robbers were mainly sentenced to crucifixion, and then followers of Jesus Christ accepted this martyrdom. This phenomenon was especially frequent during the reign of Emperor Nero. The very death of the Savior made this instrument of shame and suffering a symbol of the victory of good over evil and the light of eternal life over the darkness of hell.
The eight-pointed cross is a symbol of Orthodoxy
The Christian tradition knows many different shapes of the cross, from the most ordinary crosshairs of straight lines to very complex geometric designs, complemented by a variety of symbols. The religious meaning in them is the same, but the external differences are very significant.
In the countries of the eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, as well as in Russia, the symbol of the church has been the eight-pointed, or, as they often say, Orthodox cross. In addition, you can hear the expression "the cross of St. Lazarus", this is another name for the eight-pointed Orthodox cross, which will be discussed below. Sometimes an image of the crucified Savior is placed on it.
External features of the Orthodox cross
Its peculiarity lies in the fact that in addition to two horizontal crossbars, of which the lower one is large and the upper one is small, there is also an inclined one, called the foot. It is small in size and is located in the lower part of the vertical segment, symbolizing the crossbar on which the feet of Christ rested.
The direction of its inclination is always the same: when viewed from the side of the crucified Christ, the right end will be higher than the left. Therein lies a certain symbolism. According to the Savior in the Last Judgment, the righteous will stand on his right hand, and sinners on the left. It is the path of the righteous into the kingdom of heaven that points up the right end of the foot, while the left is turned into the depths of hell.
According to the Gospel, a board was nailed over the head of the Savior, on which was written by the hand of Pontius Pilate : "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." This inscription was made in three languages - Aramaic, Latin and Greek. It is precisely the upper small crossbar that symbolizes it. It can be placed both in the interval between the large cross-member and the upper end of the cross, and at its very top. Such an outline allows us to most accurately reproduce the appearance of the instrument of Christ's suffering. That is why the Orthodox cross is eight-pointed.
About the law of the golden ratio
The eight-pointed Orthodox cross in its classical form is built according to the law of the golden section. To make it clear what is being discussed, let us dwell on this concept in more detail. It is customary to understand it as a harmonic proportion, one way or another underlying all that the Creator created.
One of its examples is the human body. Through simple experience, we can make sure that if we divide the size of our growth by the distance from the soles to the navel, and then divide the same value by the distance between the navel and the crown, the results will be the same and amount to 1.618. The same proportion lies in the size of the phalanges of our fingers. This ratio of values, called the golden ratio, can be found literally at every step: from the structure of the sea shell to the shape of a regular garden turnip.
The construction of proportions based on the law of the golden section is widely used in architecture, as well as in other areas of art. With this in mind, many artists manage to achieve maximum harmony in their works. The same pattern was observed by composers who worked in the genre of classical music. When writing compositions in the style of rock and jazz, she was abandoned.
The law of the construction of the Orthodox cross
On the basis of the golden ratio, an eight-pointed Orthodox cross was built. The meaning of its ends was explained above, now we turn to the rules that underlie the construction of this main Christian symbol. They were not established artificially, but spilled out of the harmony of life itself and received their mathematical justification.
An eight-pointed Orthodox cross, drawn in full accordance with tradition, always fits into a rectangle whose aspect ratio corresponds to the golden ratio. Simply put, dividing its height by width, we get 1.618.
The cross of St. Lazarus (as mentioned above, this is another name for the eight-pointed Orthodox cross) in its construction has another feature related to the proportions of our body. It is well known that the width of a person’s arms is equal to his height and that a figure with arms apart will fit perfectly into a square. For this reason, the length of the middle crossbar, corresponding to the span of the hands of Christ, is equal to the distance from it to the inclined foot, that is, its growth. These simple, at first glance, rules should be taken into account by every person who is faced with the question of how to draw an eight-pointed Orthodox cross.
Calvary Cross
There is also a special, purely monastic eight-pointed Orthodox cross, the photo of which is presented in the article. It is called the Cross of Calvary. This is the outline of an ordinary Orthodox cross, which was described above, placed above the symbolic image of Mount Calvary. It is usually presented in the form of steps under which bones and a skull are placed. To the left and right of the cross can be depicted a cane with a sponge and a spear.
Each of these items has a deep religious meaning. For example, a skull and bones. According to the Holy Tradition, the Savior's sacrificial blood, shed on the cross, falling to the top of Golgotha, seeped into its bowels, where the remains of our ancestor Adam rested, and the curse of original sin was washed away from them. Thus, the image of the skull and bones emphasizes the connection of the sacrifice of Christ with the crime of Adam and Eve, as well as the New Testament - with the Old.
The meaning of the image of a spear on the cross of Calvary
The eight-pointed Orthodox cross on monastic vestments is always accompanied by images of a cane with a sponge and spears. Those who are familiar with the text of the Gospel of John well remember a moment of drama, when one of the Roman warriors named Longinus pierced the Savior's ribs with this weapon and blood and water flowed from the wound. This episode has a different interpretation, but the most common of them is contained in the writings of the Christian theologian and philosopher of the 4th century St. Augustine.
In them, he writes that, just as the Lord created his bride Eve from the rib of a sleeping Adam, his bride church was created from the wound in the side of Jesus Christ inflicted by the spear of a warrior. Spilled blood and water, according to St. Augustine, symbolize the holy sacraments - the Eucharist, where wine is converted into the blood of the Lord, and Baptism, in which a person entering the bosom of the church is immersed in a font with water. The spear that inflicted the wound is one of the main relics of Christianity, and it is believed that at present it is stored in Vienna, in the Hofburg Castle.
Image value of cane and sponge
Equally important are cane and sponge images. From the accounts of the holy evangelists it is known that the crucified Christ was offered twice a drink. In the first case, it was wine mixed with a quiet one, that is, a stupefying drink that allows you to dull the pain and thereby extend the execution.
The second time, having heard the cry “Thirst!” From the cross, they brought him a sponge filled with vinegar and bile. This was, of course, a mockery of the tormented man and contributed to the approach of the end. In both cases, the executioners used a sponge mounted on a cane, since without it they could not reach the mouth of the crucified Jesus. Despite such a gloomy role assigned to them, these objects, like the spear, were among the main Christian shrines, and their image can be seen next to the cross of Calvary.
Symbolic inscriptions on the monastic cross
Those who first see the monastic eight-pointed Orthodox cross often have questions related to the inscriptions written on it. In particular, these are IC and XC at the ends of the middle crossbar. These letters mean nothing more than an abbreviated name - Jesus Christ. In addition, the image of the cross is accompanied by two inscriptions located under the middle crossbar - the Slavic inscription of the words “Son of God” and the Greek NIKA, which means “winner”.
On the small crossbar, symbolizing, as was said above, a tablet with an inscription made by Pontius Pilate, the Slavic abbreviation INTSI is usually written, denoting the words "Jesus of Nazareth the King of Judea", and above it - "King of Glory." Near the image of the spear, it became a tradition to write the letter K, and near the cane T. In addition, from about the 16th century, the letters ML on the left and RB on the right began to be written at the base of the cross. They are also an abbreviation, and mean the words "Place Frontal Crucified to Be."
In addition to the inscriptions listed, two letters G should be mentioned, standing to the left and right of the image of Golgotha, which are the initial ones in its name, as well as G and A - the Head of Adam, written on the sides of the skull, and the phrase "Tsar of Glory" crowning the monastic eight-pointed Orthodox cross. The meaning embodied in them is fully consistent with the Gospel texts, however, the inscriptions themselves can vary and be replaced by others.
Immortality bestowed by faith
It is also important to understand why the name of the eight-pointed Orthodox cross is associated with the name of St. Lazarus? The answer to this question can be found on the pages of the Gospel of John, which describes the miracle of his resurrection from the dead, performed by Jesus Christ, on the fourth day after death. The symbolism in this case is quite obvious: as Lazarus was brought back to life by the faith of his sisters Martha and Mary in the omnipotence of Jesus, so everyone who trusts in the Savior will be delivered from the hands of eternal death.
In the bustling earthly life, people are not given the opportunity to personally see the Son of God, but they are granted his religious symbols. One of them is the eight-pointed Orthodox cross, the proportions, the general appearance and semantic load of which became the topic of this article. He accompanies a believer throughout his life. From the holy font, where the sacrament of baptism opens the gates of the Church of Christ to him, up to the grave tombstone an eight-pointed Orthodox cross overshadows him.
Pectoral symbol of the Christian faith
The custom of wearing small crosses on the chest, made of a wide variety of materials, appeared only at the beginning of the 4th century. Despite the fact that the main instrument of the passions of Christ was an object of veneration for all his followers from the very first years of the establishment of the Christian church on earth, at first it was customary to wear not crosses on the neck, but medallions depicting the Savior.
There is also evidence that during the period of persecution from the middle of I to the beginning of the IV century, there were voluntary martyrs who wanted to suffer for Christ and put the image of the cross on their forehead. They were recognized by this sign, and then put to torment and death. After the establishment of Christianity as the state religion, wearing crosses became customary, and in the same period they began to be installed on the roofs of churches.
Two types of body crosses in Ancient Russia
In Russia, the symbols of the Christian faith appeared in 988, simultaneously with its baptism. It is curious to note that our ancestors inherited from the Byzantines two kinds of body crosses. One of them was usually worn on the chest, under the clothes. Such crosses were called vests.
Along with them appeared the so-called encolpions - also crosses, but somewhat larger and worn over clothing. They come from the tradition of wearing arkans with relics, which were decorated with the image of a cross. Over time, the encolpions transformed into pectoral crosses of priests and metropolitans.
The main symbol of humanism and humanity
For the millennium that has passed since the Dnieper banks lit up the light of the Christian faith, the Orthodox tradition has undergone many changes. Only its religious dogmas and the main elements of symbolism remained unshakable, the main of which is the eight-pointed Orthodox cross.
Gold and silver, copper or made of any other material, it keeps a believer, protecting him from the forces of evil - visible and invisible. As a reminder of the sacrifice made by Christ to save people, the cross became a symbol of the highest humanism and love for one's neighbor.