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Celtic cross
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cross]]
A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. The symbol has ancient origins and was likely a regional variation of the "sun cross" (which has arms that do not extend outside the circle). When Christianity spread to the British Isles, the Celtic cross was combined with the Christian cross. As a result, Christian high crosses (which are made of stone and richly decorated) are often, though not always, built in this design.
s widely accepted that the Celtic cross has ancient, pre-Christian origins.
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Encyclopedia
cross]]
A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. The symbol has ancient origins and was likely a regional variation of the "sun cross" (which has arms that do not extend outside the circle). When Christianity spread to the British Isles, the Celtic cross was combined with the Christian cross. As a result, Christian high crosses (which are made of stone and richly decorated) are often, though not always, built in this design.
History
Origins
It is widely accepted that the Celtic cross has ancient, pre-Christian origins. It is similar to the so-called "sun cross", which can be found in Bronze Age Europe (Nordic Bronze Age, Urnfield culture). Tnnhe archaic English word for cross as an instrument of torture is rood (literally "pole", cognate with rod). The word cross in English derives only indirectly from Latin crux via Old Irish and possibly Old Norse, introduced in the 10th century.
Celtic crosses may have had origins in the early Coptic church. The similarity between the ankh, symbol of "life" and variations of the cross or ankh with a circle on Coptic stella and textiles from as early as the 5th century clearly show that the combination of circle and cross were used in early Christian Egypt. Although some experts say that the crosses were originally carved horizontally on stone, their geometrical ring construction and the fact that the lights in east-facing high crosses can be seen to refract early morning sunlight is indicative of vertical construction.
On the other hand, scholars of comparative religion such as Mircea Eliade have demonstrated that symbols and images based on the natural world and subject to multiple interpretations arose separately in more than one culture. They were not necessarily transmitted from one culture to another. In addition, "[b]y its renewal of the great figures and symbolisations of natural religion, Christianity has also renewed their vitality and their power in the depths of the psyche." The similarities did not mean that the Celtic cross was derived from Coptic design.
Christian usage
In Ireland, it is a popular myth that the Celtic Christian cross was introduced by Saint Patrick or possibly Saint Declan during his time converting the pagan Irish. It is believed that Saint Patrick combined the symbol of Christianity with the sun cross, to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross by linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun.
In Celtic regions of Ireland and later in Great Britain, many free-standing upright crosses (or high crosses) were erected by Irish monks, beginning at least as early as the 7th century. Some of these 'Celtic' crosses bear inscriptions in runes. There are surviving free-standing crosses in Cornwall (famously St Piran's cross at Perranporth) and Wales, on the island of Iona and in the Hebrides, as well as the many in Ireland. Other stone crosses are found in the former Northumbria and Scotland, and further south in England, where they merge with the similar Anglo-Saxon cross making tradition, in the Ruthwell Cross for example. The most famous standing crosses are the Cross of Kells, County Meath, Ireland; Ardboe Auld Cross, Ardboe, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland; the crosses at Monasterboice, County Louth, Ireland; and the Cross of the Scriptures, Clonmacnoise, Ireland. The Celtic cross is often made of stone. After the 15th century, ringed high crosses ceased to be created in the Celtic lands, other than a very few obscure examples.
The Celtic Revival of the mid-19th century led to an increased use and creation of Celtic crosses. In 1853 casts of several historical high crosses were exhibited to interested crowds at the Dublin Industrial Exhibition. In 1857, Henry O'Neill published Illustrations of the Most Interesting of the Sculptured Crosses of Ancient Ireland. These two events stimulated interest in the Christian and non-Christian Celtic crosses as a symbol for a renewed sense of heritage within Ireland.
New versions of the high cross quickly became fashionable cemetery monuments in Victorian Dublin in the 1860s. From Dublin the revival spread to the rest of the country and beyond. It was a result of the Celtic Revival that the ringed cross became an emblem of Celtic identity, in addition to its more traditional religious symbolism. Alexander and Euphemia Ritchie, working on the Isle of Iona in Scotland from 1899 to 1940, popularized use of the Celtic Cross in jewellery. During the 19th century, the local government of Guildford placed a Celtic cross on the top of Hindhead on the site of a gibbet on Gibbet Hill, to dispel the local fear of bad spirits. As this was the place of the relatively superstitious broomsquire, the local populace found solace in the symbol.
Other usage
The vast majority of Celtic crosses today are made for individual use. They have also been used extensively as grave markers since the revival of the 1850s. This is a departure from medieval and Celtic revival times when the symbol was more typically a public monument. The contemporary Celtic cross is popular in jewelry, T-shirts, tattoos, coffee cups and other items. Versions of the Celtic cross are used by the Northern Ireland national football team and the Gaelic Athletic Association. Because the Celtic cross was adopted by a prohibited neo-Nazi party, its public display in Germany was banned under the federal criminal code, as part of legislation designed to forestall any revival of Nazism.
See also
External links
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