A little about the author:
My CV ranges from the military and Merchant Marine to service as a Salvation Army officer on N.Y. City's Bowery in the 1970’s. In 1964 I was honorably discharged from the military as a conscientious objector after eight years service. After three years in the Army I had enlisted in the Air Force and during the Cuban Missile Crisis I was at RAF Heyford ( a Strategic Air Command base in England. It was there that I saw medium bombers, loaded with thermonuclear weapons, taxiing towards the the take off end of the runway. At that point I found that as a Christian I couldn't participate in not only in incinerating my enemies rather than overcoming their hatered with love, but also in sending tens of thousands of innocents along with them in the fireballs. I applied for and iin 1964 was granted an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector. While I am certainly not a "Hellfire and Damnation" preacher, I do there is a special place in Hell for the person who came up with the term "collateral damage."
As a Congregational minister I served as pastor of small Congregational churches in Northern Maine and taught a Summer course, Ethics for Occupational Safety Majors at Keene State College in New Hampshire. I was involved in the start up of the Bangor Maine Chapter of Veterans for Peace and since 2003 have been focused on writing, and a ministry of Peace and Justice.
My academic credentials include three undergraduate degrees, post graduate study at Ashland Theological Seminary and Goddard College, and an M Div. from Bangor Theological Seminary. I have articles and poetry published in national magazine and enough op ed pieces published in the Bangor, Maine Daily News to clearly mark me as a Christian radical in the community. Since 2006, II have been in China. I taught English at Tianshui Normal College in Gansu Province 2006, and 2007 and since then have been in Guanzhou Province in the South of China.
I've had trouble setting up a contact form for this site so i would appreciate any comments at [email protected]
My CV ranges from the military and Merchant Marine to service as a Salvation Army officer on N.Y. City's Bowery in the 1970’s. In 1964 I was honorably discharged from the military as a conscientious objector after eight years service. After three years in the Army I had enlisted in the Air Force and during the Cuban Missile Crisis I was at RAF Heyford ( a Strategic Air Command base in England. It was there that I saw medium bombers, loaded with thermonuclear weapons, taxiing towards the the take off end of the runway. At that point I found that as a Christian I couldn't participate in not only in incinerating my enemies rather than overcoming their hatered with love, but also in sending tens of thousands of innocents along with them in the fireballs. I applied for and iin 1964 was granted an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector. While I am certainly not a "Hellfire and Damnation" preacher, I do there is a special place in Hell for the person who came up with the term "collateral damage."
As a Congregational minister I served as pastor of small Congregational churches in Northern Maine and taught a Summer course, Ethics for Occupational Safety Majors at Keene State College in New Hampshire. I was involved in the start up of the Bangor Maine Chapter of Veterans for Peace and since 2003 have been focused on writing, and a ministry of Peace and Justice.
My academic credentials include three undergraduate degrees, post graduate study at Ashland Theological Seminary and Goddard College, and an M Div. from Bangor Theological Seminary. I have articles and poetry published in national magazine and enough op ed pieces published in the Bangor, Maine Daily News to clearly mark me as a Christian radical in the community. Since 2006, II have been in China. I taught English at Tianshui Normal College in Gansu Province 2006, and 2007 and since then have been in Guanzhou Province in the South of China.
I've had trouble setting up a contact form for this site so i would appreciate any comments at [email protected]
The Book
This is the table of contents, and the first three chapters of The Cross, in History, Heraldry, and Legend. It has been a twenty year project beginning in New York City and finally finishing in Shenzhen, China. I will be going to kickstarter.com for funding to publish it. The supporters will receive signed copies and the proceeds will be shared with an NGO chosen by the supporters votes. There is a contact form at the end of the Third Chapter. Let me know what you think of it.
The Cross, in History, Heraldry, and Legend
by Ron Gillis
copyright 20013
Part 1, Symbols, Legends (and a few stories)
1. Pre-Christian Crosses
2. The Cross in a secular society
3. Legends of the Cross
p12 4. Symbols from the early church
The Fish (І Х Θ Υ Σ) Chi Rho, Anchor,
Alpha and Omega: Α Ω α ω
Dolphin, The Good Shepherd, The Trident
5. The Cross as a Symbol in early Christianity
6. The Sign of the Cross
7. Constantine and the Cross
8. Crucifixion in The Ancient World
9. The Arms of Christ and other symbols associated with the Cross
Nails and Crown of Thorns
Pieces of Silver Robe and Dice
The .Reed Scepter Ladder
The Column and Scourge
Rod and Sponge
Hammer Torch
The Rooster
The Chalice
10. The Legend of the Wandering Jew.
11. The Son of God Goes Forth to War. p49
PART 2 The crosses
12. The Anchor Cross And Its Variations
13. St. Bridget’s Cross
14. The Tau Cross (The Cross of St. Anthony)
15 St. Andrews Cross
16 The Latin Cross
17 The Crucifix
17b The Penal Cross
18 The Inhabited Cross
19 Rood Cross
20 The Celtic Cross
21. The Greek Cross
22. The Eastern or Russian Cross
23. Coventry Cross of Nails
24. The Cross of Sacrifice
25. St. Julian’s Cross and Cross potent
26. The Jerusalem Cross
27. The Cross Flory
28. Cross Gammata
29. The Cross Botanée
30. The Cross In Glory
31. The Cross of Lorraine
32. Cross Crosslet
33. The Maltese Cross
PART III Notes from the Journey
34. In Ending.
1. Pre-Christian Crosses
2. The Cross in a secular society
3. Legends of the Cross
p12 4. Symbols from the early church
The Fish (І Х Θ Υ Σ) Chi Rho, Anchor,
Alpha and Omega: Α Ω α ω
Dolphin, The Good Shepherd, The Trident
5. The Cross as a Symbol in early Christianity
6. The Sign of the Cross
7. Constantine and the Cross
8. Crucifixion in The Ancient World
9. The Arms of Christ and other symbols associated with the Cross
Nails and Crown of Thorns
Pieces of Silver Robe and Dice
The .Reed Scepter Ladder
The Column and Scourge
Rod and Sponge
Hammer Torch
The Rooster
The Chalice
10. The Legend of the Wandering Jew.
11. The Son of God Goes Forth to War. p49
PART 2 The crosses
12. The Anchor Cross And Its Variations
13. St. Bridget’s Cross
14. The Tau Cross (The Cross of St. Anthony)
15 St. Andrews Cross
16 The Latin Cross
17 The Crucifix
17b The Penal Cross
18 The Inhabited Cross
19 Rood Cross
20 The Celtic Cross
21. The Greek Cross
22. The Eastern or Russian Cross
23. Coventry Cross of Nails
24. The Cross of Sacrifice
25. St. Julian’s Cross and Cross potent
26. The Jerusalem Cross
27. The Cross Flory
28. Cross Gammata
29. The Cross Botanée
30. The Cross In Glory
31. The Cross of Lorraine
32. Cross Crosslet
33. The Maltese Cross
PART III Notes from the Journey
34. In Ending.
Chapter 1. Pre-Christian Crosses
For nearly two thousand years the cross has not only been the single most important symbol of the Christian religion but it has also been a central symbol in the Western World. This has changed in the past few decades and as a result we have lost much of what was once common knowledge in our culture. In this Post-Christian era the cross has become separated from much of the theological significance that it once had. For most western men and women it is often no more than a design element, or a vaguely significant historic image. This is a loss for both artists and for the society that receives their work. It is difficult to understand who we are without understanding who we were, and for the Western World, the cross has been a defining symbol for much of the past two thousand years.
From the Pre-Historic China to Pre-Columbian America the cross has been a universal symbol and in some form can be found in most cultures. Crosses have been found in European caves, on rocks in the Sahara Desert, and in the temples of Central America. To the pre-Columbian American, the cross with arms of equal length (the Greek Cross in the Christian tradition) was seen as the symbol of Thaloc the god of weather. To the Aztecs, the cross was also the symbol of a greater god, Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent. Sadly for the Aztecs, this worked to the great advantage of the Spanish Conquistadors when they arrived in the Americas. When the Aztecs saw the crosses worn by the Spaniards they believed that they were seeing the return of Quetzalcoatl. During the time that they hesitated, the Spanish moved. Not only were they wrong about the return of Quetzalcoatl but by the time they discovered their error, it was too late. The Spanish had destroyed the Aztec empire. The legend that supported their belief is described in a picture of Quetzacoatl in the “Lord Of The Vanguard” illustration from the Codex Fej’ev’ary-Mayer. It can be found in Joseph Campbell’s The Mythic Image. It is an illustration of a bearded figure carrying a cross. Explanations for this cultural anachronism are offered by everyone from the Mormons who argue that after his resurrection Christ visited the New World, to the Irish, who will tell us that any serious student of history understands that St. Brendan visited the Americas with thirty monks in the 9th century. It is interesting that while the St. Brenden legend may be an echo of much earlier historic voyages, barely remembered, it might have even been true. There is always the possibility that the voyage of St Brenden was one of the last in a long tradition of Trans Atlantic commerce that was possibly dying out even when Brendan and his monks sailed west. There are remains of Celtic settlements in North America that date to at least the 6th century BC. Barry Fells describes them in America B.C. He also makes some interesting connections between the Algonquin and Gaelic languages particularly in the area of place names. It certainly raises some questions concerning the pre Columbian connections between the Americas and Europe. The Viking explorations are now well accepted but the Vikings may have been only a part of the pre Columbian connections. Not only does the St Brenden story raise the question of how long it continued, but more importantly, how long the memory of the connection continued in the memory and songs of the people.
While the “Quetzacoatl Central American crosses” are the only New World forms of cross to be associated with the crucifixion of a human being, the symbol is found worldwide. The Latin Cross, the almost universal symbol adorning Protestant Christian churches, had a pre-Christian form as the staff of Apollo. The symbol that we describe as the “Greek Cross,” with arms of equal length, was even more widespread in the ancient world. If any symbol can be described as universal it is this one. It has been found everywhere from the Orient, where in China the symbol indicates the number ten (shi,) to Central America where the Mayan hieroglyphic symbol the Kan Cross, with arms of equal lengths symbolizes the expensive or valuable. In the Babylonian hierarchy the symbol of the God Anu was the same as the Cross Decussata, St. Andrews Cross.
In Scandinavia Thor was the god of thunder and the hammer in the form of a Tau cross was his symbol. This cross of Thor was still seen as a magical symbol in Iceland at the end of the 19th century. Another Scandinavian form is the ring cross. It was also the Chaldean solar symbol. The ring cross is a late Stone Age form, but may have been an influence on the origin of the Celtic Cross of the Christian tradition. It only requires that the arms and upright be extended past the circle and we see a Celtic Cross.
One of the oldest and most widely recognized forms of pre Christian cross is the swastika or Hindu suavastika. Although it’s most recent incarnation was as the symbol of the Nazi party during the Hitler era in Europe it is far older that that. It is common to the Far East, the First Nations of North America, and to Northern Europe. It has been found on walls in India, Hittite monuments, and was even found marked on the belly of a female idol during the excavation of Troy. There are differences in the direction of the crampons, but the symbol is essentially the same in all these cultures. One possible explanation of the symbol is that it signifies the sun, coming from an understanding of the sun as a wheel rolling across the sky. Other suggestions have ranged from possibilities that the twisted or bent arms suggested the movement of the winds from the four corners of the earth to the idea that it may have once represented a device used in the making of fire or even stylized crossed lightning bolts. One common interpretation of the symbol is that it is a stylized human figure running, and it is likely that the symbol carried (at some time or another) all of those meanings and probably many more. Once again we are left with the ancient wisdom of the carnival midway: “You pays your money and you takes your choice.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
Chapter 2. The Cross in a secular society
The late 19th and early 20th century was an interesting time in American history and although there were exceptions, it was a time when the energy of Evangelical Reform Christianity that had been the driving force in so much of the movement for social reform in the 19th century seemed to have been exhausted by the anti-slavery movement. It was replaced by secular radicalism that in many ways picked up the ancient cry of the prophets that demanded “ Let justice roll on like a river and righteousness like a never failing stream.” (Amos 5:24)
The exceptions were certainly notable. In the early Twentieth Century there was the small (but hardly insignificant) Social Gospel movement. There was the Rescue Mission Movement and of course, organizations such as the Salvation Army, whose focus has been on service and missionary activity directed to the outsiders of modern society. But they were exceptions in the theology of the late 19th and early 20th century Christianity. Sadly even for the exceptions their role was seen more as a ministry of service and healing, rather than as a force to change social structures. The spiritual vision of the abolitionists seemed to have left the church. The role of the church had shifted from advocating prophetic justice in the society that surrounded it, to evangelism, and proclaiming a Messianic hope that the Kingdom of God be delivered from on high.
There is an old story that tells of a Sunday School picnic that was interrupted when someone saw a baby floating down the river. Then another baby, and another. Soon the river was full of little bobbing babies. The men formed a human chain, desperately pulling the babies out of the raging water. The women cleared the tables and began drying and comforting babies, wrapping them in warm towels and comforting them. In the midst of this frantic struggle to save babies the minister looked at the riverbank and saw Brother Jones walking away. “Brother Jones!” “Brother Jones!” “Come back here and help!” Brother Jones just kept on walking upstream, and away from the frenzied activity. “BROTHER JONES!” Come back here you coward! Brother Jones kept on walking but he turned his head and shouted back: “Y’all keep on working someone’s got to go upstream and find who’s throwing those children in the water and stop them.”
The Twentieth Century church saw its mission as rescuing the babies from the river rather than going upstream to change the conditions that were throwing them into the river. There were exceptions. The Mennonites never wavered in their peace witness. I saw an item on television recently showing three Mennonites standing outside a prison with signs protesting an execution. Twenty years ago their church voted that they would never again be silent when a death penalty was being carried out. There is still Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker movement. The Catholic Worker takes the Sermon on the Mount as literally as a Fundamentalist Baptist reads Genesis. The church of the last half of the Twentieth century may have lost much of the ability to connect theology and daily life but even when the majority loses focus, the message remains, and it is heard by some. The remnant exists and will be there until He returns.
It is interesting that as the church shifted from challenging the social evils of society to either a focus on individual salvation or social action to serve the victims of social injustice, the cross became more common as a symbol in the secular society. In the Western European tradition, the cross has been adopted by secular groups as well as being seen as a religious symbol. It is also widely used as an identifying mark for a wide variety of commercial products. The most familiar use of this nature is international humanitarian organization The Red Cross. That identification has also led to its being used by the military as a way of identifying hospitals, medical service personnel and prisoners of war. Another group with less public recognition is the Black Cross. The Black Cross is an anarchist symbol associated with groups working to serve prisoners and eliminate the prison system itself. The Black Cross started in Pre Soviet Russia as the “Anarchist Red Cross” but changed its name after the Bolshevik takeover. European Black Cross groups are still active in the prison reform movement.
The Black Cross differs from other crosses in that the upright support is crowned with a clenched fist, the symbol of both strength and unity. It is often seen as a threatening symbol but the real significance is probably better described in terms of unity or solidarity. We see this clenched fist in the posters and emblems of other 20th century groups such as the Black Panthers but there real meaning is best described in the autobiography of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the “Rebel Girl” of Joe Hill’s song. Flynn tells of William “Big Bill,” Heywood of the Industrial Workers of The World addressing the crowds during the 1912 Bread and Roses textile worker in Lawrence Massachusetts that probably best describes the meaning of the clenched fist symbol in the world of radical 20th century politics.
Wherever Bill Heywood went, the workers followed him with glad greetings. They roared with laughter and applause when he said:” The AFL organizes like this!” Separating his fingers, and naming them “Weavers, loom-fixers, dyers, spinners.” Then he would say: “The IWW organizes like this!” tightly clenching his big fist, shaking it at the bosses.”.
It may be that the willingness to put faith into action, even if it runs counter to the surrounding culture, is a pre enlightenment ability weakened with modernity. It could also be the result of our being formed by the mass media rather than by personal stories. Whatever the cause we have allowed the church to have become separated from “real life.” We have instead created an institution that addresses “religious issues,” and allows the surrounding world to be defined in other terms. We have taken the Apostle Paul’s injunction in the 13th chapter of Romans (“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” Romans 13:1) to a point that excuses actions unacceptable not only to followers of Christ but to any decent atheist. I have heard Christians argue that owning slaves in the pre Civil War American South was not sin, and that in Nazi Germany it was the responsibility of a Christian to follow lawful orders even if it meant pushing Jews into gas chambers. That my brothers and sisters is a demonic lie! Christians don’t do that sort of thing. We fight them, not with the weapons of our enemies but with the Arms of Christ and if necessary we use the ultimate weapon of martyrdom, but we just don’t do that kind of thing.
We might look to pre enlightenment Christians like the Amish and conservative Mennonites, to better understand our own forbearers. There is a wonderful story that comes from the American Civil War. A group of Shenandoah Valley Mennonites had been conscripted into the Confederate Army. They were on the firing line in the heat of battle, with bullets filling the air and with Stonewall Jackson, the great Southern general riding behind them. His long hair was streaming in the wind. Bullets were like bees swarming around him but when he came to the Mennonites he stopped: “You’re shooting too high” he shouted. The response was; “Of course we are, there are men over there.” It was immediately decided that the Mennonites would serve the Confederacy better as farmers than as soldiers and they were sent home. That is a way of seeing religion and the surrounding world as one seamless cloth. .
That understanding of Christian faith may probably best be described by the old Amish man in the story of the tourists visiting Amish Country. They were a mix of Americans: Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists, Reform Jews and Orthodox Agnostics. They arrived in Lancaster County Pennsylvania or maybe Holmes County Ohio, got off the bus, and were greeted by an elderly Amishman: “Before we start; Do you have any questions?” One hand went up. A woman in the back row: “Yes?” The woman sort of got up on tip toes to be heard better, and asked: “What does it mean to be Amish?” There was some hesitation before the Amish man answered. He scratched his beard as if thinking about the question. “Well now. “How many of you have television sets?” All the hands went up. The Amish man stroked his beard again, as if in thought: “And how many of you think television is a bad thing for you, ….. your families, ….. your society?” Again all the hands went up. There was a long pause before he asked: “Now then, having made that decision, how many of you are going to get rid of your television sets when you return home?” There was no response. “That’s what it means to be Amish.”
There is a more recent example of this willingness to make life and faith agree and once again it comes from the Amish, a people who have no churches and no church steeples that can be used to display the cross. That may be one of the elements that drive them to display the cross in their lives as a living symbol rather than as a marker indicating their theological position. In October 2006 a man with a rifle entered an Amish school in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Within a few minutes he had killed five Amish girls and committed suicide. There was a national wave of sympathy for the Amish community that included the creation of a fund to assist them in their needs resulting from the tragedy. Although it is Amish practice (and theology) to remain self sufficient, and separate from the society that surrounds them, it was decided that the donations would be accepted since to refuse them would be denying others an opportunity to perform an act of charity. Then, not only were Amish in the majority at the funeral of the killer, but they insisted that the funds be shared with his family, understanding that the dead murderers family shared in their suffering as a result of the tragedy. I suspect that the news stories describing their example of Christian love and forgiveness in action, brought more people to Christ than all of the tracts passed out that year. It was a simple decision for the Amish. I’m certain it wasn’t easy, but it was simple.
While the rest of Christianity might well differ with the conservative Anabaptist reading of scripture, we could do much worse than to follow their example in the way they apply their understanding of scripture to daily life. They take the Lords Prayer very seriously. When they pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matt.6:12,)” they hear their own words. They understand that it is a very serious plea, a request that should not be made lightly.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Chapter 3. Legends of the Cross
Most of us have seen paintings of the Crucifixion of Christ that showed a skull in a crevice in the rock beneath the cross, the blood of Christ running from his wounded body onto the earth and over the skull. The skull was the skull of Adam, and those paintings describe a medieval tradition that was widely known in the Western World. They refer to a legend that has been largely forgotten with our modern compulsion to provide proof for everything that we believe.
When Adam was very old, the legend tells us, he was sick and in great pain. He remembered that the leaves of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden had the power to relieve pain. In hope of easing his pain Eve sent their son Seth to procure a cutting of the tree from the Archangel Michael, the guardian of the gate of Eden. Before Seth returned with the cutting Adam died. Seth had been instructed by the Archangel that if that happened Eve was to plant the cutting on Adam’s grave. This was done and the cutting grew into a great tree. A branch of that tree was used as a staff by Moses. This was the staff that Moses lifted up when the waters were separated; allowing the Israelites to escape from the pursuing Egyptian army and later was used to strike the rock at Horeb, to provide water in the wilderness.
The tree was still growing during the reign of Solomon. The king, seeing its beauty, ordered that it be cut down and used as a pillar in the great temple that he was building. It was cut but never used. For one reason or another, whenever the workmen tried to use it they found that it was either too long or too short for the particular application intended but still it was too beautiful to be cut. Eventually it was set aside and years later it was used as a footbridge crossing a small stream in the garden of the temple. When the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, she came to this bridge and stopped. Rather than crossing the stream, she fell to her knees before the bridge. When Solomon questioned her, she told him that this piece of timber would someday be made into a cross that would be responsible for the destruction of Israel. On hearing this, Solomon ordered the footbridge to be buried in a deep pit. Later, a stream of water sprang up on that spot and because of the wood buried there, the water was endowed with healing properties. In years to come this spring became the pool of Bethesda and at the time of the crucifixion the wood floated to the surface and was used to make the cross on which Christ died.
A more Trinitarian variation of the legend has Seth returning from the garden not with a cutting but with three seeds from the Tree of Life. In this variation Adam was buried not at Calvary but in Hebron. The seeds were placed in the mouth of the dead Adam and the plants that grew from these seeds were carefully tended by Abraham, Moses and David. When they were young they were transferred to Jerusalem where they grew together into a single trunk and the Psalms were composed in the shade of this magnificent tree. This legend comes together with the other one at that point where the great tree was cut for Solomon’s Temple but never used.
Another Trinitarian variation of the legend replaces the cutting from the tree of Life with a seed. The seeds of the tree were made up of combined seeds of the cypress, pine and cedar trees, once again calling the mind back to the Holy Trinity.
These stories are just two of the many variations of a legend that was a part of the Christian tradition in the Middle Ages. They are just two of many. There were certainly many more versions of the story than those that have survived. In another medieval version Noah took the tree, roots and all, with him in the ark and later it was the burning bush that Moses saw in the wilderness. The staff that Moses used to bring water from the rock in the wilderness was a branch of the bush. Before his death he planted the staff in the hills of Moab (to be found in the future by Solomon when he was building the great temple.) The one thing that they all the legends and paintings had in common was not in their stories, but in the faith that supported the stories. When a medieval artist planted the foot of the cross on the skull of Adam, with the blood of Christ flowing down onto that skull, it was a clear statement of a fundamental belief of the Christian faith. It connected the First Adam and the Second Adam and in a world where literacy was the exception, this symbolism provided a visual link between the sin of Adam and the crucifixion of Christ.
No preaching could make the connection as clearly as this visual statement did. In the 13th or 14th century an illiterate European peasant could not have read the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth: “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” But the graphic image of the Cross planted firmly on the skull of Adam in the stained glass of a church window or crucifix made the theological statement clear to all viewers.
These are only a few of the countless legends surrounding the cross and the crucifixion of Christ. The medieval Bogamiles, a Gnostic sect, also linked the Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden to the cross. Some connect the cross with the tree from the Garden, others make other connections. The Gnostic Gospel of Philip tells a story in which the wood for the cross originated in a tree planted by the carpenter Joseph. The stained glass of European cathedrals tells us stories as well. It is there that we see the young Isaac carrying the wood for his own sacrifice. He carries it the form of a cross. It is this that is responsible for God sending the angel to stop the sacrifice.
Three North American legends show how the cross was so much a part of life in our not so distant past that even the plants and rocks spoke of the Passion of Christ. The first is that of the dogwood. It tells us how the dogwood, a twisted treelike plant was once a mighty tree. It bore beautiful large white flowers and because of its strength it was the wood chosen for the Cross of Calvary. As a result of its being a part of the crucifixion the dogwood is no longer tall and straight. Instead it is twisted; stunted by the horror that it shared. Its flowers are no longer pure white. Instead, they have blood colored stains shaped like hearts on their tiny blossoms. The dogwood now reminds us of the wounds of Christ
The reverse of the Dogwood legend involves the cedar tree. The cedar being one of the trees referred to in the legends of the three seeds from the Garden. Where the dogwood is cursed for its being the wood of the cross, the cedar is blessed. One medieval legend tells how an angel was given shelter from a terrible storm by a cedar tree. In gratitude, the angel blessed the cedar and promised that it was to be a blessing to the entire world and as a result it no longer shed it leaves in the winter, it had a beautiful fragrance, and it was a cedar tree chosen to provide the wood for the cross.
A third North American story is associated with the mineral Staurolite. There is a form of the mineral staurolite where two crystals are joined in such a way as to form a cross. These crosses range in shape from perfect Greek crosses to Elongated Crosses of St. Andrews. One of the earliest North American sources of these stones was Patrick Co. Virginia. They were first found near a pool of water and a local legend grew that gave them the name of “Fairy Tears.” The story that came to explain their origin was that two thousand years ago fairies were singing and dancing around the pool when an elf who had witnessed the crucifixion, brought the news of the death of Christ. The fairies were overcome with grief when they heard the news, and their tears formed these crystals.
Our modern, secular world sees these legends as curiosities, as windows into the death obsessed world of our ancestors. They are much more than that. For the medieval mind (and for all pre industrial people) the lines that separated truth from legend were not drawn as clearly as they are for most of us. While these legends may reflect the prejudices and limitations of their time they also describe an understanding of truth that has been lost in our post-enlightenment obsession with the empirical. The medieval mind saw truth as more abstract and as a result larger than it is today. We tend to limit the meaning of “truth” to those empirical “facts” that can be weighed, measured or counted. The medieval mind saw truth as something that covered much more territory. The medieval viewers saw the legends surrounding the cross as describing larger truths. They saw them as stories that they wanted to make a part of their own history. In the modern world stories are seen as ways to either educate or entertain but our ancestors used story differently. In that Pre-Enlightenment world, stories were not measured by the “fact checking” that we moderns use to define truth. That would deny their deeper meaning and purpose. For our ancestors the truth in a story was found by asking the question: “If I make this a part of me and if at the same time I make myself a part of this story, what kind of person will I become?”
Our ancestors knew that whether or not Adam was buried on Golgotha, not only did “The Blood of Christ” connect Adam and Christ, but somehow they were made a part of the relationship as well. They saw a larger reality that we have lost as a result of a tunnel vision that focuses on weights and measurements. They understood the importance of symbols and faith in the life of human beings. The specific location of Adam’s grave was not important for the legend to be true. Although the Medieval world had no understanding of the “scientific method” they had a larger understanding of truth than we moderns do. They understood that some truths could not be weighed, measured, or objectively proven but those were often the very truths that would change the lives of the believers who accepted them. In the tunnel vision that describes the modern world view we miss much of what they clearly saw. We could learn from their larger understanding of reality.
For almost two thousand years, in more than three hundred forms, the cross has been a symbol reminding us of a common faith, despite a wide range of Christian belief and expression. From the anchor crosses of the catacombs, to the Cross of Lorraine, the symbol of Free France in the face of the horror of Nazi occupied Europe, crosses have testified not only to a Christian faith, but to solidarity with countless men and women who faced unimaginable pain with faith and courage. We need not share their theology to admire them.
There is another legend that we might pay attention to here in the twenty first century. It is a wonderful example of the true nature of legends and stories. Legends were never, even hundreds or thousands of years ago, understood as we understand history today. The purpose of “stories” and legends in particular was to form the listeners as members of a society. In the post modern world (for better or worse) we use the mass media and public educational system to socialize our young people. Our ancestors had to do that on a budget so they used stories that could be passed around by word of mouth.
This particular legend explains how it could be (and this was plain to anyone,) that if all the fragments of the True Cross were brought to one place and assembled, a moderate sized cathedral could be built. With our twenty first century certainty we know that these fragments and relics were certainly false. We “know” that it’s impossible to collect so many fragments of an object that they outweigh the original.
In our post modern, scientific certainty, we know that most if not all of the fragments had to be counterfeit. Medieval Europeans may have lacked out technological expertise but they certainly could see the same thing. They saw the problem but came up with a simple and far different answer. With the simple faith of that earlier time they understood. The cross could never be made smaller by the cutting and chipping pieces from it. In its perfection it miraculously regenerated when pieces were cut from it. Apparently the poor, miserable, ignorant, starving, unwashed, vermin infested, near savages, understood something that the modern church too often forgets. The cross has no limits; it is big enough for everyone.
ILLUSTRATIONS
For nearly two thousand years the cross has not only been the single most important symbol of the Christian religion but it has also been a central symbol in the Western World. This has changed in the past few decades and as a result we have lost much of what was once common knowledge in our culture. In this Post-Christian era the cross has become separated from much of the theological significance that it once had. For most western men and women it is often no more than a design element, or a vaguely significant historic image. This is a loss for both artists and for the society that receives their work. It is difficult to understand who we are without understanding who we were, and for the Western World, the cross has been a defining symbol for much of the past two thousand years.
From the Pre-Historic China to Pre-Columbian America the cross has been a universal symbol and in some form can be found in most cultures. Crosses have been found in European caves, on rocks in the Sahara Desert, and in the temples of Central America. To the pre-Columbian American, the cross with arms of equal length (the Greek Cross in the Christian tradition) was seen as the symbol of Thaloc the god of weather. To the Aztecs, the cross was also the symbol of a greater god, Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent. Sadly for the Aztecs, this worked to the great advantage of the Spanish Conquistadors when they arrived in the Americas. When the Aztecs saw the crosses worn by the Spaniards they believed that they were seeing the return of Quetzalcoatl. During the time that they hesitated, the Spanish moved. Not only were they wrong about the return of Quetzalcoatl but by the time they discovered their error, it was too late. The Spanish had destroyed the Aztec empire. The legend that supported their belief is described in a picture of Quetzacoatl in the “Lord Of The Vanguard” illustration from the Codex Fej’ev’ary-Mayer. It can be found in Joseph Campbell’s The Mythic Image. It is an illustration of a bearded figure carrying a cross. Explanations for this cultural anachronism are offered by everyone from the Mormons who argue that after his resurrection Christ visited the New World, to the Irish, who will tell us that any serious student of history understands that St. Brendan visited the Americas with thirty monks in the 9th century. It is interesting that while the St. Brenden legend may be an echo of much earlier historic voyages, barely remembered, it might have even been true. There is always the possibility that the voyage of St Brenden was one of the last in a long tradition of Trans Atlantic commerce that was possibly dying out even when Brendan and his monks sailed west. There are remains of Celtic settlements in North America that date to at least the 6th century BC. Barry Fells describes them in America B.C. He also makes some interesting connections between the Algonquin and Gaelic languages particularly in the area of place names. It certainly raises some questions concerning the pre Columbian connections between the Americas and Europe. The Viking explorations are now well accepted but the Vikings may have been only a part of the pre Columbian connections. Not only does the St Brenden story raise the question of how long it continued, but more importantly, how long the memory of the connection continued in the memory and songs of the people.
While the “Quetzacoatl Central American crosses” are the only New World forms of cross to be associated with the crucifixion of a human being, the symbol is found worldwide. The Latin Cross, the almost universal symbol adorning Protestant Christian churches, had a pre-Christian form as the staff of Apollo. The symbol that we describe as the “Greek Cross,” with arms of equal length, was even more widespread in the ancient world. If any symbol can be described as universal it is this one. It has been found everywhere from the Orient, where in China the symbol indicates the number ten (shi,) to Central America where the Mayan hieroglyphic symbol the Kan Cross, with arms of equal lengths symbolizes the expensive or valuable. In the Babylonian hierarchy the symbol of the God Anu was the same as the Cross Decussata, St. Andrews Cross.
In Scandinavia Thor was the god of thunder and the hammer in the form of a Tau cross was his symbol. This cross of Thor was still seen as a magical symbol in Iceland at the end of the 19th century. Another Scandinavian form is the ring cross. It was also the Chaldean solar symbol. The ring cross is a late Stone Age form, but may have been an influence on the origin of the Celtic Cross of the Christian tradition. It only requires that the arms and upright be extended past the circle and we see a Celtic Cross.
One of the oldest and most widely recognized forms of pre Christian cross is the swastika or Hindu suavastika. Although it’s most recent incarnation was as the symbol of the Nazi party during the Hitler era in Europe it is far older that that. It is common to the Far East, the First Nations of North America, and to Northern Europe. It has been found on walls in India, Hittite monuments, and was even found marked on the belly of a female idol during the excavation of Troy. There are differences in the direction of the crampons, but the symbol is essentially the same in all these cultures. One possible explanation of the symbol is that it signifies the sun, coming from an understanding of the sun as a wheel rolling across the sky. Other suggestions have ranged from possibilities that the twisted or bent arms suggested the movement of the winds from the four corners of the earth to the idea that it may have once represented a device used in the making of fire or even stylized crossed lightning bolts. One common interpretation of the symbol is that it is a stylized human figure running, and it is likely that the symbol carried (at some time or another) all of those meanings and probably many more. Once again we are left with the ancient wisdom of the carnival midway: “You pays your money and you takes your choice.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
Chapter 2. The Cross in a secular society
The late 19th and early 20th century was an interesting time in American history and although there were exceptions, it was a time when the energy of Evangelical Reform Christianity that had been the driving force in so much of the movement for social reform in the 19th century seemed to have been exhausted by the anti-slavery movement. It was replaced by secular radicalism that in many ways picked up the ancient cry of the prophets that demanded “ Let justice roll on like a river and righteousness like a never failing stream.” (Amos 5:24)
The exceptions were certainly notable. In the early Twentieth Century there was the small (but hardly insignificant) Social Gospel movement. There was the Rescue Mission Movement and of course, organizations such as the Salvation Army, whose focus has been on service and missionary activity directed to the outsiders of modern society. But they were exceptions in the theology of the late 19th and early 20th century Christianity. Sadly even for the exceptions their role was seen more as a ministry of service and healing, rather than as a force to change social structures. The spiritual vision of the abolitionists seemed to have left the church. The role of the church had shifted from advocating prophetic justice in the society that surrounded it, to evangelism, and proclaiming a Messianic hope that the Kingdom of God be delivered from on high.
There is an old story that tells of a Sunday School picnic that was interrupted when someone saw a baby floating down the river. Then another baby, and another. Soon the river was full of little bobbing babies. The men formed a human chain, desperately pulling the babies out of the raging water. The women cleared the tables and began drying and comforting babies, wrapping them in warm towels and comforting them. In the midst of this frantic struggle to save babies the minister looked at the riverbank and saw Brother Jones walking away. “Brother Jones!” “Brother Jones!” “Come back here and help!” Brother Jones just kept on walking upstream, and away from the frenzied activity. “BROTHER JONES!” Come back here you coward! Brother Jones kept on walking but he turned his head and shouted back: “Y’all keep on working someone’s got to go upstream and find who’s throwing those children in the water and stop them.”
The Twentieth Century church saw its mission as rescuing the babies from the river rather than going upstream to change the conditions that were throwing them into the river. There were exceptions. The Mennonites never wavered in their peace witness. I saw an item on television recently showing three Mennonites standing outside a prison with signs protesting an execution. Twenty years ago their church voted that they would never again be silent when a death penalty was being carried out. There is still Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker movement. The Catholic Worker takes the Sermon on the Mount as literally as a Fundamentalist Baptist reads Genesis. The church of the last half of the Twentieth century may have lost much of the ability to connect theology and daily life but even when the majority loses focus, the message remains, and it is heard by some. The remnant exists and will be there until He returns.
It is interesting that as the church shifted from challenging the social evils of society to either a focus on individual salvation or social action to serve the victims of social injustice, the cross became more common as a symbol in the secular society. In the Western European tradition, the cross has been adopted by secular groups as well as being seen as a religious symbol. It is also widely used as an identifying mark for a wide variety of commercial products. The most familiar use of this nature is international humanitarian organization The Red Cross. That identification has also led to its being used by the military as a way of identifying hospitals, medical service personnel and prisoners of war. Another group with less public recognition is the Black Cross. The Black Cross is an anarchist symbol associated with groups working to serve prisoners and eliminate the prison system itself. The Black Cross started in Pre Soviet Russia as the “Anarchist Red Cross” but changed its name after the Bolshevik takeover. European Black Cross groups are still active in the prison reform movement.
The Black Cross differs from other crosses in that the upright support is crowned with a clenched fist, the symbol of both strength and unity. It is often seen as a threatening symbol but the real significance is probably better described in terms of unity or solidarity. We see this clenched fist in the posters and emblems of other 20th century groups such as the Black Panthers but there real meaning is best described in the autobiography of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the “Rebel Girl” of Joe Hill’s song. Flynn tells of William “Big Bill,” Heywood of the Industrial Workers of The World addressing the crowds during the 1912 Bread and Roses textile worker in Lawrence Massachusetts that probably best describes the meaning of the clenched fist symbol in the world of radical 20th century politics.
Wherever Bill Heywood went, the workers followed him with glad greetings. They roared with laughter and applause when he said:” The AFL organizes like this!” Separating his fingers, and naming them “Weavers, loom-fixers, dyers, spinners.” Then he would say: “The IWW organizes like this!” tightly clenching his big fist, shaking it at the bosses.”.
It may be that the willingness to put faith into action, even if it runs counter to the surrounding culture, is a pre enlightenment ability weakened with modernity. It could also be the result of our being formed by the mass media rather than by personal stories. Whatever the cause we have allowed the church to have become separated from “real life.” We have instead created an institution that addresses “religious issues,” and allows the surrounding world to be defined in other terms. We have taken the Apostle Paul’s injunction in the 13th chapter of Romans (“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” Romans 13:1) to a point that excuses actions unacceptable not only to followers of Christ but to any decent atheist. I have heard Christians argue that owning slaves in the pre Civil War American South was not sin, and that in Nazi Germany it was the responsibility of a Christian to follow lawful orders even if it meant pushing Jews into gas chambers. That my brothers and sisters is a demonic lie! Christians don’t do that sort of thing. We fight them, not with the weapons of our enemies but with the Arms of Christ and if necessary we use the ultimate weapon of martyrdom, but we just don’t do that kind of thing.
We might look to pre enlightenment Christians like the Amish and conservative Mennonites, to better understand our own forbearers. There is a wonderful story that comes from the American Civil War. A group of Shenandoah Valley Mennonites had been conscripted into the Confederate Army. They were on the firing line in the heat of battle, with bullets filling the air and with Stonewall Jackson, the great Southern general riding behind them. His long hair was streaming in the wind. Bullets were like bees swarming around him but when he came to the Mennonites he stopped: “You’re shooting too high” he shouted. The response was; “Of course we are, there are men over there.” It was immediately decided that the Mennonites would serve the Confederacy better as farmers than as soldiers and they were sent home. That is a way of seeing religion and the surrounding world as one seamless cloth. .
That understanding of Christian faith may probably best be described by the old Amish man in the story of the tourists visiting Amish Country. They were a mix of Americans: Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists, Reform Jews and Orthodox Agnostics. They arrived in Lancaster County Pennsylvania or maybe Holmes County Ohio, got off the bus, and were greeted by an elderly Amishman: “Before we start; Do you have any questions?” One hand went up. A woman in the back row: “Yes?” The woman sort of got up on tip toes to be heard better, and asked: “What does it mean to be Amish?” There was some hesitation before the Amish man answered. He scratched his beard as if thinking about the question. “Well now. “How many of you have television sets?” All the hands went up. The Amish man stroked his beard again, as if in thought: “And how many of you think television is a bad thing for you, ….. your families, ….. your society?” Again all the hands went up. There was a long pause before he asked: “Now then, having made that decision, how many of you are going to get rid of your television sets when you return home?” There was no response. “That’s what it means to be Amish.”
There is a more recent example of this willingness to make life and faith agree and once again it comes from the Amish, a people who have no churches and no church steeples that can be used to display the cross. That may be one of the elements that drive them to display the cross in their lives as a living symbol rather than as a marker indicating their theological position. In October 2006 a man with a rifle entered an Amish school in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Within a few minutes he had killed five Amish girls and committed suicide. There was a national wave of sympathy for the Amish community that included the creation of a fund to assist them in their needs resulting from the tragedy. Although it is Amish practice (and theology) to remain self sufficient, and separate from the society that surrounds them, it was decided that the donations would be accepted since to refuse them would be denying others an opportunity to perform an act of charity. Then, not only were Amish in the majority at the funeral of the killer, but they insisted that the funds be shared with his family, understanding that the dead murderers family shared in their suffering as a result of the tragedy. I suspect that the news stories describing their example of Christian love and forgiveness in action, brought more people to Christ than all of the tracts passed out that year. It was a simple decision for the Amish. I’m certain it wasn’t easy, but it was simple.
While the rest of Christianity might well differ with the conservative Anabaptist reading of scripture, we could do much worse than to follow their example in the way they apply their understanding of scripture to daily life. They take the Lords Prayer very seriously. When they pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matt.6:12,)” they hear their own words. They understand that it is a very serious plea, a request that should not be made lightly.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Chapter 3. Legends of the Cross
Most of us have seen paintings of the Crucifixion of Christ that showed a skull in a crevice in the rock beneath the cross, the blood of Christ running from his wounded body onto the earth and over the skull. The skull was the skull of Adam, and those paintings describe a medieval tradition that was widely known in the Western World. They refer to a legend that has been largely forgotten with our modern compulsion to provide proof for everything that we believe.
When Adam was very old, the legend tells us, he was sick and in great pain. He remembered that the leaves of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden had the power to relieve pain. In hope of easing his pain Eve sent their son Seth to procure a cutting of the tree from the Archangel Michael, the guardian of the gate of Eden. Before Seth returned with the cutting Adam died. Seth had been instructed by the Archangel that if that happened Eve was to plant the cutting on Adam’s grave. This was done and the cutting grew into a great tree. A branch of that tree was used as a staff by Moses. This was the staff that Moses lifted up when the waters were separated; allowing the Israelites to escape from the pursuing Egyptian army and later was used to strike the rock at Horeb, to provide water in the wilderness.
The tree was still growing during the reign of Solomon. The king, seeing its beauty, ordered that it be cut down and used as a pillar in the great temple that he was building. It was cut but never used. For one reason or another, whenever the workmen tried to use it they found that it was either too long or too short for the particular application intended but still it was too beautiful to be cut. Eventually it was set aside and years later it was used as a footbridge crossing a small stream in the garden of the temple. When the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, she came to this bridge and stopped. Rather than crossing the stream, she fell to her knees before the bridge. When Solomon questioned her, she told him that this piece of timber would someday be made into a cross that would be responsible for the destruction of Israel. On hearing this, Solomon ordered the footbridge to be buried in a deep pit. Later, a stream of water sprang up on that spot and because of the wood buried there, the water was endowed with healing properties. In years to come this spring became the pool of Bethesda and at the time of the crucifixion the wood floated to the surface and was used to make the cross on which Christ died.
A more Trinitarian variation of the legend has Seth returning from the garden not with a cutting but with three seeds from the Tree of Life. In this variation Adam was buried not at Calvary but in Hebron. The seeds were placed in the mouth of the dead Adam and the plants that grew from these seeds were carefully tended by Abraham, Moses and David. When they were young they were transferred to Jerusalem where they grew together into a single trunk and the Psalms were composed in the shade of this magnificent tree. This legend comes together with the other one at that point where the great tree was cut for Solomon’s Temple but never used.
Another Trinitarian variation of the legend replaces the cutting from the tree of Life with a seed. The seeds of the tree were made up of combined seeds of the cypress, pine and cedar trees, once again calling the mind back to the Holy Trinity.
These stories are just two of the many variations of a legend that was a part of the Christian tradition in the Middle Ages. They are just two of many. There were certainly many more versions of the story than those that have survived. In another medieval version Noah took the tree, roots and all, with him in the ark and later it was the burning bush that Moses saw in the wilderness. The staff that Moses used to bring water from the rock in the wilderness was a branch of the bush. Before his death he planted the staff in the hills of Moab (to be found in the future by Solomon when he was building the great temple.) The one thing that they all the legends and paintings had in common was not in their stories, but in the faith that supported the stories. When a medieval artist planted the foot of the cross on the skull of Adam, with the blood of Christ flowing down onto that skull, it was a clear statement of a fundamental belief of the Christian faith. It connected the First Adam and the Second Adam and in a world where literacy was the exception, this symbolism provided a visual link between the sin of Adam and the crucifixion of Christ.
No preaching could make the connection as clearly as this visual statement did. In the 13th or 14th century an illiterate European peasant could not have read the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth: “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” But the graphic image of the Cross planted firmly on the skull of Adam in the stained glass of a church window or crucifix made the theological statement clear to all viewers.
These are only a few of the countless legends surrounding the cross and the crucifixion of Christ. The medieval Bogamiles, a Gnostic sect, also linked the Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden to the cross. Some connect the cross with the tree from the Garden, others make other connections. The Gnostic Gospel of Philip tells a story in which the wood for the cross originated in a tree planted by the carpenter Joseph. The stained glass of European cathedrals tells us stories as well. It is there that we see the young Isaac carrying the wood for his own sacrifice. He carries it the form of a cross. It is this that is responsible for God sending the angel to stop the sacrifice.
Three North American legends show how the cross was so much a part of life in our not so distant past that even the plants and rocks spoke of the Passion of Christ. The first is that of the dogwood. It tells us how the dogwood, a twisted treelike plant was once a mighty tree. It bore beautiful large white flowers and because of its strength it was the wood chosen for the Cross of Calvary. As a result of its being a part of the crucifixion the dogwood is no longer tall and straight. Instead it is twisted; stunted by the horror that it shared. Its flowers are no longer pure white. Instead, they have blood colored stains shaped like hearts on their tiny blossoms. The dogwood now reminds us of the wounds of Christ
The reverse of the Dogwood legend involves the cedar tree. The cedar being one of the trees referred to in the legends of the three seeds from the Garden. Where the dogwood is cursed for its being the wood of the cross, the cedar is blessed. One medieval legend tells how an angel was given shelter from a terrible storm by a cedar tree. In gratitude, the angel blessed the cedar and promised that it was to be a blessing to the entire world and as a result it no longer shed it leaves in the winter, it had a beautiful fragrance, and it was a cedar tree chosen to provide the wood for the cross.
A third North American story is associated with the mineral Staurolite. There is a form of the mineral staurolite where two crystals are joined in such a way as to form a cross. These crosses range in shape from perfect Greek crosses to Elongated Crosses of St. Andrews. One of the earliest North American sources of these stones was Patrick Co. Virginia. They were first found near a pool of water and a local legend grew that gave them the name of “Fairy Tears.” The story that came to explain their origin was that two thousand years ago fairies were singing and dancing around the pool when an elf who had witnessed the crucifixion, brought the news of the death of Christ. The fairies were overcome with grief when they heard the news, and their tears formed these crystals.
Our modern, secular world sees these legends as curiosities, as windows into the death obsessed world of our ancestors. They are much more than that. For the medieval mind (and for all pre industrial people) the lines that separated truth from legend were not drawn as clearly as they are for most of us. While these legends may reflect the prejudices and limitations of their time they also describe an understanding of truth that has been lost in our post-enlightenment obsession with the empirical. The medieval mind saw truth as more abstract and as a result larger than it is today. We tend to limit the meaning of “truth” to those empirical “facts” that can be weighed, measured or counted. The medieval mind saw truth as something that covered much more territory. The medieval viewers saw the legends surrounding the cross as describing larger truths. They saw them as stories that they wanted to make a part of their own history. In the modern world stories are seen as ways to either educate or entertain but our ancestors used story differently. In that Pre-Enlightenment world, stories were not measured by the “fact checking” that we moderns use to define truth. That would deny their deeper meaning and purpose. For our ancestors the truth in a story was found by asking the question: “If I make this a part of me and if at the same time I make myself a part of this story, what kind of person will I become?”
Our ancestors knew that whether or not Adam was buried on Golgotha, not only did “The Blood of Christ” connect Adam and Christ, but somehow they were made a part of the relationship as well. They saw a larger reality that we have lost as a result of a tunnel vision that focuses on weights and measurements. They understood the importance of symbols and faith in the life of human beings. The specific location of Adam’s grave was not important for the legend to be true. Although the Medieval world had no understanding of the “scientific method” they had a larger understanding of truth than we moderns do. They understood that some truths could not be weighed, measured, or objectively proven but those were often the very truths that would change the lives of the believers who accepted them. In the tunnel vision that describes the modern world view we miss much of what they clearly saw. We could learn from their larger understanding of reality.
For almost two thousand years, in more than three hundred forms, the cross has been a symbol reminding us of a common faith, despite a wide range of Christian belief and expression. From the anchor crosses of the catacombs, to the Cross of Lorraine, the symbol of Free France in the face of the horror of Nazi occupied Europe, crosses have testified not only to a Christian faith, but to solidarity with countless men and women who faced unimaginable pain with faith and courage. We need not share their theology to admire them.
There is another legend that we might pay attention to here in the twenty first century. It is a wonderful example of the true nature of legends and stories. Legends were never, even hundreds or thousands of years ago, understood as we understand history today. The purpose of “stories” and legends in particular was to form the listeners as members of a society. In the post modern world (for better or worse) we use the mass media and public educational system to socialize our young people. Our ancestors had to do that on a budget so they used stories that could be passed around by word of mouth.
This particular legend explains how it could be (and this was plain to anyone,) that if all the fragments of the True Cross were brought to one place and assembled, a moderate sized cathedral could be built. With our twenty first century certainty we know that these fragments and relics were certainly false. We “know” that it’s impossible to collect so many fragments of an object that they outweigh the original.
In our post modern, scientific certainty, we know that most if not all of the fragments had to be counterfeit. Medieval Europeans may have lacked out technological expertise but they certainly could see the same thing. They saw the problem but came up with a simple and far different answer. With the simple faith of that earlier time they understood. The cross could never be made smaller by the cutting and chipping pieces from it. In its perfection it miraculously regenerated when pieces were cut from it. Apparently the poor, miserable, ignorant, starving, unwashed, vermin infested, near savages, understood something that the modern church too often forgets. The cross has no limits; it is big enough for everyone.
ILLUSTRATIONS