Celtic cross

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Muiredach's High Cross at Monasterboice, Co Louth, Ireland, 10th century.

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines the cross with a ring surrounding the intersection.

It is the characteristic symbol of Celtic Christianity, though the symbol has older, pre-Christian origins. Such crosses formed a major part of Celtic art. This design is also referred to as the high cross, Irish Cross or the Cross of Iona.

1 Origins
2 Irish myth
3 Political symbol
4 Sporting
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Origins

In Celtic regions of Ireland and Great Britain, many free-standing upright crosses (or high crosses) were erected, 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 the merge with the similar Anglo-Saxon cross making tradition, in the Ruthwell Cross for exampled. 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. This representation is often related to the numerous representation of crosses combined with a circle before Christianity. Often called "sun cross", they can be found in Bronze Age Europe (Nordic Bronze Age, Urnfield culture). But there is a constant difference: only the Christian cross shows arms outside the circle, while the sun cross is totally surrounded by its circle. Moreover, the sun crosses are sometimes made with more than 4 arms.

Modern Celtic cross in Père Lachaise cemetery

The 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.

[edit] Irish myth

In Ireland, it is a popular myth that the Celtic cross was introduced to the island by Saint Patrick or possibly Saint Declan during his time converting the pagan Irish. It is believed that he combined the symbol of Christianity, a cross, with the symbol of the sun (some believe it may alternatively be the moon), 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.^[1]

[edit] Political symbol

Drawing of a nationalistic stylized Celtic cross

Variations resembling the Celtic cross, and the sun cross ("sun wheel") from which it is derived (the same symbol from which the swastika is derived), have been adopted by some white nationalist, neo-Nazi and neo-fascist groups. The Celtic cross (usually with the arms not extending outside the circle) is used by these groups to symbolize the Aryan race. These supporters usually use a very simplified geometric variation of the design which is made up of simple lines, without any of the ornamental complexity of traditional Celtic crosses.

Gianni Alemanno wore a Celtic cross during his successful election campaign to become mayor of Rome in April 2008. Currently a member of the National Alliance, he was formerly a member of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement.^[2]^[3]