Small sign of the cross. Which hand and how to be baptized correctly

Along with church prayer, the Orthodox Christian is given the sign of the cross to help. Performed with sincere faith and heartfelt prayer, it can truly work miracles, of which there is much documented evidence. Unfortunately, many people, especially at the beginning of their churching, perform the sign of the cross incorrectly and do not understand its meaning at all. So how should Orthodox believers be baptized correctly?

Symbolism of the banner of the cross

In Orthodoxy, all actions are filled with deep meaning and always have a symbolic meaning. And, of course, the sign of the cross in particular. Orthodox Christians, along with representatives of some other Christian denominations, believe that by making the sign of the cross, they drive away all unclean spirits and protect themselves from evil.

How to be baptized correctly

In order to cross yourself, you need to fold three fingers of your right hand into a pinch, and press the remaining two fingers to the inside of your palm. This position of the fingers is not accidental - it tells us about the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, by his free will, suffered for the salvation of every person. Three fingers folded together are the trinity of God in the Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit). The Trinity is one, but at the same time has three separate hypostases. Two fingers pressed to the hand testify to the dual origin of Christ - he is both God and man.

In order to cross yourself correctly, a person first raises his hand to his forehead and says “In the name of the Father”, then the hand falls on his stomach with the words “And the Son”, then the right shoulder “And the Holy” and the left shoulder “Spirit”. At the end, a bow is made and the word “Amen” is said.

This formulation, again, reveals the nature of God. All three hypostases of the Holy Trinity are mentioned, and the word “Amen” at the end affirms the truth of the Divine trinity.

In itself, placing the sign of the cross on a person symbolizes the Cross of the Lord on which he was crucified. By His crucifixion, death and resurrection from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ made the instrument of shameful execution an instrument for the salvation of human souls. That is why Orthodox Christians have long used this gesture as a symbol of participation in the death of the Lord, and then His resurrection.

About the Lord Jesus Christ:

Historical reference

The banner of the cross has been used by Christians from the very beginning of the faith. After the Resurrection of Christ, the first confessors of the faith placed on themselves the symbol of the instrument of his execution with one finger, as if wanting to show their readiness to also be crucified for the Lord.

Later, at various periods of time, there were customs to make the sign of the cross with several fingers, as well as with the entire palm. At the same time, they touched the eyes, lips, forehead - the main human sensory organs - in order to sanctify them.

Important! With the spread of the Orthodox faith among Christians, it became customary to cross with two fingers of the right hand, overshadowing the forehead, stomach and shoulders.

Around the 16th century, the practice of shading the chest instead of the abdomen spread, since the chest is where the heart is located. A century later, the rule of making the sign of the cross with three fingers of the right hand, placing them again on the stomach instead of the chest, was formed and consolidated. This is the method used by the Orthodox to this day.

Interesting! Adherents of the old rite of church worship (Old Believers) still practice the application of two fingers.

Where and how to correctly use the sign of the cross

Anyone who considers himself a believing Christian should treat the sign of the cross with great reverence. In addition to being a great help, it also carries a deep spiritual meaning. By making the sign of the cross, a person shows his will to be involved in our Lord Jesus Christ in his death, and then in the Resurrection.

Sign of the Cross

Based on this, one must always be baptized carefully and prayerfully. If this happens during a church service, all prayers and significant parts of the service begin and end with the sign of the cross. It is also customary to be baptized at the mention of the names of the Lord God, the Most Holy Theotokos, and saints.

We all know very well what an exceptional role the sign of the cross plays in the spiritual life of an Orthodox Christian. Every day, during morning and evening prayers, during worship and before eating food, before the beginning of teaching and at its end, we place on ourselves the sign of the Honest and Life-giving Cross of Christ. And this is not accidental, because in Christianity there is no more ancient custom than the sign of the cross, i.e. overshadowing oneself with the sign of the cross. At the end of the third century, the famous Carthaginian church teacher Tertullian wrote: “When traveling and moving, entering and leaving a room, putting on shoes, taking a bath, at the table, lighting candles, lying down, sitting down, in everything we do - we must mark our forehead with a cross.”. A century after Tertullian, St. John Chrysostom wrote the following: “Never leave home without crossing yourself”.

As we see, the sign of the cross has come to us from time immemorial, and without it our daily worship of God is unthinkable. However, if we are honest with ourselves, it will become absolutely obvious that quite often we make the sign of the cross out of habit, mechanically, without thinking about the meaning of this great Christian symbol. I believe that a short historical and liturgical excursion will allow all of us subsequently to more consciously, thoughtfully and reverently apply the sign of the cross to ourselves.

So what does the sign of the cross symbolize and under what circumstances did it arise? The sign of the cross, which has become part of our daily life, arose quite late, and entered the liturgical life of the Russian Orthodox Church only in the 17th century, during the well-known reforms of Patriarch Nikon. In the Ancient Church, only the forehead was marked with a cross. Describing the liturgical life of the Roman Church in the 3rd century, Hieromartyr Hippolytus of Rome writes: “Always try to humbly sign the sign of the cross on your forehead” . The use of one finger in the sign of the cross is then spoken about by: St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, Blessed Jerome of Stridon, Blessed Theodoret of Cyrrhus, church historian Sozomen, St. Gregory the Dvoeslov, St. John Moschos, and in the first quarter of the 8th century, St. Andrew of Crete. According to the conclusions of most modern researchers, marking the forehead (or face) with a cross arose during the time of the apostles and their successors. Moreover, this may seem incredible to you, but the appearance of the sign of the cross in the Christian Church was significantly influenced by Judaism. A fairly serious and competent study of this issue was carried out by the modern French theologian Jean Danielou. You all remember very well the Council in Jerusalem described in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which took place approximately in the 50th year of the Nativity of Christ. The main question that the apostles considered at the Council concerned the method of accepting into the Christian Church those people who had been converted from paganism. The essence of the problem was rooted in the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ preached among the Jewish chosen people of God, for whom, even after the acceptance of the Gospel Message, all the religious and ritual instructions of the Old Testament remained binding. When the apostolic preaching reached the European continent and the early Christian Church began to be filled with newly converted Greeks and representatives of other nations, the question of the form of their acceptance quite naturally arose. First of all, this question concerned circumcision, i.e. the need for converted pagans to first accept the Old Testament and be circumcised, and only after that accept the Sacrament of Baptism. The Apostolic Council resolved this dispute with a very wise decision: for Jews, the Old Testament Law and circumcision remained mandatory, but for pagan Christians, Jewish ritual regulations were abolished. By virtue of this decree of the Apostolic Council, in the first centuries there were two most important traditions in the Christian Church: Judeo-Christian and linguistic-Christian. Thus, the Apostle Paul, who constantly emphasized that in Christ “there is neither Greek nor Jew,” remained deeply attached to his people, to his homeland, to Israel. Let us remember how he speaks about the election of the unbelievers: God chose them in order to awaken zeal in Israel, so that Israel would recognize in the person of Jesus the Messiah they were waiting for. Let us also remember that after the death and Resurrection of the Savior, the apostles regularly gathered in the Jerusalem Temple, and they always began their preaching outside Palestine from the synagogue. In this context, it becomes clear why the Jewish religion could have a certain influence on the development of external forms of worship of the young early Christian Church.

So, returning to the question of the origin of the custom of making the sign of the cross, we note that in the Jewish synagogue worship of the times of Christ and the apostles there was a ritual of inscribing the name of God on the forehead. What is it? The book of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 9:4) speaks of a symbolic vision of a catastrophe that should befall a certain city. However, this destruction will not affect pious people, on whose foreheads the angel of the Lord will depict a certain sign. This is described in the following words: “And the Lord said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and on the foreheads people who are grieving, sighing over all the abominations that are being committed in their midst, make sign» . Following the prophet Ezekiel, the same mark of the name of God on the forehead is mentioned in the book of Revelation of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. Thus, in Rev. 14.1 says: “And I looked, and behold, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him an hundred and forty-four thousand, who had Name His Father is written on the foreheads» . Elsewhere (Rev. 22.3-4) the following is said about the life of the future age: “And nothing will be cursed anymore; but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will serve Him. And they will see His face, and Name It will be on the foreheads their".

What is the name of God and how can it be depicted on the forehead? According to ancient Jewish tradition, the name of God was symbolically imprinted by the first and last letters of the Jewish alphabet, which were “alef” and “tav”. This meant that God is Infinite and Almighty, Omnipresent and Eternal. He is the completeness of all conceivable perfections. Since a person can describe the world around him with the help of words, and words consist of letters, the first and final letters of the alphabet in the writing of the name of God indicate that He contains the fullness of being, He embraces everything that can be described in human language. By the way, the symbolic inscription of the name of God using the first and last letters of the alphabet is also found in Christianity. Remember, in the book of the Apocalypse, the Lord says about himself: “I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.” Since the Apocalypse was originally written in Greek, it became obvious to the reader that the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet in the description of the name of God testify to the fullness of Divine perfections. Often we can see iconographic images of Christ, in whose hands is an open book with the inscription of only two letters: alpha and omega.

According to the passage from Ezekiel's prophecy quoted above, the elect will have the name of God inscribed on their foreheads, which is associated with the letters "aleph" and "tav." The meaning of this inscription is symbolic - a person who has the name of God on his forehead has completely given himself to God, dedicated himself to Him and lives according to the Law of God. Only such a person is worthy of salvation. Wanting to outwardly demonstrate their devotion to God, the Jews of Christ’s time already inscribed the letters “aleph” and “tav” on their foreheads. Over time, in order to simplify this symbolic action, they began to depict only the letter “tav”. It is quite remarkable that the study of manuscripts of that era showed that in Jewish writing at the turn of the era, the capital “tav” had the shape of a small cross. This small cross meant the name of God. In fact, for a Christian of that era, the image of a cross on his forehead meant, as in Judaism, dedicating his entire life to God. Moreover, placing a cross on the forehead was no longer reminiscent of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but rather the sacrifice of the Savior on the cross. When the Christian Church finally freed itself from Jewish influence, then the understanding of the sign of the cross as an image of the name of God through the letter “tav” was lost. The main semantic emphasis was placed on the display of the Cross of Christ. Having forgotten about the first meaning, Christians of later eras filled the sign of the Cross with new meaning and content.

Around the 4th century, Christians began to cross their entire body, i.e. the “wide cross” we know appeared. However, the imposition of the sign of the cross at this time still remained single-finger. Moreover, by the 4th century, Christians began to sign the cross not only on themselves, but also on surrounding objects. Thus, a contemporary of this era, the Monk Ephraim the Syrian writes: “Our houses, our doors, our lips, our breasts, all our members are overshadowed by the life-giving cross. You, Christians, do not leave this cross at any time, at any hour; may he be with you in all places. Do nothing without the cross; whether you go to bed or get up, work or rest, eat or drink, travel on land or sail on the sea - constantly adorn all your members with this life-giving cross.”.

In the 9th century, single-fingered fingers gradually began to be replaced by double-fingered fingers, which was due to the widespread spread of the heresy of Monophysitism in the Middle East and Egypt. When the heresy of the Monophysites appeared, it took advantage of the hitherto used form of finger formation - one-finger - to propagate its teachings, since it saw in one-finger a symbolic expression of its teaching about the one nature in Christ. Then the Orthodox, contrary to the Monophysites, began to use two fingers in the sign of the cross, as a symbolic expression of the Orthodox teaching about two natures in Christ. It so happened that the one-fingered sign of the cross began to serve as an external, visual sign of Monophysitism, and the two-fingered sign of Orthodoxy. Thus, the Church again inserted deep doctrinal truths into the external forms of worship.

An earlier and very important evidence of the use of double fingers by the Greeks belongs to the Nestorian Metropolitan Elijah Geveri, who lived at the end of the 9th century. Wanting to reconcile the Monophysites with the Orthodox and the Nestorians, he wrote that the latter disagreed with the Monophysites in the depiction of the cross. Namely, some depict the sign of the cross with one finger, leading the hand from left to right; others with two fingers, leading, on the contrary, from right to left. Monophysites, crossing themselves with one finger from left to right, emphasize that they believe in one Christ. Nestorians and Orthodox Christians, depicting the cross in a sign with two fingers - from right to left, thereby profess their belief that on the cross humanity and divinity were united together, that this was the reason for our salvation.

In addition to Metropolitan Elijah Geveri, the well-known Venerable John of Damascus also wrote about double-fingering in his monumental systematization of Christian doctrine, known as “An Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.”

Around the 12th century, in the Greek-speaking Local Orthodox Churches (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Cyprus), two-fingered was replaced by three-fingered. The reason for this was seen as follows. Since by the 12th century the struggle with the Monophysites had already ended, double-fingering lost its demonstrative and polemical character. However, double-fingering made Orthodox Christians related to the Nestorians, who also used double-fingering. Wanting to make a change in the external form of their worship of God, the Orthodox Greeks began to sign themselves with the three-fingered sign of the cross, thereby emphasizing their veneration of the Most Holy Trinity. In Rus', as already noted, triplicate was introduced in the 17th century during the reforms of Patriarch Nikon.

Thus, to summarize this message, it can be noted that the sign of the Honest and Life-giving Cross of the Lord is not only the oldest, but also one of the most important Christian symbols. It requires a deep, thoughtful, and reverent attitude from us. Centuries ago, John Chrysostom admonished us to think about this with these words: “You must not just draw a cross with your fingers,” he wrote. “You have to do it in faith.”

REFERENCES:

1. Jean Daniel. Theology of Judeo-Christianity // Symbol. 1983. No. 9. P. 15-32.

2. Kapterev N.F. Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. St. Petersburg, 1995.

3. N. E. Pestov. Consecration of the situation. “...Your camp must be holy” (Deut. 23:14). M., 1998.

4. Skaballanovich Mikhail. Explanatory Typikon. M., 2004.

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In 1656 in Moscow, already in connection with church reform, the book “Tablet” was published, in which the work of the Damascene monk, subdeacon and Studite “The Word in worship of the honorable and life-giving Cross, spoken during the third Sunday of Holy Lent,” it says that one must be baptized with three fingers, and the mark of the cross must be done on the forehead, on the stomach (Church Glor. belly, ancient Greek. κοιλία ), on the right shoulder, on the left shoulder: " the great finger, and two others close to him. so much ѹ҆ ѹ҆ ѹ҆ ѹ҆ ѹ҆ ѹ҆ ѹ҆ ѹ҆ ѹ҆ ̀ ̀ ̀ ̀ ̀ ѹ҆ ̀ ̀ ̀ ̀ ̀»

The more ancient, but less commonly used “two-fingered” is used in the “old rite” of worship in Edinoverie and Old Believers. Currently, the use of two fingers is not prohibited in the Russian Orthodox Church, where the “three fingers” and “nominal finger formation” used in blessings by priests and bishops have become more common.

Dual fingers

Dual finger (also bifinger) was adopted along with the Baptism of Rus' and prevailed until the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in the middle of the 17th century and was officially recognized in Moscow Rus' by the Stoglavy Cathedral. It was practiced until the middle of the 13th century in the Greek East (Constantinople). Later it was supplanted by triplicate.

Double-fingering was officially condemned in the Russian Church at Local Councils: the Council of 1656 and at the Great Moscow Council, all those baptized with double-fingering were proclaimed heretics and anathematized, that is, excommunicated from the church and subjected to severe persecution. At the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1971, all pre-Nikon Russian rites, including the ancient two-fingered sign of the cross, were recognized as Orthodox, and anathemas on them are usually considered “as if they had not happened.”

When performing double-fingering, two fingers of the right hand - the index and middle - are joined together, symbolizing the two natures of the one Christ, while the middle finger turns out to be slightly bent, which means divine condescension and incarnation. The three remaining fingers are also joined together, symbolizing the Holy Trinity; Moreover, in modern practice, the end of the thumb rests on the pads of the other two, which cover it on top. After which, the tips of two fingers (and only them) touch the forehead, abdomen or lower part of the chest (chest), right and left shoulders in succession. It is emphasized that one cannot be baptized at the same time as bowing; a bow, if required, should be made after the hand has been lowered.

The ancient rite does not use three fingers; it is believed that the image of the cross with three fingers in honor of the Holy Trinity is symbolically incorrect, because on the Cross Jesus Christ was crucified and suffered with his created soul and body, and not the entire Trinity with his divine nature.

Three fingers clasped together symbolize the Holy Trinity; the symbolic meaning of the other two fingers could be different at different times. So, initially among the Greeks they did not mean anything at all. Later, in Rus', under the influence of polemics with the Old Believers (who argued that “the Nikonians abolished Christ from the cross of Christ”) these two fingers were reinterpreted as a symbol of the two natures of Christ: Divine and human. This interpretation is now the most common, although there are others (for example, in the Romanian Church these two fingers are interpreted as a symbol of Adam and Eve falling to the Trinity).

The hand, depicting a cross, touches first the right shoulder, then the left, which symbolizes the traditional Christian opposition between the right side as the place of the saved and the left as the place of the lost (see Matt.). Thus, raising his hand first to the right, then to the left shoulder, the Christian asks to be included in the fate of the saved and to be delivered from the fate of the perishing.

Nominal finger addition

An Orthodox priest, when blessing people or objects, puts his fingers into a special formation called a nomenclature. It is believed that fingers folded in this way depict the letters ІСХС, from which you then need to add ІС ХС and mentally add the title to get the name Jesus Christ- І͠С Х͠С ( Ιησούς Χριστός ) in ancient Greek writing. When blessing, the hand, when drawing the transverse line of the cross, is led first to the left (relative to the one giving the blessing), then to the right, that is, the person being blessed in this way is blessed first with his right shoulder, then his left. The bishop has the right to teach the blessing with both hands at once.

In Orthodox iconography, the hand folded into the sign of the cross is a common element. Usually clergy are depicted this way with their hand raised for blessing, but sometimes the sign of the cross as a symbol of confession of their faith is also depicted on icons of saints without holy orders. Usually saints are depicted with two fingers or with a nominal finger, extremely rarely - with three fingers.

Catholicism

In Catholicism, unlike Orthodoxy, there have never been such conflicts regarding the folding of fingers during the sign of the cross, as, for example, in the Russian Church, where there are still various versions of it. Thus, Catholic prayer books, speaking about the sign of the cross, usually cite only the prayer pronounced at the same time (lat. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti - "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit"), without saying anything about the combination of fingers. Even traditionalist Catholics, who are usually quite strict about the ritual and its symbolism, admit the existence of various options here. The most accepted and widespread option in the Catholic world is to make the sign of the cross with five fingers, an open palm, from left to right, in memory of the five wounds on the body of Christ.

When a Catholic makes the sign of the cross for the first time upon entering a church, he first dips his fingertips in a special bowl of holy water. This gesture, which appears to be an echo of the ancient custom of washing hands before celebrating the Eucharist, was later reinterpreted as a rite performed in memory of the sacrament of Baptism. Some Catholics perform this ritual at home, before starting home prayer.

The priest, when blessing, uses the same finger formation as with the sign of the cross.

In addition to the usual, large cross, the Latin rite preserved, as a remnant of ancient practice, a small cross. It is performed during Mass, before the reading of the Gospel, when the clergy and those praying with the thumb of their right hand depict three small crosses on the forehead, lips and heart.

For a Catholic, making the sign of the cross - in any form, in any rite - means, first of all, a declaration of belonging to Christ. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “The sign of the cross is a sign of the Passion of Christ, which we perform not simply for sanctification or blessing, but for the confession of our faith in the power of the Passion of the Lord.”

Notes

Dyachenko, Grigory Mikhailovich.. - P. 329.
, With. 329: “Through the long and middle course, the coming together of two natures in Christ, that is, the Savior Christ Himself, we confess the perfection of God, and the perfection of man into two essences and natures of the believer and the knowable. By placing the finger on the forehead, we confess two certain things, as if we were born of God and the Father, as if our word comes from the mind, and as if it came from above according to the Divine word that speaks, bow the heavens and come down. And by the position of the hedgehog’s fingers on the navel, his descent onto the earth, his eternal conception in the Most Pure womb of the Mother of God, and his nine-month residence, we clearly proclaim. And by drawing from there all hands on the right hand and on the left side, we clearly formulate those who want to wear out the bitter answer from the righteous, standing at the right hand of the Judge, to the wicked and sinners, according to the Divine voice of Savior, speaking to the opposing and unrepentant Jews.”
Manuscript 201. Greek Maxim's writings (undefined) . Library of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. old.stsl.ru. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
Russian: Maxim the Greek "A fairy tale about how to sign the sign of the cross." (undefined) (March 26, 2014). Retrieved November 22, 2017.
: “Put the first on the forehead, the same on the chest, that is, on the heart, and then on the right shoulder, the same on the left shoulder, that is, the true imagination of the sign of the cross.”
(Russian). Wikisource. Retrieved November 22, 2017.

Someone or something. There are several phraseological units denoting the action of a person making the sign of the cross: "make the sign of the cross", "make the sign of the cross", "to impose the sign of the cross on oneself", "(re)baptize"(not to be confused with the meaning of “receive the sacrament of Baptism”), as well as “to mark (sya)”. The sign of the cross is used in many Christian denominations, differing in the variants of the folding of the fingers (usually in this context the Church Slavonic word “fingers” is used: “folding of fingers”, “finger folding”) and the direction of movement of the hand.

When performing double-fingering, two fingers of the right hand - the index and middle - are joined together, symbolizing the two natures of Christ, while the middle finger turns out to be slightly bent, which means Divine condescension and incarnation. The three remaining fingers are also joined together, symbolizing the Holy Trinity; Moreover, in modern practice, the end of the thumb rests on the pads of the other two, which cover it on top. After which, the tips of two fingers (and only them) touch the forehead, abdomen, right and left shoulders in succession. It is also emphasized that one cannot be baptized at the same time as bowing; a bow, if required, should be performed after the hand has been lowered (however, the same rule is followed in the new rite, although not so strictly).

Old Believers do not recognize triplicity, believing that the image of a cross with three fingers in honor of the Holy Trinity denotes the heresy according to which the entire Trinity, and not just the Son, suffered on the Cross. For the same reason, it is not customary to say “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” when making the sign of the cross; instead, they usually say the Jesus Prayer.

The priest, when blessing, does not use any special finger formation, but folds his hand into the same two-fingered one.

Iconography

In Orthodox iconography, a hand folded into the sign of the cross is a fairly common element. Usually clergy are depicted this way, with their hand raised for blessing, but sometimes the sign of the cross, as a symbol of confession of their faith, is also depicted on icons of saints without holy orders. Usually saints are depicted with two fingers or with a nominal finger, extremely rarely - with three fingers.

Catholicism

In the West, unlike the Orthodox Church, there have never been such conflicts regarding the folding of fingers during the sign of the cross, as in the Russian Church, and to this day there are various versions of it. Thus, Catholic prayer books, speaking about the sign of the cross, usually cite only the prayer pronounced at the same time ( In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti), without saying anything about the combination of fingers. Even traditionalist Catholics, who are usually quite strict about the ritual and its symbolism, admit the existence of various options here. In the Polish Catholic community, it is customary to make the sign of the cross with five fingers, with an open palm, in memory of the five wounds on the body of Christ.

Priest When blessing, he uses the same finger formation as with the sign of the cross, and leads his hand in the same way as an Orthodox priest, that is, from left to right.

In addition to the usual, large cross, the so-called cross was preserved in the Latin rite as a remnant of ancient practice. small cross. It is performed during Mass, before the reading of the Gospel, when the clergy and those praying with the thumb of their right hand depict three small crosses on the forehead, lips and heart.

Notes

Literature

Uspensky B.A. The sign of the cross and sacred space: Why do Orthodox Christians cross themselves from right to left, and Catholics from left to right? - M.: Languages of Slavic culture, 2004. - 160 p.
Novitsky I. A. Oath of Stoglav. - M.: Geronica, 2010. - 192 p.

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See what the “Sign of the Cross” is in other dictionaries:

Sign of the Cross- SIGN OF THE CROSS. Outdated Sign of the cross, Christian prayer gesture. A blacksmith raised his hand to make the sign of the cross (Gogol. The Night Before Christmas). The Lord will keep him [Silver] from your hands! said Maxim, making the sign of the cross, and will not allow... ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language

Sign of the Cross- Perform (create) the sign of the cross - cross yourself. Make the sign of the cross (cross) - cross. In the Orthodox Church, the sign of the cross is made with the right hand. When making the sign of the cross, put together the thumb, index finger and... ... Orthodoxy. Dictionary-reference book

Sign of the Cross- an image of a cross with one’s hand on oneself or on some thing. In the primary sources of church history it is spoken of as a custom dating back to the times of the apostles. The oldest written evidence about him belongs to Tertullian and Cyprian.... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

SIGN OF THE CROSS- the cross is the most important symbol for Christians, not only as an instrument of universal salvation on which Christ was crucified, but also as a constant reminder that people cannot become Christians without accepting the cross as the basis of life. “Whoever wants to follow Me... ...Russian history

It would seem that what could be simpler than crossing yourself? We put our fingers together and... So. How, exactly, should you fold your fingers correctly?
And why exactly? Is it possible to fold your fingers differently? And what does all this mean?

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Making the sign of oneself or other people with a man-made cross is called the “sign of the cross.” The word "sign" means "sign". That is, the sign of the cross is the sign of the cross, its image. Christians make the sign of the cross (baptize themselves), asking for help from God to confess or testify to their faith in Jesus Christ, His death on the Cross and His resurrection. By the way a person is baptized, one can determine what religion he is.

Nowadays, in most Orthodox churches it is customary to perform the sign of the cross in the following sequence. The fingers of the right hand are folded like this: the thumb, index and middle fingers are together, and the ring and little fingers (also folded together) are pressed against the palm. The first three fingers folded together symbolize the unity of the Holy Trinity, our faith in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The other two fingers point to the two natures of Jesus Christ - Divine and human, united in Christ invariably, inseparably, inseparably.

Fingers folded in this way are first placed on the forehead (sanctification of the mind), then on the stomach (and not on the chest at all!) - this is sanctification of the senses, then on the right and left shoulders. This is the sanctification of bodily powers.

When making the sign of the cross, it is customary to say to yourself: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen” (if no other prayers are said). You should cross yourself, avoiding too fast, sharp, jerky or circular movements. The sign of the cross suggests slowness and feeling. The bow or bow to the ground is performed after the sign of the cross, and not simultaneously with it. First we depict the Cross of the Lord on ourselves, and then we worship it.
If strangers are baptized differently (for example, from left to right), you should not rush to reprimand them: it is possible that they were raised in a different liturgical culture. Old Believers, believers of the Armenian-Gregorian confession, Catholics are baptized differently (they are baptized with an open palm and in a different sequence: from the left shoulder to the right) and those Protestants who, in principle, do not deny the sign of the cross.

In Slavic, fingers are called “fingers,” so folding the fingers in a certain way to make the sign of the cross is called finger-folding. The method of folding the fingers accepted in the Orthodox Church is called tripartite.
Until the 17th century, the Russian Church used two fingers: the index and middle fingers were folded together, and the thumb, ring and little fingers, folded, were pressed to the palm, symbolizing faith in the Holy Trinity. Nowadays, Old Believers are baptized this way. Three-fingered and two-fingered are different ways of making the sign of the cross, so one of them cannot be considered the only possible one or, on the contrary, wrong.

However, you can often see an erroneous version of the sign of the cross, which is found in many old textbooks: instead of the stomach, the fingers are placed on the chest. Even in V. Artemov’s recently published book “Orthodox Worship” it says: the forehead, chest, right and left shoulders are crossed.” This method is distorted because if the cross, built by mentally connecting points on the forehead, chest and shoulders, turns out upside down: its lower end is shorter than the upper.
Christians began to sign themselves with the sign of the cross already in the 1st century - this was passed down from the apostles. Until the 5th century, the sign of the cross was generally performed with one finger, most likely the index finger. The imposition of the full (forehead - belly - shoulders) sign of the cross is first mentioned in Georgian sources - in the "Life of St. Nina, Equal to the Apostles." The sign of the cross in the form of two fingers began to be used after the 5th century in connection with the fight against the heresy of Monophysitism. This method of the sign of the cross was adopted in order to confirm the unity of the Divine and human nature of Christ. Later, triplicate appeared.

A sign for life
According to Orthodox teaching, the power of the sign of the cross, like prayer, calls on God's help and protects from the influence of demonic forces. In addition, from the lives of saints it is known that sometimes the sign of the cross was enough to dispel demonic spells and perform a miracle. The Church uses the mark of the cross in all services and sacraments. In Byzantium, in especially important documents, three crosses were placed instead of the name, believing that it was more responsible to guarantee by the power of the cross than by the name. The Cross of Christ sanctifies a wide variety of actions and objects, therefore the sign of the cross accompanies a believer throughout his life.

When is it necessary to be baptized? This is usually done at the beginning and end of prayer. When approaching one or another shrine. When entering and leaving the temple, the sign of the cross in this case is performed three times. Before kissing the cross or icon. At one point or another during the service. In particular, during the litany: after singing “Lord, have mercy,” “Give, Lord,” “To you, Lord,” they are baptized once. They are baptized once and with a small doxology: “Glory to the Father and the Son...”.

The sign of the cross is performed once with the exclamations “Take, eat...”, “Drink from it all...”, “Thine from Thine...”, and also “Glory to Thee, Christ God...”. One should be baptized once while reading or singing “Most Honorable Cherub...”. The sign of the cross is made three times during the reading or singing of “Hallelujah”, the Trisagion, “Come, let us worship...”, as well as with the exclamation “Glory to Thee, Christ our God...”. With each announcement of the words “let us bow,” “worship,” “let us fall,” the sign of the cross is performed once. The sign of the cross is performed once when invoking the Lord, the Mother of God and the saints during the canon at Matins. At the end of the reading or singing of each prayer or hymn the sign of the cross is also performed.In all these cases, the sign of the cross is performed with a bow from the waist.

The triple sign of the cross with prostration is performed during fasting when entering or leaving the temple. In addition, there are many more cases when it is necessary to make the sign of the cross in church. Knowledge of this comes to believers with experience. There are certain rules that do not allow the sign of the cross in one case or another.

It is not necessary to be baptized while singing psalms. Prostrations to the ground are not allowed on the days of the Nativity of Christ until Epiphany, from Easter to the Day of the Holy Trinity, on the days of the Transfiguration and Exaltation. True, in the latter case, three prostrations are given to the Cross.

When people in a church are blessed with the Cross, the Gospel, an icon or a Chalice, everyone should be baptized, bowing their heads, and when people are blessed with candles, a hand, or incense, there is no need to be baptized, but only bow.

Of course, this list is not limited to everything. It is permissible to be baptized in all significant cases of life: in danger and trial, in joy, in sorrow, in work.
The sign of the cross is used not only in relation to oneself, but also towards others. The priest blesses the believers with the sign of the cross. Only he overshadows the bowed head of the believer with a cross from left to right, and not from right to left, like a person overshadowing himself. A mother makes the sign of the cross over her child, spouses sign each other, one loved one makes the sign of the cross over another (for example, when a loved one sets off on a journey). This sign of the cross is called a blessing.
It is customary to sign the sign of the cross on food before eating it, and in some cases on other personal or household items (for example, a bed before going to bed).

The cross is my protection
The sign of the cross has several meanings. Religious, sanctifying, and, finally, protective. The sign of the cross, applied with faith, gives strength to defeat evil and do good, to overcome temptation and passion. True, it is necessary to discard superstitious ideas that the sign of the cross or wearing a cross in itself is “protection from evil forces.” The sign itself is worthless without inner spiritual participation and sincere faith in the power of the Cross.

History knows many examples when the Lord, through the faith of people through the sign of the cross, worked miracles. The Apostle John the Theologian, as his disciple Saint Prochorus relates, with the sign of the Cross healed a sick man lying along the way. And the pious Ir, according to the instructions of the Apostle Philip, drew with his hand the image of the Cross of Christ on the damaged parts of the body of the ailing Aristarchus - and immediately the withered hand became stronger, the eye received sight, the hearing opened and the sick man became healthy. The Monk Macrina, sister of St. Basil the Great, suffered from chest illness, asked her mother to cover the sore spot with the Cross and immediately received healing.

The miraculous Cross of Christ not only healed illnesses, but also raised the dead and made the human body unharmed. Thus, the First Martyr Thekla crossed the wood and brushwood collected for her burning with the Cross, and the fire did not dare to touch her body. The martyr Vasilisa of Nicomedia protected herself with the sign of the Cross, and in the middle of the flames in the kindled furnace she stood for a long time in the fire without any harm. The martyrs Avdon, Sinnis, the Great Martyr Panteleimon and many other martyrs, doomed to be torn to pieces by beasts, made the sign of the cross, and the fierce beasts, like gentle lambs, kissed the feet of God’s people. With the almighty power of the Cross of Christ, even deadly poisons turned out to be harmless, as can be seen from the lives of St. Juvenal and St. Benedict.

Nowadays it is often said that miracles no longer happen. They say miracles happened only in ancient times. But just recently one of these miracles happened in Russia, in which the life-giving and saving power of the sign of the cross was clearly manifested.
One of the priests moved into a small hotel where several people were already living. They were all offered lunch. And when they gathered at the table, the priest, as the shepherd of the Church, suggested: “Brothers, first of all, let’s pray. Let’s pray before eating.” Everyone stood up, the priest read the Lord's Prayer "Our Father" and, ending it, turning to the table, overshadowed everything with a cruciform pastoral blessing.

And at that very second, a large decanter of kvass, standing on the table, for no apparent reason and without any blow from the side, shattered into pieces. The kvass spilled and everyone gasped. The hotel owner grabbed her head and rushed into the next room, where her scream came from. She immediately ran back, threw herself at the priest’s feet and admitted that she had put this decanter on the table by mistake. It contained poisoned kvass prepared to kill her husband. She wanted to put another decanter with good kvass on the table, but she got it mixed up, since both decanters were exactly the same. And if it were not for the Lord’s Prayer, if the shepherd had not blessed the table for the meal, then many people would have died.

There are many similar stories happening these days. The cross strengthens and saves a sincere believer. Even when dying, at the last moment, a Christian makes the sign of the cross with a cold hand, protecting and sanctifying himself on his final path. And they put a cross on the grave of a Christian so that everyone knows that a believer rests under this cross.

Purification, enlightenment and transformation
It is so natural to move from a story about the sign of the cross to a conversation about the cross itself. In our case - about the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. We all know that this type of death penalty existed in the Roman Empire, but hardly anyone other than theologians and professional historians imagines the full horror of the crucifixion.
The cross was a method of execution in the Roman Empire, intended for slaves and for those cases where the death penalty wanted to be enhanced by dishonor. Crucifixion was considered by the Romans to be the most terrible death penalty. As Cicero said, “the very name of the cross is disgusting to the Roman ear, sight and hearing.”

First, the cross was placed upright, then the condemned person was attached to it, nailing his hands to the tree. The legs were often also nailed, but sometimes they were only tied with ropes. To the foot, at the height of the legs, for their support, a horizontal plank was nailed or a crossbar was placed in the middle (hence the expression “sitting on the cross,” which is found in many descriptions of the execution of the cross). All this was done so that the hands would not be torn by nails and the body would not fall down.

F. Ferrar in the book “The Life of Jesus Christ” writes: “Death on the cross contained everything that is terrible and outrageous in torture and death: dizziness, convulsions, loss of strength, insomnia, feverish state due to wounds, tetanus, publicity of shame , the duration of suffering, Antonov's fire in open wounds - all this, taken together and to the highest degree, but without deprivation of feelings, which alone could become some relief for the sufferer. The unnatural position made any movement painful, inflamed and constantly renewed wounds near the nails, gangrene was corroding; the arteries - especially in the head and stomach - were swollen and tense from the rush of blood. To all these varied and constantly increasing torments were added unbearable heat and excruciating thirst. The combination of all these torments at the same time produced such an unbearable melancholy that the very appearance of death , this terrible unknown enemy, at the approach of which every person trembles, made it pleasant, the dream of it - delightful."

“The cruel feature of the death penalty was that in this terrible state one could live in terrible agony for three or four days. Bleeding from wounds in the hands soon stopped and could not be fatal at all. The true cause of death was the unnatural position of the body, which caused terrible circulatory disorder, terrible headaches, pain in the heart and, finally, numbness of the limbs. Those crucified on the cross, if they had a strong physique, could even sleep and died only from hunger. The main idea of this cruel execution was not the direct death of the condemned by means of certain injuries his body, and putting the pub with nailed hands, of which he had failed to make good use, to the pillory, where he was presented to rot,” wrote Renan.

The cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, according to legend, was discovered during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius (14 - 37 years old). At that time Saint James was the bishop of Jerusalem. Then this cross was lost for a long time and was found only by the wife of the holy Emperor Constantine, Saint Helena, in the 4th century.

The scope of the excavations she organized was great, and as a result, Saint Helena found three crosses, but did not know on which of them Jesus Christ suffered. In the end, she ordered the dead man's body to be brought and placed it on one of the crosses. The contact had no effect on the dead man. Elena ordered to place the body on the second cross, then on the third. Upon contact with the third cross, the dead man was immediately resurrected. This is how the cross on which Jesus was crucified was found. Elena sent part of this cross to Emperor Constantine, and he, in turn, sent it to the Pope. A fragment of the shrine is still kept in Rome in the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem. Elena again buried most of the cross in the church built on the site of Golgotha.
A tablet was found next to the cross with the inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” which was also sent to Rome. From this moment on, the cross becomes the highest symbol of Christianity. And in the first centuries, the attitude of Christians towards the cross was ambivalent. Since execution on the cross was considered shameful in the Roman Empire, at first Christians hated the cross. It took the efforts of the apostles to change the situation.

Even then, ideas about the saving worship of the cross were combined with the ideas of bearing the cross. Evangelist Mark writes about Christ: “And he called the people with his disciples, and said to them: If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” The disciples of Christ taught not only the worship of the cross, but also the ascension to the cross. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans writes: “And so we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life... But if we died with Christ, we believe that we also live we will be with Him."

“The cross is the union of heavenly and earthly things and the trampling of the underworld,” wrote John Chrysostom. For Christians, the cross is purification, enlightenment, transformation, and the guarantee of the future century. St. Augustine wrote in the 5th century: “If you do not use the sign of the cross either on the forehead of believers, or with the anointing with which we were anointed, or over the holy sacrifice with which we feed, then everything is fruitless.”

The cross is also a symbol of Christ. The two "arms" of the horizontal axis signify two fundamental ideas of Christianity: forgiveness and redemption and God's punishment. The two intersecting axes that make up the cross represent the dual nature of the Savior: the horizontal axis is His earthly nature, the vertical axis is His Divine nature.
The cross is a manifestation of spirit and strength. The entire life path of a Christian is the knowledge of the Cross, and at the end of such a path a person can say: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Epistle to the Galatians, II, 19-20). “And the Church has its own trophy over death - this is the Cross of Christ, which it carries on itself,” says Hippolytus of Rome.

Demons run from him
Already the first Christians had their own prayer sign when turning to God. The theologian of the 2nd - 3rd centuries Tertullian wrote: “With every success and luck, with every entrance and exit, when dressing and putting on shoes, starting a meal, lighting lamps, going to bed, sitting down for some activity, we protect our forehead with the sign of the cross.” .
True, unlike modern Christians, in ancient times they crossed themselves with so-called small crosses, placing them on different parts of the body separately: on the forehead, on the chest, on the eyes, and so on. (By the way, even today some people, for example, when yawning, often cross their mouths as if protecting themselves from the penetration of evil spirits).
The origin of the Russian word "cross" is lost in the mists of time. Sometimes it is derived from the German Christ - Christ. In fact, the original meaning of the word “cross” has nothing to do with Christianity. The greatest expert on Russian antiquity, A. Afanasyev, in his book “Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature” proved that the word “cross” is associated with the concepts of “fire” and “solstice”. The Old Russian word "cross" itself means "revival", hence - to resurrect, that is, to come to life. But the words “peasant” and “peasant woman,” according to V. Dahl, mean “baptized person.” Both words appeared in the Russian language relatively late, after the baptism of Rus'. Obviously, the consonance of the words “cross” and Christ played an important role in their invention.

One of the twelve holidays is dedicated to the glorification of the Cross of the Lord. The first stichera of the service begins with the words: “The cross is lifted up, and the demons are driven away...”. And further this is said many times: “...today the Cross is erected, and demons are running, today all creation will be freed from aphids.” In the sanctuary at the end of the canon it says: “The Cross, guardian of all universes; the Cross, the beauty of the Church; the Cross of the faithful in affirmation; the Cross, the glory of angels and the plague of demons.”

The main feature of this holiday is the removal from the altar to the middle of the Church of the Holy Cross. The same thing happens during the Week of the Cross in Great Lent and on the Feast of the First Savior. There is a pious tradition when on Maundy Thursday a believer depicts the sign of the cross on the windows and doors of his home.

The author will risk ending this article with an excerpt from the oldest Russian written monument, “The Tale of Bygone Years” from 1068. Almost a thousand years ago, our ancestors wrote about the power of the Cross like this: “Behold, God has shown the power of the cross, since Izyaslav kissed the Cross, and I also; with the same God brought abomination, for this God delivered the honorable Cross on the day of the Exaltation, Vseslav sighed and said: O Honest Cross! By your faith, deliver me from this ditch! God has shown the power of the cross to the land of Russia, so that those who kissed it do not transgress the Honest Cross; if anyone transgresses, he will suffer execution here, and in the future, eternal punishment. The power of the cross is still great: By the Cross, for the forces of demons can be overcome, The Cross will help the prince in the gods, in the gods, return to the gods With the cross of fellow citizens, people defeat the adversaries. The Cross soon delivers from adversity those who call on it with faith; “If there are dreams from demons, those who mark their faces with the Cross are driven away.”

What can our contemporary add to such an ancient Russian hymn to the Cross? Probably only one thing: Amen!

Alexander Okonishnikov

"HONESTLY" , September 12, 2007