Coptic cross
The cross as Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christians use it: worn from baptism, often tattooed small on the right wrist, and in its oldest Coptic form drawn as the ankh.
Meaning
For the Coptic Orthodox Church the cross is the sign of Christ’s victory. The Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles writes that it is “the sign of the triumph of Christ over death and our belonging to Christ”, and that those baptized in the church typically receive a small cross to wear around the neck. The church’s dictionary of terms on St-Takla.org calls it the instrument of a shameful execution that became, after the Crucifixion, the universal symbol of the Christian faith; the priest uses the cross during services and to bless the people. Copts wear it today in Egypt and in dioceses abroad such as Los Angeles, and many have a small cross tattooed on the wrist.
Origin and history
Christianity was preached in Egypt before the end of the first century, the V&A notes, and Egypt’s Christians made one form of the cross their own: the crux ansata, the ankh, the hieroglyph meaning “life”, which the V&A calls a form “peculiar to Egypt”. The Harvard Art Museums hold a woven fragment of the fifth or sixth century with a crux ansata, its arms flared, beside a Greek inscription that probably asked protection for particular people; Harvard’s catalogue says Christians in Egypt took up the sign early chiefly because of the ankh’s meaning. The Coptic church’s own dictionary of terms still describes the ankh as the ancient Egyptian sign of life, transmitted to the Christian Egyptians as the cross or a sign of eternal life.
The cross on the wrist
The Los Angeles diocese says the tradition of a small cross tattooed on the wrist grew up among Coptic Christians from the earliest days of persecution, and that the practice is common. The Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development, at the Institute of Development Studies, recorded how it was done in one Upper Egyptian village. Saboura Bebawy, born in 1943 in El Matahra, in Minya, remembered marking her own at about ten: she dipped a matchstick in soot and mother’s milk to mark the shape on her wrist, etched it in with a needle, and soothed it with paste from the molokheya plant, which gave it its green colour. She did the same for any friend who asked: “We all engraved crosses on our wrists so that it is manifest to all that we are Christians.”
Worn today
The Los Angeles diocese sets limits. A small, simple cross on the right wrist is acceptable, it says; large, elaborate crosses and pictures of saints over the body are not Orthodox custom. It asks Copts to wear the cross itself at all times, normally under the shirt or blouse, and not to wear hieroglyphics or eyes against the evil eye in its place, which it calls a practice that is not Orthodox Christian.
The shape
Coptic crosses are made in more than one shape. The church’s own dictionary of terms and the Los Angeles diocese speak of the cross without naming one; the drawing here shows an equal-armed form with three rounded points at the end of each arm.
The ankh as a cross
The ankh has its own page in Egyptian hieroglyphics. On Coptic textiles the two sit side by side: a woven V&A fragment of the fifth or sixth century, possibly from Akhmim, is woven with rows of ankhs and crosses.
In the church
Besides the cross the priest blesses with, the Coptic dictionary of terms describes a processional cross, held by a deacon at the start of festival processions and when a bishop is received: “a sign of triumph over the devil.”
Read next
- Next in Christian symbolsArmenian cross (khachkar)The cross as the Armenian Apostolic Church carves it, its arms ending in curling leaves. On the khachkars, Armenia’s carved cross-stones, it stands on a rosette and sprouts leaves and tendrils: the cross as the tree of life.
- Egypt’s Christians took the ankh as a cross, the crux ansataAnkhThe ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for “life”: a T shape with a loop on top, held by the gods and worn as an amulet.
See also
Ethiopian cross, Chi-Rho, Skull and crossbones, Ichthys, INRI, Latin cross.
Sources
- On Wearing the Cross, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California and Hawaii
- The Cross (Dictionary of Coptic Orthodox Church Terms), St-Takla.org (Coptic Orthodox), The Cross
- Processional Cross (Dictionary of Coptic Orthodox Church Terms), St-Takla.org (Coptic Orthodox), Processional Cross
- Ankh (Dictionary of Coptic Orthodox Church Terms), St-Takla.org (Coptic Orthodox), Ankh
- We engraved crosses on our wrists so that it is manifest to all that we are Christians: the heritage story of my tattoo (Egypt), Interview by Amir Boulis, 10 August 2022, Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID), Institute of Development Studies
- Textile fragment with rows of ankhs and crosses, 400–599, Egypt, possibly Akhmim, collection record, Victoria and Albert Museum, Summary
- Textile fragment with crux ansata and Greek inscription, 5th–6th century, Egypt (2002.318.12), collection record, Harvard Art Museums, Description
- Symbolism Essentials (teacher resource), Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Arizona, Coptic Christianity
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from crosses.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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