Orthodox cross
A cross with three bars: a short top bar for the title board, the main crossbar, and a slanted footrest near the foot. It is the cross of the Russian Orthodox tradition.
Meaning
The Orthodox Church in America explains the three bars. The top one is the sign placed above Christ’s head, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”, which Orthodox icons often write as “King of Glory” instead. The middle one is the beam his arms were stretched and nailed to, and the bottom one is the footrest that supported his body.
Origin and history
A footrest is old in pictures of the crucifixion: Walter Lowrie (1901) found one, the suppedaneum, even in the earliest, the mocking graffito on the Palatine in Rome (see Latin cross). The slant is the newer part. In earlier Byzantine icons, the Orthodox Church in America notes, the footrest was generally drawn level, and the explanations of the slant are of somewhat later origin.
Why the footrest slants
A prayer of the Ninth Hour calls Christ’s cross, standing between two thieves, a balance of righteousness. The Church of the Nativity in Erie, Pennsylvania, an Old Rite parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, explains the slant through it: the cross was a scale of justice, and one thief sank to hell, dragged down by his blasphemy, while the wise thief rose to heaven through his repentance. The raised end of the bar points to the one, the lowered end to the other. The same parish notes there is some question whether the footrest was on Christ’s cross at all.
What a Russian crucifix carries
Russian crucifixes often add inscriptions. On the title board, IC XC are the first and last letters of Christ’s name in Greek; NIKA, above the arms, is Greek for “he conquers”, and together they read “Jesus Christ is victorious”. Below the feet, a skull hidden in a cave under the earth is Adam’s, a reminder that Adam lost paradise through a tree and that Christ, the new Adam, restores it through the tree of the cross. Western art puts the same skull at the foot of the cross (see Skull and crossbones).
Read next
- Next in Christian symbolsSacred HeartA heart wreathed in thorns, with flames rising from it, a cross above and a wound in its side. Catholics honour it as the heart of Jesus and the sign of his love for people.
- In Catholic symbolsCrucifixA cross bearing the figure of the crucified Christ. Catholics and Lutherans use it in worship, the Orthodox avoid carved figures, and Reformed churches keep to the bare cross.
See also
Latin cross, INRI, Armenian cross (khachkar), Chi-Rho, Skull and crossbones, Ichthys.
Sources
- The Russian Orthodox Cross (Questions & Answers), Orthodox Church in America, Answer
- An Explanation of the Three-Bar Cross, Church of the Nativity, Erie PA, an Old Rite parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
- Monuments of the Early Church, Walter Lowrie, 1901, Macmillan, New York and London (Internet Archive), p. 278
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from crosses.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 24, 2026. How we research
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