word of honour: the sign of the cross. why do people cross themselves, when did it appear and what does it mean

Even a little enlightened person knows that the Old Believers are baptized differently than Christians of other denominations. This sign of the cross is called duplex", because it consists of not one, not three, not four or five fingers, but only two.

Why are Christians baptized?

The sign of the cross is placed by Christians as a sign that we confess the Lord crucified on the cross. By the sign of the Cross at the beginning of every work, we testify that everything we do is for the glory of the Crucified Christ.

The sign of the cross, i.e. the custom of drawing a cross on the body by laying fingers on the forehead, persi and ramen (shoulders) is an ancient custom that appeared along with Christianity. The custom of Christians to overshadow themselves with the sign of the cross in the prayer of St. Basil the Great refers to the number of those that we received from the apostolic tradition by succession.

How to put fingers together during the sign of the cross?

For the sign of the cross, we put the fingers of the right hand like this: “the great one with two small ones.” This signifies, according to the teachings of the Greater Catechism, the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, not three gods, but the One God in the Trinity, which is divided by names and persons, but the Divinity is one. The Father is not begotten, and the Son is begotten, not created; The Holy Spirit is neither born nor created, but is the source (Great Cat.). The two fingers (index and great middle), having joined together, we have outstretched and somewhat inclined - this forms the two natures of Christ: Divinity and humanity; with one (index) finger we mean the Divine, with the other (middle), slightly bent, we mean humanity; the inclination of the fingers is interpreted by the holy fathers as an image of the incarnation of the Son of God, who "bow down the heavens and come down to our earth for the sake of salvation".

Having folded the fingers of the right hand in this way, we put two fingers on our forehead, i.e. forehead. By this we mean that " God the Father is the beginning of all Divinity, but from Him before the age the Son was born, and in the last times bow the heavens, descend to the earth and become a man". When we put our fingers on our stomach, we mean by this that in the womb of the Most Holy Theotokos, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, there was the seedless conception of the Son of God; He was born of her and lived on the earth, he suffered in the flesh for our sins, he was buried, and on the third day he rose again and raised up from hell the righteous souls who were there. When we put our fingers on the right shoulder, this is interpreted as follows: first, that Christ ascended into heaven and is at the right hand of God the Father; second, that on the day of judgment the Lord will place the righteous at His right hand (on the right hand), and sinners on the left hand (on the left hand). The standing of sinners on the left hand also means the position of the hand when making the sign of the cross on the left shoulder (Great Catech., ch. 2, folios 5, 6).

Where did the duplicity come from?

The custom to fold the fingers in this way was adopted by us from the Greeks and has been preserved with them invariably from the time of the apostles. Scientists, prof. Kapterev and Golubinsky collected a number of testimonies that in the 11th-12th centuries the Church knew only two-fingered fingers. We also find double-fingeredness on all ancient icon images (mosaics and frescoes of the 11th-14th centuries).

Information about two-fingeredness is also found in ancient Russian literature, including the writings of St. Maxim the Greek and the famous book Domostroy.

Why not tripartite?

Usually believers of other faiths, for example, New Believers, ask why the Old Believers are not baptized with three fingers, like members of other Eastern churches.

On the left is a three-fingered sign, this sign of the cross is accepted by the New Rite tradition. On the right - two-fingered, the Old Believers overshadow themselves with this sign of the cross

This can be answered as follows:

• Two-fingeredness was commanded to us by the apostles and fathers of the ancient Church, to which there is a lot of historical evidence. Three-fingering is a newly invented rite, the use of which has no historical justification;
• The storage of two fingers is protected by a church oath, which is contained in the ancient rite of acceptance from heretics Jacob and the resolutions of the Stoglavy Cathedral of 1551: “If anyone does not bless Christ with two fingers, or does not imagine the sign of the cross, let him be damned";
• The double finger reflects the true dogma of the Christian Creed - the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, as well as the two natures in Christ - the human and the Divine. Other types of the sign of the cross do not have such a dogmatic content, and the three fingers distort this content, showing that the Trinity was crucified on the cross. And although the New Believers do not contain the doctrine of the crucifixion of the Trinity, St. The Fathers categorically forbade the use of signs and symbols that have a heretical and non-Orthodox meaning.
  Thus, arguing with the Catholics, the holy fathers also pointed out that the mere change of species creation, the use of customs similar to heretical ones, is in itself heresy. Ep. Nikola Mefonsky wrote, in particular, about unleavened bread: The one who consumes unleavened bread, already from some similarity, is suspected of communicating with these heresies.". The truth of the dogma of two-fingeredness is recognized today, although not publicly, by various New Rite hierarchs and theologians. So oh. Andrey Kuraev in his book “Why Orthodox are like this” points out: “ I consider two-fingeredness to be a more accurate dogmatic symbol than three-fingeredness. After all, it was not the Trinity that was crucified, but “one of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God» ».

Sign of the Cross(Church Slav. “sign of the cross”) - in Christianity, a prayer gesture, which is an image of a cross on itself. The sign of the cross is performed on various occasions, for example, at the entrance and exit from the temple, before or after the utterance of a prayer, during worship, as a sign of confession of one's faith, and in other cases; also when blessing someone or something. The action of a person making the sign of the cross is usually called "make the sign of the cross", "make the sign of the cross" or "be baptized" (this latter should be distinguished from the word "baptize" in the sense of "receive the sacrament of Baptism"). The sign of the cross is used in many Christian denominations, however, it differs in the options for adding fingers (usually in this context the Church Slavonic word “fingers” is used: “adding fingers”, “folding fingers”), and in the direction of movement of the hand.

Catholicism

In the West, unlike the Orthodox Church, there have never been conflicts regarding the folding of fingers during the sign of the cross, as in the Russian Church, and even now there are various variants of it. Suffice it to say that in many Catholic prayer books, when speaking of the sign of the cross, they only quote the prayer being said at the same time (In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti), without saying anything about the combination of fingers (a situation that is quite rare for Orthodox prayer books and almost impossible for the Old Believers). Even Catholic traditionalists, who are usually quite strict about the rite and its symbolism, admit the existence of various options here.

The following description of the sign of the cross is given (translated into Russian) from one American traditionalist site.

The sign of the cross is performed as follows:

* Option A. On the right hand, put together the thumb and ring finger, and hold the index and middle fingers together in an indication of the two natures of Christ. This is the most typical practice of Western Catholics.
* Option B. Hold together the thumb and forefinger of your right hand in a representation of the two natures of Christ.
* Option C. Hold together the thumb, index and middle fingers of your right hand (representing the Holy Trinity), while bending the ring finger and little finger (representing the two natures of Christ) to the palm. This is a typical Eastern Catholic practice.
* Option D. Hold your right hand open with all five fingers—representing the 5 wounds of Christ—together and slightly bent, and the thumb slightly tucked into the palm.

* Touch your forehead while saying (or mentally praying): "In nomine Patris" ("In the name of the Father").
* Touch the chest or upper abdomen, saying "et Filii" ("and the Son").
* Touch the left, then the right shoulder, saying: "et Spiritus Sancti" ("and the Holy Spirit").

Note that some people complete the sign of the cross by crossing their thumb and forefinger and kissing the thumb, thus, as it were, "kissing the Cross."

From this description, it is easy to see that option A is a slightly modified two-finger, and option C, as indicated there, is three-finger. In practice, however, at least in Russia, most Catholics use option D.

As for the direction of movement of the hand when depicting the cross, initially in the West they were baptized in the same way as in the East, that is, first the right shoulder, then the left. Later, however, in the West, the opposite practice was formed, when the left shoulder is first touched, and only then the right. Symbolically, this is explained in such a way that Christ, by his Cross, transferred believers from death and condemnation (which are still denoted by the left side) to the right side of those being saved.

When a Catholic makes the sign of the cross for the first time, entering the temple, he first dips his fingertips in a special bowl of holy water. This gesture, apparently an echo of the ancient custom of washing hands before the celebration of the Eucharist, was later rethought as a rite performed in memory of the sacrament of Baptism. Some Catholics perform such a ceremony at home, before the start of home prayer.

The priest, blessing, uses the same sign of the cross 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, it was preserved in the Latin rite as a remnant of an ancient practice, the so-called. small cross. It is performed during the 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 their foreheads, lips and chest.

“... By the sign of the Cross, worthy and holy faith, miracles are performed ...”
(St. Grigor Tatevatsi).

Our ancestors, saying prayers, leaving the house in the morning, attending church, falling to the icons, sowing and harvesting, when it is difficult, when illnesses and dangers, starting any work, before and after a meal, setting off on a long journey - overshadowed yourself with the sign of the cross.
The custom of being baptized comes from ancient times. This is an old Hellenic (ancient Greek) custom - during a sermon, raise your right hand with “two-fingered fingers” (ritual addition of two fingers), which in Greek sign language seemed to mean “attention, I am speaking.”
And in the ancient world and in the Roman Empire, the cross was a sign of inevitable death, reproach, suffering, and a person sentenced to such death was considered damned. Christ crucified died for us. Taking upon himself the curse of Adam's sin, He, by His Divine power, turned the instrument of death into a symbol of eternal life.

The Power of the Cross - Christ

The Apostle Paul (Poghos) says: "For the word about the cross, to us who are being saved is the power of God." As we make the sign of the cross, we remember that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins and saved us from the power of death. We ask the crucified Savior to always keep and protect us from all evil. We are baptized as follows: we connect the first fingers of the right hand (thumb, index, middle), touch the forehead, speaking; “In the name of the Father”, we lower it to the chest, saying “And the Son”, we lead it to the left side, saying “And the Spirit”, then to the right side, saying “Saint”, and lower it to the chest, saying “Amen”.

Advice on the Sign of the Cross, According to the Teachings of the Church Fathers

When we are baptized, connecting the thumb, index and middle fingers, we thus symbolize the Holy Trinity. The remaining two fingers (little finger and ring finger) pressed together to the palm symbolize Christ as a perfect God and a perfect man, and together they are a single entity (fingers are squeezed together). The raised fingers to the forehead symbolize life, the hand lowered to the chest - death. The left side of the chest is earthly life, and the right side is the afterlife. Raising our hands to our foreheads, we remember that we were in heaven, lowering our hands to our hearts, we remember that we came to Earth. When we bring our hand to the left side, we point out that we were among the sinners, bringing it to the right, we affirm that we want to be among the righteous. Consecrating ourselves with the cross, we first raise our hand up, thereby saying that our mind is crucified on the cross, and let the mind of Christ lead us from now on. When we lower our hand down, we say that henceforth we are not subject to the body, but to Christ.
Being baptized from left to right, we want to say that our hands were crucified on the cross and are now not fit for atrocities and sin and should only do good. Pressing the open palm to the heart, we say "Amen", that is, "True."
Having crossed ourselves, we want to say that Christ was in heaven, was on Earth, descended into hell, resurrected and sat down again at the right hand of the Father. When we make the sign of the cross on our foreheads, we always think of Christ crucified on the cross, as the prophet Ezekiel says: “Put a sign on the foreheads of these people.” By making the sign of the cross on the four sides of our body, we protect ourselves from four misfortunes, that is, earthly temptations, from Satan, atheists and sins.
We overshadow ourselves with the sign of the cross, because we serve the Lord Jesus, whose sign is the cross. Having been baptized, we point to the four corners of the world and ask for God's protection for them. The Sign of the Cross is protection from satanic influence. Having crossed ourselves, we crucify the sinful essence and resurrect with Christ. When we are baptized, we remember the saving sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for the salvation of mankind. We ask for God's help and mercy. Christians are baptized when, during the Holy Liturgy, services, rites and other spiritual ceremonies, a clergyman baptizes, blessing with the sign of the cross in the name of the Holy Trinity. During prayer, overshadowing our faces with the sign of the cross, we will ask the Holy Mother of God, the guardian angels, the Saints to intercede for us before the Heavenly Father. Having crossed ourselves, we offer the Creator a quiet prayer of our soul.

It should also be noted that in Russia the Old Believer double-fingering, which had never been practiced in the AAC, was in the most unexpected way declared the official “Armenian heresy”.

Any sacred object during worship or personal prayer.

Evidence of the sign of the cross is found in the monuments of Christian literature, starting from the 2nd-3rd century. In ancient times, blessing with the sign of the cross was part of the rite of catechesis (announcement), in the West it was called the "first sign" or "the sign (seal) of the cross." After such a blessing by the clergyman, the catechumen was given the opportunity to make the sign of the cross himself. Initially, the sign of the cross was made (sometimes 3 times in a row) with one finger of the right hand on the forehead, as well as on the chest, lips, eyes, arms, shoulders. After the condemnation of Monophysitism at the IV Ecumenical Council (451), the Orthodox began to use two fingers - the sign of the cross, performed with the index and middle fingers joined together, which symbolize the two natures of Jesus Christ - Divine and human. Over time, in a two-fingered form, the thumb, ring fingers and little finger folded together began to be perceived as a symbol of the Trinity. A blessing hand (of Jesus Christ, bishops, saints) with outstretched index and middle fingers (the position of the remaining fingers could vary) is found in ancient iconography, both in Eastern and Western. In the early liturgical monuments, the form of the sign of the cross during the blessing was not specified. The sign of the cross, performed by three fingers folded together - thumb, index and middle - and pressed to the palm of the ring and little fingers (three fingers), symbolized the Trinity (pressed to the palm of the ring and little fingers did not initially carry a symbolic load).

Over time, the forms of the sign of the cross began to be unified within the framework of local church traditions. The sequence of gestures remained unchanged: first - vertical (from top to bottom), then - horizontal.

During the period of adoption of Christianity, Russia borrowed two-fingered from Byzantium.

Apparently, in the 12th-13th centuries in Byzantium, the three-fingered sign became the generally accepted form of the sign of the cross. In Russia, they continued to adhere to the old custom until the 1650s, when, during the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, the two-fingered sign of the cross was replaced by a three-fingered one. The question of the form of the sign of the cross has become one of the key controversies of the Old Believers (see Old Believers) with the ruling Church. Under the influence of these disputes, the union of the ring finger and the little finger with three fingers was interpreted by adherents of the new rite as a symbol of the God-manhood of Jesus Christ.

In the Orthodox East, the sign of the cross is made by alternately touching the forehead, chest, right and left shoulders (horizontal movement - from right to left; the Nestorians are baptized in the same way).

For blessing with the sign of the cross, Orthodox bishops and priests use the so-called nominative finger-composition, which probably appeared no later than the 16th century as a derivative of two-fingering and depicting the tetragram ICXC (Jesus Christ) - an elongated index finger, a half-bent middle finger, crossed large and nameless, half-bent little finger ( Moreover, the bishop blesses with both hands at the same time, and the presbyter with only one). Deacons, monks and laity may bless (outside of worship) by folding their hands in the same way as for the overshadowing of themselves. During the service, the deacon makes the sign of the cross with the help of an orarion (part of the liturgical vestment), and also performs cruciform censing. At certain moments of the service, the priest makes the sign of the cross with the help of a censer, a cross, the Gospel, a Eucharistic cup, and the bishop blesses the people with a cruciform dikiriy (two candlesticks) and trikiriy (three candlesticks).

In the West in the Middle Ages, different ways of making the sign of the cross coexisted (including with three fingers and from right to left), but after the Council of Trent a single form of the sign of the cross was established: from left to right (they are also baptized in Monophysite churches). In modern Catholic practice, the sign of the cross can be made in different ways: with the thumb (the so-called small sign of the cross - the sign of the cross is drawn alternately on the forehead, lips and chest; this is the most ancient form), connected by the thumb and ring fingers with the index and middle fingers extended together , connected thumb and forefinger, open hand with outstretched fingers (the hand touches the forehead, chest, left shoulder, right shoulder in turn).

Lit .: Golubinsky E.E. To our controversy with the Old Believers. 2nd ed. M., 1905. S. 158-159; Kapterev N.F. Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Sergiev Posad, 1909. T. 1. M., 1996. T. 1. S. 187-188; Golubtsov A.P. From readings on church archeology and liturgy. Sergiev Posad, 1917. Part 1. St. Petersburg, 1995. Part 1; Dölger J. Beiträge zur Geschichte des Kreuzzeichens // Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum. 1959. Bd 1; Uspensky B. A. On the history of triplets in Russia // Uspensky B. A. Etudes on Russian history. St. Petersburg, 2002; he is. Cross and circle: from the history of Christian symbolism. M., 2006; Righetti M. Manuale di storia liturgica. Mil., 2005. Vol. one.

For the sign of the cross, we fold the fingers of the right hand like this: we put the first three fingers (thumb, index and middle) together with the ends evenly, and bend the last two (ring and little fingers) to the palm of our hand ...

The first three fingers put together express our faith in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as a consubstantial and inseparable Trinity, and the two fingers bent to the palm mean that the Son of God, after His incarnation, being God, became a man, that is, they mean His two natures are divine and human.

It is necessary to make the sign of the cross slowly: put it on the forehead (1), on the stomach (2), on the right shoulder (3) and then on the left (4). Lowering the right hand, you can make a waist or bow to the ground.

Signing ourselves with the sign of the cross, we touch our forehead with three fingers folded together to sanctify our mind, to the stomach - to sanctify our inner feelings (heart), then to the right, then left shoulders - to sanctify our bodily forces.

It is necessary to overshadow oneself with the sign of the cross, or be baptized: at the beginning of prayer, during prayer and at the end of prayer, as well as when approaching everything holy: when we enter the temple, when we kiss the cross, the icon, etc. You need to be baptized and in all important cases of our life: in danger, in sorrow, in joy, etc.

When we are baptized not during prayer, then mentally, to ourselves, we say: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen,” thereby expressing our faith in the Holy Trinity and our desire to live and work for the glory of God.

The word "amen" means: truly, truly, so be it.

Hshould a Christian who overshadows himself with the sign of the cross be aware and experience?

Unfortunately, we do a lot of things in the temple mechanically or stupidly, forgetting that this is the highest means of changing the spiritual life.

The sign of the cross is our weapon. In the solemn, victorious prayer to the Cross - “May God rise again and scatter His enemies ...” - it is said that the Cross has been given to us “to drive out every adversary.” What adversary are you talking about? The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:11-13 writes: Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of the darkness of the age. this, against the spirits of wickedness in high places. For this, take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day and, having overcome everything, to stand.
The world that the Lord gave us, in which He gave us to live, is, of course, beautiful. But immersed in sin. And we ourselves are damaged by sin, our nature is distorted by it, and this allows the fallen spirits to tempt us, torment us, lead us along the path of death. A person leading a spiritual life, as a rule, understands that he cannot change himself - he needs to seek help from Christ. When we make the sign of the cross, we first of all call on Him to help us.

Of course, the sign of the cross cannot be understood as a kind of magical gesture that ensures a result. The cross marks the Sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ, brought in the name of love for us. By crossing ourselves with the cross, we testify that His sacrifice was made for us, and that He is the main thing in our life for us. At the same time, bodily, physical movement is the prayer of the body, the communion of the body as a component of our human being to this life in Him: Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God both in your bodies and in your souls, which are God's. This is also the Apostle Paul, First Epistle to the Corinthians (6:19-20). The body is just as redeemed by the Sacrifice of the Cross, as is the soul. With the sign of the cross, we try to crucify the lusts of the soul and the lusts of the body. And it is a misfortune that, due to our negligence, the sign of the cross becomes too familiar for us and is performed by us without reverence. Here we need to remember the words of the prophet Jeremiah: Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord negligently (Jer. 48, 10). This movement must be done very seriously, with deep feeling. Why don't we think about putting our fingers together for the sign of the cross? After all, this is a word embodied in action: this, in essence, is the confession of the Holy Trinity.

The sign of the cross is a responsible act - when we make it, we must feel and see the Cross of Christ, His suffering, remember the price that was given to atone for our sins, and the height to which we ascend through the cross. The cross connects us to heaven, the cross connects us to each other, because the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified not for me alone, but for all.
Both as a priest and as a Christian, I have noticed more than once that people who know how to pray deeply and not for show make the sign of the cross very beautifully. What exactly is beauty is difficult to convey in words, because it is a reflection of the beauty of their spiritual world. And when a person is baptized either for show, or simply because it is supposed to be, this is also visible, and causes rejection ... and pity. This is how different internal states of a person are expressed in the same movement. In the first case, this is the fruit of spiritual labor, in the second - the emptiness hiding behind the gesture.

As we make the sign of the cross in difficult times, we seek Christ's help. After all, it is difficult for us not only from external causes, but also from incomprehensible horror and despair that have accumulated somewhere in the depths. When we are tempted, we make the sign of the cross on ourselves to drive away the temptation. Satan has the ability to influence us to the extent that sin is developed in us. Once he tempted Christ in the desert, offering Him all the kingdoms of the world (see: Luke 4:5-8). How could he, a nonentity who cannot and does not live , offer the Son of God that which does not belong to him, a fallen angel? Could, because the world belongs to him - through sin. That is why he is called the prince of this world - the changed, sinful world. But Christ overcame him. Then, in the Judean desert, the victory was expressed in the rejection of temptation. But finally it was secured by suffering on the cross, by the sacrifice on the cross. Therefore, we overshadow ourselves with a cross in order to overcome any temptation from Satan. With the cross we hit and drive him away, do not give him the opportunity to act.
Let us remember how the evil spirits were always afraid and how angry when the hermit came to an empty place and put a cross on it: “Go away! This is our place!" Until there was a man with a prayer and a cross, they had at least some illusion of power here. Of course, an evil spirit can defeat a person if a person succumbs to it, but a person can always defeat Satan. Satan can be burned because a person is attached to Christ's victory - the Sacrifice of the Cross.