Celtic Cross: History & Symbolism

Constantine used the Chi-Rho as a military insignia and victory symbol as well.  The cross symbolizes Christ’s victory.  Military use of the cross as a favorite element of heraldry descends from the shields and standards of the Roman Empire.

The early circled cross stone monument as it survives in Ireland and Scotland exists in two forms, the incised slab and the free standing cross.  The slab form has a cross carved in relief where the free standing cross has the stone cut away so that the shape of the ringed cross is carved in the round. 

     In both types there are examples that range from crude and primitive to the very ornately decorated.  In many cases the most highly decorated have carving on all the surfaces, even the edges of the ring and ends of the arms.

     The carvings fall into several categories, with several or all of these present on any example.  Human figures representing Biblical stories or the crucifixion offer the most obvious meaning.  Endless knotwork, spirals, meanders and “key patterns” and zoomorphic animal patterns make up the majority of early cross carving subjects. 

These are the same elements that are used in much the same way in metalwork and in Gospel illumination.  The term insular is used to describe this style.  There are many regional variations.

 The Iona group crosses are distinctive in their shape.  Many of the Irish High crosses of the 10th century are capped with a pitched roof or “house cap” that are similar to reliquaries made to resemble a Celtic oratory.

The stone monuments can be attributed to specific places since they rarely were moved more than short distances.  Metalwork and books were portable and their places of creation are therefore more difficult to know.  The surviving manuscripts were carefully cared for over the centuries. 

     Stones from this period are usually very weathered and the best preserved examples were often buried or sheltered for many of the years since their creation and thus were spared some of the damage and wear of the centuries. 

     The metalwork that survives from those time was likewise buried and discovered in modern times. 

What may have been carved in wood, ivory or embroidered has been lost to us.  Surviving work from earlier than the 10th century in those materials are extremely rare. 

     St. Adomnán writing in the 7th century reports that there were several hundred wooden crosses on Iona, but none survive today. 

     Materials and available craft skills influence design.  Often design innovations that take advantage of one material’s nature are then transferred to another material.  The hemispherical bosses carved on the more elaborate stone crosses were stylistically imitating the metalwork of the time. 

     The semicircular arm pits that narrow at the center of many crosses are a graceful design innovation that may have evolved from notches carved in simpler wooden crosses that were lashed together at the center.  These notches would be an impractical weak point in a free standing stone were it not for the structural support of the ring.

     The period from the 7th to the 9th century when this style reached its greatest development was a time when the Celtic Church was at its greatest influence.  These styles were exported with missionaries to Northern Europe.  

     The term insular is used to take into account the possibility that an object found in Scotland may well have been made in Ireland. There was no political, religious or ethnic unity in the several centuries known as the Dark Ages, after the Romans withdrew from Britain.  The artistic styles that emerged were the combined heritages and innovations of several cultures. 

  The Angles and Saxons contributed the animal motifs to this mix and adopted many of the Celtic elements most notably in Northumbria where the Lindisfarne Gospels were most likely produced in the 9th century.  Thus the style is also often called Hiberno-Saxon. 

     The period from the 7th to the 9th century when this style reached its greatest development was a time when the Celtic Church was at its greatest influence.  These styles were exported with missionaries to Northern Europe.

     The term insular is also a diplomatic term as it avoids the ethnic associations that are likely to offend national pride. The heritage of these motifs is part of the self image of the modern Scots, Irish and Welsh.  Labeling a style as Celtic, Pictish, Irish or Hiberno-Saxon places credit for these styles and motifs where another group may feel their claim slighted. 

     An English scholar arguing that Northumbrian prototypes influenced the Pictish or Iona schools of design risks claims that he is yet another Sassunsach that is unwilling to give the Celtic people full credit for their accomplishments. 

     On the other hand the Celtic nationalists are going to want to see their people as the true geniuses.  In it’s day the insular style was an international style.

     The monumental stone crosses by the nature of their size and material still stand in many cases where they were placed 12 centuries ago. 

     These often served as prototypes for newer monuments down through the ages into modern times.  Styles and decorative motifs changed with time.  During the middle ages foliage designs, often referred to now as Tree of Life designs became increasingly common. 

     In old Irish or Scottish church yards most of the stone crosses are relatively modern.  Some of the stone crosses even back to some of the earliest ones have inscriptions that dedicate them to the memory of certain individuals. 

     While many of these were not specifically grave markers, some quite likely were and in this way the purpose of the monumental stone Celtic Cross has remained constant since the beginning.

     What these crosses mean to us today and what they meant when Christianity was new to Celtic Britain and Ireland are in some ways the same and in some ways different. 

     The cross either vertical or diagonal with equal length arms is a universal mark. It is so primal that it exists in all cultures as does the circle.  There are no human cultures that have no art or symbols and there are no systems of symbols that do not include circles and crosses. 

     These marks are opposites.  The circle contains and is unending while the cross both reaches out and marks a specific, finite point at the center. Contemplation of this yields many possibilities and in this way tempts the designer or the viewer to find personal meanings besides the traditional ones.

     The cross likewise when it became the predominate symbol of Christianity is no longer thought of by most people as a symbol for anything else. 

     A plain circle is often a symbol for the moon and a circle with a cross within or the arms of a cross without are universal symbols for the sun.  The swastika is a related sun symbol.  The Druids did indeed worship the sun and moon.  These were important symbols to them. 

     The cross by itself relates to other ideas.  The four directions or the four corners of the Earth, the vertical and the horizontal coming together imply the joining of forces such as Heaven and Earth. 

     Just as since the swastika became associated with the Nazis and became a symbol for anti-Semitism and hate the strength of that association supersedes its older meaning. 

     The cross likewise when it became the predominate symbol of Christianity is no longer thought of by most people as a symbol for anything else.  The older meanings do not entirely vanish.  They are waiting to be rediscovered.

     It is my opinion that the story of St. Patrick making the cross over the circular pagan symbol is in itself symbolic of the way things really happened. 

     Celtic Christianity used symbols and ideas that were familiar to the Druids to bring them to Christ.  The Celtic monks of the early Church practiced a simple life close to nature, that found joy in the love of God’s creation. 

     This was what the Druids already sought in their worship of nature so the missionaries were able to build on what they already had in common with the Druids to convert them to Christianity.

    That the cross within a circle also evolved from the Chi-Rho, coincides with the emergence of the cross as a symbol throughout Christendom at a time when the Gospel was being delivered to a sun worshipping culture, presents just the kind of multiple choice mystery that is characteristic of Celtic history.  Which of these three possibilities are true?  They all are.

     The Celtic Cross is visually a very appealing shape. Unlike the crucifixes of Southern Europe that display Christ’s suffering the Celtic Cross, be it plain or highly ornamental is made to be visually beautiful. 

     When human figures appear on the cross, they are usually quite simple in contrast to the highly complex and sophisticated ornamental patterns that complete the design. 

     When the body of Christ is depicted in crucifixion it is usually robed in colobium along the Byzantine model and the overall effect is less about pain than it is about beauty. 

     The Roman model of the corpus semi-naked in only a loin cloth occurs also but less frequently on early crosses and even then it is usually part of a larger ornamental program. 

     On several crosses, notably the Cross of Muiredach at Monasterboice and the Cross of the Scriptures at Clonmanois, both in Ireland, Christ is enthroned in Glory at the center of the cross.

     If the Celtic Cross borrowed a pagan sun symbol, just as the Chi-Rho borrowed the pagan imperial laurel wreath, applying these to a Christian symbol were expressions of honor and reverence that should be seen in the context of the cultures that brought them forth. 

     There are Christians who unfortunately see these vestiges of paganism as unholy.  They ought to be regarded as the reverent tributes they were as these great cultures accepted the Gospels. 

     The Celtic Crosses made at Iona and elsewhere from the 6th century onwards were made by Christians for the Glory of God. 

     Like much of what they did and believed, their pagan heritage influenced their art.  The early Christians certainly were erecting neither phallic symbols nor pagan monuments in their own minds when they carved these splendid creations.

     The circle on the ringed crosses have been explained as a symbol of eternity as long as anyone can remember. 

     It has meant that as long as the ringed cross has had meaning as a Celtic Christian symbol.  But this is only the most common of several meanings.