The Sign of the Cross

  • Thread starter Thread starter Juxtaposer
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Juxtaposer

Guest
Why was the right-to-left method of the sign of the cross changed to left-to-right in the West?
 
40.png
Juxtaposer:
Why was the right-to-left method of the sign of the cross changed to left-to-right in the West?
Click to expand...
I learn something every day. I didn’t know anybody did it right-to-left.

I guess if they can drive on the “wrong” side of the street… 😉

Alan
 
As always with questions like these, the Catholic Encyclopedia is the first place to turn. In this case, it looks like a “proper way” may not have been thoroughly formalized until after there was a de facto divergence in practice. Even though, as they mention, it was formalized at least in York according to what we consider the Eastern way now.
At this period the manner of making it in the West seems to have been identical with that followed at present in the East, i.e. only three fingers were used, and the hand traveled from the right shoulder to the left. The point, it must be confessed, is not entirely clear and Thalhofer (Liturgik, I, 633) inclines to the opinion that in the passages of Belethus (xxxix), Sicardus (III, iv), Innocent III (De myst. Alt., II, xlvi), and Durandus (V, ii, 13), which are usually appealed to in proof of this, these authors have in mind the small cross made upon the forehead or external objects, in which the hand moves naturally from right to left, and not the big cross made from shoulder to shoulder. Still, a rubric in a manuscript copy of the York Missal clearly requires the priest when signing himself with the paten to touch the left shoulder after the right. Moreover it is at least clear from many pictures and sculptures that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Greek practice of extending only three fingers was adhered to by many Latin Christians. Thus the compiler of the Ancren Riwle (about 1200) directs his nuns at “Deus in adjutorium” to make a little cross from above the forehead down to the breast with three fingers". However there can be little doubt that long before the close of the Middle Ages the large sign of the cross was more commonly made in the West with the open hand and that the bar of the cross was traced from left to right. In the “Myroure of our Ladye” (p. 80) the Bridgettine Nuns of Sion have a mystical reason given to them for the practice: “And then ye bless you with the sygne of the holy crosse, to chase away the fiend with all his deceytes. For, as Chrysostome sayth, wherever the fiends see the signe of the crosse, they flye away, dreading it as a staffe that they are beaten withall. And in thys blessinge ye beginne with youre hande at the hedde downwarde, and then to the lefte side and byleve that our Lord Jesu Christe came down from the head, that is from the Father into erthe by his holy Incarnation, and from the erthe into the left syde, that is hell, by his bitter Passion, and from thence into his Father’s righte syde by his glorious Ascension”.
Click to expand...
 
Interesting.

In the East we make the sign of the Cross with the thumb touching the next two fingers at the tips. This represents the three persons of the Holy Trinity. The other two fingers are turned downwards into the palm. They represent the two natures of Christ, human and divine.

Here is part of an interesting article on the matter, the link follows…**throughout the greater part of the East, three fingers, or rather the thumb and two fingers were displayed, while the ring and little finger were folded back upon the palm. These two were held to symbolize the two natures or wills in Christ, while the extended three denoted the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. At the same time these fingers were so held as to indicate the common abbreviation I X C (Iesous Christos Soter), the forefinger representing the I, the middle finger crossed with the thumb standing for the X and the bent middle finger serving to suggest the C. In Armenia, however, the sign of the cross made with two fingers is still retained to the present day. Much of this symbolism passed to the West, though at a later date.
virtualology.com/virtualmuseumofhistory/hallofspirituality/signofthecross.org/
**
 
I read an article (can’t remember where) that said the Western churches originally used the same right-to-left as the east. However, when being blessed by the priest, the congregations slowly began to copy his action, which caused them to mirror his motion, crossing themselves from left to right. Eventually the priest changed his motion to follow suit. I’m not sure how correct the article was, but it’s at least plausible.
 
40.png
Juxtaposer:
Why was the right-to-left method of the sign of the cross changed to left-to-right in the West?
Click to expand...
As you can see from the answers already given, there was and is no nefarious plot to subvert an ancient tradition. It is simply a matter of different traditions growing in different ways. The way the question is phrased (as I’m sure it was probably phrased to you) implies that something underhanded was involved. Perhaps later on it became an occasion for division, but there’s no evidence that was the intent. To me, the issue is a distinction without a difference, although I know that some people tend to obsess over it, much like SDA’s obsess over what day the Sabbath falls on.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top