Catholic 101: Sign of the Cross
- Beata Vita
- Apr 25
- 4 min read
Many people are familiar with the sign of the cross regardless of how secularized the culture has become. Commonly presented in Hollywood films, at sporting events, and by Catholics in your local restaurants, it is constantly around us.
Despite being so common, many people, Catholics included, may not know the history or purpose behind it. First, for our brothers and sisters who have only viewed this sacramental (a sacred sign which bears a resemblance to the sacraments, Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1667) from afar, how does one make the sign of the cross?
As pictured below, one would use their open right hand, touch his forehead and say "In the name of the Father...", touch his lower chest and say "and of the Son...", then going from left shoulder to right shoulder, say "and of the Holy Spirit (or Ghost)" and conclude, by saying "Amen".
The CCC 2157 says "The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross", and that, "the baptized person dedicates the day to the glory of God and calls on the Savior's grace which lets him act in the Spirit as a child of the Father. The sign of the cross strengthens us in temptations and difficulties." Understanding this helps us recognize why the sign of the cross is sacramental.
The sign of the cross gives us an opportunity to dedicate our actions and our whole day to the glory of God, and is a means to call on our Savior's grace to strengthen us. What a gift!
This sacramental is a gift to all of us as children of God and the origins reflect that it was been around since the time of the Church Fathers.
Tertullian, a Christian author who lived in the second century, discusses this usage of the sign of the cross as a common practice in the Christian life. He said, "in all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross."
The early form of the sign of the cross was the use of the thumb or index finger to trace a cross on the forehead. If anyone has been to a baptism, this should be very familiar. Making the sign on the forehead was the common way to make the sign of the cross from the 1st through 4th centuries. Around the 5th century, there was a rise of Monophysitism, a heresy that denied Christ's dual nature (human and divine), instead saying He only had one. Eastern Christians in the 7th and 8th centuries began to sign themselves with two fingers as a public proclamation of Christ's dual nature. Some have claimed that this act of refuting heresy is what led to the change from the sign of the cross on the forehead to the larger sign we use today.
Over the centuries, the exact way of holding the hand has changed - in the 8th and 9th centuries, the normal way for Eastern Christians to make the sign of the cross changed so that they would use three fingers to touch their brow and shoulders, while leaving two fingers (pinky and ring finger) touching the palm to represent Christ's dual nature.
In the 9th century, Eastern Christians led the charge on the change from the small sign to the large sign of the cross. Sometime in the 9th century, Western Christians began imitating their Eastern brothers. During this time, Western Christians flipped how the sign was made - they did left shoulder first, whereas in the East, they did the right shoulder first. This distinction has been a lasting difference between East and West.
In the early 13th century, Pope Innocent III directed Christians to make the sign of the cross with two fingers and the thumb extended. He permitted either the left or right shoulder going first and explained that the movement from brow to breast reflected Christ coming down from Heaven to earth in His Incarnation. Later in the Middle Ages, the form changed a final time to the open hand making the sign of the cross, which is still in use today.
Despite the subtle changes throughout history of the sign, it is a beautiful sacramental all Christians should employ in their daily lives. CCC 786 reminds us, "The sign of the cross makes kings of all those reborn in Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit consecrates them as priests..."
Knowing some background and purpose behind this sacramental, we remember the words of Cyril of Jerusalem:
"Let us not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Let the cross, as our seal, be boldly made with our fingers upon our brow and on all occasions over the bread we eat, over the cups we drink, in our comings and in our goings, before sleep, on lying down and rising up, when we are on the way and when we are still."
God Bless.
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For additional reading on our topic, please check out the sources we used below. We also utilized Truthly, a phenomenal Catholic AI app for a lot of the historical research on this one. Check it out!
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