The Red Cross as a Symbol of the Resurrection

As we move into the second week of Easter, here is a symbolic image of the Resurrection. It has been embroidered onto a chalice pall, recently commissioned by a priest.

In the words of the patron to the artist when he commissioned the pall:

It depicts the Blood the Lamb, but not into a chalice — which I think would be good for a pall. No reason to have an image of a chalice atop a chalice - that’s the sort of “multiplication of images” that detracts from the Sacred Liturgy. I like this image of the Lamb, the Blood, but no chalice.

The image of the shell and the water (of Baptism) at the top is very meaningful. “From the Savior’s side flowed blood and water, the fountain of the sacramental life of the Church.” We often forget the saving waters. And both wine and water are poured into the chalice. Good imagery for a pall.

The lamb is the sacrificial victim, 'standing as if slain' from Chapter 5 of the Book of the Apocalypse, and the Resurrection is symbolized by the banner with a red cross on a white background. I am not clear as to precisely how the red cross became the symbol of the Resurrection. From what I can gather, the symbol of the cross, in various colors became popular in northern Italian cities from about 1000AD and they would carry these banners with them on the crusades to the Holy Land that took place in the following centuries. It became associated with St George in the late middle ages, as St George became a patron of the crusader knights. It was linked particularly with the Resurrection in the West around this time too.

Since the time of Constantine, who ordered an image of the Christian cross to be put on the Roman Standard as he went into battle and was victorious, the Holy Cross has been a symbol of both spiritual and temporal battles against those who wish to destroy the Church in both East and West. An ancient hymn sung to commemorate the Feast of the Holy Cross in the Eastern Churches runs as follows:

Oh Lord save Your people and bless Your inheritance, grant victory to our country over its enemies and preserve your community by the power of your Cross.

When I was looking for other images of this symbol, I remembered that Fra Angelico used it in his portrayal of the Resurrection:

I was reminded in looking at both of the images the halo of Christ contains a red cross too.  There is no consistently used color for the cross of the halo in Christian symbolism. The color red is used by Fra Angelico frequently, however, and so I am guessing that in each case the artist deliberately placed these two symbolic representations close to each other so that we would see the connection. Here is Fra Angelico's Transfiguration.

The artist who created the pall, incidentally is Kathryn Laffrey, kl-artstudio.com, who is based in Michigan and is currently a student on the Master of Sacred Arts program at Pontifex University.

Quiz for Greek Scholars! Who Is The Figure Kneeling Before Melchizedek in this Icon?

A reader wrote to me recently asking me to identify the kneeling figure in the icon below. The two standing figures are Abraham on the left and Melchizedek on the right. The question he had was who is the figure kneeling before Melchizedek? It originates from Mt Sinai and is part of a catalog of color transparencies and slides stored at Princeton University which are part of the total documentation that was produced by the Michigan-Princeton-Alexandria Expeditions to Sinai in 1956, 1958, 1960, 1963, and 1965. These images document the icons at Sinai. The remainder of the photographic archive is stored at the University of Michigan.

In his note, he suggested that it looks as though it is a bishop from the vestments and that the text appears to read Adelphostheos...

which I think is a Greek name (James Adelphos) used for James the Just, the first bishop of Jerusalem (which perhaps connects him to Melchizedek, the first priest of Jerusalem).

I was no help to him whatsoever! I can't read Greek, I didn't recognize the icon and I don't know anything about James the Just. I thought therefore, I would throw the question open to readers of the Way of Beauty. Any ideas folks?

I have an additional question for you. Why would this figure be kneeling in front of Melchizedek? The attitude the figure adopts is such a deep prostration that my instincts tell me that this is one of worship, which is due to God alone. Am I overreacting here do you think?

A number of explanations to this do occur to me:

First, worship is primarily an interior act. Clearly, there is deep respect here, but this prostration doesn't necessarily indicate worship and I am simply misreading the posture. Our bishop is in fact venerating Melchizedek.

Second, perhaps James is not kneeling before Melchizedek, but before Christ, who is shown at the top of the icon. It would be easy for someone who wandered into any Catholic Church during Mass when the congregation was kneeling and didn't understand what they were seeing to look at the assembly and seeing them kneeling en masse before the celebrant and interpret that as priest worship. There is a practical difficulty that the artist has to overcome here that might have pushed him into portraying the figure this way. If he was to paint the bishop kneeling before Christ, as portrayed, he would be kneeling so that the only view of him that we would have would be his rear end. This is not only undignified, it breaks the convention of iconography which says that all saints must be seen in full or three-quarter profile so that both eyes can be seen. In order to accommodate this, the iconographer, one might argue, has played with the perspective here and shown the figure looking upwards as though Christ is above him and nearer to us than he is, so allowing the bishop to turn around and face us. A similar argument, incidentally, might apply to the gaze of the standing figures too.

Third, he is kneeling before Melchizedek, but only insofar as he recognizes him as in persona Christi.

Again, any thoughts on this? There might be a clue here (which again I am not able to interpret) in that the bishop is holding something. Again, I am not sure what this is. There is very little information about the original icon on the Princeton website.

( “Abraham and Melchizedek,” The Sinai Icon Collection , accessed December 28, 2020, http://vrc.princeton.edu/sinai/items/show/6675. The image is published through the Courtesy of the Michigan-Princeton-Alexandria Expeditions to the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai.)