www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Byzantine Cross

Hello All,
I have a favor to ask. I am designing a Byzantine cross, and I need to know what to put above the corpus. Should it be an INRI, or IHUI, or something else? What would be the correct inscription? I also have the Latin verion spelled out, "Isus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum"

My assumption would be that it would be ok to use either, since it was written in THREE languages, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. The style of the cross that I am making has three bars, but the bottom bar is slanted with the left side tilting upward. Is there something that designates that it is ONLY Greek Orthodox, or ONLY Eastern Rite, or something else? I don't want to be wrong in what I'm making! :-) Any help that you could provide would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks!

Trevor

Trevor, My humble suggestion is: THE KING OF GLORY If there is room. That's an even more ancient Eastern epitaph and more clearly expresses the reality of what is taking place.

In His Holy Name,
+Father Archimandrite Gregory

Here's info on the three-barred cross:

http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Q-and-A_OLD/Three-Bar-Cross.html

--tim

I don't have room for "The King of Glory" on the top of the cross, but thanks for the great idea. I do, however, have some "INRI" emblems. After reading Tim Cuprisin's link he posted, I see that it is probably ok for me to use one of them.

Thanks.

Any other input would be appreciated.

Trevor

Dear Trevor,

God bless you in your important endeavour!

I'm looking at my collection of three-bar Crosses as I write this . . .

On the "Title" about Christ's Head the consensus here is that there is the "IHUI" in the Slavonic.

But these are in smaller letters. Around this, in large letters, is the Slavonic equivalent of "Lord, King of Glory" (There are no vowels, and each word has a ~ symbol above it to indicate that the words refer to God and should be read slowly and with reverence).

On either side of the main arms of the Cross are the letters "IC" and "XC" for "Jesus Christ" as you know and each of these two groups of two letters also has a ~ above them.

And the base of the Cross, near where the skull of Adam is, are the letters "NUKA" or "He conquers" with no ~ at all.

Every Cross of Christ, in the East, MUST be inscribed with IC XC by canonical regulation - to indicate that this is a depiction of Christ's Cross and that of no other.

Alex