The Sign of the Cross in Slavic Lands

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

9 Sept 06

Dear Colleagues,
I am studying the prayer/gesture of the sign of the cross as it is made 
in various cultures. I have observed that the sign of the cross is made 
differently in different Christian contexts. I was especially surprised 
the first time I observed a Russian Orthodox believer do it in a manner 
different from that which I had learned growing up as a Roman Catholic. 
There is a paragraph in my current research which I invite you to 
examine and to correct if necessary as regards the way the sign of the 
cross is performed in Slavic lands:

> Perhaps the best known semiotization of the cross is “the sign of the 
> cross” specifically as a gesture: one raises one’s right hand to 
> forehead, chest, and then to each shoulder (crossing from left to 
> right), while simultaneously saying “In the name of the Father, the 
> Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.” One’s whole upper body momentarily 
> takes on the shape of the cross. For many of us this was the first 
> prayer we ever learned. In different cultures this gestural prayer 
> takes different forms. According to early ecclesiastical writers 
> Tertullian and Origen, already in the third century Christians were 
> tracing the sign of the cross on their foreheads in a gusture which 
> signified their dedication to Christ during various daily activities, 
> such as rising in the morning and going to bed at night.[i] <#_edn1> 
> Among Eastern Orthodox Christians in Greece, Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, 
> and other places, the sign of the cross is made with the second point 
> of contact being the abdomen rather than the chest, and the cross 
> stroke moves from right to left rather than left to right. At the 
> shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupé near Mexico City I observed the 
> Western-style sign of the cross being made with an added cruciform 
> motion of the hand at each point of contact – head, chest, left 
> shoulder, right shoulder.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> [i] <#_ednref1> Sloyan 1995, 125; Cross and Livingstone 1997, 1500.
>

Any corrections and suggestions are welcome (I just noticed a spelling 
error). Also, as usual I will make the appropriate credits in the 
preface of this book in progress. I will also credit the SEELANGS list 
(for me such feedback on scholarly work in progress is one of the most 
important functions of SEELANGS).

Many thanks,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
Emeritus Professor of Russian
University of California, Davis

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