Why on the dome of the Orthodox church, a cross with a crescent - a Muslim symbol? Maybe in fact this is some kind of mosque? Similar inappropriate questions recently have to hear increasingly and more often. Some Murmans, lead to embarrassment crosses with a semicircle in the form of a crescent at the base of the cross on the domes of the village of the Savior in the waters. In order to clarify the situation, we turned for clarifying the governor of the trifones of the Pecheng monastery Igumen Aristarchh. After all, the same cross towers over the monastery temple of the Nativity of Christ in Pechenge.

The question of the cross with the crescent is asked today, "explains the father of Aristarh," because in the opinion of some people, the cross in this case tramples crescents and supposedly means the victory of Orthodoxy over Muslim. Such and similar conclusions are absolutely incorrect.

The cross with the semi-dryer in the form of a crescent below, where the ends of the crescent are turned up, - a very ancient view of the cross. Turning to the story we will see that in Ancient Russia Such crosses before tatar-Mongolian yoke Installed at churches erected by great princes. For example, in the Dmitrov Church in the Vladimir Earth, in the Kiev lands. Such crosses are decorated with the Dome of the Saint Sophia Vologda Cathedral, built in 1570. The same form of the Dome Cross is found in the Pskov region, for example, on the dome of the Church of Assumption God's Mother 1461 Buildings in the village of Mellovo.

As for dogmatic explanation, it should be noted here that the symbolism of the Orthodox church is not always explained from the point of view of aesthetic perception. But, on the contrary, it is completely disclosed to understand precisely in liturgical dynamics, since almost all elements of temple symbolism, in different places of worship, carry different meanings.

In the revelation of John the Theologian says: "And the great sign was in the sky: a wife clothed in the sun; Under the legs of her moon, and on the chapter of her crown from twelve stars "(Rev. 12, 1). And the solemnoe wisdom explains: this moon marks the font, in which the church, having broken down in Christ, is taught in him, in the sun truth.

There are other interpretations of this symbol: Crescent is the Bowl of the Eucharistic, in which the body of Christ is located; This is a cradle in which Jesus Christ is being lied. The last interpretation explains the shape of the cross over the monastery temple of the Nativity of Christ.

Most often, the cross and semicircle mean anchor of salvation, the anchor of our hope, the armature of rest in the heavenly kingdom, which is very consistent with the concept of the temple, as a ship floating on the waves of a stormy earthly life to a quiet marine of the eternal life in the kingdom of God. Obviously, in our case, a cross, symbolizing anchor, was chosen because the temple of the rescue on the waters is devoted to the memory of the dead sailors.

However, according to some people, the cross can only be four, six or eight-spinless without any additives.

There is also a seven-way cross, "the father of Aristarh continues, - both T-shaped, and in the form of the letter X -" Andreevsky ". Stavrography - science about crosses - more than sixty types of crosses are known. Perhaps everyone, and especially Christians, it is useful to know and never forget that the cross of every form, according to St. Fyodor Studit, is a true cross.

Here, for example, in the ancient Novgorod temples of God, the mother is depicted with left-sided swastika on Omofra. So now, to smell all the frescoes that have been for several centuries, arguing that the Russian man in the XV century was an extremist, a fascist? This type of cross is called "gammatic" because it consists of greek letters "Gamma". Already the first Christians in Roman catacombs depicted a gammatic cross. In Byzantium, this form was often used to decorate the gospels, church utensils, temples, embroidered on the venues of the Byzantine saint. In the 9th century, by order, the Empress Theodora was manufactured by the gospel, decorated with a golden ornament from gammatic crosses. And the form of this cross has long been used in Russia. It is depicted on many church subjects of the Domongolian period, in the form of a mosaic under the dome of the Cathedral of St. Sophia Kiev, in the ornament of the doors of Nizhny Novgorod cathedral. Hammatic crosses are embroidered on the Feloni of the Moscow Temple of Nikola, which in puffs. The gammatic cross used to put on their things as a sign bringing happiness, the Holy Martyr Empress Alexander Fedorovna. Holy Empress painted such a cross with a pencil in the house of Ipatiev over the bed of her son and on the door jamb on the day of arrival Royal family in Ekaterinburg.

As for the bewilderment of our countrymen regarding this or that form of crosses and in other matters, the problem is that some people are often taken to judge things that they simply do not have, and sometimes they do not seek to receive views. And we cannot spray the wealth accumulated by centuries, only because people are not yet harvested or maybe they don't want to truly straighten against true church. And since such a shape of the cross has existed for more than a thousand years, we cannot and should not face everything that we have, only because someone is just looking for faith and did not find it yet. Let's then remove the liturgy announced, moving from the Church Slavonic to modern Russian. By the way, I was already offered to publish the most simplified Bible for the newcomers. I refused. After all, this way, you can walk before the publication of the Old and New Testament for the "middle", and then for "advanced". Therefore, if you take about the opinions of small-churred people, then we will have to abandon a lot of secret and traditional incomprehensible modern person today.

Conversation led Andrei Konyushanets

Since childhood, I used to think that the cross came up with Christians that this is a symbol of the cross on which they crucified christian God Jesus Christ.

So my grandmother Anna Grigorievna Galanina explained to me, so they considered all my countrymen. I know that the majority of Russian residents think so.

Most recently, maybe five or six years ago, I began to doubt this.

And when he was interested in the history of Russia truly, it was convinced that this is a delusion.
The cross as a religious symbol is significantly ancient Christianity, and Christians accepted this symbol forcedly, since they could not eradicate him in the so-called pagan communities, which they paid in the "true faith."

Gentiles, becoming Christians, never wanted to part with an ancient symbol - a cross.

It was then that Christian missionaries appeared in Christian missionaries, the thought did not reject the cross, but to accept it, but to fill in a completely different content, namely, to make a symbol of that very cross, on which the man was executed.

For this, however, I had to change his shape a little, making a cross inelenia. Later, one more crossbar added another short at the top - where the head had to be headed, and another crossbar was added at the bottom - where the feet had to be located. So it turned out the eight-spin cross, which we see from Orthodox Christians. At the Catholic and Protestanian Cross of the Crossbar, their cross is four-spin.

However, how can I regard the fact of reverence believers of the tools of death of Christ? After all, the cross (if you take a church point of view that God's Son was crucified on the cross) is nothing more than weapons who killed Jesus.

Consequently, Christians are assessed by the glory of this tool and death to this! Moreover, people who consider themselves "Christians" cover this weapon with gold, decorate it with flowers, hang on the walls of their homes and on their neck, kiss him and pray with it.

Is this a similar attitude towards the murder tool full of absurdity and a sign of the lack of elementary sanity?

In antiquity there were many other torture instruments and types of weapons for the murder and punishment of criminals. To do this, used, for example, daggers, spears, hanging on the gallows, cut off the head of the ax or clogging to death. So, the Bible reports that James - Brother John - " killed a sword"(Acts 12: 2).

We think that they would have done "Christians" if Jesus was executed in some kind of way, and not by crucifixion.

We have to conclude that in this case the symbol of "Christianity" could well be the gallows, a film or ax! And as a result, "Christians" would pray to these subjects, they would put them on the roofs of their churches, covered with gold and would be taught to be holy to read them as a symbol of human "salvation." Is it possible to imagine this?

It is not surprising that this was considered unacceptable first Christians who did not occur to do from the instrument of death of Christ the shrine honored!

As Zenon Kidosovsky recognizes in his book, " the cross has long remained in their perception by the embodiment of monstrous humiliation and death. It was difficult for them to get used to him as a symbol of salvation and a new life, because in everyday reality he was familiar with them as a terrible torture gun, as a symbol of death, not a celebration.

This is evidenced, in particular, frescoes in Roman catacombs. They are depicted as symbols of Jesus Good Shepherd, sacrificial lamb (in accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah 3: 7 and Jeremiah 11:19), most often - the mysterious sign of the fish, the cross is not anywhere. "
(Taken evangelists. M., 1977. p.215).

According to the book " At the origins of the Christian Church", Christians have a cross did not immediately become the most important symbol of a new religion. In early Christianity, in I, II and even in the III century, the cross as an instrument of execution of Jesus Christ despised the believers.

In this regard, Felix permissions wrote: " as for the crosses, we do not read them at all; We do not need them, we are Christians; it is you pagans, you for whom the sacred wooden idols, you read the wooden crosses»
(Golubtsova N.I. At the origins of the Christian Church. M., Science, 1967. P. 83).

« Even the cross did not serve as the decoration of the church ... The oldest symbol of Christ was fish (II century); On the oldest cave graves, he is depicted as a kind shepherd.

The first Christians did not read the cross as a symbol of virtue, but rather looked at him as a "damned tree", as a weapon of death and shame. The apostles did not read the cross and did not speak about the cross, which you need to hang on the chain and wear on the neck or in your hand, like an amulet or keychain.

In the Roman Empire, the execution on the Cross was considered a shameful, so the first Christians the cross hated. "
(Inna Smirnova. Secret History Cross. Moscow: "Eksmo", 2007. p.47).

Photo 1. Tagged pagans. On banners depicted an equilateral four-star cross - the symbol of the sun. This is a cross-giving cross.

Photo 2. Church in the village Semenovskoye Yaroslavl region. On the domes is the eight-pointed Orthodox cross.

It is well known that the equilateral cross is the symbol of the sun. Such a cross is found in Buddhist temples and is generally widely represented in China, Japan, India, Nepal, Tibet. The cross in the pagan church can be seen on the Roman coin 311; Crosses are found on images of the pagan deity Mitra. The drawing of the cross was discovered at one time and in the ancient monuments in Decolumbovoy America.

The cult of the Cross was among the Indians of North America: they associated cross with the Sun; One Indian tribe from time immemorial called himself with crosses. The cross was also the Slavs-Gentiles, so, Serbov, at one time, distinguished the Christian cross ("Krsti") and the pagan cross (Paganska Krsta).

The eight-pointed cross is crowned with the masks of most Orthodox churches, it was seen everything.

Photo 3. Eight-pointed Orthodox Cross.

But the poppies of some Russian churches decorate the cross with a crescent at the base or, more precisely, the cross, at the base of which the crescent placed.

What is the origin of such a cross, which means such a cross, with which Christian or pre-Christian tradition is it connected? The Orthodox Church of the Enforcement Answer does not give these questions.

Photo 4. The eight-pointed Orthodox cross with a crescent at the base.

Photo 5. Ancient equilateral cross with crescent on Celtic burial. The burial time is at least 2.5 thousand years ago.

Photo 6. Ancient cross in Armenia.

Photo 7. A complex equilateral cross is a symbol of communication of this and other world peace. Religious supporters of Bon and Buddhists Tibet and Mongolia.

Photo 7a. Ancient Egyptian symbol of the universe, whitic than three intertwined triangles, black and white, inscribed in a circle. In the center there is a cross, which means the eternal beginning of life. Nowadays, the hexagonal star is used in Judaism, and the whole symbol is in Masonov.

The question of the origin of the cross with the sickle at the base was still worried by Maxim Grek,. who called the Serpic at the base of the cross " aki month of you.».

It is also appropriate for another question: Is the cross with a crescent at the base of a pure Russian phenomenon? It is usually believed that such crosses appeared after liberation from the Tatar-Mongolian dominion to commemorate the victory of Orthodoxy over Muslim.

But the cross with the crescent on the dome we see at the Vladimir Dmitrievsky Cathedral, built long before the appearance of Tatar-Mongol in Russia, namely in 1194-1197. This cross maintains its original shape. The same crosses are available on other ancient and modern Orthodox churches.

Such crosses are found on the images of churches on miniatures and stamps icons.

For example, we encounter it on miniatures of the office of Anthony Romans began the beginning of the XIV century, Fedorovsky Gospel 1321-1327, Simon Psalti of the second quarter of the XIV century, Chronicles of George Amartol Mid-XIV century, Sylvestrovsky collection of the XIV century, Psalrty 1424 g. . Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, the palmings of the end of the XV century, on the stamps of the Kiev icon of Nikola Zagaysky began the XIV century., Novgorod Icons of Nicola with the Life from the Church of Boris and Gleb XV-XV century. And on the icon Nikola Mozhaysky from the Trinity-Sergian monastery began the XV century.

We note an even similar configuration of the cross on the staff of the Apostle Peter, the image of which is represented on the Grand Sion XII century. From the Novgorod Sophia Cathedral, as well as on the staff of John the Forerunner on the miniature of the Simon Psalti XIV century.

Photo 8. Four-pin cross with a sickle at the base.

Photo 9. Four-spin crosses with a crescent on the domes of the Orthodox church.

Photo 10. Crosses with a crescent on the domes of the temple in Zagorsk.

Photo 11. Crosses with a crescent on the domes of the Orthodox church in the surroundings of the city of Kholmogory in the Arkhangelsk region.

The cross with the crescent is one of the oldest forms of the cross on Russian temples. Another common form of the Russian Dome Cross is the so-called eight-pointed cross, that is, the cross, as close as possible to the image of the crucifixion ( with an upper crossbar, symbolically representing a table with an inscription above the head of Christ, and the oblique lower crossbar denoting the foot).

Both forms are canonical, but at the same time the dome cross with the crescent is older, and the eight-spin cross is relatively more new form. The eight-pointed cross on the dome of the Assumption Church in the Moscow Kremlin, supplied immediately before the stamp cathedral (in 1550), was a new phenomenon for that time.

At the same time it was noted that earlier the crosses were set " according to an ancient law" It is likely that the crosses with a crescent on the grounds were meant. I will continue to put the eight-poin crosses at churches, Stalloat Cathedral did not decide on the replacement of old crosses set " according to an ancient law" Crosses with a crescent continued to exist after the cathedral, but the situation changed after the split of the Russian Church in the middle of the XVII century. It is known that the Old Believers could recognize only the eight-pointed cross, refusing to read the cross four-ring.

From here the eight-pointed cross began to be perceived as a typical old-proof.

Photo 12. Lithuanian cross with crescent.

Crosses of such a form are common in Lithuania, where they are found on roadside, memorable and positive places.

The Grand Principality of Lithuanian formed as a result of accession to the historical (ethnic) territory of Lithuania of East Slavic land, on which the Orthodox Christians lived, and Lithuanians. Up to XIV. were pagans.

Consequently, the Orthodox Churches were the first Christian temples in the territory of the Lithuanian state. After the official baptism of Lithuania at the end of the XIV century. And the adoption of Catholicism in 1385. Orthodoxy here is displaced by Catholicism.

However, traces of ancient Orthodox influence are found in the form of some Lithuanian crosses. Thus, Russian and Lithuanian crosses with a crescent may have a general origin.

Photo 13. Cross with crescent and swastika on the dome of one of the temples in the Yaroslavl region.

Solar symbolism is represented in the varieties of the equilateral Cross of the Swastika. Swastika is a typical solar sign, where the circular movement of the sun is transmitted by hooks at the ends of the cross directed to the right - " along the sun" Swastika actually referred to hook-shaped cross».

As a solar symbol, the swastika is widespread in various cultural traditions. It meets in the Slavs, for example, in the folk embroidery, scorched on the hut in the tatras. Cross and crescents in the so-called pagan religions symbolize the sun and the moon. In Christian religion, the sense of the symbol of the cross acts as a symbol of Christ, while the moon in a Christian tradition symbolizes the Virgin. Christ in christian texts is called " Sun truth" or " Sun righteous", And the Virgin associates with the way" wives clothed in the sun; under the legs of her moon, and on the chapter of her crown from twelve stars».

On the Vilensk Icon of the Ostroy Mother's Mother of God, the image of the Mother of God is combined with a crescent, on which the man of God is. In the western tradition, the Mother of God is considered to be a king of heaven.

Christ appears as the sun coming under Earth and ascending from under the ground, and the Virgin - as a moon, his born. Thus, the combination of the cross and crescent is taken from the pagan solar lunar symbolism, but filled with other meaning and symbolizes the connection of Christ and the Virgin, and since Christ is associated with the Sun, and the Virgin and the Moon, this combination and Christianity turned out to be very sustainable.

Photo 13a. Image of crosses on the jug. Europe beforeadoption of Christianity.

Photo 13b. Equilaf cross in royal symbolism in Western Europe.

Photo 13B. The so-called Anchor Cross. In all likelihood it is not an anchor image, but the compound of the ancient Egyptian cross with a crescent. The symbol of the male (cross) and female (crescent) began.

Photo 13g. Cross swastika on the German helm of the Second World War. The Nazis considered him an Aryan sign and assigned it, not knowing that this sign was used not only in Tibet, but also Huns, Mongols and Slavs. Now he is a state symbol in Mongolia.

Photo 14. Image of Our Lady of Christ.

The combination of stars and crescent is widespread in the east. This combination was once the state emblem of Sassanid Iran, then became a symbol of Islam. A versatile cross with a crescent from Christians and a star with a crescent in Islam detect striking parallelism, since the sun is a star.

During Crimean war (1853-1856) In the Turkish army there was a Cossack squad (Old Believers-Cossacks), successfully fought with Russian troops. Sultan Abdul-Medzhid presented the Cossacks with the image of the Cross and Crescent - as a symbol that unites Muslims and Orthodox.

The equilateral cross, inscribed in the circle, was a common symbol at the Celts of more than four thousand years ago. But this kind of crosses are found not only at the Celts, they were in Russia before the adoption of Christianity.

According to Pavlin Nolansky († 431), the circle near the cross indicates the celestial sphere. Dome crosses on Russian temples are often combined with sun rays, diverging from the medianity. Walking in the Sorolon (Sun) during cross StrokeAt which the opponents of the Patriarch Nikon insisted at one time, can be understood as a peculiar image of the cross - swastika.

Photo 15. Sophisticated cross inscribed in a circle. Here, the octagonal Orthodox cross is depicted on the equilateral pagan quadrangular cross inscribed in the circle. Small mugs planted on a circle should be considered symbolizing planets and stars that are at different levels of the celestial sphere.

The Christian Church first did not take the cult of the Sun and fought with him as a manifestation of pagan beliefs. So, in the middle of V c. Dad Leo I (Great) with condemnation noted that the Romans included in the Basilica of St. Peter, turned east to greeting the rising sun, turning to her back to the throne.

Saying that the pagans worship the sun, dad indicates that some Christians who " imagine that they behave piously when, before entering the Basilica of St. The Apostle Peter, dedicated to the United God living and true, rising to the steps leading to the top platform [in the Atrium], turn to the whole body, turning to the rising sun, and bent the neck, bow to the shining shining". Washing the father did not reach your goal, and people continued to turn around to the door of the temple at the entrance to the Basilica, so in 1300, Jotto was instructed to make a mosaic on the eastern wall of Basilica with the image of Christ, St. Peter and other apostles so that the prayer of believers is facing them.

As you can see, the tradition of worshiping the sun turned out to be unusually stable and in a thousand years. The church did not remain anything, how to adapt the solar-lunar pagan symbolism and adapt it to the myths of Christianity.

Photo 16. The execution on the cross.

But even after 5 centuries after the birth of Christ, the Christian preacher Evsevia Alexandria (approx. 500 g) wrote: " Mount to those who worship the sun, the moon and the stars. I know many who worship the sun and pray to him, saying "Verify us ", and so do not only the sun-plates and heretics, but also Christians, retreating from faith, mixed with heretics».

In ancient Russian " Teaching the father of spiritual to children spiritual"The one condemns who ... is bowed to the sun, or the moon, or the stars, or in any one, that is, the fading law».

IN " Tale of the consecration of temples"(1481) is a protest against those who identify Christ with the Sun and prays the sun, the Moon and the stars who attach special importance to the movement of the embonodent:" Curse of Christ's verbal sun and praying the sun, and the moon, and the stars and in any way of those who are giving birth and the light gods of nurricane and the same to the east of the true God of praying, but the solar movement to».

However, the fathers of the Church of the Church of the Church were swelling to worship the sun as God heaven. We had a case about the Old Believers of Vasily Zholovsky (1680s.), Who did not go to Nikonian (new proper) church, saying: " Our God in the sky, and there is no God on Earth", And" baptized, looking at the sun».

Photo 17. Four-skinned complicated cross with a crescent on the Orthodox church in Vladimir. At three ends there are mugs in which four-spin crosses with a crescent are inscribed.

In the East, according to the Bible, God asked Paradise. The West appears, in such a way as the area of \u200b\u200bSatan, and the East - as the region of Christ.

This follows the rite in orthodox baptism, the priest draws a peasant first to the weend and says: " Do they deny Xia Satan ...?"" After that, turns it to the east and tells him: " Do you combine Christ?"". Capadocian Christian ascetic Elpidiy, for example, never turned to the West and did not look at the sun after the sixth hour, when it began to tear to the sunset. Shoulder, convinced by the Christian preaching, forbidden to go to the West under death. Iosif Volotsky at the beginning of XVI c. I mentioned that some are not worshiped by icons and churches located in the West. In general, the appeal to the East is similar to the appeal to the sky, and thereby the opposition of the East and West corresponds to the opposition of the sky and the underworld.

Amazing, but it really is. All terrible misfortunes in Russia came and come from the West. So now, as soon as the Russians began " pray"To the West and bow in front of all Western, so immediately smelled in Russia's destroy.

Saves the same Russia is always East: from the east, the force in the XIII century, which helped to stop the onslaught of Teutons and prevented the onbirth of Russia, from the east at the beginning of the XVII century, the force, who freed Moscow from sales Moscow Boyars and Poles, came from the east, which in December came from the east 1941 stopped fascists near Moscow.

And today, Russia saves its economy from the east from the east and rich ( some of the Russians), as it is once a rich, she (also some of the Russians) furs from the east. There is something to think about Russians ... Salvation should be looking for and today not in the West, but in the East, for " burning east zareu new".

In the spread of Christianity - in a variety of historical periods And in different ethnic groups - the church was definitely and purposefully adapted to paganism, in particular, to the pagan festivals and pagan rites. She deliberately adapted to the existing forms, seeking to give them a new meaning, rethink them in a new Christian key, seeking to adapt them to new beliefs.

The symbolism used in Christianity is often much ancient Christianity, in distorted new beliefs, this symbolism reached our days. According to the words of the modern historian of the Church, " christianity perceived and made his many "forms " Peligue religion ... because ... that the whole idea of \u200b\u200bChristianity is in that and consists so that everything "forms "In this world, do not replace new, but fill with new content.

Baptism of water, religious meal, anointing of oil - all these customs came from a very distant past. The pagans celebrated on December 25, the birth of an invincible sun, Christians were timed to the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, who had learned people "to worship the sun of the truth, to know him from the height of the East", Gentiles on January 6 had a holiday" epiphany", And the same date has become the date and Christian Epiphany. Christian templesFor example, they were as a rule, on the site of pagan capits.

Initially, the pagan temples were usually previously previously destroyed, but starting with V c. The process of turning them into christian churches Without destruction, in some cases a direct relationship between the Christian and pagan dedication of the temple is seen. And in the same way, finally, the Christian saints are rendered by deputies of the pagan gods, absorbing in themselves, respectively, those or other features of pagan origin.

Accordingly, a number of rites and a number of problems of cult behavior detects undoubted pagan origin, for example, custom wearing native Cross, replacing pagan lamps, the cult role of eggs and kulukhai in Easter (the pagans were so worshiped by phallus), as well as wax candles and reverence of sacred images - icons.

Initially in Christianity was the course of the iconoborets who tried to eradicate this pagan custom. But it was not there! I had to accept the church and with the reverence of icons. In the same way, the combination of a cross and crescent, which acquired a fundamentally new content in a Christian cult, is also explained.

Photo 18. The ancient Egyptian cross Crux AnSata, symbolizing a phallus.

Edward Carpenter (Edward Carpenter, Op. Cit., P .183) wrote: " A well-known T-shaped cross was used in pagan countries as an image of a male member. In different cultures, the cross had the most different meanings. Sometimes he symbolizes phallus, and sometimes the planet Venus».

And in the book " Short story phallic cults"We find such a conclusion:" Crosses of various shapes are found everywhere on Egyptian monuments and tombs. Many experts consider them symbols or phallus (images of the male genital organ), or copulation».

In the Egyptian tombs, Crux Ansata is adjacent to the phallus (Cutner H. A., Short History of Sex-Worship, London, 1940, p.16.17). In view of such facts, as well as what " christians»So accustomed to this symbol is so familiar, it does not seem surprisingly critical attitude towards them from other believers.

So, for example, Indologist Swami Shankrananda referred to the fact that the cross is a phallic pagan symbol, which means it concludes, " christians ... participate in phallic cult"(Sankarananda S. The Rigvedic Culture of The Pre-Historic Indus).

Photo 19. Inverted Cross - Satan Symbol.

The alarming is the well-known fact of using the cross as one of the main symbols in coalches of Satan fans. Perhaps the inverted cross here is the most famous here. According to one of the interpretations, the lower end of such a cross symbolizes the superiority of Satan over the three faces of the Trinity.

The ancient Slavs believed in the Beloboga and the Black Bog as in the two hypostasis of God's uniform. Christians were excluded from the host of the Divine Ipostasiy Chernobogo, but they presented the Beloboga in the form of Holy Trinity - God Father, the Son and God of the Holy Spirit. Chernobogok in Christianity turned into a devil.

However, everything that happens in this world has two shades: white and black, good and evil, good and bad, life and death, man and woman, attraction and repulsion, love and hatred, etc. And the world is equilibrium opposites. As soon as one opposite somewhere begins to prevail over another, it immediately happens in that place and at that time trouble. In this truth we make sure we constantly, this truth is the essence of dialectics.

Photo 20. Author on sacrificial stone. I found this stone in 2007 50 meters from the place where in 1955 there was the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of Christ in the village of Allyshtsky in the north of the Yaroslavl region.

In this article, I do not pretend to truth in the last instance. But I wanted to draw the attention of readers to frequently encountered facts associated with Christian symbolism, and make you think about them.

The distant past came to us in the form of quite familiar things who carry considerable information about those people who lived thousands of years before us.

In ancient symbolism, the representations of the ancients about the world and the place in it in it are reflected, and it is necessary to confess that these ideas were not primitive.

Just ancient when graspting the world more than we used symbols and allegories, their thinking was more figurative than ours. Images of gods and all sorts of spirits replaced them with the concepts that we use. In general, there is something to think about ...

Christian religion did not arise from a scratch, she absorbed many beliefs that existed long before the birth of Christ. Many cults and rites came to Christianity from Bon's religion, from Buddhism, from Mitrisms, from Vedic beliefs, from the Old Russian religion, which is called paganism. But most of all Christianity adopted in the sun.

Mithra - the Persian God God. According to legends, he was the son of immobally conceived heavenly Virgin and was born on December 25 in the cave. He had 12 students. He was killed by taking the sins of his followers, rose and worshiped him as the embodiment of God. Mitraists had seven holy sacraments, among which there are baptism and communion when " comfortable knocked out the divine nature of the Mitra in the form of bread and wines". The sign of the cross was worn on the foreheads of Mitra.

He received religious and mystical importance at Gallean Druids (Celts). In ancient Gaul, the image of the cross is found at many monuments. Two figurines of the Gull God with crosses on clothes are stored in the Louvre. The swastika is depicted on the small Gallic altar in the Toulouse Museum, and the cross is on the Gallic altar of a quadricular house in Nimea.

Osiris - the Egyptian God God. Born on December 29 from the virgin called "Virgin Mira". He had 12 students, one of them tonphon betrayed him, as a result of which he was killed, buried, but then he was resurrected after staying in hell for 3 days. He was considered the incarnation of the Divine, and he was the third in the Egyptian triad of the gods.

It is known that the cross was used as a sacred symbol in ancient religious practices of Egypt, Syria, India and China. " Cross, called Crux AnSata [Circles of Ansat - Cross with a loop or an eye above] ... egyptian priests kept in their hands, as well as the kings who were at the same time the Supreme Priests. He served as a symbol of their power, as representatives of the God of the Sun, and was called"Sign of life" "
("Colonel J. Garnier, The Worship of the Dead", London, 1904, p.226). Another name for Anha - Crux AnSata [i.e. " cross with lokes (With an eye) "], he served the emblem of the Egyptian gods and the symbol of immortality."

Navajo Indians wore silver crosses on the chest, who had to protect them from evil spirits. They believed that with the help of a cross, folded from the branches so that his ends would definitely indicate north, south, east and west, you can heal any disease, it is only worth putting a patient for this cross.

There is a collection of crosses and in the free Liverpool library "(Abdul Hamid Kadri" Dogmata of Christianity ". Chapter 3. Christian doctrines. Cross).

Famous traveler Captain James Cook was amazed by the customs of New Zealand's natives to put the crosses on the graves. (Y.Panasenko, A. Shmaro "Cross, Titlo". Science and religion, 1992, №9).

A. V. Galanin 2009

In terms of its external form, rapid crosses are often different from the eight-pointed us familiar. The cross on the dome expresses the idea of \u200b\u200bthe temple as the House of God and the Salvation Ship and has the appropriate symbolism. Especially often questions and bewilders arise about the crescent (Tsates), located at the bottom of the cross. What value carries this symbol?

First of all, you need to keep in mind that crescent on orthodox Cross There is nothing to do with the Muslim religion, nor to the victory over Muslims. Crosses with the image of the Tsati (Crescent) were decorated with the ancient temples: the church of the Intercession on the Nerley (1165), Dimitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir (1197) and others.

About any victory over Muslims could not have any speech.

Crescent from ancient times was the state mark of Byzantium, and only after 1453, when Constantinople was taken by Turks, this Christian symbol became the official emblem of the Ottoman Empire. In the Orthodox Byzantium, Tsati symbolized the royal power. Apparently, so it is placed as a symbol of great dignity in the image of the Kiev prince Yaroslav Iaslavich in the "royal chronicler" of the XVI century. Often the ctsia (crescent) is depicted as part of the saint clouders of St. Nicholas Wonderworker. It can be found on other icons: Holy Trinity, Savior, Blessed Virgin Mary. All this gives the right to believe that the casia on the cross is the symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ as the king and the high priest. Thus, the installation of the cross with the Tsate on the dome of the temple reminds us that this temple belongs to the king of the reigning and the Lord dominated.

In addition, from the deep antiquity - from Christ and the first centuries of Christianity - another value of the cross with the crescent has come to us. In one of his messages, the Apostle Paul teaches that Christians have the opportunity to "take care of pretexting hope, that is, a cross, which is for the soul there is as an anchor safe and strong" (Heb. 6, 18-19). This "anchor", at the same time, the symbolically covered cross from the rule of pagans, and opening its true meaning with faithful Christians - getting rid of the consequences of sin, there is our strong hope. Only the church ship in the power to deliver everyone to the waves of a turbulent time life in a quiet marina of the eternal life.

At the domes of the temple of Sofia Vologda (1570), the Holy Trinity Verkhotury Cathedral (1703), the Temple of the Blessed Mockerel in the city of Kostylevo, crosses are installed with a bizarre ornament: twelve stars on outgoing from the center of rays and with a crescent from below. The symbolism of such a cross brightly transmits the image from the revelation of John the Theologian: "And the great sign was in the sky: the wife, destroyed in the sun, under his legs of her moon and on the chapter of her crown of 12 stars" - as a sign that, originally assembled from 12 knees Israel, she was subsequently headed by 12 apostles, which constitute her light-sound glory.

Sometimes the cross on the temple (with a crescent or without it) is not eight-spin, but four-spin. Many crosses in the ancient and most famous Orthodox cathedrals have exactly such a form - for example, the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Constantinople (VIII century), the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Kiev (1152), Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir (1158), Church of the Savior in Pereyaslavl (1152 Year) and many other temples. Starting from the third century, when four-spin crosses appeared for the first time in Roman catacombs, and until today, the entire Orthodox East considers this form of a cross to others.

In addition to the above values \u200b\u200bof the crescent, in the patristic tradition there are others - for example, that this cradle is Bethlehemskaya, who accepted the God of Christ, the Eucharistic bowl, in which the body of Christ, the ship church and the font of the baptismal.

That's how many values \u200b\u200band mysterious spiritual meaning in the cross, which shines above the dome of the temple.

In a casponic week, we deal with how the cross should look like on the temple. The photographer Inver Sheydaev devoted his whole life to picking up a collection of photographs of dome crosses of various shapes. We publish the most interesting pictures.

Village Nikolo-Arkhangelskoe. Nikolo Arkhangelsk Church (XVIII century)

We express special thanks to the authors of the book "Russian Cross. Symbols of the Orthodox head cross "Marina Anashkevich and Inrera Sheydaev for the opportunity to evaluate the truth of heavenly beauty to which in ordinary life we \u200b\u200brarely look at.

The main part of this collection is collected in the times of Khrushchev "thaw", and then the Brezhnevsky "stagnation". The first exhibition was held in 1968, but was immediately closed. Only in the 90s the collection was recognized and was shown not only in Russia, but also in Paris. Thirty years Photographer Inver Shaidaev traveled around cities and weights then Soviet Union And photographed crosses, crowded heads of Russian churches, heart crosses. That only he did not have to undergo in these journeys. Once he even somehow miraculously persuaded the men of one distant village to disassemble the scaffolding, surrounding the dome of the temple to take a picture of the cross.

It all started in the office of the famous Peter Dmitrievich Baranovsky (1892-1984), where a young photographer showed his works by the famous architect-restorer. Then the Inver was passionate about the decorative elements of the temples.

Once Peter Dmitrievich said: "This is full of all. You're better look up. Crosses take off. No one has shot this beauty yet. Collect crosses, sooner or later it will be needed, you look. " These words were prophetic. On the inveru, then with the "orders" of crosses not once appealed. He made photos for restoring temples in Solovki, for the temples of Tobolsk and other cities.

The collection turned out to be invaluable during the time when they began to "collect stones." Many crosses were restored by photographs from this collection.

Unfortunately, many more destroyed temples, the crosses of which photographed the Inver, stand, overgrown with forests, decapitated. Peter Dmitrievich Baranovsky, who had a lot of temples who were lying in the ruins, said: "Why, first of all, the cross is destroyed? Because he, like mother's chest - nourishes.

Lily and grapes

Krun - stylized image of lily flower, cleanliness symbol. Such crosses were usually done at the ends of the "branches" of the cross, because the three sheets of Lily (Krina) indicate a united in three faces of the Holy Trinity.

Moscow. Novodevichy Monastery. Cathedral of the Smolensk icon of the Mother of God. (1525)

Charity grape vine with bunches of berries Symbol of the Living Christ. "I am a true grape vine, and my father - wine-changing" (John 15: 1). Vologda blacksmiths especially succeeded in the mastery of the forging of the grape ornament on the head crosses. The cross of the Church of Dimitry Prilutsky Savior Prilochsky Monastery in Vologda. And you can amaze how the symbolic bonds of the vine and the Holy Communion are finely transmitted by the masters. This edge has the bottom of the Crescent, a symbolically depicting bowl.

Vologda. Church of Dimitry Prilutsky Savior Prilo Monastery.

Vologda. Sofia Cathedral (1568-1570)

DOVE

Pigeon, symbol of the Holy Spirit from time immemorial. "... and I saw John the Spirit of God, who went like a pigeon ..." (MF. 3: 16) This bird itself, frozen in flight, has the appearance of a cross.

Cross of the Church of Women Mironosuitsa Martha and Mary in Novgorod (1510).

If you look closely, you can see in the openwork the heart of this cross, pigeon with outstretched wings. But such an image is the only thing, mostly doves were cast and crowned the cross. In antiquity, pigeons on the cross sometimes also showed, in which direction the wind blows, they were called windbreaks.

Velikiy Novgorod. Sophia Cathedral. (1049-1050)

This cross and doves on it have their own legendary story. There is a prophecy that the Great Novgorod will exist until the pigeon is on the top of the Cross of St. Sophia. In 1942, during the Great Patriotic War, the cross with Hagia Sophia was reassembed by an explosive wave. He was taken out of Russia, the soldiers of the Blue Division - the Spanish division of the German army. Instead of the lost shrine on the main Dome of Sofia subsequently, a cross-"double", the original was kept in Spain, in the Temple Gallery of the Military Engineering Academy under Madrid, where it was installed in a prominent place. For more than 60 years before this Russian shrine, not one generation of Spanish Christians prayed. Next to the cross was a memorable plate with the names of the sappers who died in Russia. In 2004, the cross returned to his homeland - Spain voluntarily handed over to Russia. He was brought to Moscow, the Minister of Defense of Spain, solemnly met the cross in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Now he is stored in one of the features of the Sofia Cathedral.

LIFE SOURCE

Furious shoots
If there are shoots from under the founding of the cross, then it is called "trustees". The shoots symbolize the revival, the woking of Christ from the dead.
Ascended in heaven, the heads of the "trustees" crosses were for a Russian person a visible image of the paradise garden and the tree of life growing in it. Some of these crosses completely covered with flowers, so it is impossible to take a look. They really resemble plants in the spring garden, vegetable elements are chosen with such a feature.

Moscow. Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary in Philee (1690-1693).

Drops of blood
Copper bulbs- "Rosinki" and beads on chains mean blood drops spilled by the savior on the cross. In Russia, they were still called "tears".

St. Petersburg. The Church of the Resurrection of Christ "Savior on Blood") (1883-1907), staged at the murder in 1881 by Emperor Alexander II.

Voluntary sacrifice

Cane and spear

Kirillov. Cyril-Belozersky Monastery. Church of John Dolleynik (1572).

The cane with a sponge and copy - the instruments of the passions of the Lord - a non-unitary phenomenon on the scaffolding. The onesight cross with the instruments of passions, as it were, replaces the crucifix, which cannot be on the dome (it is inside the temple). But the realism of the terrible godfather of the Savior should not eclipse the main - the celebration of a crucified Redeemer who won death. Finishing the Cross "branches" of lily flowers, as it is impossible to speak about it.

Pskov region, village of Komidel. Church of Nicholas Wonderworker (XVIV) Copy and sponge are stylized under two flower, shoved on the cross.

Now the chapter, already renovated by the Church, again its cross rises

Heavenly king

Crown
The crown on top of the edge cross symbolizes the cross of the heavenly king and indicates us that the church was erected by the decree of the king of the earth, or for donations from the royal treasury. The crown may be, both quite real and very conditional.

Ryazan. Spassky monastery. Church of Epiphany (1647)

Moscow. Church of the county in Leonov (1719-1722)

High Skiptere
The cross can symbolize the second sign of the royal power of Christ - the Scepter. Giving the cross view of the scepter is possible with the help of one, well-known symbolism. We will make the squeakers of the Russian kings were the figure of a crowned double-headed eagle - the showing sign of Byzantium. However, rapid-headed eagles were installed on the temples only in the era of Peter I, the king, known for its imperial ambitions.

Moscow. Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary in Philee (1693).

In unity and equality
The four-ring cross (as a rule, with a crescent below) from ancient times they put on the domes of temples. This type of cross symbolizes the Church of Christ in unity and equality of its visible and invisible parties. Over time, there were hutes of the four-pointed cross, they said that it was the wrong cross, because Christ was crucified. But the saint Dimitri Rostovsky put the point in this dispute. He suggested that when Christ carried his cross on his shoulders, then the cross was not four-pointed, because there was no Title, nor the foot on him, and only in Calvary warriors, not knowing what place to get the legs of Christ, attached a foot.

Vladimir. Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady (1158-1160)

Tula region, Arsenyevsky district, village Monyanka. Church of George Victorious (XIX)


And this temple looks like now. The cross has been preserved only in the photo of Invest Shaidaeva

Russian fittings
One of the oldest Russian crosses is a six-pin with an oblique lower crossbar. The oblique fit is symbolically represents the crossbar of the "scales" of a terrible court. Some researchers of Christian symbols and, in particular, N. V. Pokrovsky suggest that oblique crossbinds there is nothing more than the modified form of the Christian foot of the cross. One way or another, but this form has been established in Russian icon painting. The oblique crossbar was assigned the value of "Merila Righteous". And in the people, the foot began to call "stood".

Vologda. Bishops' house. Church of the Nativity of Christ (1670)

The same cross
Seven-pin, T-shaped cross, apparently and was the oldest form of the Christian cross, as it was that the cross looked like that, the instrument of execution of the Savior.

This cross has a satellite, because of the upper crossbar, similar to the throne. Old Testament priests brought a sacrifice on the golden foot attached to the throne, so if the upper crossbar is symbolicly depicts the altar, then the lower crossbind of such a cross means this is a leader, and indicates the sacrificial priesthood of the Savior.

Moscow. Kremlin. Church of the two apostles (1652-1656)

Heavenly powers

Sun and Stars
Outgoing from the cent of the cross, straight or wavy lines transmit the radiance of the Sun. Straight rays denote direct light, and wavy burning, warm. The motive coming from the cross "Light Light" is transmitted by each artist on his own way.

Pskov region, Lokansky district, village Dunyani. Church of Archangel Mikhail (XVI-XVIII century) Such a cross is rare.




The temple itself is now the ruins. Cross lost.

Often the ends of the rays were decorated with also stars.

Nizhny Novgorod. Church of the Nativity of Christ (1719)

Tobolsk. Church of Seven Effesse Curvas. (XVIII century)

Lightning
"Jaco Lightning Seasoning Cross Strength" Running Evil Forces from the Cross. Therefore, lightning can be found on the temple crosses.

Moscow region, Odintsovsky district, Village Yudino. Church of Performance of the Lord (1720)

Angels and Cheruvima
Attaching a copper angel to the cross, the author emphasized that the temple also had a keeper angel. The most famous and traditional angels carrying a cross, like a banner, as on the spire of the cathedral of the Petropavlovsk fortress in St. Petersburg.

Ryazan. Church of the Entrance of the Lord in Jerusalem (XVII)

Often in the black crosses there are images of Cherubimov.

Moscow region, Selo Komyagino. Church Sergius Razhonzhsky


Now the church was completely restored.

Earth faith

Ship and anchor
The most ancient our temples, on the chapters of which a cross with a crescent, is the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, the Novgorod Sophia Cathedral and Dmitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir. Crescent is the church ship, driven by the nut.

Moscow. Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the potters.

In the XIX century, the topic of the floating ship is no longer limited to only the symbol of the crescent.

So in the cerebralist of the eight-pointed cross of the Temple of the Resurrection of Christ on the Outwater Channel in St. Petersburg, the storming of the maritime vessel was depicted, and instead of a semilunteer we see oblique foot.

If the ship is anchored, then he is on the safety of his own, as it were, on Earth. And although the waves swing it, but they cannot sink. To distinguish a scapular cross on the "half-party basis" from the cross - "anchors" in many cases is almost impossible. The only detail that unmistakably indicates exactly the "anchor" is all sorts of decorations and thickening at the end of the arc.

Moscow region, Lukhovitsky district, Didinovo village. Church of the Trinity of Liegling

Between heaven and earth
The place of intersection of the horizontal with a vertical on the cross, the place of the medium, symbolizes the intersection of human with the divine. Cross - mediator between the land and the sky. Therefore, often this place on the cross was decorated with "eight", in shape resembling a keyhole. It is formed by the addition of two symbols - Nimba (the radiance of holiness) and the Tsat (precious suspension denoting the royal "impurity").

Moscow. Church of the Resurrection of Christ in kadashah (1687-1713)

The article uses the materials of the book "Russian Cross. Symbols of the Orthodox Head Cross. " Moscow, "AST", 2006.

Crescent on the Orthodox Cross has nothing to do with the Muslim religion, nor to the victory over Muslims. Crosses with the image of the Tsat (Crescent) were decorated with more ancient temples: the church of the Intercession to Nerlie (1165), Dmitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir (1197) and others. About any victory over Muslims could not have any speech.

Crescent from ancient times was the state mark of Byzantium, and only after 1453, when Constantinople was taken by Turks, this Christian symbol became the official emblem of the Ottoman Empire. In the Orthodox Byzantium, Tsati symbolized the royal power.

Often the ctsia (crescent) is depicted as part of the saint clouders of St. Nicholas Wonderworker. It can be found on other icons: the Holy Trinity, the Savior, the Blessed Virgin Mary (for example, the Ostroy). All this gives the right to believe that the casia on the cross is the symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ as the king and the high priest. Thus, the installation of the cross with the Tsate on the dome of the temple reminds us that this temple belongs to the king of the reigning and the Lord dominated.

In addition, from the deep antiquity - from Christ and the first centuries of Christianity - another value of the cross with the crescent has come to us. In one of his messages, the Apostle Paul teaches that Christians have the opportunity to "take care of pretexting hope, that is, a cross, which is for the soul there is as an anchor safe and strong" (Heb. 6, 18-19). This "anchor", at the same time, the symbolically covered cross from the rule of pagans, and opening its true meaning with faithful Christians - getting rid of the consequences of sin, there is our strong hope. Only the church ship in the power to deliver everyone to the waves of a turbulent time life in a quiet marina of the eternal life.

At the domes of the temple of Sofia Vologda (1570), the Holy Trinity Verkhotury Cathedral (1703), the Temple of the Blessed Mockerel in the city of Kostylevo, crosses are installed with a bizarre ornament: twelve stars on outgoing from the center of rays and with a crescent from below. The symbolism of such a cross brightly transmits the image from the revelation of John the Theologian: "And the great sign was in the sky: the wife, destroyed in the sun, under his legs of her moon and on the chapter of her crown of 12 stars" - as a sign that, originally assembled from 12 knees Israel, she was subsequently headed by 12 apostles, which constitute her light-sound glory.

In addition to the above values \u200b\u200bof the crescent, in the patristic tradition there are others - for example, that this cradle is Bethlehemskaya, who accepted the God of Christ, the Eucharistic bowl, in which the body of Christ, the ship church and the font of the baptismal.

That's how many values \u200b\u200band mysterious spiritual meaning in the cross, which shines above the dome of the temple.

The material is taken from the publication "Peace with God." Publishing center "Slavic word".