Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/579

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OBOSS


517


CROSS


restored (1907). In 1857 the master general of the order sent some missionaries to Bay Settlement, Wis- consin, U. S. A., but the undertaking failed on ac- count of insuperable difficulties. Pope Urban Xlll gave to the master general. August Neerius, and his sviccessors, the privileges of purple, crosier-staff, mitre, and pontificaUa, together with some other exceptional favours (1630). Pope Leo X added the special fac- ulty of blessing rosaries or chaplets, so that on a rosary indulgenced by Crosiers 500 days of indulr gence are to be gained each time a Pater or Ave is said. The Indulgence is also apphcable to the souls in ptirgatory (Gregorj' XVI, decrees of 15 Sept., 1842; 13 .July, 1S45; Pius IX, 9 Jan., 18-18). Pope Pius X decreed that both the Crosier and the Dominican In- dulgences may be gained together on condition that a whole chaplet is said.

After one year of probation the Crosier novice enters into the order by a simple but perpetual profession; th.e solemn profession follows three years thereafter. The priests and the professed clerics wear a white tunic, over which is a black scapular; a short black mantle {mozetta) and a hood of the same colour complete their costume. I'pon the brc;vst of the scapular a cross Ls sewed, the upright bar of which is red, and the cross-bar white. A prior presides over each convent and the order is governed by a master general, elected for life, fifty-two having niled from the foundation to 1908. As their particular patronej5S the Crosiers venerate St. Odilia, a compan- ion of .St. Ursula, who is said to have appeared in Paris to a lay brother of the order, named Jean de Novellan (1387), after which her relics were found at Cologne and brought to the mother-house at Huy. A great many pilgrims \nsit the churches of the Crosiers dur- ing the octave of St. Odiha's Feast (18 July), in order to obtain her protection, and to be cured from oph- thalmy, and water blessed in honour of St. Odiha is sent on request by the Crosiers all over the world. The life of the Crosier Fathers is both contemplative jnd active. Thej' give missions, retreats, and a.ssist

he secular clergj- when asked. They also educate

roung men aspiring to the priesthood in their colleges.

,T\\sKN in Kirchcnlex., s.v.; Verduc, t'i€ du Pire Throdore

'. ' //. ^(P^^igueux. 1632"); GoDEFB. A J jT.,£rxp/an«/io conA-fi-

n O. fratrum Cniciferorum (Cologne. 1632); Hermans,

1 ' ^ ranonicorum regulariums.Aug. Ord.s.crucis (Hertogen-

1S58): Regida el conatUuliones Ft. Ordinis canonici

s (St. Michael's, 1868); Russel, Chronicon Ordinis s.

Tucis (Cologne, 1635).

H. YZER.MANS.

Cross, AppARrrioN of the. See Constantine.

Cross, SiG.v OF THE. See Sign of the Cross.

Cross, Way of the. See W'ay of the Cross.

Cross and Crucifix, The. — For greater clearness md convenience the article under this general heading vill be divided, to correspond as nearly as possible vith three bro.ad aspects of the subject, into three iriiicipal sections, each of which will again be divided nfo subsections, as follows: —

I. Archaeology of the Cross: (1) Primitive Cnici- orm Signs; (2) The Cross as an histrunient of Punish- ncnt in the Ann'ent Worhl: (3) The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ: (4) Grailunl Derrlopment of the Cross in Chris- tan Art: (5) Later Development of the Crurifir.

II. TheTritpiChossandRepresent.vtionsofitas )b.iects of Devotion: (1) Growth of the Christian Jult; (2) Catholic Doctrine on the Veneration of the

(3) Relics of the True Cross; (4) Principal


•"casts of the Cross. 111. Cn


'ROR.S AND Crucifix in Liturgy: (1) Material thjirts in Liturgical Use; (2) Liturgical Forms Con- teelnl irith Them: (3) Festiv<ils Commemorative of the lolti Cross: (4) Pile of the "Adoration"; (a) The Cross !S a Manual Sign of filrssing; ((>) Dedications of "Jkurches, etc. to the Holy Cross; (7) The Cross in Re-


ligious Orders and in the Crusades; (8) The Cross out- side of the Catholic Church.

I. ARCH.EOLOGY OF THE Cross. — (1) Primitive Cru- ciform Signs. — The sign of the cross, represented in its simplest form by a crossing of two lines at right angles, greatly antedates, in both the East and the West, the introduction of Christianity. It goes hack to a very remote period of human civilizataon. In fact, some have sought to attach to the widespread use of this sign, a real ethnographic importance. It is true that in the sign of the cross the decorative and geometrical concept, obtained by a juxtaposition of linos pleasing to the sight, is remarkably prominent; nevertheless, the cross wa.s originally not a mere means or object of ornament, and from the earliest times had certainly another — i. e. a symbolico-religiou.s — significance. The primitive form of the cross seems to have been that of the so-called "gamma" cross (rri/.r gammata), better known to Orientalists and students of pre- historic arehaeologj' by its Sanskrit name, | p swastika. The commonest form of this sign is ^j~\

At successive periods this was modified, becoming curved at the extremities, or adding to them more complex lines or ornamental points, which latter also meet at the central intersection. The swastika is a sacred sign in India, and is verj' ancient and wide- spread throughout the East. It" has a solemn mean- ing among both Brahmins and Buddhists, though the elder Burnouf ("Le lotus de la bonne loi, traduit du Sanscrit", p. 625; Journ. Asiatic Soc. of Great Britain, VI, 454) believes it more common among the latter than among the former. It seems to have represented the apparatus used at one time by the fathers of the human race in kindling fire; and for this reason it was the symbol of living flame, of sacred fire, whose mother is Maia, the personification of productive power (Bur- nouf, La science des religions). It is also, according to Milani, a symbol of the sun (Bertrand, La religion des Gaulois, p. 159), and seems to denote its daily rota- tion. Others have seen in it the mystic representation of lightning or of the god of the tempest, and even the emblem of the Arj'an pantheon and the primitive .\ryan civilization. Emile Burnouf (op. cit., p. 625), taking the Sanskrit word literally, divided it into the particles su-asti-ka, equivalents of the Greek ii-iarl- KT). In this way, especially through the adverbial par- ticle, it would mean " sign of benediction ", or " of good omen" (svasti), also "of health" or "life". The par- ticle ka seems to have been used in a causative sense (Burnouf, Dictionnaire sanscrit-fran^ais, 1806). The swastika sign was very widespread throughout the Orient, the seat of the oldest civilizations. The Buddhist inscriptions carv'ed in certain caves of West^ em India are usually preceded or closed by this sacred sign (Thomas Edward, "The Indian Swastika", 1880; Philip Greg, "On the Meaning and Origin of the Fylfot ■and Swastika"). The celebrated excavations of Schliemann at Hissarlik on the site of ancient Troy brought to light numerous examples of the swastika: on spindle-racks, on a cube, sometimes attached to an animal, and even cut upon the womb of a female idol, a detail also noticeable on a small statue of the goddess Athis. The sw;istika sign is seen on Hittite monu- ments, e. g. on a cylinder ("Tlie monuments of the Hittites" in "Transactions of the Soc. of Bibl. .Xrchx- ology", VII, 2, p. 2.59. For its presence on G.alatian and Bithynian monuments, see Guillaume and Perrot, "Exploration archeologique de la Galatie et de la Bithynie", Atlas, PI. IX). We find it also on the coins of Lycia and of Gaza in Palestine. In the Island of Cyprus it is found on earthenware vessels. It orig- inally represents, as again at Athens and Mycenfe, a flying bird. In Greece we hav(? specimens of it on urns and viLses of Bteotia, on an Attic vase n-present- ing a Gorgon, on coins of Corinth (Raoul-Rochette, "Mem. de I'acad. des inscr.", XVI. pt. II, 302 sqq.; "Ilercule assyrien", 377-380; Minervini in "Bull.