History of San Marino Community Church
The Celtic Cross
 

An Emblem of the Reformed Faith Symbolizes the Promise of Christ
by Peggy Gwynn Oppenlander
revised from "Presbyterian Life", Sept. 1952

The Celtic cross, one of the most beautiful representations of the central symbol of the Christian faith, is becoming the emblem of Presbyterianism everywhere.

The Celtic cross has a special message for us. First of all it is a cross. And in pure tradition the cross is a symbol of the life - not just the death - of Christ.

The cross had different meanings for the earliest Christians. To some it was an object for reverence, but to most it was the disgraceful emblem of a gallows on which their Savior had met an ignominious end. For this reason crosses were not displayed publicly for centuries.

But in the year 312, Constantine saw a vision of the Cross and heard the words, "Conquer by this"; replacing the Roman eagle on his banners with the Christian cross, he went on to great victories. After his conversion the cross came into use throughout the Church. Now it stood for victory - Christ's spiritual victory - and not his mortal "defeat".

At the time Christianity came to Britain, the cross was a victory-token. Later, European Roman Catholics turned it into a crucifix by adding Christ's body. But in British tradition the cross remained plain, the symbol for Christ and not for his crucifixion.

To an unadorned cross the Celts added the circle of eternal life. Together the symbols mean "Christ with us - always."

The first Celtic crosses were built in the fifth or sixth century A.D. by the "Celtic" Christians in Ireland. These people were Celtic by their cultural heritage, but Christian after their conversion by Saint Patrick, who came to Ireland in 432. The Christian Church that he founded subsequently became independent of - actually a rival of - the Roman Church. In many respects, it retained the characteristics of early Christianity.

The distinctive monuments of the Celtic Christians were their crosses. These were not elaborations of some Roman or Greek cross; they were British crosses. From the commemorative stone tablets of the ancient pre-Christian Celtic Church, came the cross-and-circle design. Into this shape Celtic craftsmen now hewed great stone blocks, and raised them to their Christian God. Now the cross stood for Christ and the circle for eternal life, "without beginning or end". For the early Christians these symbols combined to hold the greatest promise of their faith.

Stone-carvers covered crosses and circles with their finest interlaced designs. Confidently they raised their stone crosses, grouping some on hillsides or in churchyards, others singly by roadsides where travelers might stop to pray - or at the marketplaces to remind all of the presence of God.

The Celtic Christians sent missionaries to other parts of Britain. When finally they were forced to accept the rule of the Pope in Rome, Celtic-cross building had spread to Ireland, to Wales, Scotland, and England. It continued until the Norman Conquest in 1066, when many of the crosses were torn down and the stones used for buildings. But at one time whole country sides were dotted with these magnificent monuments.

The most famous of all Celtic crosses, Saint Martin's Cross, still stands near the monastery on Iona.

In the customs of other lands the Celtic cross has a well known association with churches of the Reformed faith, but it was only a few years ago that our Presbyterian Churches in America officially recognized the symbol. Dr. Harrison Ray Anderson, past moderator of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., visited the Isle of Iona off the coast of Scotland. After he left Iona, Dr. Anderson kept remembering the Celtic cross. As a British pre-Roman symbol, it had a great deal in common with Presbyterian tradition.

All through Scotland and Ireland and the continent, he saw Celtic crosses used in connection with Reformed and Presbyterian churches. A plan began to form. Dr. Anderson tells us, "I had also become aware that the only symbols being passed down in the Presbyterian Church, from Moderator to Moderator, were the Book of Rules and the Moderator's gavel. It seemed to me that some more fitting symbol should be carried by the Moderator than a book or a club. And none is any finer than the symbol which stands for the sacrifice of our Blessed Lord."

So, on Iona Island in the summer of 1948, Dr. Anderson purchased a silver Celtic Cross. "I was almost to my ship," he says, "when the thought came to purchase two crosses, exactly alike, and give one to each of the Moderators of the U.S. and U.S.A. Presbyterian Churches, to be carried by them and to be passed on to their successors until such time as the two churches would unite. Then these crosses could be fastened together.

The Moderator's Cross, then began its official recognition by the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. That was only forty years ago - late adoption for so old a symbol.