October 19, 2012

Reader's challenge: Take a close look at this cross. Do you know anything about it, or have you ever seen one like it?

Why is it shaped so funny? What might those notches represent? Who would wear this kind of cross?

Please comment below or email webmaster@newadvent.org with your wild speculation, educated guesses, or expert opinions.


4 comments:

  1. jobOctober 20, 2012 at 5:53 AM

    It would be helpful to give the actual size of this cross, and what material it is made out of. Of course any 'provenance' would also be helpful.

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  2. GenXBenOctober 20, 2012 at 7:53 AM

    Not knowing the size, it's a little hard and from the pictures it's hard to say whether the three marks on the 1st picture are cuts or ridges. The one on the left definitely looks like a cut but the one on the other looks like ridges.

    If they are ridges, possibly they were were a corpus was attached to the cross with glue to make a "Resurrix" type cross.

    the ones on the backside could be due to mishandling. They look like cuts and possibly the cross got scratched when cutting away bubble wrap?

    ReplyDelete
  3. peskemomOctober 20, 2012 at 9:14 AM

    My guess is that it is a prisoner's cross, carved from a piece of nearby rock or tile and the cuts are a way of marking time

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownOctober 20, 2012 at 10:57 AM

    Guess: Benedictine or Fransciscan

    ReplyDelete

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