Jerusalem cross

According to Father David Grenier, a Catholic priest and member of the religious order the Holy Land Franciscan Friars, which uses the Jerusalem Cross as its symbol, the cross originated in Eastern Christianity sometime in the fifth and sixth centuries and was later adopted by crusaders and the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1291. The symbolism of the five-fold cross is variously given as the five holy wounds, Christ and the four evangelists, or Christ and the four quarters of the world. The symbolism of five crosses representing the Five Wounds is first recorded in the context of the consecration of the St Brelade's Church under the patronage of Robert of Normandy, before 1035. The crosses are incised in the church's altar stone. The "cross-and-crosslets" or Tealby pennies minted under Henry II of England during 1158–1180 have the "Jerusalem cross" on the obverse, with the four crosslets depicted as decussate (diagonal). Similar cross designs on the obverse of coins go back to at least the Anglo-Saxon period. As the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the design is traditionally attributed to Godfrey of Bouillon himself. At about the same time, the cross of Jerusalem in gold on a silver field appears as the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in early armorials such as the Camden Roll. The coat of arms of the king of Jerusalem featured gold on silver (in the case of John de Brienne, silver on gold), a metal on a metal, breaking the heraldic Rule of Tincture. This was justified by the fact that Jerusalem was so holy, it was above ordinary rules. The gold and silver were also connected to Psalms 68:13, which mentions a "dove covered in silver, and her feathers with yellow gold". Philip of Courtenay, who held the title of Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1273–1283 (even though Constantinople had been reconquered by the Byzantine Empire in 1261) used an extended form of the Jerusalem cross, where each of the four crosslets was itself surrounded by four smaller crosslets (a "Jerusalem cross of Jerusalem crosses"). File:Silver coin of James II of Cyprus.jpg|The Jerusalem cross on a silver coin of James II of Cyprus (1463–1473) File:Jerusalem-kreuz.svg|Jerusalem cross of five Greek crosses (late medieval variant) File:Arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.svg|The conventional coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem File:Godfroy.jpg|The Jerusalem cross on a red (rather than silver) shield as the coat of arms of Godfrey of Bouillon in a 14th-century miniature. File:Godefrey of Bouillon.jpg|Godfrey of Bouillon in a fresco of the Nine Worthies at the Castello della Manta, c. 1420. ==Classical heraldry==

chart, showing Georgia and its flag In late medieval heraldry, the Jerusalem cross or Crusader's cross was used for various Crusader states. The 14th-century Book of All Kingdoms uses it as the flag of Sebasteia. The Pizzigano chart, dating from about the same time, uses it as the flag of Tbilisi. Carlo Maggi, a Venetian nobleman who visited Jerusalem and was made a knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in the early 1570s, included the Jerusalem cross in his coat of arms. There is a historiographical tradition that Peter the Great flew a flag with a variant of the Jerusalem cross in his campaign in the White Sea in 1693. Joan of Arc reportedly told the Inquisition that the location of a sword with five crosses had been revealed to her, and that the Priests of Fierbois had found the sword in the location she described and sent it to her. Following a local tradition that the sword was a relic of Charles Martel, some have speculated the five crosses on the blade may have been the Jerusalem Cross. ==Modern use==

Many Christians, especially those with a particular connection to Jerusalem or who have made a pilgrimage to the city, choose to wear the Jerusalem Cross or have it tattooed on their bodies as a way to express their faith, commemorate their visit, or display their affiliation with the Christian tradition. Author Jennifer Greenberg adds, "the cross continues to be worn by pastors and to adorn Bibles and Christian books." clergy at Church of All Nations, Jerusalem, 2011 Today, it appears in various contexts, from religious symbols to artistic representations, many individuals and communities embrace this emblem as a part of their spiritual identity. In the Christian community, the cross serves as a potent symbol of faith and connection to heritage. Churches across the world display it prominently within their sanctuaries. Such visibility reinforces the significance of pilgrimage and spirituality tied to Jerusalem itself. According to Matthew Gabriele, a Virginia Tech medieval studies professor, the Jerusalem Cross is not a common Christian symbol today. No. 1 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force displays the Jerusalem cross on its squadron crest, although without crosslets, in honor of pilot Frank McNamara's actions in Palestine during the First World War. When Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, visited Jerusalem in 1862, he had a Jerusalem cross tattooed on his arm. Twenty years later, his son George V made a similar journey and had a tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross to commemorate his experience. George wrote of the experience "I was tattooed by the same man who tattooed Papa." German Emperor Wilhelm II visited Jerusalem in 1898 and awarded the Jerusalem-Erinnerungskreuz (Jerusalem Memorial Cross) order in the shape of a Jerusalem cross to those who accompanied him at the inauguration of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem. In the early 20th century, the Jerusalem cross also came to be used as a symbol of world evangelization in Protestantism. A derived design known as the "Episcopal Church Service Cross" was first used during World War I by the Anglican Episcopal Church in the United States. The Jerusalem cross was chosen as the emblem of the Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag (German Protestant Church Assembly) in the 1950s, since the 1960s shown in a simplified form where the central Cross potent is replaced by a simple Greek cross. The modern national flag of Georgia was introduced in 2004, with a design based on the 14th century Pizzigani chart's use of the cross as the flag of Tbilisi. The Jerusalem cross is also the symbol of Kairos, a four-day Jesuit retreat that is held for youth in high schools and parishes around the world. The four crosses are used to symbolize the motto of the retreat, "Live the fourth". The Unicode character set has a character ☩, U+2629 CROSS OF JERUSALEM in the Miscellaneous Symbols table. However, the glyph associated with that character according to the official Unicode character sheet is shown as a simple cross potent, and not a Jerusalem cross. The Jerusalem cross is often used in frequency selective surface applications. The Jerusalem cross is an attractive choice for the periodic element because such a choice makes the frequency selective surface less sensitive to angle of incidence. In recent years, images and terms associated with the Crusades in the Middle East have been appropriated by white supremacists and Christian nationalists, including the Jerusalem Cross. Matthew Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, said that the Jerusalem cross "doesn't always necessarily connote an endorsement of the Crusades" but far-right and neo-Nazi groups use the symbol. In 2020, Democrat Tom Steyer made news when he showed up with the hand-drawn symbol on his hand during Democratic debates in 2020. ==See also==