Russian Orthodox cross
Today it is a symbol of the Russian Orthodox Church[2][3][4] and a distinctive feature of the cultural landscape of Russia.
In the second half of the 19th century, this cross was promoted by the Russian Empire in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a symbol of its Russification policy.
"[10][6] Didier Chaudet, in the academic journal China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, writes that an "emblem of the Orthodox Church is a cross on top on a crescent.
To the viewer's left is the Holy Lance, with which Jesus was wounded in his side, and to the right, the pole topped by a hyssop sponge with which he was given vinegar.
Around the cross are abbreviations in Church Slavonic: ЦР҃Ь СЛ҃ВЫ — «Царь Славы», Lord of Glory; ІС҃ ХС҃ - Иисус Христос, Jesus Christ; СН҃Ъ БЖ҃ІЙ — «Сын Божий» Son of God; НИКА - Victor; К - копьё, spear; Т - трость, pole (with a sponge); М Л Р Б — «место лобное рай бысть» "place of execution is paradise", Г Г — «гора Голгофа» "mount Golgotha" (Calvary), Г А — «глава Адамова» "Adam's head".
[citation needed] There are old frescoes depicting this type of cross in the regions of modern Greece and Serbia.
One Byzantine icon featuring the three-bar cross, with the slanted crossbeam for the feet of Christ, is an 11th century mosaic of the resurrection.
[30] The three-bar cross "existed very early in Byzantium, but was adopted by the Russian Orthodox Church and especially popularized in Slavic countries.
"[31] At the end of the 15th century this cross started to be widely used in Muscovy when its rulers declared themselves the "Third Rome", successors of Byzantium and defenders of Orthodoxy.
[32] In 1551 at the council of the canonically isolated Russian Orthodox Church, the Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan the Terrible decided to standardize the cross on Russian church domes to distinguish Muscovy from the "Lithuanian, Polack cross".
During 1577–1625, the Russian Orthodox cross was depicted between the heads of a double-headed eagle in the coat of arms of Russia.
According to the Metropolitan of Ryazan and Murom Stefan, the Russian Orthodox cross was worn by Czar Peter I[32] (1672–1725), who transformed the Moscow Patriarchate into the Most Holy Synod.
