It is composed of a cross symbol with four "fire striker" shapes, originally four Greek letters beta (Β).

Serbian tradition attributes the letters to Saint Sava, the 13th-century Archbishop of the Serbs, and interprets the four "fire striker" shapes as four Cyrillic letters "С", for the motto Only Unity Saves the Serbs (Serbian: Cамо слога Србина спасава, romanized: Samo sloga Srbina spasava).

[citation needed] The symbol appears on the Imperial flag divellion (διβέλλιον) used in front of all other banners, recorded by Pseudo-Kodinos (fl.

1347–68) wrongly[citation needed] as "a cross with firesteels" (σταυρὸν μετὰ πυρεκβόλων),[5] and depicted in the Castilian Conosçimiento de todos los reynos atlas (c.

[citation needed] Stojan Novaković argued that the recorded use of the Serbian cross, as a national symbol, began in 1397, during the rule of Stefan Lazarević.

[8] Miloš Obrenović adopted the Serbian cross as the military flag when forming the first units of the regular army in 1825.