Delve into the Wonders of Irish High Crosses
- Some Interesting Facts about High Crosses They were used as teaching aids for the largely illiterate population. ...
- Monasterboice A popular spot on our tours is the monastery of Monasterboice. ...
- Muirdach's Cross Artistically and technically it is considered the finest high cross in Ireland. ...
- The West Cross At 6.5m in height it is Irelands highest tall cross. ...
Why is the Irish High Cross so important?
Standing proudly through the mists of time, the Irish High Cross is an enduring symbol of Ancient Ireland. These intricately designed high crosses are a magnificent display of craftsmanship and as such are rightly considered one of Ireland’s most significant contribution to Western European Art of the Middle Ages.
How did the Celtic cross become so popular?
In the 19th century, brought about a renewed interest in Celtic crosses and in particular high crosses. One of the most fundamental changes is that after this period was that replica high crosses of reduced size were used as gravemarkers in the form of headstones from this point onwards.
What is the origin of a high cross?
Originally high crosses were just stone pillars. A legacy from the pagan superstition, that interfering with the shape of the stone would upset the stones spirit. They evolved gradually into cross shapes that include cross, base, cap & wheel.
When did they stop making high crosses in Ireland?
After the 12th century, the creation of new high crosses in Ireland ceased almost completely. Some of the Iona high crosses are thought to have been constructed as late as the 14th century. In the 19th century, brought about a renewed interest in Celtic crosses and in particular high crosses.
Why were high crosses used?
How tall is the tall cross in Ireland?
What is the purpose of a figure-carved cross?
What are the crosses at Kells?
What does the cross of Monasterboice represent?
What are the panels on the cross?
Why are the cross and the Bible important?
See 2 more
What is a high cross in Ireland?
A high cross or standing cross (Irish: cros ard / ardchros, Scottish Gaelic: crois àrd / àrd-chrois, Welsh: croes uchel / croes eglwysig) is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated.
What are Celtic High Crosses?
The Celtic High Cross is undoubtedly one of the best known symbols of Ireland. What distinguishes the high crosses is that they are ornamental stones and at least 800 years old. Anything younger than that is not a High Cross but just a generic Irish/Celtic cross.
What is the significance of an Irish cross?
According to legends, when St Patrick understood the significance of those stones, he drew a cross on top of the circular stone to bless it. Thus originated the Celtic Cross, a symbol of combining two faiths; the Cross represents Christianity, and the circle represents eternity, having no beginning and no end.
What were Celtic crosses used for?
Although Celtic crosses were used primarily for religious instruction, they were also often placed outside the walls of the monastic settlement to mark the boundary of the monastery. The crosses, placed in this way were referred to as Termon crosses. Once inside the monastery, a fugitive could claim sanctuary.
Is Celtic Scottish or Irish?
Today, the term 'Celtic' generally refers to the languages and cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany; also called the Celtic nations. These are the regions where Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent.
How many high crosses are there in Ireland?
Though the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the late twelfth century heralded the beginning of the end of high cross production in Ireland, the 250 or so monuments that still survive on the Irish landscape today hold a special significance and to many, have become an emblem of Celtic identity.
What is the difference between a Celtic Cross and a normal cross?
It distinguishes itself from a regular Christian cross due to the circle in the middle, a unique design that is said to be rooted in the Celts' pagan history but now symbolizes a spiritual compass that represents unity, totality, wholeness, and inclusion.
Do you have to be Irish to wear a Celtic Cross?
Fortunately, Celtic crosses are perfectly socially acceptable for anyone to wear. They feature beautiful intrinsic designs and look great with formal wear or office attire. Because they are affiliated with Christianity, they have a long history that far precedes the Christian religion.
Is the Celtic Cross a pagan symbol?
Found throughout Ireland and Scotland, Celtic crosses predate Christianity and were first used by pagans in the worship of the sun. In pagan times, the Celtic cross was known as a Sun Cross or Sun Wheel and was a symbol of Odin, the Norse god. The circle in the cross is now widely known to represent the sun.
Is the Celtic Cross protective?
In Galicia, Celtic crosses are usually found on top of granaries as a protective measure against any kind of evil. They are also commonly found among Celtic nations today and historically.
What does a circle over a cross mean?
A square cross interlocking with or surrounded by a circle is one of the most popular symbols used by individuals and organisations to represent white nationalism, white supremacy, Neo-Nazism, and white pride. In its Celtic cross form, it is used as the logo for white nationalist website Stormfront.
What is the oldest Celtic Cross in Ireland?
Carndonagh CrossCarndonagh Cross, County Donegal This is considered the oldest Celtic cross in Ireland and it is found on the Inishowen Peninsula in Carndonagh Donegal. It is generally believed that Saint Patrick founded a monastery here in the 5th century.
What is Clonmacnoise?
Clonmacnoise, Irish Cluain Mhic Nóis, also spelled Cluain Moccu Nóis, early Christian centre on the left bank of the River Shannon, County Offaly, central Ireland. It lies about 70 miles (110 km) west of Dublin. Clonmacnoise was the earliest and foremost Irish monastic city after the foundation of an abbey there by St.
How old is the Cross of the Scriptures?
The Cross of the Scriptures was mentioned twice in the annals of the Four Masters, first in 957 and later in 1060.
Monasterboice; the finest High Cross in Ireland - Discover Boyne Valley
Monasterboice, near Drogheda, was founded in the 5th century by St. Buite, one of St. Patrick's original followers. Today the impressive set of ruins contains a graveyard, two churches, a sundial and a round tower. The site is best known for its collection of High Crosses. There are three fine examples most notably the South Cross (or Cross of Muiredach) and the West Cross (or Tall Cross).
Muiredach's High Cross - Wikipedia
Muiredach's High Cross is one of three surviving high crosses located at Monasterboice (Gaeilge: Mainistir Bhuithe, "Buithe's monastery").The monastic site is said to be founded in the 6th century, by St Buithe.It is most famous for its 9th and 10th century high crosses—most notably Muiredach's High Cross. These crosses are all made of sandstone and are referred to as the North, West, and ...
High Crosses of Ireland | Religiana
The site of the Kilclispeen Monastery dates back to the 5th-7th centuries. The monastery may have been founded by an unknown man, St Crispen. Nothing remains of this monastery, except for two high crosses from the 8th century, the "North Cross" and the "South Cross".
What is the best example of a high cross in Ireland?
Muirdach's Cross is the finest example of a High Cross in Ireland & was an impressive achievement for its day.
What were the high crosses used for?
They were used as teaching aids for the largely illiterate population. People would gather at the high cross and listen to a monk, who would interpret the various biblical scenes.
What is the Eastern face of the cross?
The Eastern face of the cross has scenes from the Old Testament including, the fall of Adam of Eve and the murder of Adel; David & Goliath; Moses bringing water from the rock to the Israelites; The tree Magi bearing gifts to Mary & Jesus & the Last Judgement. The centre panel depicts the Last Judgement, with Christ in the centre holding a staff. To his right are those who have been saved and David playing a harp. To Christs left is the Devil with a three pronged trident and the damned whos faces are turned away from Christ.
What does the Western face of the cross represent?
The Western face depicts scenes from the New Testament. The bottom panel indicates the Abbot who the cross was built for: A prayer for Muirdach for whom the cross was made, with two cats curled up over the inscription. The shaft has scenes depicting the arrest of Christ; Doubting Thomas; and Christ giving the key to Peter and the book to Paul.
How tall is the West Cross?
The West Cross. At 6.5m in height it is Irelands highest tall cross. Although not as detailed as Muirdachs Cross, it contains more scenes than any other high cross. Unfortunately due to weathering only a dozen of the original 50 panels are distinguishable.
What is a high cross?
Originally high crosses were just stone pillars. A legacy from the pagan superstition, that interfering with the shape of the stone would upset the stones spirit. They evolved gradually into cross shapes that include cross, base, cap & wheel. The wheel gave the arms of the cross extra support, but is also thought to have its roots in pagan symbolism as well.
How tall are the sandstone crosses?
They can be quite tall up to 6.5 metres in height. For the most part they are made from Sandstone. As sandstone weathers easily, some detail on the high crosses has been lost over the years.
When did the Irish cross form die?
The Irish tradition largely died out after the 12th century, until the 19th-century Celtic Revival, when the Celtic cross form saw a lasting revival for gravestones and memorials, usually just using ornamental decoration and inscriptions.
Where did the High Cross spread?
The high cross later spread to the rest of the British Isles, including the Celtic areas of Wales, Devon, Brittany and Cornwall, where ogham inscriptions also indicate an Irish presence, and some examples can be found on Continental Europe, particularly where the style was taken by Insular missionaries.
What are the names of the crosses?
Amongst the most famous are: 1 Muiredach's Cross and West Cross at Monasterboice, County Louth 2 The Clonmacnoise crosses: Cross of the Scriptures (the original 9th century cross is housed in a museum, but a copy stands on the original site), and the North and South Crosses. 3 The Nether (or Lower) Cross, a 9th-century granite cross with ornate carving, in the graveyard of St. Canice's Church, established by St. Canice, Finglas village, Dublin. The Cross was taken from its original location in the grounds of St. Canice's Abbey and buried to prevent damage by Cromwellian forces in 1649. It was found 160 years later intact and moved to its present location. 4 The Anglo-Saxon Ruthwell Cross from Scotland, 8th century, with relatively large figures. 5 The Anglo-Saxon Bewcastle Cross Northumbrian 6 The Anglo-Saxon Irton Cross, Cumbria showing affinity to the style of Bewcastle 7 The Pictish / Early Medieval Dupplin Cross in Strathearn, Scotland 8 The Pictish/Early Medieval Camus Cross in Angus, Scotland
What are Anglo-Saxon crosses?
Anglo-Saxon crosses were typically more slender, and often nearly square in section , though when, as with the Ruthwell Cross and Bewcastle Cross, they were geographically close to areas of the Celtic Church, they seem to have been larger, perhaps to meet local expectations, and the two 9th century Mercian Sandbach Crosses are the largest up to that period from anywhere. The heads tend to be smaller and usually not Celtic crosses, although the majority of cross-heads have not survived at all. Carved figures in these large examples are much larger and carved in deeper relief than the Irish equivalents with similar dates – only some very late Irish crosses show equally large figures. Anglo-Saxon decoration often combines panels of vine-leaf scrolls with others of interlace, although the placement and effect from a distance is similar to Celtic examples. Smaller examples may have only had such decoration, and inscriptions, which are much more common on Anglo-Saxon than Irish crosses.
What is a market cross?
In Pictish Scotland the cross-slab, a flat stone with a cross in relief or incised on an essentially rectangular stone, developed as a hybrid form of the Pictish stone and the high cross.
How many crosses are there in Iona Abbey?
Iona Abbey has two crosses, with others on the island. Saint Tola's High Cross. A 12th-century cross at Dysert O'Dea near O'Dea Castle showing Christ and a bishop carved in high relief on the east side, with geometric motifs and animal ornament on the other sides.
What is the decoration of an Anglo-Saxon cross?
Anglo-Saxon decoration often combines panels of vine-leaf scrolls with others of interlace, although the placement and effect from a distance is similar to Celtic examples. Smaller examples may have only had such decoration, and inscriptions, which are much more common on Anglo-Saxon than Irish crosses.
What is the meaning of the high crosses in Ireland?
While the meaning of the scenes depicted on the crosses have prompted intense debate , the carvings themselves have rarely been considered as works of art.
Why do people use high crosses?
It is frequently suggested that the high crosses served as “preaching crosses”, the aim being to instruct the laity in the basic tenets of the Christian faith. This is an oft-repeated trope, one frequently illustrated with pictures of local folk gathered around the cross, receiving instruction from a preacher (presumably in benign weather). While such events may indeed have taken place, this is a somewhat innocent and romantic image of the middle ages, more in keeping with Victorian perceptions of the past.
What was the stone used to make Muiredach's cross?
The making of Muiredach’s cross was a colossal undertaking. The various operations demanded a co-ordinated physical effort, not to mention foresight, planning and practical expertise. The body of the cross was cut from a huge block of quartzy sandstone which, when extracted from the quarry, must have weighed close to 10 tons. The source of this fine stone has long been a mystery but in recent years geological evidence has pointed to the hill at Carrickleck (Meath), 14 miles distant from Monasterboice.
What is the most dramatic moment in the process of cross-making?
The most dramatic moment in the process of cross-making was the erection of the finished monument. This was a hazardous operation, especially in cases where the body of the cross was formed from separate pieces of stone, the two parts being fixed together by a fragile joint high above the ground. The so-called “tall cross” at Monasterboice is one of the outstanding examples. In such cases the cross-head had to be dropped vertically into place at the top of the shaft (into a mortice or socket), an exercise that involved a crane or hoist close to 30ft in height.
What does a ringed cross look like?
In the view of one expert, they look like monuments to which paintings have been attached, as if icons from inside a church had been taken down and stuck on the face of the cross. It is an interesting thought, a clue perhaps to the origin of what is a curious and unusual arrangement.
What tools did sculptors use?
To many people it is a surprise to learn that, in addition to axes, chisels and punches, one of the sculptor’s favoured tools was the drill. Tell-tale signs of its use are easy to spot, especially among patterns of interlace. The drill in question was almost certainly the pump drill, a type inherited from classical antiquity.
Why were short inscriptions added to medieval art?
In medieval art short inscriptions were sometimes added to assist with interpretation, but no such aids were provided in Ireland. Perhaps this was felt to be unnecessary, especially if the images were already familiar, possibly in other media – wood-carvings, textiles, painted panels or manuscript illumination. One gets the impression that many scenes had their own history within monastic communities, having been copied and adapted long before they were fossilised in stone.
Why were high crosses used?
Instead, they were used as boundary markers of significant territories or sacred land and as monuments to political power.
How tall is the tall cross in Ireland?
The range of scriptural crosses became more complex and this can be illustrated in the richly elaborate iconographical programme of the Tall Cross at Monasterboice, which stands to a height of over six metres and is Ireland’s tallest high cross.
What is the purpose of a figure-carved cross?
The figure-carved, scriptural crosses that contain numerous, carefully chosen selections of narrative biblical scenes must have conveyed certain messages to the viewer. Also containing images from scripture, they served a specific purpose of aiding in the teaching of scripture and preaching a variety of themes.
What are the crosses at Kells?
The crosses at Kells, Clonmacnoise and Monasterboice represent the legacy of some of the most powerful ecclesiastics, kings and aristocracy of early medieval Ireland and reveal a cooperation between the church and these powerful individuals in the creation of Ireland’s most celebrated stone monument.
What does the cross of Monasterboice represent?
Muirdeach’s Cross at Monasterboice appears to convey the message of Christ being Lord of both heaven and earth and similarly, the Cross of the Scriptures may symbolise Christ as being the figure at the centre of the Universe. Associated with the educational function of the crosses is their use as a preaching tool.
What are the panels on the cross?
Both faces of the crosses and even their narrow sides are exquisitely carved with panels illustrating biblical events, often including Adam and Eve, the Last Judgement, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ, among others, in an array of forms.
Why are the cross and the Bible important?
The cross’s intricately carved compositions of Old and New Testament scenes were used to teach the Bible’s message and to encourage piety, devoutness, prayer and reflection, fulfilling a similar role of the frescoes on continental churches.
Overview
A high cross or standing cross (Irish: cros ard / ardchros, Scottish Gaelic: crois àrd / àrd-chrois, Welsh: croes uchel / croes eglwysig) is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval tradition in Ireland and Britain of raising large sculpted stone crosses, usually outdoors. These probably developed from earlier traditions using wood, perhaps with metalwork attachments, and earlier pagan Celtic memorial stones; the Pictis…
Ireland and Britain
High crosses are the primary surviving monumental works of Insular art, and the largest number in Britain survive from areas that remained under Celtic Christianity until relatively late. No examples, or traces, of the putative earlier forms in wood or with metal attachments have survived; the decorative repertoire of early crosses certainly borrows from that of metalwork, but the s…
Scandinavia
The tradition of raising high crosses appeared at a time when Norse settlers appeared in the British Isles and met a Christian culture. A fragmentary cross has been discovered in Granhammar in Vintrosa parish in Närke, Sweden and testify to the English mission in the central Swedish provinces. The Swedish cross was very similar to a cross in Leek, Staffordshire, and may have been made by an English immigrant. In Norway the British tradition was more widely accep…
Notable examples
Amongst the most famous are:
• Muiredach's Cross and West Cross at Monasterboice, County Louth
• The Clonmacnoise crosses: Cross of the Scriptures (the original 9th century cross is housed in a museum, but a copy stands on the original site), and the North and South Crosses.
Modern period
From the 19th century, many large modern versions have been erected for various functions, and smaller Celtic crosses have become popular for individual grave monuments, usually featuring only abstract ornament, usually interlace.
In 1887, the Rev. William Slater Calverley commissioned a replica life-sized copy of Gosforth cross and had it erected in the churchyard at Aspatria, Cumbria.[3]
See also
• Khachkar – Armenian cross-stones
• Image stone – Pagan Scandinavian memorials
• Manx Runestones hybrid Christian Viking Age relief slabs
• Celtic knot – decorative element common on High crosses
External links
• MegalithicIreland.com
• Celtic Crosses – Symbolisim and History.