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In the Byzantine Catholic Churches do you cross yourself from left to right or vice versa?

vice versa - from right to left.

Incognitus

Left to right..."push not pull"

Ok, let me rephrase this.
In the BCC is it proper to cross yourself the same way the Eastern Orthodox do or the way the Roman Catholics do?

Orthodox and Catholics of the Byzantine Rite cross themselves alike: from right to left.

Therefore, faithful of the Byzantine Catholic Church (Ruthenians) should cross themselves as the Eastern Orthodox do.

However, it should be noted that there are Eastern Churches whose faithful cross themselves like the Latins. If I recall it right, the Armenians and the Copts, both Orthodox and Catholic, and the Maronites cross themselves from left to right!

Amado

Interesting!
Thank you for clearing this up.
Now does anyone know how and when this got started and why the two different traditions?

Dear PaulNik,

Yes, the Churches of the Roman and Byzantine traditions, until the 13th century, were united in crossing themselves with three fingers and going from right to left.

The reason for this is that the Sign of the Cross was a kind of compendium of the Nicene Creed and the movement to the right symbolizes Christ's Resurrection from the dead and Ascension into heaven where He sits at the Right Hand of the Father.

(Sitting at the Right Hand of the Father is itself an affirmation of Christ's Divinity - according to the rules of royal protocol, only an Equal could sit in the Presence of the King).

This method of crossing oneself was also defended in a short treatise written by Pope Innocent III, who met St Francis. Greek-Catholics in Eastern Europe sometimes published this treatise as a way to defend their (older) method of crossing themselves.

But when clergy blessed the people in church, they move their hand from left to right i.e. they go with the way the people cross themselves from right to left.

The laity in the West began to imitate their clergy and so began to cross themselves from left to right - until it became an accepted practice.

But it's never too late to come back to the proper way of doing things!

Dominus Vobiscum!

Alex

As a counterpoint, someone from the Armenian or Coptic Churches or from the Maronite Church (paging Yuhannon) should give us a history of ther own "crossing!"

We are told that the Armenia was the FIRST Christian nation on earth! She must have an interesting take on the Sign of the Cross!

Amado

Dear Amado,

I have asked a few Oriental clergy about this - they seem to all concur on this.

That since Christ our Saviour brought us from the abyss of sin and death to salvation and light, we move from left to right.

They also hold their fingers differently - the Copts use one finger for the "One Divine Nature of God the Word Incarnate," the Ethiopians cross their index finger with their thumb and so on.

Alex

Dear Alex:

If there is ample historical evidence that the origins of the signage of the Orientals predates that of the "Romans" (Latins and Byzantines), then it should be from left to right, and the Latins are, therefore, on the right?

Amado

Dear Amado,

That I don't know!

I do know that the Orientals had a lot of influence from RC missionaries, especially the Portuguese.

It is interesting that when the Old Ritualist Orthodox of Russia were being persecuted by the state Church, the case against them was based on their alleged adherence to "old Latin practices" such as singing the Alleluia twice rather than thrice etc.

It is interesting that the use of the whole hand in the Latin form of crossing AND blessing is also rooted in the fact that only the Pope of Rome blesses with the Christogram i.e. the way Eastern priests bless with their fingers shaped to make the "IC XC."

Some have said that the Old Believer's shaping of their fingers is based on the ancient Christogram.

Of course, the early Church preferred to use the thumb to make the small Sign of the Cross on the forehead etc. something the Latin Church kept for the longest time and still does.

Alex

Can we perhaps suppose that ALL of these traditions are equally ancient and valid? And that there is no wrong way?

Dear Nestor,

Agreed!

However, the Old Believers say theirs is the only valid way, with two fingers only and from right to left, because this is how Christ Himself blessed . . .

When St Avvakum the Old Believer was about to be burned at the stake for his defence of the Old Rite traditions (and also for attacking the memory of Tsar Alexis IV by telling Tsar Theodore his son that he had a dream of his father burning in hell), he held out his hand with two extended fingers in the Old Rite fashion and said to the crowd:

"My children! As long as you and your descendants cross yourself this way, the way handed down to us by Christ and His Apostles and His Holy Church, then Russia will always have joy and prosperity. If not, then God's judgement will visit our land!"

The Russian Synod of the "Stoglav" or "100 Chapters" which was later repealed actually set down the two-fingered Sign of the Cross as the only valid way to bless and to cross oneself, and anyone who opposed this . . . ANATHEMA!

RC theologians sometimes opposed certain forms of the Sign of the Cross as supporting heresy - i.e. the one finger used by Copts etc.

In Russia, the two-fingered Sign of the Cross was said to "deny both the doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ our God and that of the Holy Trinity" since the thumb and two remaining fingers pressed together were "uneven."

But the Old Rite said the three-fingered Sign of the Cross was "heretical" because it proclaimed that the entire Trinity, and not Christ alone, was crucified . . .

Wait . . . it gets better.

It was also said that the four fingers the RC West used introduced a fourth person into the Holy Trinity . . .

And, Nestor, are you named for the Chronicler, the Unlettered or for Nestor of Thessalonika?

Alex

Yes, Alex, I am aware of the Old Believers' story. To my old layman's sensitivities, it seems a sad story of excess on both sides - all to no good purpose, certainly not His to be sure; And this especially when one considers the wide diversity of praxis accepted in the undivided Church.

Which Nestor? Hummm...all do fit!
However I took my nom du fora from Saint Nestor of Thessaloniki.

Alex,

You're confusing me by saying that most EC's and EO's go from "left to right," as you put it. From whose perspective? The person viewing your cross-making?

We Roman Catholics go from left to right, symbolizing Christ's Resurrection from the dead and his seat at the Right Hand of the Father. That's how I've always heard the Roman Catholic practice explained.

Logos Teen