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Celtic
Crosses - A Brief History
The Celtic Cross remains the most easily recognizable symbol of
Celtic Christianity, representing a long and developing aspect of Celtic
art and design. In its earliest form it heralded the slow decline of
ancient Pagan tradition in the face of Christian conversion and practices.
Standing stones had long been used by ancient peoples of the British Isles
as grave markers, and the symbolically powerful single standing stone, with
its stepped pyramidal platform, atop a burial mound can be seen as the
precursor of the much later 'High Cross' of Ireland and elsewhere.
As Christianity gradually gained a foothold, many Pagan monuments
were destroyed, but some were 'Christianized,' with the addition of crosses
and other symbols. Some of the best known examples of this process survive
in Brittany.
The cross was not adopted by the church as a symbol until the seventh
century, although simple crosses are found on some earlier Christian
monuments. Wheeled crosses appear on some pre-Christian stones, perhaps as
symbols of solar worship. One such is Exmoor's Culbone stone,
which was Christianized by the simple expedient of extending one of the
arms downwards, albeit at an angle as the arms are diagonal. The early
wheeled pillar cross is most common in Ireland, Wales and Cornwall, Pictish monuments in Scotland were more likely to be
large carved slabs, often with elaborate figurative carvings, depicting
scenes from the bible as well as mythical beasts and warrior figures.
Celtic cross design reached its culmination with the magnificent ringed
High Crosses of Scotland,
Ireland
and Ionia many of which were carved in
the 8th and 9th centuries. The early Celtic Church had developed in virtual
isolation from the rest of Europe (in
Cornwall the authority of Rome was not finally accepted until 705, in North
Wales 777), so perhaps the stylized Celtic Cross was a visible way of
maintaining at least some of the Regions unique character after the
strictures of the Synod of Whitby in 664, which
sought to curb Celtic independence. Saxon craftsmen continued the tradition
in England,
though very few examples survived the architectural holocaust of the
Reformation.
The revival of interest in Celtic Culture, and the fervent antiquarianism
of the 19th Century led to the preservation of many wayside and Churchyard
Celtic Crosses which still remained by that time. And, new examples have
since been carved using and often developing the knotwork
designs and motifs which were popular with stonemasons over the preceding
1000 years.
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