The Stoglav Council of 1551 decreed that the sign of the cross, after touching the forehead, should be made upon the chest, where the heart is, and that those who do not cross themselves in this manner, according to chapter 32 of the Stoglav, should be excommunicated from the Church. Why, then, do we place the fingers on the navel instead of the chest? #

In various ancient Russian descriptions of the sign of the cross, different terms are used to indicate the second point of contact: “chest” (перси), “abdomen” (живот), “navel” (пуп), and “heart” (сердце).

For example, in chapter 40 of the book by St. Maximus the Greek, On the Making of the Sign of the Cross, we read:

“By placing the fingers on the forehead, we confess two things: that Christ was born of God the Father, just as our word comes from our mind, and that He descended from above, as the divine Word says: ‘He bowed the heavens and came down.’ By placing the fingers on the navel, we signify His descent to earth and His seedless conception in the most pure womb of the God-bearer. And by then moving the hand from that point across the entire body to the right and left sides, we vividly represent the bitter judgment that shall separate the righteous, who stand at the Judge’s right hand, from the ungodly and sinners, who stand at His left. Such, as far as I am able to understand, is the power of the sign of the honorable cross, by which the faithful seal themselves when they pray, mystically confessing the entirety of Christ’s dispensation for our salvation—His birth from God the Father before all creation, His descent to earth, His crucifixion, and His second coming, which seals all things pertaining to His loving-kindness toward us.”

Similarly, in The Book on the One Orthodox Faith and the Most Holy Eastern Church (folio 74), we read:

“Thus the Holy Church confesses: The joining of the three fingers of the right hand—namely, the thumb, the pinky, and the third finger beside the pinky—signifies the mystery of the Divine Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God in three Persons. The extension of the other two fingers, the index and middle fingers, represents the mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is both perfect God and perfect Man for our salvation. And so, arranging the fingers in this way, we first place the hand on the head or forehead, confessing that Christ is our one true and eternal Head, as it is written: ‘God the Father has made Him Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body’ (Ephesians 1:22-23). Then, we place the hand on the abdomen, confessing His descent to earth and His seedless conception in the most pure womb of the God-bearer.”

In the Small Catechism, a similar description of the sign of the cross is found (folio 16 verso):

“…Then we place the hand on the abdomen…”

In the book Staretsdom, in word 11, we find this description of the sign of the cross:

“Then we bring the hand down from above, that is, from the head to the abdomen or navel…”

In the Great Catechism, chapter 2 states:

“When we place the hand on the abdomen, it signifies His seedless conception in the most pure womb of the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God…”

At the same time, in the Stoglav, The Son of the Church, and Patriarch Job’s letter to Georgia, the word “chest” (перси) is used in describing the sign of the cross. Thus, in the same historical period, ancient Russian texts used the terms “navel” (пуп), “abdomen” (живот), “chest” (перси), and even “heart” (сердце) interchangeably in this context. It should also be noted that the word “heart” may not only refer to the anatomical organ but also to the “core of the body” or “womb”—for instance, the words merciful (милосердный) and compassionate (благоутробный) are translations of the same Greek term εὔσπλαγχνος, meaning “good inwardly” or “kindhearted.”

From the above, we conclude that the terms “chest” and “navel” are not contradictory. It is likely that in the understanding of our ancestors, the term “chest” did not exclusively mean the area of the pectoral muscles or breasts but the entire front surface of the torso, from the neck to the navel. Therefore, when placing the fingers on the navel during the sign of the cross, we are not erring, especially since this more closely corresponds to the confession that Christ descended from Heaven and was incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary, from whom He was ineffably born in the flesh for our salvation.

—Archpriest Vadim Korovin.