When did the two-finger sign of the cross and the veneration of the eight-pointed cross originate? #

The sign of the cross is a “hidden apostolic tradition,” as stated by St. Maximus the Greek. We believe that from the very beginning, the sign of the cross took the form of the two-finger gesture (dvoeperstie), as affirmed by Orthodox Church Fathers, including Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus; St. Peter of Damascus, hieromartyr and confessor; St. Maximus the Greek; the Holy Fathers of the Stoglavy Sobor (Hundred-Chapter Council); and the Orthodox Greeks who composed the “Rite of Reception from the Jacobite Heresy,” where the origin of the two-finger sign of the cross is attributed to Christ Himself:

“Εἴ τις οὑ σφραγίζει τοῖς δυσὶ δακτύλοις, καθὼς ὁ Χριστός, ἀνάθεμα”

This is translated into Church Slavonic as:

“Иже кто не знаменается двема персты, яко же и Христос, да будет проклят”

“Whosoever does not sign themselves with two fingers, as Christ did, let them be anathema.” — Stoglavy Sobor, Chapter 31

This is also confirmed by external writers, such as the Greek canonist Nicodemus the Hagiorite, who notes that in his 91st Canon, St. Basil the Great speaks of the apostolic origin of the two-finger sign of the cross. Let us examine the canon and its commentary:

Canon 91. Of the dogmas and teachings preserved by the Church, some are outlined in the Scriptures, while others are passed down to us from apostolic tradition in secrecy. Both are of equal significance for piety, and no one, even slightly familiar with ecclesiastical rules, will dispute this. Indeed, if we were to reject unwritten customs as insignificant, we would unwittingly distort the Gospel itself and render the preaching void. For example (I will first mention the most ordinary and common), who taught through Scripture that those who place their hope in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ should sign themselves with the sign of the cross?

St. Basil goes on to list other traditions: praying facing east, the Eucharistic rite, and triple immersion in baptism, among others. Nicodemus the Hagiorite comments:

“The ancient Christians arranged their fingers differently [from modern Greeks] when making the sign of the cross, using only two fingers—the middle and index fingers—as described by St. Peter of Damascus (Philokalia, p. 642). According to him, the entire hand represents the one hypostasis of Christ, and the two fingers symbolize His two natures.” — Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Pedalion: The Canons of the Orthodox Church, Vol. 4, Yekaterinburg, 2019, pp. 188, 194

Notably, this book is a “recommended publication” by the Moscow Patriarchate’s Publishing Council, which does not itself adhere to the two-finger tradition.

Comparing the Apostolic Creed with the symbolism of the two-finger sign of the cross, one finds that nearly everything in the Creed is reflected in this gesture: belief in the One God in three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), Christ’s Incarnation (His two natures in one hypostasis), His birth from the Virgin, His crucifixion, resurrection, ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His future Second Coming to judge the living and the dead. Thus, when a Christian makes the two-finger sign of the cross, they visually confess the Apostolic Creed—the oldest version of the Creed. This provides further evidence of the apostolic origin of the two-finger sign of the cross. Moreover, countless artifacts of early Christian art attest to this form, as detailed in the book by S.I. Bystrov, The Two-Finger Gesture in Monuments of Christian Art and Literature, which compiles material evidence of the two-finger gesture from the early Christian era in the Roman catacombs to the Old Ritualist Schism.

For example, the sixth-century icon of Christ from the Sinai Monastery (above), preserved without later alterations, clearly depicts the ancient two-finger gesture.

The Cross of Christ is venerated by Christians as the Altar on which our Lord offered Himself for our salvation. References to the veneration of the cross can be found as early as the epistles of St. Paul. The apostolic sign of the cross is nothing less than a symbolic depiction of the Cross on one’s body.

Christians have depicted the cross in various forms: as the letter “T,” an equal-armed cross (still seen on liturgical vestments), a six-pointed cross (where the upper bar symbolizes the “titulus” of Pilate), and a seven- or eight-pointed cross (with the lower bar symbolizing the “footrest”). By the end of the first millennium after Christ’s Nativity, the eight-pointed form (historically the most complete representation of the Cross) became the most widespread in both the Christian East and West. Among Orthodox Christians, it gradually replaced the six-pointed cross. The Stoglavy Sobor of 1551 established the rule that the domes of churches should be topped with eight-pointed crosses (Stoglavy Sobor, Chapter 41, Question 8).

Orthodox Old Believers venerate the three-barred Cross of Christ as a great holy object but do not condemn other historical forms of the cross, including the four-pointed cross, which serves as a foreshadowing of Christ’s sacrifice found in the Old Testament. The pectoral crosses of the Old Believers often take the form of a four-pointed cross with the Golgotha cross (eight-pointed) embedded within.

— Archpriest Vadim Korovin