"In all our travels and movements", says Tertullian (De cor. We have positive evidence in the early Fathers that such a practice was familiar to Christians in the second century. Of all the above methods of venerating this life-giving symbol and adopting it as an emblem, the marking of a little cross seems to be the most ancient. The thumb laid across the forefinger forms an image of the cross to which the lips are devoutly pressed. Moreover it would seem that the custom, prevalent in Spain and some other countries, according to which a man, after making the sign of the cross in the ordinary way, apparently kisses his thumb, has a similar origin. It was prescribed in some early uses that the priest ascending to the altar before the Introit should first mark a cross upon the altar-cloth and then should kiss the cross so traced. Still another variant of the same holy sign may be recognized in the direction of the "Lay Folks Mass Book" (thirteenth century) that the people at the end of the Gospel should trace a cross upon the bench or wall or a book and then kiss it. This cross recurs also many times in the liturgy of the Mass and in nearly all the ritual offices connected with the sacraments and sacramentals.Ī third variety is represented by the little cross, generally made with the thumb, which the priest or deacon traces for example upon the book of the Gospels and then upon his own forehead, lips, and breast at Mass, as also that made upon the lips in the "Domine labia mea aperies" of the Office, or again upon the forehead of the infant in Baptism, and upon the various organs of sense in Extreme Unction, etc. at the words "Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini", at the "Indulgentiam" after the Confiteor, etc., as also in the Divine Office, for example at the invocation "Deus in adjutorium nostrum intende", at the beginning of the "Magnificat", the "Benedictus", the "Nunc Dimittis", and on many other occasions.Īnother kind of sign of the cross is that made in the air by bishops, priests, and others in blessing persons or material objects. (At the beginning of Mass the celebrant makes the sign of the cross by placing his left hand extended under his breast then raising his right to his forehead, which he touches with the extremities of his fingers, he says: In nomine Patris then, touching his breast with the same hand, he says: et Filii touching his left and right shoulders, he says et Spiritus Sancti and as he joins his hands again adds: Amen.) The same sign recurs frequently during Mass, e.g. Most commonly and properly the words "sign of the cross" are used of the large cross traced from forehead to breast and from shoulder to shoulder, such as Catholics are taught to make upon themselves when they begin their prayers, and such also as the priest makes at the foot of the altar when he commences Mass with the words: "In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti".
#Tradition of signing gifted book manual
Probably one of the best sources would be the Catholic Encyclopedia.Ī term applied to various manual acts, liturgical or devotional in character, which have this at least in common: that by the gesture of tracing two lines intersecting at right angles they indicate symbolically the figure of Christ's cross. Throughout the history of the Catholic Church, there have been various ways to make the sign of the cross.
What is the history behind the tradition of making the sign of the cross?
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