Celtic cross#White supremacist symbolism

file:CelticCross.svg

The Celtic cross is a form of ringed cross, a Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring, that emerged in the British Isles and Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} It became widespread through its use in the high crosses erected across the British Isles, especially in regions evangelised by Hiberno-Scottish missionaries, from the ninth through the 12th centuries.

A staple of Insular art, the Celtic cross is essentially a Latin cross with a nimbus surrounding the intersection of the arms and stem. Scholars have debated its exact origins, but it is related to earlier crosses featuring rings. The form gained new popularity during the Celtic Revival of the 19th century; the name "Celtic cross" is a convention dating from that time. The shape, usually decorated with interlace and other motifs from Insular art, became popular for funerary monuments and other uses, and has remained so, spreading well beyond Ireland.

Early history

File:Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times, p185.png, Scotland|alt=]]

File:032Galarus Oratory.JPG, County Kerry, Ireland]]

Ringed crosses similar to older Continental forms appeared in Ireland, England and Scotland in incised stone slab artwork and artifacts like the Ardagh chalice. However, the shape achieved its greatest popularity by its use in the monumental stone high crosses, a distinctive and widespread form of Insular art.{{sfn|Herren|Brown|2002|pp=193–195}} These monuments, which first appeared in the ninth century, usually (though not always) take the form of a ringed cross on a stepped or pyramidal base.{{sfn|Herren|Brown|2002|p=199}} The form has obvious structural advantages, reducing the length of unsupported side arms.{{cite journal |last1=Werner |first1=Martin |title=On the Origin of the Form of the Irish High Cross |journal=Gesta |date=1990 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=98–110 |doi=10.2307/767104 |jstor=767104 |s2cid=192024681 }} There are a number of theories as to its origin in Ireland and Britain. Some scholars consider the ring a holdover from earlier wooden crosses, which may have required struts to support the crossarm. Others have seen it as deriving from indigenous Bronze Age art featuring a wheel or disc around a head, or from early Coptic crosses based on the ankh. However, Michael W. Herren, Shirley Ann Brown, and others believe it originates in earlier ringed crosses in Christian art. Crosses with a ring representing the celestial sphere developed from the writings of the Church Fathers. The "cosmological cross" is an important motif in Coelius Sedulius's poem Carmen Paschale, known in Ireland by the seventh century.{{sfn|Herren|Brown|2002|pp=199–200}}

It is not clear where the first high crosses originated. The first examples date to about the ninth century and occur in two groups: at Ahenny in Ireland, and at Iona, an Irish monastery off the Scottish coast. The Ahenny group is generally earlier. However, it is possible that St. Johns Cross at Iona was the first high cross; Iona's influence as a center of pilgrimage may have led this cross to inspire the Ahenny group as well as other ringed crosses in Pictish stones.

A variety of crosses bear inscriptions in ogham, an early medieval Irish alphabet. Standing crosses in Ireland and areas under Irish influence tend to be shorter and more massive than their Anglo-Saxon equivalents, which have mostly lost their headpieces. Irish examples with a head in cross form include the Cross of Kells, Ardboe High Cross, the crosses at Monasterboice, the Cross of the Scriptures, Clonmacnoise and those in Scotland at Iona and the Kildalton Cross, which may be the earliest to survive in good condition. Surviving, free-standing crosses are in Cornwall, including St Piran's cross at Perranporth, and Wales.{{cite book |last=Langdon |first=Arthur G. |title=Old Cornish Crosses |date=1896 |publisher=J. Pollard |url=https://archive.org/details/oldcornishcrosses00lang |oclc=1008359745 }}{{page needed|date=January 2020}} Other stone crosses are found in the former Northumbria and Scotland, and further south in England, where they merge with the similar Anglo-Saxon cross making tradition, in the Ruthwell Cross for example. Most examples in Britain were destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. By about A.D. 1200 the initial wave of cross building came to an end in Ireland.

Popular legend in Ireland says that the Christian cross was introduced by Saint Patrick or possibly [[Declán of Ardmore|Saint

Declan]], though there are no examples from this early period. It has often been claimed that Patrick combined the symbol of Christianity with the sun cross to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross. By linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun, these two ideas were linked to appeal to pagans. Other interpretations claim that placing the cross on top of the circle represents Christ's supremacy over the pagan sun.

= Notable high crosses with the Celtic shape in Ireland =

Ahenny, County Tipperary
Ardboe County Tyrone
Carndonagh high cross, County Donegal
Drumcliff, County Sligo
Dysert O'Dea Monastery, County Clare
Glendalough County Wicklow St. Kevin's Cross
Killamery, County Kilkenny
Kloster Fahan Fahan, County Donegal
Monasterboice, County Louth
Clonmacnoise Cross of the Scriptures, County Offaly
Moone, County Kildare

= Notable high crosses with the Celtic shape in Scotland =

Campbeltown Cross
Iona Abbey Crosses
Inchbraoch Cross
Kildalton Cross
Massacre of Glencoe Monument
Meigle 1 Cross
St. Martin's Cross at Iona Abbey
St Gordian's Kirk Cross
Govan Old Parish Church Cross
Weem, Aberfeldy

= Notable Celtic crosses in India =

Mateer Memorial Church, Kerala, India

= Celtic cross monument gallery =

File:Lugasson Croix celtique 02.jpg|Croix celtique de Lugasson, France

File:Clonmacnoise 6.jpg|Early crosses at Clonmacnoise, Ireland

File:Kingswood War Memorial - geograph.org.uk - 7032.jpg|Kingswood war memorial in Surrey, England

File:Monasterboice 12.jpg|A high cross at Monasterboice, Ireland

File:Dietkirchen Kriegsgraeber Iren.jpg|Modern Celtic cross of a war monument in Limburg-Dietkirchen, Germany

File:Perelachaise-croixCeltique-p1000394.jpg|Modern Celtic cross at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, Paris

File:Ansgars kors.jpg|{{ILL|Ansgars Cross|sv|Ansgarsmonumentet}} (to Ansgar), Birka, Sweden

Modern times

= Celtic Revival =

The Celtic Revival of the mid-19th century led to an increased use and creation of Celtic crosses in Ireland. In 1853, casts of several historical high crosses were exhibited at the Dublin Industrial Exhibition. In 1857, Henry O'Neill published Illustrations of the Most Interesting of the Sculptured Crosses of Ancient Ireland. These two events stimulated interest in the Celtic cross as a symbol for a renewed sense of heritage within Ireland.

New versions of the high cross were designed for fashionable cemetery monuments in Victorian Dublin in the 1860s. From Dublin, the revival spread to the rest of the country and beyond. Since the Celtic Revival, the ringed cross became an emblem of Celtic identity, in addition to its more traditional religious symbolism.[http://www.celtarts.com/revival_crosses.htm Stephen Walker, "Celtic Revival Crosses"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001194230/http://celtarts.com/revival_crosses.htm |date=1 October 2016 }}, Celtic Arts website, accessed 22 November 2008

Modern interest in the symbol increased because of Alexander and Euphemia Ritchie. The two worked on the island of Iona in Scotland from 1899 to 1940 and popularised use of the Celtic cross in jewelry.[http://www.alexander-ritchie.co.uk/history.htm "A Brief History of the Ritchies"], Alexander Ritchie website, accessed 20 Nov 208

Since its revival in the 1850s, the Celtic cross has been used extensively as grave markers, straying from medieval usage, when the symbol was typically used for a public monument. The Celtic cross now appears in various retail items. Both the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Northern Ireland national football team have used versions of the Celtic cross in their logos and advertising. The Church in Wales since 1954 have used a flag with a Celtic cross in the centre.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

= White supremacist symbolism =

File:Celtic cross.svg

A version of the Celtic cross is used as a symbol by white supremacists.{{cite web |title=A Look at Racist Skinhead Symbols and Tattoos |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2006/look-racist-skinhead-symbols-and-tattoos |access-date=31 May 2020 |work=Southern Poverty Law Center |date=19 October 2006 |language=en}} It was used by Nazis in Norway in the 1930s and 1940s; more recently, it has been used by neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and other white supremacist groups. In general, white supremacists use a version of the symbol with a square cross as opposed to the traditional elongated cross. This symbol forms part of the logo of Stormfront.{{cite web |title=Celtic Cross |url=https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/celtic-cross |website=Anti-Defamation League |access-date=31 May 2020 |language=en}}

It is suggested that adoption of the symbol in the context of right-wing politics is linked with the activity of Jesuit priest {{Ill|Paul Doncœur|fr}}, a prominent figure of the interwar scout movement in France.{{Cite book |last=Hellman |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xoQjbyDpVSYC |title=Knight-Monks of Vichy France: Uriage, 1940-1945 |date=1993 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |isbn=978-0-7735-0973-3 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Bouzard |first=Thierry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I1OpPQAACAAJ |title=La croix celtique |date=2006 |publisher=Pardès |isbn=978-2-86714-380-9 |language=fr}} In 1924, the victory of anti-clerical Cartel des Gauches in general elections caused the mobilisation of right-wing forces, with Doncœur playing a major role in formation of Fédération Nationale Catholique{{Cite book |last=Long |first=Kathleen Perry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vp6YEAAAQBAJ |title=Religious Differences in France: Past and Present |date=2006-03-25 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-09083-2 |language=en}} and {{Ill|Ligue des droits du religieux ancien combattant|lt=Ligue DRAC|fr}}.{{Cite journal |last=Colon |first=David |date=2008 |title=Les jésuites et la jeunesse catholique en France dans l'entre-deux-guerres |url=https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-01022357 |journal=Histoire@Politique: Revue du Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po |volume=4 |language=fr |issue=4 |page=7 |doi=10.3917/hp.004.0007|doi-access=free }} The same year, impressed by {{Ill|Quickborn-Arbeitskreis|lt=Quickborn|de}}, a Catholic organisation within the German Youth Movement, he founded its local equivalent, Cadets.{{Cite book |last=Laneyrie |first=Philippe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2TaAAAAMAAJ |title=Les Scouts de France: l'évolution du mouvement des origines aux années quatre-vingt |date=1985 |publisher=Editions du Cerf |isbn=978-2-204-02318-4 |language=fr}}{{Cite journal |last=Avon |first=Dominique |date=1997 |title=Le pèlerinage du Puy, 12-15 août 1942 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhef_0300-9505_1997_num_83_211_1288 |journal=Revue d'histoire de l'Église de France |volume=83 |issue=211 |pages=395–434 |doi=10.3406/rhef.1997.1288}} Doncœur, inspired by the G. K. Chesterton's novel The Ball and the Cross, decided that the symbol of the movement, croix cadet, should consist of a circle, representing the material world, supported by a square Christian cross intersecting it.{{Cite book |last=Doncoeur |first=Paul |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k33586378 |title=Cadets |date=1924 |publisher=l'Art catholique |location=Paris}}{{Cite book |last=Avon |first=Dominique |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vVTZAAAAMAAJ |title=Paul Doncœur, s.j. (1880-1961): un croisé dans le siècle |date=2001 |publisher=Les Editions du Cerf |isbn=978-2-204-06562-7 |language=fr}}{{Cite journal |last=Avon |first=Dominique |date=1998 |title=Péguy, un maître du Père Doncoeur et de ses Cadets |url=https://hal.science/hal-03262746 |journal=L'Amitié Charles Péguy |series=Lectures poétiques et mystiques de l'øeuvre de Péguy |issue=84 |pages=211–228}}

After the Fall of France, Vichy government relied on pre-existing organisations to implement its youth policy according to the principles of the National Revolution. The field was dominated by Catholic scout movements, the leaders of which were put in charge of Secretariat-General of Youth.{{Cite book |last=Raffin |first=Anne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8hy1pzrc0sC |title=Youth Mobilization in Vichy Indochina and Its Legacies, 1940 to 1970 |date=2005 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-1146-8 |language=en}}{{Cite thesis |title=National regeneration in Vichy France: the appeals to renewal and sirens of decline. |url=https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/61493 |date=2007 |degree=PhD |first=Debbie |last=Lackerstein}} In 1941, the symbol of Doncœur, now named croix celtique, was adopted as an emblem for Cadets of the Légion in Algeria, a youth movement within Légion Française des Combattants,{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5675149h |title=Cadet et cadettes de la Légion: mouvement de jeunesse d'action civique et sociale / Jeunesse légionnaire d'Algérie |publisher=Légion française des combattants Union provinciale (Algérie) |language=fr}} a veteran organisation which the government hoped could be transformed to function as the single party of the state.{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Julian |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/6328/chapter-abstract/150032272 |title=France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944 |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198207061 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Cantier |first=Jacques |url=https://www.cairn.info/l-algerie-sous-le-regime-de-vichy--9782738110572-page-197.htm |title=L' Algérie sous le régime de Vichy |date=2002 |publisher=Odile Jacob |isbn=9782738110572 |language=fr}} Then it was used as insignia of Equipes nationales, a youth civilian service institution founded in 1942.{{Cite book |last=Giolitto |first=Pierre |url=https://www.cairn.info/histoire-de-la-jeunesse-sous-vichy--9782262008000.htm |title=Histoire de la jeunesse sous Vichy |date=1991 |publisher=Perrin |isbn=978-2-262-00800-0 |location=Paris}} After the war, Pierre Sidos appropriated the symbol as an emblem of the far-right movement Jeune Nation, founded by him in 1949.{{Cite web |date=2013-04-12 |title=Entretien: Pierre Sidos |url=https://revuecharles.fr/100-politique/pierre-sidos/ |access-date=2023-09-04 |website=Revue Charles |language=fr-FR}}

White supremacist use of the long and short Celtic cross represents only a small minority of the symbol's use. The symbol in both forms is used by non-extremists in contexts such as Christianity, neo-Paganism, and Irish patriotism. Furthermore, according to the American Anti-Defamation League, the cross itself does not denote white supremacy.

== Gallery ==

File:White Nationalism flag (black).svg|A Celtic cross flag used by white supremacists

File:Neo-Nazi celtic cross flag.svg|Neo-Nazi Celtic cross flag

File:White Pride World Wide - Stormfront hate symbol.svg|White Pride World Wide symbol, logo of Stormfront

File:National-Anarchist star.svg|National-anarchist star

= Unicode =

There is no formal code point in Unicode for this symbol, though the {{unichar|2316|position indicator}} is very similar.

References

Bibliography

J. Romilly Allen: Early Christian Symbolism in Great Britain and Ireland Before the Thirteenth Century. Whiting, London 1887. Neuauflage als The High Crosses of Ireland. Felinfach: Llanerch 1992, {{ISBN|0-7661-9262-8}}.
Peter Harbison: The High Crosses of Ireland. Habelt, Bonn, 3 Baende, 1991.
{{Cite book |last1=Herren |first1=Michael W. |last2=Brown |first2=Shirley Ann |date=2002 |title=Christ in Celtic Christianity: Britain and Ireland from the Fifth to the Tenth Century |publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=978-0-85115-889-1 }}
H. Richardson: An Introduction to Irish High Crosses. 1990, {{ISBN|0-85342-941-3}}.

External links

{{Cite episode |title=Age of Conquest |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qn322 |series=Seven Ages of Britain |series-link=Seven Ages of Britain (BBC series) |credits=David Dimbleby |network=BBC One |minutes=29:16}}

Category:Celtic art

Category:Christian art

Category:Crosses by culture

Category:High crosses

Category:Insular art

Category:National symbols of Ireland

Category:Nationalist symbols

Category:Stone crosses