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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. It became widespread through its use in the 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.
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 .
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. 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 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.
=== Celtic cross monument gallery ===
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. Stephen Walker, "Celtic Revival Crosses" , 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. "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.
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It is suggested that adoption of the symbol in the context of right-wing politics is linked with the activity of Jesuit priest , a prominent figure of the interwar Scouting in France. 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 and . The same year, impressed by , a Catholic organisation within the German Youth Movement, he founded its local equivalent, Cadets. 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.
After the Fall of France, Vichy France 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. In 1941, the symbol of Doncœur, now named croix celtique, was adopted as an emblem for Cadets of the Légion in French Algeria, a youth movement within Légion Française des Combattants, a veteran organisation which the government hoped could be transformed to function as the One-party state of the state. Then it was used as insignia of Equipes nationales, a youth civilian service institution founded in 1942. After the war, Pierre Sidos appropriated the symbol as an emblem of the far-right movement Jeune Nation, founded by him in 1949.
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.
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Notable high crosses with the Celtic shape in Ireland
Notable high crosses with the Celtic shape in Scotland
Notable Celtic crosses in India
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.
[Proposed". Retrieved 9 May 2025.]]
White supremacist symbolism
A version of the Celtic cross is used as a symbol by white supremacists. 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.
Unicode
There is no formal code point in Unicode for this symbol, though the is very similar.
See also
Bibliography
(2025). 9780851158891, Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851158891
External links
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