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St. Francis of Assisi's Tau Cross

The Simple T-Shaped Cross Symbol Resembles Real Crucifixion

Nov 21, 2008

A tau pendant shows the shape of the cross, National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi chose the tau cross as his standard. It is the shape of the real cross, draws from Ezekiel, reminds friars of commitment and is a symbol of Jesus.

The cross Saint Francis of Assisi chose as his personal standard is simpler than the Cross of St. Damiano through which he gained his commission to rebuild the church. The symbol of his faith in Jesus Christ is the simple and ancient tau cross shaped as a Greek T.

Franciscan Symbol

The tau cross is as simple as St. Francis' view of Christianity. His approach to proclaiming the Gospel is simply to live it: preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary use words.

He found the tau while caring for lepers with the followers of St. Anthony the Hermit who used the tau as their symbol, says the National Shrine of Saint Francis, San Francisco, CA.

He took it as the standard for his order. When a Franciscan friar stands with arms outstretched, his habit, or long tunic, is the shape of tau. The friar is wrapped in the cross. He is reminded constantly of his commitment to be "another Christ" to others.

Historical Crucifixion of Jesus

The tau is more authentically the shape of the real cross of the historical Jesus Christ than are conventional Roman crucifixes, according to an article in Inter Mirifica by William D. Edwards, MD, and Floyd E Hosmer, of the Mayo Clinic, and United Methodist pastor Wesley J. Gabel, MDiv. Ancient Roman texts show that the victim of crucifixion carried the 100-pound horizontal beam of his cross, the patibulum, to which, at the execution site, his arms would be tied or nailed.

Archeological finds of skeletons have shown, by damage to the forearm bones, that nails were inserted just above the wrists so that the bones would support the weight of the body. (Nails through the palms of the hands would be torn out by the weight.)

The body would be hauled up on to the upright piece, the stipes, which had been fixed in the ground or was there permanently. The patibulum rested on top of the stipes, and held in place by a spike, or in a notch.

A skeleton found by archeologists has a nail through the heel below the foot bones, so the victim could raise his body and take the weight off his arms. In this skeleton the nail must have hit a knot in the wood because it is bent, which is why it remained in the feet; normally the nails, made by hand, were removed and reused.

The resulting shape of the cross is of a horizontal bar on an upright piece -- a T.

St. Francis, who had such deep devotion to the crucifixion of Christ that he wept often over it, was close to the historical reality of the cross in his choice of the tau

Hebrew Scripture

Five years after Pope Innocent III commissioned St. Francis' new community, he used the tau as a symbol when opening the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. He drew on the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 9 verse 4, who was commanded to go through Jerusalem and mark a cross or X (depending on the translation) on the "foreheads of those who moan and groan over all the abominations that are practiced within it." The cross or X is identified in a footnote to the New American Bible and the Strongs Dictionary of the King James Bible as the Hebrew letter tav or tau.

It is the mark of the righteous who, like St. Francis, mourn for the sinfulness of the world.

Tau is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew scripture, which early Christian writers used for their Biblical commentaries. Hence, tau also represents the end: Jesus' death and resurrection as the ending of the long reign of sin and death brought into the world by disobedience.

The tau cross is simple, but its imagery is deep, which is why it was so appropriate a standard for St. Francis of Assisi and of his style of Christianity.

The copyright of the article St. Francis of Assisi's Tau Cross in Catholic Practices is owned by Thomas Kelly. Permission to republish St. Francis of Assisi's Tau Cross in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.