"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Last year I was at a wedding in Minneapolis and saw and “N” overlaid on a Chi-Rho and wasn’t sure what it meant:
After a little bit of googling, it turns out that the N is short for “Nika”, as seen in “IX CX Nika”, also affirming that Christ conquers.
One of the things I really liked about “The Da Vinci Code” (ridiculous ahistorial conspiracies aside) was that it got people looking at art and architecture with greater attentiveness to symbolism. Christianity has always used symbols very heavily to express the truths of the faith and its art developed rapidly as a vehicle for this.
A few weeks ago I explained the meaning of the “IC XC” on icons, which is a short-hand for “Jesus Christ”, and earlier this week I explained the meaning of the letters which commonly appear above pictures of His mother. Today I’d like to provide a quick follow-up to another aspect of “IC XC” which you sometimes find in eastern art…
This is the painting on the front wall above the altar at Holy Angels:
How many “IC XC“s do you see?
This past weekend I was visiting a friend in Washington State and, at the church we visited, saw the following cross hanging above the altar:
Cross at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Yakima
…and this reminded me of something else which I came to understand through studying Greek that I had meant to share…