 frame|patriarchal cross the patriarchal cross is a variant of the christian cross, the religious symbol of christianity. similar to the familiar latin cross, the patriarchal cross possesses a smaller crossbar placed above the main one, so that both crossbars are near the top. sometimes the patriarchal cross has a short, slanted crosspiece near its foot (orthodox cross). this slanted, lower crosspiece often appears in byzantine greek and eastern european iconography, as well as eastern orthodox churches. the byzant christianization came to the morava empire in the year 863, provided at the request of prince rastic sent byzantine emperor michael iii.spiesz et al. 2006, p. 22. the symbol, often referred to as the patriarchal cross, appeared in the byzantine empire in large numbers in the 10th century. for a long time, it was thought to have been given to saint stephen by the pope as the symbol of the apostolic kingdom of hungary. the two-barred cross is one of the main elements in the coats of arms of hungary since 1190. it appeared during the reign of king bÃ©la iii, who was raised in the byzantine court. bÃ©la was the son of russian princess eufrosina mstislavovna. the cross appears floating in the coat of arms and on the coins from this era. in medieval kingdom of hungary was extended byzantine cyril-methodian and western latin church was expanded later.frantiÅ¡ek vÃ­tÌazoslav sasinek: dejiny poÄiatkov terajÅ¡ieho uhorska, bÃ¡nskÃ¡ bystrica, 1868 (slovak language) the two-barred cross in the hungarian coat of arms comes from the same source of byzantine (eastern roman) empire in the 12th century. unlike the ordinary christian cross, the symbolism and meaning of the double cross is not well understood. == imagery == the top beam represents the plaque bearing the inscription "jesus of nazareth, king of the jews" (often abbreviated in the latinate "inri", and in the greek as "inbi"). a popular view is that the slanted bottom beam is a foot rest, however there is no evidence of foot rests ever being used during crucifixion, and it has a deeper meaning. the bottom beam may represent a balance of justice. some sources suggest that, as one of the thieves being crucified with jesus repented of his sin and believed in jesus as the messiah and was thus with christ in paradise, the other thief rejected and mocked jesus and therefore descended into hades. many symbolic interpretations of the double cross have been put forth. one of them says that the first horizontal line symbolized the secular power and the other horizontal line the ecclesias
Christian_symbols Cross_symbols Crosses_in_heraldry Eastern_Orthodoxy National_symbols_of_Belarus