Question: when did the cross become a christian symbol
Answer: However , the cross symbol was already associated with Christians in the 2nd century , as is indicated in the anti-Christian arguments cited in the Octavius of Minucius Felix , chapters IX and XXIX , written at the end of that century or the beginning of the next , and by the fact that by the early 3rd century the cross had become so closely associated with Christ that Clement of Alexandria , who died between 211 and 216 , could without fear of ambiguity use the phrase τὸ κυριακὸν σημεῖον ( the Lord 's sign ) to mean the cross , when he repeated the idea , current as early as the apocryphal