Huguenot cross
The
It is sometimes asserted that the cross appeared for the first time during the
Long after the revocation (1685) of the Edict of Nantes (1598), the Huguenot cross came into general use among 19th-century Huguenot descendants in countries where Huguenot refugees settled, as a sign of both identification with French Huguenot ancestry and confirmation of the wearer's faith.
In 1942, the Free French Protestants in Great Britain issued a badge that paired the Huguenot cross with the
Symbolism
The symbolism of the Huguenot cross is particularly rich.
- The Christ but also victory over death and impiety. This is represented also in the Maltese cross.
- The boutonné, the eight points symbolizing the eight Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12)
- The pendant dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:16). In times of persecution a pearl, symbolizing a teardrop, replaced the dove.
The elements of the Huguenot cross mirrored those of the cross of the 1578 Order of the Holy Spirit, the senior chivalric order of France by precedence.
Notes
- ^ Bertrand Van Ruymbeke, "Minority survival: the Huguenot paradigm in France and the diaspora: from survival to revival", in Van Ruymbeke and Randy J. Sparks, eds. Memory and Identity: the Huguenots in France and the Atlantic Diaspora (University of South Carolina) 2003:16.
- ^ Hobsbawm, "Introduction: Inventing traditions", in Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds. The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge University Press) 1983:9, noted in Van Ruymbeke 2003:16 note 57.
- ^ Hobsbawm quoted in Van Ruymbeke, eo. loc..
- ^ Rev. R.C. Broughton, "Virginibus Puerisque. Resistez", contributed to "In the Study", The Expository Times, 53.12 (1942:371) (on-line text).
External links
- Huguenot Society of South Africa [1][permanent dead link]