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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture George, I don't suppose there is much difference of effort in making the sign of the cross with the hand or with a blessing-cross. Possibly the use of the small hand-cross was considered more dignified or symbolically denser. There is a not-very-good article here: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blessing_cross>, but someone may know of something more scholarly. Various forms of Ethiopian crosses are lavishly illustrated in W. Korabiewicz, *The Ethiopian Cross,* Addis Ababa: Holy Trinity Cathedral, 1973. According to WorldCat, Stanford has a copy. -- Paul Chandler On 29 April 2010 03:01, George Brown <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > Many thanks, Paul. I thought the rest of the design likely Ethiopian but > didn't know about the blessing-crosses. Is the idea that the priest would > hold up this brass cross to save the frequent effort of making the sign of > the cross with the hand? > > George > > On Apr 27, 2010, at 11:04 PM, Paul Chandler wrote: > > George, these are not keys but priests' hand- or blessing-crosses, > probably Ethiopian. -- Paul Chandler > > > On 28 April 2010 08:31, George Brown <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture >> A friend has a couple keys that he has inherited from his mother; he would >> like to know what their origin may be and what function they may have >> served. >> We will be grateful for whatever information you may be able to supply. >> >> Thanks. >> GHB >> > -- Paul Chandler, O.Carm. Holy Spirit Seminary | PO Box 18 (487 Earnshaw Road) | Banyo Qld 4014 | Australia office: (07) 3246 9888 | home: (07) 3246 9894 [log in to unmask] ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html