Tau Cross

Crucifixion scene with a Tau cross, School of Brugge, late 15th or early 16th century

Tau cross pendants from late medieval (early Tudor era, c. 1485) England

The Cross of Tau used to build patterns in a window at the Convent of Saint Anthony near Castrojeriz, Spain

The Tau Cross at Roughan Hill near Corofin, County Clare, Ireland

Modern "Franciscan" Tau pendant

The Cross of Tau, named after the Greek letter it resembles, is a form of the Christian cross symbol.^[1] It is also variously St. Anthony's Cross, Old Testament Cross, Anticipatory Cross, Cross Commissee, Egyptian Cross, Advent Cross, Croce taumata, Saint Francis's Cross, Crux Commissa.

The shape of the letter tau or T was interpreted as representing a crucifix from antiquity. The staurogram, from Greek ΣTAΥPOΣ "cross", was a tau-rho ligature used to abbreviate the Greek word for cross in very early New Testament manuscripts such as P66, P45 and P75.^[2] The tau was also considered a symbol of salvation due to the identification of the tau with the sign which in Ezechiel 9:4 was marked on the forehead of the saved ones (וְהִתְוִיתָ תָּו עַל־מִצְחֹות הָאֲנָשִׁים "set a mark (tav; after the Phoenician cross-shape 𐤕) on the forehead of the men"), or due to the tau-shaped outstretched hands of Moses in Exodus 17:11.^[2]

St. Anthony of Egypt bore a cross in the form of a tau on his cloak.^[1] The Tau Cross is most commonly used in reference to the Franciscan Order and Saint Francis of Assisi, who adopted it as his personal coat of arms after hearing Pope Innocent III talk about the Tau symbol.^[3] It is now used as a symbol of the Franciscan Order.

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