Q & A

When I was in Slovakia 2 years ago, I was surprised to find that the Greek Catholic and Orthodox crosses were different. The slanted three-barred cross was used at Orthodox churches, while a three-barred horizontal cross at the Greek Catholic churches. Why the difference, since both the Greek Catholics and Orthodox here in the United States use a slanted version? (Jim Bobalik)

In Carpatho-Rus' (Rusyn-inhabited Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine) the 3-bar cross with the slanted bottom bar vs. the 3-bar cross with the straight bottom bar was never a polemical issue. Both styles of crosses were found in iconography and in/on the churches. The slanted bottom bar was somewhat more prevalent in Lemkovyna, whereas in old Hungary (Subcarpathia), the straight bottom bar was more common.

With some of the oldest Rusyn Greek Catholic churches in the United States, sometimes you could guess if a parish was majority-Lemko or majority-Subcarpathian if they had a slanted-bottom-bar cross or a straight-bottom-bar cross, respectively. That wasn't always true, of course. Then there was a time when almost every Greek Catholic Rusyn church that was built here had the slanted bottom bar 3-bar cross on it (between 1905 and 1920, I'd say), regardless of whether it was majority-Lemko or majority-Subcarpathian.

Today in Europe, though, the "straight bottom bar = Greek Catholic" and "slanted bottom bar = Orthodox" holds fairly true, at least with most of the masonry, stone, and newer (post-WWI) church structures. On wooden churches, though, you find both, sometimes only 2-bar crosses, sometimes stylized "1-bar" crosses, you name it. Rich Custer.