The Sign of the Cross: how to make it properly and what it means

Forehead, breast, left shoulder, right shoulder: with this movement Catholics begin their prayers, and with it the priest at the foot of the altar begins Holy Mass. The Sign of the Cross is a short profession of the whole faith and one of the oldest signs of Christians; Tertullian already bears witness to it at the beginning of the 3rd century. This guide shows step by step how to make the Sign of the Cross properly, what the Latin words mean, what the small sign of the cross before the Gospel signifies and when to cross yourself.

How do you make the Sign of the Cross properly?

You make the Sign of the Cross properly with the right hand open. You touch the forehead, then the breast, then the left and finally the right shoulder, saying “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”. At the “Amen” you join your hands again.

1. Open the right hand and touch the forehead with the fingertips: “In the name of the Father”.
2. Bring the hand down to the breast: “and of the Son”.
3. Touch first the left, then the right shoulder: “and of the Holy Ghost”.
4. Join your hands: “Amen”.

This is how the 1962 Missal prescribes it for the priest at the beginning of Mass: he turns the palm of his right hand towards himself, keeps the fingers joined and extended, and makes the cross a fronte ad pectus, et ab humero sinistro ad dexterum, from the forehead to the breast and from the left to the right shoulder; meanwhile he places his left hand below his breast. This form is called the large or Latin cross. The right hand is used because it takes precedence over the left, as Nikolaus Gihr explains in his work on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

How do you say “In the name of the Father” in Latin?

In Latin the Sign of the Cross is “In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen”, in English “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen”. With these words the priest signs himself at the foot of the altar before he begins Holy Mass.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Latin according to the Missale Romanum of 1962, Ritus servandus III, 4. English as in our prayer companion.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the first Christians also said other words with the Sign of the Cross, such as “The sign of Christ” or “In the name of Jesus”. Further basic prayers with translation, among them the Gloria Patri and the Pater noster, can be found in our guide to Latin prayers with translation.

What does the Sign of the Cross mean?

In the Sign of the Cross the Catholic professes in one gesture the Most Holy Trinity and the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The words name the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; the hand traces the cross. Joseph Deharbe’s catechism calls it the sign by which we chiefly profess our faith.

To the question by what sign the Catholic Christian professes his faith, Deharbe answers: “Chiefly by the sign of the holy Cross.” And his exhortation: “Make the holy sign of the Cross often and with devotion” (both translated from the German).

What each movement says is explained by St Francis de Sales, whom Gihr quotes at length. The hand goes first to the forehead, because the Father is the first Person of the Trinity, by whom the Son is begotten. It descends to the breast, because the Father sent the Son down into the womb of the Virgin.

Then it passes from the left to the right shoulder, because the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, the love that unites them both, and because through His grace we share in the fruits of Christ’s Passion. Thus, according to Francis de Sales, the Sign of the Cross is a short profession of three great mysteries: the Trinity, the Passion of Christ and the forgiveness of sins, by which we pass over from the left side of the curse to the right side of the blessing.

Since when have Christians made the Sign of the Cross?

Christians have made the Sign of the Cross since the first centuries. Early in the 3rd century Tertullian testifies that they marked their foreheads at every activity of the day. At first it was a small cross on the forehead; the large cross over the body became general only in the Middle Ages.

“Ad omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum et exitum, ad vestitum, ad calciatum, ad lavacra, ad mensas, ad lumina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, quacumque nos conversatio exercet, frontem signaculo terimus.” At every step and going forth, at every coming in and going out, in dressing and putting on our shoes, at the bath, at table, at the lighting of the lamps, on going to bed and on sitting down, in every occupation of daily life, we mark our forehead with the sign.

Tertullian, De corona 3. English: our translation from the Latin text.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Christians connected the sign on the forehead with passages of Holy Scripture, such as Ezekiel 9:4, where the Lord commands: signa thau super frontes virorum gementium et dolentium …, “mark Thau upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and mourn”, but above all with passages of the Apocalypse (Apoc 7:3; 9:4; 14:1). In the 4th century St Cyril of Jerusalem urges the faithful to trace the cross boldly on the forehead with the fingers.

The large cross over the whole body came later. Gihr dates it from the 8th century; the Catholic Encyclopedia traces its general spread probably to a directive of Pope Leo IV around the middle of the 9th century. For a long time, in the West too, the hand was moved like the Greeks’ from the right to the left shoulder; according to Gihr this was probably still the general custom in the time of Innocent III, who died in 1216. Long before the end of the Middle Ages, however, the large cross was made in the West mostly with the open hand and from left to right.

What is the small sign of the cross before the Gospel?

In the small sign of the cross you mark forehead, lips and breast with a small cross when the Gospel is announced at Mass. The priest first signs the Missal with his thumb, then himself. The faithful do so with him, to carry the word of the cross in mind, on lips and in heart.

When the priest says “Sequentia sancti Evangelii”, the continuation of the holy Gospel, he signs, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the book with his right thumb and then himself; according to Gihr he imprints the cross on the first words of the Gospel and then on forehead, lips and breast. The cross on the book shows that the whole Gospel is contained in the mystery of the cross; St Paul calls it “the word of the cross”.

Priest and faithful sign themselves, Gihr says, because they wish to keep the teaching of the Crucified in mind, on their lips and in their hearts, and not to be ashamed to profess it in word and deed. The liturgist Sicardus, who died in 1215, interprets the cross on the breast as faith, on the lips as confession and on the forehead as works.

The Church knows small crosses of this kind elsewhere too: on the lips at the Breviary versicle “Domine, labia mea aperies” (O Lord, open thou my lips), on the child’s forehead at baptism and on the senses of the sick at Extreme Unction. At Confirmation the bishop traces a cross on the forehead with chrism and says: “I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation.”

When do you make the Sign of the Cross?

According to ancient teaching, you make the Sign of the Cross at the beginning of prayers, on rising and going to bed, at table and at fixed points of Holy Mass. Whoever signed himself with holy water received, according to the Raccolta of indulgenced prayers, a greater indulgence than with the sign alone.

Deharbe’s catechism begins morning prayer with the sentence: “On rising, one makes the holy sign of the Cross” (translated from the German). At Holy Mass, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the priest crosses himself at the beginning, at “Adjutorium nostrum”, our help is in the name of the Lord, and at the “Indulgentiam”, the prayer for the remission of sins after the Confiteor; in the Breviary at the versicle “Deus in adjutorium”, O God, come to my assistance, and at the beginning of the Magnificat, the Benedictus and the Nunc dimittis.

The Raccolta of 1943, an English adaptation of the official Preces et pia opera of 1938, records under number 631: whoever crossed himself with the invocation of the Most Holy Trinity in the words “In the name of the Father” gained an indulgence of 100 days; whoever made the same holy sign with holy water gained an indulgence of 300 days.

As for every indulgence, the general conditions of the Raccolta applied: the state of grace, the intention to gain the indulgence and the exact fulfilment of what is prescribed. As its basis the Raccolta names papal briefs of 28 July 1863 and 23 March 1866 and a decision of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary of 10 February 1935. What such a partial indulgence is, is explained in our guide to indulgences and how to gain them.

Is the Sign of the Cross a sign of protection?

The Sign of the Cross does not protect of itself, as a magic sign would promise. With it you call upon God and ask Him for protection, as the Church prays: “Per signum crucis de inimicis nostris libera nos, Deus noster”, through the sign of the cross deliver us from our enemies, O our God.

St Thomas Aquinas asks whether it is lawful to wear sacred words around the neck, and applies the answer to pronouncing them as well (Summa theologiae II-II, q. 96, a. 4). His answer: it is lawful if one looks solely to reverence for God, from whom the effect is expected. It becomes superstitious if one puts one’s hope in the manner of writing or binding them on. He rejects strange signs written alongside the sacred words, with one exception: praeter signum crucis, except the sign of the cross.

In all blessings and consecrations, according to Franz Spirago, the Church makes use of the sign of the cross. Such sacramentals, that is, things or actions that the Church uses, obtain their effect according to the 1917 Code “ex sua impetratione”, through the intercession of the Church (can. 1144), not by their own power. The devotion of the person crossing himself contributes to this: the theologian Gretser, whom Gihr cites, calls the Sign of the Cross a silent invocation of Christ crucified, all the more fruitful the greater the love from which it springs.

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Frequently asked questions about the Sign of the Cross