The sign There is no dispute over the centrality of the cross has been used since Cross in the days spirituality and understanding of the early Church both liturgically and at times as a marker . The first definitive written records of membership, a symbol of friendship of sorts, due to Christians “making the persecution sign of early Christians. The first recorded reference to the Sign is found in Cross” come from the writings of [[Tertullian]] (clate 2nd and early 3rd centuries. 160-225 A.D.), who says Scholars have long noted that Christians "at every forward step practices/beliefs were assumed and movement, at every going already well in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table... in all effect (like the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign" (The Chaplet, 3Scriptures). Other mentions of the sign of by the cross and exhortations to perform it whenever possible abound time they were in the [[Church Fathers]]written form.

It does seem clear, though, The current evidence is that the most common way sign of making the Sign Cross was simply to mark traced with one's finger (most likely the thumb) on the forehead, not (and over the entire upper bodymouth when reading Scripture) and over anyone or anything Christians wished to consecrate. The first written record of this enlargement can be seen in [[Nino of Cappadocia|St Nino]], Cross was traced with the Apostle of Georgiaright hand (unless one was disabled, from the fourth or fifth century: "St. Nino began to pray and entreat God for a long timeetc. Then she took her (wooden) cross and , which itself symbolized intimacy with it touched the Queen's head, her feet and her shoulders, making Christ “who sits at the sign right hand of the cross and straightway she was cured" (Studia Biblica, V, 32)God." ”

One way The making the sign of explaining the extension Cross on one’s forehead corresponds with the ancient cultures of the Sign is to point out that after Scriptures (e.g. Genesis 4; Ezekiel 9). Marks on the Emperor [[Constantine forehead conspicuously display and proclaim the Great|Constantine]]'s issuance spiritual condition or identity of the [[Edict person as seen and identified by God. Phylacteries (small leather pouches with symbols of the Torah inside them) were worn around the right hand and forehead of Milan]] in 313the pious Jew. In the New Testament, which made Christianity an officially legal religionmarks on the forehead or right hand identified people with God or alignment with the antichrist. On the forehead of martyred Christians (Revelation 14 & 22), Christians were freer it symbolized the very Name of God Himself. It was easy to cross themselves more emphatically and equate making the sign of the Cross on the forehead with the Greek letter “X” (chi - the first letter of the name of Christ in a more open mannerGreek) as it was made with the same gesture.

Another explanation of By the enlarged scope of 4th century, the sign of the cross is linked Cross began to the [[Monophysite heresy]], condemned be traced by the [[Council of Chalcedon]], whose dogmas are not accepted by the [[Oriental Orthodox]]. This theory speculates that: "The use of the thumb alone or the single forefinger, which so long as only a small cross was traced upon the forehead was almost inevitable, seems to have given way for symbolic reasons to the use of two fingers (the forefinger index and middle finger, ) fingers. It also reflected how bishops or thumb and forefinger(beginning with the 4th century) as typifying the two natures and two wills in Jesus Christ. But if two fingers were presbyters (when they began to be employed, the large cross, in which forehead, breast, etc. were merely touched, suggested itself function as priests) blessed others; the only natural classic Roman gesture. Indeed some large movement of for public speaking was the sort was required to make it perceptible that a man was using two fingers rather than oneextended. At a somewhat later date, throughout By the greater part of the East, three fingers8th century, or rather the thumb and two fingers were displayed, while the ring and little finger were folded back upon came to symbolize the palm" (Catholic Encyclopedia). In Armenia, for example, and in earlier Russia, two fingers were in fact used. However, the precise development natures of one to two to three or perhaps just one Christ and to three fingers isn't exceptionally well documented distinguish Christians in the Patristic literature; thereforeEast under Islamic rule from Muslims who, as some sources from that time show, the findings aren't conclusivelifted “one finger when asking Allah for forgiveness.”

In Evidence from the western [[Roman Catholic Church]] 8th century shows the direction shift of making tracing the sign of the crossCross to over the body in the wake of the Iconoclastic Controversy. In destroying/removing icons from churches, the iconoclasts replaced them with paintings/mosaics of large Crosses (usually a major sized one in the apse of the Altar), a symbol with which had previously been from right shoulder to left shoulderall, as it is today in Orthodoxyiconoclasts and iconophiles (lovers of icons), was changed could agree. With no icons in the thirteenth century when Pope Innocent III churches, other symbols (1198-1216like the making of the sign of the Cross)were greatly magnified by iconoclasts to show that they were not trying to be impious. While Iconoclasm was heretical, following the [[Great Schism]] between symbol of the Western and Eastern Churches and Cross was not. After the subsequent hostility between controversy ended with the respective heads Seventh Ecumenical Council (787), iconophiles continued the Pope practice of Rome and tracing the Patriarch sign of Constantinople mutually excommunicated each other), directed that the Sign was Cross over the body (head to heart to shoulders—right to be made with three fingers from left, as when traced on the forehead to the breast , in both East and from West) with the left to the right shouldertwo fingers.

In Russia By mid 9th century the “three fingers” are replacing the “two finger sign” (though in the East it did not become universal until after the reforms of Patriarch Nikon 17th century following the Old Believer Schism in Russia), expanding the focus that through the crucified Jesus we enter communion with the Holy Trinity. In the 17th 13th centuryin the West, it was customary to make we have the first mention of some who “make the sign of the Cross from the left to the right,” the reasons varying from crossing from misery (left) to glory (right) to mirroring the priest blessing them. Oriental Orthodox Christians (Coptic, Armenian, etc.) cross with two themselves left to right, seeing the meaning as praying that they not be on the left but on the right of the Judgment Seat (whether this developed independently or as a result of later Western/Latin influence is, as of yet, historically unclear). Later centuries would see the West become universal in not only crossing from left to right but also in changing from using the three fingers to using the whole (symbolizing the dual nature of Christopen)hand. The enforcement  Regardless of how the three-finger sign Cross was one of (is) traced in the various traditions, the Church has understood its expression as concretely identifying oneself with the Lord who, through His crucifixion, fully participates in our humanity, which then, as seen in the reasons for resurrection-ascension, brings us to organically participate in the [[schism]] life of the [[Old Believers]]Trinity. The Cross symbolizes (“brings together”) God’s organic descent into death and darkness, whose congregations continue through which we are given back to Him. It also symbolizes our embracing the spiritual battle within the deserts of our hearts and choosing to use see things from the perspective of the twoGod who shows His all-finger sign powerful and sovereign Love by giving up control of His very life on the crossCross.