The Staurogram of Trinity Church

When I first started to attend Trinity Church with regularity, I was intrigued by the symbol to the left that appears on the church’s red doors, letterhead, and service bulletins. I knew it was a Christian symbol yet, what did it symbolize?

We see familiar Christian symbols in churches, on bumper stickers, and other places. Among the symbols are these:

My questions about the symbol we see at Trinity Church were answered in an article in a wonderful magazine, Biblical Archaeology Review. The symbol is called a staurogram, from the Greek word stauros, meaning cross. It appears in early Christian manuscripts written in Greek, and became a way to represent the crucifixion or the cross.

To understand this and other Christian symbols, it helps to appreciate the ancient Greek alphabet. Greek letters look similar to English letters, yet often they have a different sound. For example, the Greek letter “X” is pronounced like the English word “key” yet with a guttural sound on the “k.” The Greek letter “P” looks like an English letter, yet it is the Greek “R,” or “rho.”

The staurogram is found in Christian documents dating from the 200’s and 300’s, and served two purposes: first, it was the earliest representation of the crucifixion and, secondly, it became a short-hand way in the texts to refer to the crucifixion. It is a combination of two Greek letters superimposed on each other, the “T” or “tau” (the T-shaped cross, probably the type on which Jesus was crucified), and the letter “P” which is the upper case “r.”

Use your imagination when looking at the symbol and see the loop of the “P” as the head of Jesus, and his arms stretched out on the cross. The crown above the “P” also served to make this symbol a Christus Rex, a representation of Christ the King, the feast day we will celebrate on November 24.

(The Rev. Dr.) Peter E. Van Horne