Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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PASSION SYMBOLS

Emblems of Christ's Passion and Death are usually found grouped in illustrations around the Cross. More than a dozen such symbols are found in stone carvings in several English cathedrals. Used alone or together they are also represented frequently in Italian and Spanish art of the sixteenth century: the thirty pieces of silver, the scourge with leaded thongs, the pillar and cord, the reed scepter, the crown of thorns, the nails, the seamless robe and dice, the sponge, the lance, the ladder, and the winding sheet. The crown of thorns is an emblem of St. John of God, St. Louis of France, and St. Rose of Lima; St. Boniface and Sts. Gervase and Protase are shown with the scourge, St. Barnabas and St. Matthias with the lance. The empty Cross, draped with the winding sheet, is the universal emblem of the Crucifixion.