Irish High Crosses (6)

In those days men needed little external pictorial stimulation to make them identify all their lives with the inner meaning of pictures. These pictures served not only places of worship but also places for exegesis and for preaching to the community assembled around the cross. It is known from English sources that the Irish missionaries in Northumbria set up wooden crosses at whose foot they preached the Gospel.

 - Streit, Sun and Cross[1]

It appears that high crosses stood outside the small churches but within the monastery walls. Thus they served several purposes. They could be used as teaching devices—pictorial Bibles in stone, as it were—for the education of the illiterate local community.

 - Powell, The High Crosses of Ireland[2]

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given”… All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
“I will open My mouth in parables;
I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.”

 - Matthew 13.10, 11, 34, 35

In preparing His Word for the salvation and instruction of His people, God made wide use of various art forms. Throughout Scripture we find songs, poems, musical instruments, lavish descriptions of decorated buildings, stories, visions, and prophetic words replete with images. Jesus frequently resorted to parables because, as He explained, they have a unique ability both to reveal truth and to conceal it. It all depends on how one hears.

Anne Bradstreet, the first lady of American verse, commented on the role of the arts as a means of edification, and she included a caveat that resonates with Jesus’ own remarks:

Art can do much, but this maxim’s most sure:
A weak or wounded brain admits no cure. (“The Prologue”) 

As Jakob Streit observed, the Celtic peoples of Ireland had very little difficulty understanding and identifying with the arts. They could look at an image and know that it was speaking to them.

This was especially true of the Christian art that flourished during this period, and of that art, of the high crosses above all. The high crosses of Ireland are frequently referred to as “Bibles in stone” because much of the surface area of a high cross provides a gallery for Biblical stories. The images on the various panels of a high cross were typically accompanied by forms of art which had deep roots in Celtic tradition, thinking, and lore. The use of such embellishments, familiar to Irish Christians on household items of various kinds, would have helped believers personalize the Biblical stories the crosses told.

For example, the story of Jesus’ sacrifice, resurrection, ascension, and reign could be told within the arms of a Celtic cross with Jesus Himself represented, not as a crucified man, but as the sun and center of the cosmos. Celtic Christians did not have to think too long about the significance of such a depiction. They knew the sun “ruled” the skies, gave life to the earth, and drove away the darkness. And they would easily, as their teacher or preacher expounded the Gospel, have associated the image of the sun with Jesus.

The lingering benefit of such teaching should be obvious. Whenever after that believers were aware of the sun bringing in a new day, peeking out from behind a cloud, or warming their bodies, their minds would have gone to Jesus, accompanied perhaps by a word of praise or thanksgiving.

Celtic Christians loved the arts and had ready minds and hearts to learn from them. We cannot say the same about Christians in our day. For most believers, the arts are terra incognita, and the vast and glorious heritage of Christian art—in a wide variety of forms—is an unexplored galaxy which is largely ignored.

One of our hopes for this series on the high crosses of Ireland is that it might awaken the aesthetic aspect of the soul, that part of our heart and mind and conscience that welcomes God speaking to us in the arts. It may not be quite true that there’s “no cure” for minds and hearts which have been indifferent to the arts, but learning to appreciate the value of such forms as carved crosses will require some attention and reflection.

If you’re looking at these images, and at the ones we will be featuring throughout this series, and saying, “I don’t get it”, be patient. Keep looking, reflecting, and wondering. God has a message for us in these forms, just as He does in so much other Christian art that we have ignored for too long. Art can indeed do much, and we hope to help you see that.

For Reflection
1. Do you have a favorite painting by a Christian artist? What makes it your favorite?

2. What would help you begin to be more interested in the heritage of Christian art?

Psalm 150.1-5 (Lauda Anima: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven)
Praise God in His sanctuary! Praise Him in His great expanse!
Praise Him for His mighty working! Praise His glorious excellence!
Refrain v. 6
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Let all creatures praise the LORD!

Praise Him with resounding trumpets! Praise with harp and lyre and voice!
Praise with pipes and clashing cymbals! Praise with dance! Rejoice! Rejoice!
Refrain

Open my heart to learn from the arts, O Lord, so that I…

T. M. Moore

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All Psalms for singing from The Ailbe Psalter. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Streit, p. 142.

[2] Powell, pp. 10, 11.