There are many variations of the straight-armed cross that are referred to as a Maltese Cross. But there is only one type of variation that forms a true Maltese Cross and that is the cross depicted in the image to the left. So where did the cross originate from? Though the name Maltese does give it away, there is a little more to it than that.
A Little Background History:
Historically the Maltese Cross is identified with the Order of St. John of Jerusalem or the Knights of St. John. The order was a contemporary of the Knights Templar and both were founded in Jerusalem in the 12th century for the purposes of being an aid to the Crusades.
Prior to the First Crusade, the Church had provided assistance to pilgrims visiting the Holy Land through hospitals set up there in the 6th century by John the Almsgiver, the so-called Patriach of Alexandria. By the 7th century, many ancient Christian centers had been lost to the Muslims. With the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land, it was not until 1023 that the Latin Christians were permitted back into Jerusalem. The Republic of Amalfi, which today is a part of Italy, led the way in the restoration of Latin buildings. Principal among those restored was the Church of St. Maria Latina. A Benedictine Monastery was added to the church and it was the very same Benedictines of this monastery that founded and ran a hostel for Pilgrims dedicated to St. John the Almsgiver. It was known as the Hospital of St. John.
By 1099 the hospital was separated from the Benedictine Monastery and the monks staffing it became known as the Hospitallers. Both the hospital and convent were re-organized into an Order which received official recognition from the Papacy in 1113. Within five years, the direction of the Order would take a dramatic turn.
At the urging of a knight from Champagne, King Baldwin I established a military monastic Order whose first task was to keep the road to Jersualem safe and free from bandits. Headquartered in a wing of the royal palace located in the vicinity of the Temple of Solomon. they became known as the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon or the Poor Knights or Templars for short. A theological foundation for their existence came via St. Bernard of Clairvaux who proclaimed that killing a pagan was not murder but glory for Christ. Besides, it had already been established that those who died in battle for the Church were assured of martyrdom and entrance to Heaven.
The death of Peter Gerard, a monk who served as the superior and guiding light of the Hospitallers and their hospital, paved the way for his sucessor, Raymond du Puy, to graft a military arm similar to the Templars onto order. De Puy established himself as the Master of the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem and John the Almsgiver was replaced by St. John the Baptist as the patron of the Order.
Both the Hospitallers and Templars provided the Kingdom with trained soldiers. By 1136, the Hospitallers had become a full military Order and by 1158 on the heels of the second Crusade, had its first Grand Master (a la the Templars), Auger de Balben who had succeeded de Puy.
The later stages of the 13th century found the Hospitallers ousted from their headquarters in the Holy Land. The Order and the hospital and convent were re-located to Cyprus, a place that had become a base for all refugees from the Holy Land. It was not long before the Hospitallers set their sights on the Island of Rhodes. By 1310 they had captured Rhodes and moved their headquarters here where they remained for two centuries until the invading Turks forced them out.
In exchange for an annual payment of one falcon in rent and for protecting Tripoli in North Africa from the Muslims, King Charles V of Spain gave the island of Malta to the Hospitallers. The 16th century found the Order headquartered in Malta and by 1578 they had completed the building of its greatest architectural feat, the Conventual Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (usually referred to as St. John's Co-Cathedral). It was here that the Order became known as the Knights of Malta or Sovereign Military Order of Malta. It was here they stayed until 1798 when they signed the island over to the French.
The Emblem of the Eight-Pointed Maltese Cross:
It seems the cross has always been an emblem or symbol of the Order of St. John. Many books have been written on the Order and some have attributed the origins of the Maltese Cross to the cross of Amalfi. However, it was not until the Order located in Malta that the true Maltese Cross made its appearance as the Order's emblem.
From its original inception, the Order used different variations of a square cross, typically with flanged ends as its symbol. Two such examples are illustrated below, both of which are types of "eight-pointed crosses."
Historically the Maltese Cross is identified with the Order of St. John of Jerusalem or the Knights of St. John. The order was a contemporary of the Knights Templar and both were founded in Jerusalem in the 12th century for the purposes of being an aid to the Crusades.
Prior to the First Crusade, the Church had provided assistance to pilgrims visiting the Holy Land through hospitals set up there in the 6th century by John the Almsgiver, the so-called Patriach of Alexandria. By the 7th century, many ancient Christian centers had been lost to the Muslims. With the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land, it was not until 1023 that the Latin Christians were permitted back into Jerusalem. The Republic of Amalfi, which today is a part of Italy, led the way in the restoration of Latin buildings. Principal among those restored was the Church of St. Maria Latina. A Benedictine Monastery was added to the church and it was the very same Benedictines of this monastery that founded and ran a hostel for Pilgrims dedicated to St. John the Almsgiver. It was known as the Hospital of St. John.
By 1099 the hospital was separated from the Benedictine Monastery and the monks staffing it became known as the Hospitallers. Both the hospital and convent were re-organized into an Order which received official recognition from the Papacy in 1113. Within five years, the direction of the Order would take a dramatic turn.
At the urging of a knight from Champagne, King Baldwin I established a military monastic Order whose first task was to keep the road to Jersualem safe and free from bandits. Headquartered in a wing of the royal palace located in the vicinity of the Temple of Solomon. they became known as the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon or the Poor Knights or Templars for short. A theological foundation for their existence came via St. Bernard of Clairvaux who proclaimed that killing a pagan was not murder but glory for Christ. Besides, it had already been established that those who died in battle for the Church were assured of martyrdom and entrance to Heaven.
The death of Peter Gerard, a monk who served as the superior and guiding light of the Hospitallers and their hospital, paved the way for his sucessor, Raymond du Puy, to graft a military arm similar to the Templars onto order. De Puy established himself as the Master of the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem and John the Almsgiver was replaced by St. John the Baptist as the patron of the Order.
Both the Hospitallers and Templars provided the Kingdom with trained soldiers. By 1136, the Hospitallers had become a full military Order and by 1158 on the heels of the second Crusade, had its first Grand Master (a la the Templars), Auger de Balben who had succeeded de Puy.
The later stages of the 13th century found the Hospitallers ousted from their headquarters in the Holy Land. The Order and the hospital and convent were re-located to Cyprus, a place that had become a base for all refugees from the Holy Land. It was not long before the Hospitallers set their sights on the Island of Rhodes. By 1310 they had captured Rhodes and moved their headquarters here where they remained for two centuries until the invading Turks forced them out.
In exchange for an annual payment of one falcon in rent and for protecting Tripoli in North Africa from the Muslims, King Charles V of Spain gave the island of Malta to the Hospitallers. The 16th century found the Order headquartered in Malta and by 1578 they had completed the building of its greatest architectural feat, the Conventual Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (usually referred to as St. John's Co-Cathedral). It was here that the Order became known as the Knights of Malta or Sovereign Military Order of Malta. It was here they stayed until 1798 when they signed the island over to the French.
The Emblem of the Eight-Pointed Maltese Cross:
It seems the cross has always been an emblem or symbol of the Order of St. John. Many books have been written on the Order and some have attributed the origins of the Maltese Cross to the cross of Amalfi. However, it was not until the Order located in Malta that the true Maltese Cross made its appearance as the Order's emblem.
From its original inception, the Order used different variations of a square cross, typically with flanged ends as its symbol. Two such examples are illustrated below, both of which are types of "eight-pointed crosses."
© Copyright Lorena Loo
In the center image above, the dashed lines are the diagonals of the 3x3 square grid. Where those diagonals intersect is the exact center of the big square or 3x3 square grid and also the exact center of the center square of the grid.
In the third diagram, we have performed a rotation of the 3x3 square grid about its center by 45º. We are now ready to form the Maltese Cross out of this square grid-rotated square grid configuration. We do this by joining certain points in the configuration. These are not arbitrary points for all points involved are defined by the intersection of two lines in the 3x3 square grid-rotated square grid. Notice how four of these lines pass through the exact center of the square grid and rotated square grid?
In the third diagram, we have performed a rotation of the 3x3 square grid about its center by 45º. We are now ready to form the Maltese Cross out of this square grid-rotated square grid configuration. We do this by joining certain points in the configuration. These are not arbitrary points for all points involved are defined by the intersection of two lines in the 3x3 square grid-rotated square grid. Notice how four of these lines pass through the exact center of the square grid and rotated square grid?
(Coin photographs used with kind permission from John Gatt, Coins of Malta web site)
Here we see how it also fits with the Maltese Cross from one of the 16th century Maltese coins. Notice the circle just enclosing the Maltese Cross on the coin? That is called the circumcircle of the Maltese Cross because the Maltese Cross just fits within it, its eight points lying on the circumference of the circle. Let's go back to our two square grids out of which we extracted the Maltese Cross. Using the exact center of the square-rotated square grid, we can construct a circle that just encloses the Maltese Cross with the 8 points of the cross lying on the circumference of the circle.
The Maltese Cross
©Lorena Loo
©Lorena Loo
It was not until the 16th century when the Order was headquartered on the island of Malta did the true Maltese Cross make its appearance as their symbol. Two Maltese coins from that period bear the symbol we know as a true Maltese cross. The one on the left is a Claude de la Sengle Grano coin while the one on the right is a Jean de la Vallette (alternate spelling of Valletta) 4 Tari coin. Grano and Tari refer to denominations of coins and Claude de la Sengle and Jean de la Vallette were the 48th and 49th Grand Masters of the Order respectively. In fact, the modern capital of Malta is named Valletta after the Order's most renown Grand Master.
The true Maltese Cross is the most salient feature of the architecture of St. John's Co-Cathedral, appearing on the walls, ceilings and floors. Located in St. John's Square, the city center of Valletta, the baroque structure encompasses both the spiritual and military role of its patrons. While visiting Malt in 1831, Sir Walter Scott is said to have declared the Co-Cathedral the most magnificient place he had ever seen. In addition to serving as the final resting place for the Order's most famous Grand Master, de la Vallette Parisot, St. John's also is the burial place for many of the sons of Europe's noble families from the 16th to 18th centuries.
The Geometry Behind the Maltese Cross
The Maltese Cross is a figure of eightness. Designs and symbols of eightness are typically based upon a square rotated square concept. This is very prevalent in Islamic design where two types of grids are used: square root of two and square root of three. Examples of these are all the design patterns found on the walls, ceilings and floors of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, and the Taj Mahal.
To see how to form a Maltese Cross, we start with a 3x3 square grid. i.e. One big square subdivided into 9 little equal sized squares so that they are arranged 3 across and 3 down as in the first image below.
The Geometry Behind the Maltese Cross
The Maltese Cross is a figure of eightness. Designs and symbols of eightness are typically based upon a square rotated square concept. This is very prevalent in Islamic design where two types of grids are used: square root of two and square root of three. Examples of these are all the design patterns found on the walls, ceilings and floors of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, and the Taj Mahal.
To see how to form a Maltese Cross, we start with a 3x3 square grid. i.e. One big square subdivided into 9 little equal sized squares so that they are arranged 3 across and 3 down as in the first image below.
Let's test our geometry with a Maltese Cross emblem1found on the walls of St. John's Co-Cathedral (see footnote at end for non geometrized image of emblem). Below we have our 3x3 square grid and 45º rotated grid. Superposed over the Maltese Cross emblem from the walls of the Co-Cathedral, we see it is an exact fit! The Maltese Cross from our grid lines up exactly with the Maltese Cross in the emblem. Notice also how the innermost square border of the emblem matches the outermost perimeter of our original 3x3 square grid (i.e. the non rotated one)?
That circumcircle is depicted in purple in our diagram.
There are other "equivalent" figures of eightness which can be extracted from the same square-rotated square grid. These are the (regular) octagon and the octagram (an eight-pointed star) as illustrated in the center and far right of the diagram below.
Figures of eightness were typically symbols of the planet Venus in her embodiment as goddess. For example, the octagram was called by the Gnostics the octagram of creation and symbolized Venus as goddess of fertitlity. If you were to mark the successive positions of the planet Venus in its orbit around the Sun each year over a period of eight years (as seen from Earth), you would find that by connecting those positions sequentially, you would form an octagram.
For those who are more advanced or those interested in more mathematics of the Maltese Cross, I have provided a page with detailed calculations of the angles and lengths involved here: Lengths & Angles of Maltese Cross.
For those who are more advanced or those interested in more mathematics of the Maltese Cross, I have provided a page with detailed calculations of the angles and lengths involved here: Lengths & Angles of Maltese Cross.
Text and images (unless otherwise indicated in the credits) are copyrighted
© by Lorena Loo
In the instances where images in the public domain have been modified as in the case of geometrizing them, the modified images are no longer public domain but the copyright of the author who made the modifications. Here that means me, Lorena Loo. That is by copyright law.
© by Lorena Loo
In the instances where images in the public domain have been modified as in the case of geometrizing them, the modified images are no longer public domain but the copyright of the author who made the modifications. Here that means me, Lorena Loo. That is by copyright law.
1 St. John's Co-Cathedral Maltese emblem sans geometries (Click on image to enlarge) courtesy of The Reverend Dr. Michael Foster http://www2.prestel.co.uk/church/oosj/cross.htm
