Christian symbols

The Chi-Rho in Christianity

The monogram of Christ

The Chi-Rho is one of the oldest monograms of Christ, formed by laying the first two letters of the Greek word Christos, chi and rho, over one another. It looks like the letter P set through the center of an X. For many Christians the symbol is bound up with the emperor Constantine and the story of a sign in the sky before a great battle. That story deserves to be told honestly, keeping apart what the sources report from what has grown into legend. Behind the history stands the simple thing the symbol was always meant to say: this is the sign of Christ.

He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.John 1:41 (KJV)

A monogram made of Greek letters

The Greek word for Christ, or Anointed One, is Christos, which begins with the letters chi, written like our X, and rho, written like our P. Christians combined the two into a single mark, placing the rho at the center of the chi, to stand for the name of Christ. This kind of monogram was a natural way to write a sacred name briefly and reverently.

The Chi-Rho belongs to a family of Christ-monograms, alongside the simpler combination of iota and chi, the first letters of Jesus Christ. Some early forms of the Chi-Rho also resemble a cross with a loop at the top, which drew the eye toward the crucifixion as well as the name.

The Constantine story, told honestly

The Chi-Rho became famous through the emperor Constantine. In the year 312, before the battle of the Milvian Bridge that would make him master of the Roman West, Constantine adopted a Christian sign for his army, and his victory opened the way to the toleration and eventual favor of Christianity across the empire. This much is well attested.

The details of what Constantine saw are told differently in the ancient sources, and here honesty matters. One near-contemporary writer says that on the eve of battle Constantine was told in a dream to mark his soldiers' shields with a heavenly sign. The historian Eusebius, writing later and saying he heard it from the emperor himself, gives the more famous version: that Constantine saw a cross of light in the sky with words meaning by this conquer, and afterward had a standard made bearing the Chi-Rho. The two accounts do not agree in every detail, they were written after the fact, and we cannot verify what Constantine experienced. It is best to say plainly that the vision is a reported tradition, powerful in its influence but uncertain in its details, while the historical result, the rise of Christianity to freedom under Constantine, is not in doubt.

How the Chi-Rho has been used

After Constantine the Chi-Rho spread quickly. It appeared on the imperial standard called the labarum, on coins, on shields, on tombs, and on the walls of churches. It was often set within a wreath of victory, or flanked by the Alpha and the Omega, joining the name of Christ to the confession that he is the first and the last.

Through the centuries the Chi-Rho remained a favorite emblem in Christian art and is still seen today on altars, vestments, and church furnishings. Wherever it appears, it does the same quiet work: it spells the name of Christ.

Christ, the anointed King

To understand the Chi-Rho it helps to know what the word Christ means. It is not a surname but a title. Christos is the Greek for the Hebrew Messiah, the Anointed One. In Israel, kings and priests were anointed with oil to mark them out for God's service, and the prophets promised a coming Anointed One who would be the true King and deliverer of his people. To spell the name of Christ, then, is to confess that Jesus is that promised King.

This is exactly what Andrew declared when he ran to find his brother Simon, saying that they had found the Messiah, which is to say, the Christ. The whole hope of the Old Testament, of a king from the line of David whose kingdom would never end, comes to rest on Jesus. The two Greek letters woven together carry that entire promise fulfilled.

Because the Chi-Rho spells a title of kingship, it fittingly appeared on standards and coins, in the places where earthly kings put their own emblems. But the church that used it knew, or should have known, that this King rules differently. The Anointed One was anointed not only for a throne but, as he said in the synagogue at Nazareth, to preach good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, and to set the captives free.

So the monogram carries both a glory and a caution. It names the King, and it must be read in the light of what kind of King he is. Jesus refused a crown taken by force and chose a crown of thorns. His reign spread not by the sword that later bore his sign but by the witness of martyrs who would rather die than deny his name. The Chi-Rho is best honored by that same allegiance, to the King who conquers by love.

A symbol to be read with care

The history of the Chi-Rho invites a certain thoughtfulness, because it marks the moment when the persecuted church became a favored one. For nearly three centuries Christians had been a suffering minority, and their signs were the fish, the anchor, the shepherd, quiet marks of a hidden people. With Constantine the sign of Christ appeared on imperial standards and coins, and the faith moved from the catacombs toward the halls of power.

That change brought real blessings, freedom to worship, an end to the killing, the open building of churches, but it also brought a danger the church has not always escaped, the temptation to trust in worldly power rather than in the way of the cross. To place the name of Christ on weapons of war is to risk forgetting that he refused the sword and told Peter to put his away.

An honest telling of the Chi-Rho holds both of these together. It celebrates the mercy that gave the church peace after long suffering, and it remembers, soberly, that the kingdom of Christ does not advance by force. The martyrs had already shown the true way of victory, conquering not by killing but by their faithful witness, even unto death.

So the monogram is best carried as a reminder rather than a boast. It spells the name of the King, and it asks those who bear it what kind of King they follow. The answer is written in his own life: a King crowned with thorns, who overcame the world not by taking life but by giving his own. To honor the Chi-Rho rightly is to follow that King, in his way and not the world's.

How the Chi-Rho points to Christ

Whatever we make of the vision, the meaning of the symbol is not in doubt. The Chi-Rho points to Christ by spelling his name. It reminds the church that Jesus is the Christos, the Anointed One promised through the prophets, the King in whom the hope of the world is fulfilled.

There is also a caution folded into its history. Constantine placed the sign of Christ on weapons of war, yet Christ himself won his victory not by the sword but by the cross, and he told his followers to love their enemies. The Chi-Rho is best carried in that spirit, as the name of the one who conquered by laying down his life, and whose kingdom is not advanced by force but by love.

A note across traditions: these symbols are shared by Christians everywhere as ways to point to Christ, never as objects of worship, for worship belongs to God alone. Where a symbol grew out of a later tradition or legend rather than the Bible, this page says so plainly. In every tradition there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, and every sign the church uses is meant to lead the heart to him.

Related: Alpha and Omega · INRI, the title on the cross · Who is Jesus? · All Christian symbols