Crucifix and aSkull and Crist's feet?

[madhatter85]

I have a question -

I understand why you use the cross that's not my question, but, When i attended a few Roman Catholic services with my wife's family there was this large crucifix at the front of thier meeting hall, or mass hall, i'm not sure what it is called. but what troubled me is why you guys have a Skull at the bottom of the statue. I wish i had a picture of it but i looked online and found a couple with skulls, but the one i saw was very large, detailed, and realistic.

http://www.cstone.net/~lbrannon/Rome/FallRomer04/CrucifixSkull.jpg
http://www.agdei.com/Byzantinecrucifix.JPG
http://www.rosaryworkshop.com/MUSEUM-MB-crxgerman-a.jpg
http://tinypic.com/hwmrlh.jpg
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5812/smlcrs4fy.jpg
http://www.historicimpressions.com/RussianL.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/112/284969098_62fe944a32.jpg
http://i24.ebayimg.com/04/i/06/49/ag/39_1.JPG

I wish i had a picture of it to show but i'm sure you probably get what i am talking about. my question is why? what does it mean to you?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I wish i had a picture of it to show but i'm sure you probably get what i am talking about. my question is why? what does it mean to you?

Not a Catholic, but I did some Googling. I found this source that gives a few possible reasons:

- the site of the Crucifixion, called Calvary by the Romans, was called "Golgotha" in Hebrew, which means "place of skulls". The skull is either an allusion to this name or a depiction of what the site was supposed to be like (e.g. either a site of frequent executions or a graveyard, with literal skulls and skeletons scattered across the terrain).

- the skull represents Adam, who is reputed to have been buried outside Jerusalem (and in some versions, at the same place where Jesus was crucified). This calls attention to the link between Adam and Jesus, or the idea that Jesus Christ brought an end to the death that entered the world through Adam.

The article I linked with expands on these ideas and discusses a few others.

 

[Scott1]

Not a Catholic, but I did some Googling. I found this source that gives a few possible reasons:

EVERYONE is Catholic my friend.... ... and your source is spot on.

.... You will see on some Crucifixes a skull and crossbones at the foot of the Cross. Aside from symbolizing victory over death, this skull more specifically represents the skull of Adam, said in Jewish and Christian tradition to have been buried at Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified. The Blood of Christ, the New Adam, redeems man, as symbolized by the skull of the First Adam. I Corinthians 15:22, 45: "And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive...The first man Adam was made into a living soul; the last Adam into a quickening spirit."
Crucifixes and Crosses

At the foot of the Cross we find the skull and bones of Adam, the First Man. Tradition tells us that Golgotha was called the Place of the Skull not because the hill looked like a human skull, but because the bones of Adam had been brought and buried there by the descendants of Noah. When the Lord died, a great earthquake split apart the rocks, and the blood of the Lord flowed down from the Cross and on to the bones of Adam, indicating the remission of sins made possible to the whole human race. Pilgrims to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem can put their hands down into the very cavity where Adam’s bones were awaiting the redeeming blood of Christ.
Monastery Icons - Icons, Incense and Sacred Gifts - The Symbolism of the Byzantine Crucifix​

 

[madhatter85]

ah okay so that makes a little more sense as to why you have that symbolism there.

thank you for explaining it.

 

[Doodlebug02]

I've never seen this kind of symbolism before.

 

[Smoke]

- the skull represents Adam, who is reputed to have been buried outside Jerusalem (and in some versions, at the same place where Jesus was crucified). This calls attention to the link between Adam and Jesus, or the idea that Jesus Christ brought an end to the death that entered the world through Adam.

That's also the symbolism in the Orthodox Church.

 

[Scott1]

That's also the symbolism in the Orthodox Church.

Yep... I've actually never seen anything like this in a Catholic Church... only Orthodox.

 

[texan1]

Good - I am not the only one. I was Catholic for years and I have never heard of this! You learn something new everyday....

 

[Scott1]

Good - I am not the only one. I was Catholic for years and I have never heard of this! You learn something new everyday....

Hmmm.... I just did some research.... and there are Catholics who follow the "Orthodox" Byzantine Liturgical Rite: Byzantine Catholic Church in America - About Byzantine Catholics

They are "Eastern" but in full communion with Rome.... :yes:

 

[Te Deum]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, verdana, sans-serif]Our Lord was laid in the tomb owned by St. Joseph of Arimethea, at a site over which stands now the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, first built on the spot by St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. In Jesus's time, the tomb was outside the city; by the time St. Helena was told of it, it was inside the city walls because Hadrian expanded the city's perimeter -- and had built a pagan temple over the site. The basilica built by St. Helena was destroyed by Caliph al-Hakim in A.D. 1009, and was later re-built over time. 2 [/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, verdana, sans-serif]The exact spot where "the New Adam" was crucified is marked inside the Basilica, and is said to stand over the place where the first Adam was buried. Matthew tells us what happened when Our Lord's Soul left His Body: [/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, verdana, sans-serif]Matthew 27:51
And behold the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top even to the bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent. [/FONT]​

[FONT=arial, helvetica, verdana, sans-serif]Tradition tells us that among those rocks which were rent were those beneath the Cross, and that His Blood dripped down into the crevices (visible today) and reached the spot where the first Adam was interred. The Blood of the New Adam covers the sins of the first Adam! 3 A chapel to the first Adam sits under the area marked as the place Our Lord died.[/FONT]



[FONT=arial, helvetica, verdana, sans-serif]3[/FONT] [FONT=arial, helvetica, verdana, sans-serif]It is because of this tradition that one often sees a skull -- the skull of Adam -- at the foot of the Cross in depictions of the Crucifixion and on Crucifixes, etc.[/FONT]

Source: Good Friday