Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Mysterious Illustrated Iron Cross




The colorized version shows a couple standing under the central Christ image, perhaps this represents Mary and Joseph in Egypt above a Nile crocodile. Are the serpents which form the 4 quarters symbol at the top boomslang snakes from South Africa?

This is the mystery cross (above), it is made of iron. The figures are different than the Celtic cross characters in some cases, the ones on the right hand arm of the cross carry very large shields which resemble the Zulu shields of South Africa.




8th century Celtic cross. It is the model for the mystery cross. In the 19th century, there were many Irish Catholics and mission schools in South Africa.