- Beautiful and Unique design
- Excellent reminder for daily prayer
- Made of of Genuine paracord 275
- High quality 3" Wood Multi Dimensional San Damiano Cross
- Brown paracord
- 24" at its longest and adjustable to be made shorter
- Handmade by us (Catholic Mercy) in Utah, USA
Story and meaning
Beautiful and rich cross named after the San Damiano Church near Assisi, Italy. This is the cross that God used to talk to St Francis when he was praying in front of it trying to discern the Will of God. God told him “Francis, go and repair My House, which, as you can see, is falling into ruin.” St Francis went and raised funds to rebuild the San Damiano Church. He later realized that God was calling him to repair the entire Church through poverty, simplicity, humility, and love.
This crucifix can immediately get your full attention, starting from the look in Jesus’ eyes that feels like He is saying “Come, follow Me.”
This Crucifix presents Jesus as both crucified and glorified, which reminds us that it is necessary to follow him on the cross to achieve the rewards of eternal glory won by His Blood
By Jesus’ left leg one can see the figure of a rooster, which represents Peter’s denial of Christ and it points at the times we deny Christ in our lives. By Jesus’ right leg one can barely see a depicture of a fox or cat which symbolize the secretive and sly acts in our hearts, that people around us can’t see but that our Lord can still see. These two figures make us recognize the state of our soul and humble us to say “Oh Lord, Jesus Christ have mercy upon me, a sinner”
The black band behind Jesus’ arms represent the empty tomb of Jesus. At the top of the crucifix one can see the Hand of the Father blessing the Ascended Christ who is being received by angels and saints
Jesus is standing on a black mass which represent the solid foundation of the Catholic Church being founded by Christ on Peter (Matthew 16,18) and that it has survived for 2000 years because of Jesus’ promise in spite of our sinfulness.
Below Jesus’ feet one can barely see haloed saints which we can’t recognize but scholars have said that they could be saints of the churches of Assisi: Saints Damian, Rufinus, Michael, John the Baptist, Peter, and Paul. However, nobody is sure who these saints are. We can ourselves relate to these unknown saints when we act saintly in our actions and God can see it.
At the right side of the cross we can see our Lady the Holy Virgin Mary with the beloved disciple John. Jesus by his own words gave Mary to John as his mother (he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home, John 19,27). We also must take Mary into our homes so she can intercede and take care of us as a mother always does.
On the left side of the cross we can see Mary Magdalene and Mary Clopas whom were always by Jesus side even at the hour of his death. May the lord grant us the perseverance of these holy women who never left Jesus’ side.
At the end of the left side we can see a figure of a red robed gentleman which per scholars can represent either of two men: The centurion which got converted at the moment of crucifixion or the centurion whose story is told in the gospels of Luke (7:1-10) and Matthew (8:5-13). This last centurion asked Jesus to cure his servant but he thought it was not necessary for Jesus to go to his house. He said, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; only say the words and my servant will be healed”. The stories of the Centurions call us to conversion and trust in our Lord. Behind the centurion are the heads of many others. These may be the multitude of those who witnessed the crucifixion
In a small scale, we can see two men on each side of the cross one is wearing black clothing and the other a red rob. These two men possibly signify the one soldier who offer a taste of sour wine while Jesus was on the cross and the other one, the centurion who pierced the side of our Lord
One can also see around the cross are small scrolls that represent tendrils of vines. This reminds us that we are just branches and we can bear fruit if the branches remain in the vine which is Jesus.
The border of the cross depicts golden scallop shells, an ancient symbol of baptism. The author transmits the importance of baptism which cleans us from sin and make us children of one God.
God bless you!