From baptism to the present day
Tradition impose on the cross was borrowed from Byzantium. Debate about when such a prayer was introduced into Church use, is still underway, but, according to the Roman theologian Tertullian in the Church of II-III century BC it already existed and was actively used.
Cross themselves overshadowed with prayer, blessing of food, and any other everyday thing. Implicitly gesture of the cross from right to left meant that the baptized person is fully faithful and the teaching of the Orthodox Church.
The meaning of the sign of the cross
But there is this movement and other sacred meaning: it is believed that this gesture symbolizes death by the cross, which killed Jesus Christ. Thus, he captures the memory of what happened two thousand years ago event.
Despite the fact that the two closest denomination (Orthodox and Catholics) do not dispute the importance of this sacrifice, the cross they impose in different ways: in the Orthodox - from right to left, Catholic left to right.
And if before the split of the churches in the middle of the XI century the Catholics were acceptable both ways, after the separation and holding of the reformation took root last.
In Orthodoxy it is to be baptized right to left, and to bless others – from left to right. This does not contradict the logic: when one person blesses the second to the last schematic overlay of the cross remains the same from right to left.
To be baptized right to left: why?
There are several versions of this discrepancy and the correct blend that is the Orthodox cross. For example, it is believed that the Orthodox cross themselves so because the word "right" also means "correct", that is following in the right direction.
Another judgment refers to the physiological characteristics of a person: most people on the planet are right – handed and start all actions with right hand.
However, there are those who believe that the difference is formal, and has no relationship to serious dogma.
Until the mid-17th century were baptized, not only from right to left, but with two fingers. After the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, the cross was already cast with three fingers, symbolizing the Trinity nature of God.
Despite the fact that a single proof of the rightness or wrongness of the imposition of the cross in a certain way there is still the need to respect Church tradition and to remember that in Orthodox churches the cross is imposed on a strictly right-to-left.
