Pilgrim’s Cross Pendant - 6027-B

Based on a Byzantine bronze reliquary crosses worn on the chest during the 10th–11th centuries. 

On one side appears Christ Pantocrator, the Ruler of All, raising His hands in blessing. On the other side is the Virgin Mary (Theotokos), arms uplifted in the ancient gesture of intercession and prayer. Together, these images represented divine protection and mediation, a reminder of both Christ’s authority and the Virgin’s maternal advocacy.

Such crosses were likely worn by Byzantine clergy, monastics, and lay faithful alike, especially those undertaking journeys. They may have been purchased at pilgrimage centers such as Constantinople, Mount Athos, or the Holy Land. Pilgrims carried them both as devotional objects and as spiritual protection against misfortune on the road. Some scholars suggest that these pendants could indeed be touched to the shrines and relics encountered along the way, thereby absorbing a “secondary” sanctity—a practice in keeping with the medieval belief in contact relics.

This pendant, its form and imagery, root it in the long tradition of pilgrim’s crosses, devotional items that symbolized faith, protection, and the enduring connection between the believer and the holy places visited.

60mmH x 34mmW   Bronze