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Episode details

Radio 3,05 Apr 2012,20 mins

The Story of the Cross

Twenty Minutes

Available for over a year

During their persecution under the Roman Empire, many early Christians used the sign of the fish as a symbol of faith and identity. It's said that the sign was used to mark secret meeting places or tombs and as a kind of code for identifying and communicating with other Christians. The sign of the fish - or "icthys" - is still used by some Christians today. But it's the simple cross - two intersecting straight lines - that has come to be the dominant symbol of Christianity. In this Twenty Minutes for Easter Jonathan Coffey uncovers the story of how this most profound of symbols came into being.

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