Orthodox Cross Emoji ☦

Orthodox cross — the symbol of the Christian Orthodox Church. Its main and distinctive feature from the Catholic is the presence of additional crossbars: inclined bottom and horizontal top. According to the legend, the top board was a sign, which said: “Jesus Nazarene, King of the Jews” in three languages: Latin, Greek, and Aramaic. The lower, oblique line of the cross is a footrest. The fact that it's inclined symbolizes the fate of two robbers crucified to the right and left from Jesus. One repented and went to heaven, the other didn't and went to hell.

This Orthodox cross is also called the Russian or the cross of Saint Lazarus. It's form is believed to be the most accurate in history. However, it's not the only cross revered in Orthodox. There are also other versions: a six-pointed cross (without top rail) and a seven-pointed cross (upper dash raised all the way up). In some fonts, the lower diagonal line of the Orthodox cross is tilted in another direction.

The symbol “Orthodox Cross” is included in the “Religious and political symbols” subblock of the “Miscellaneous Symbols” block and was approved as part of Unicode version 1.1 in 1993. In 2015, it was also approved as an Emoji in version 1.0 and added to the “Religion” subcategory of the “Symbols” category.