Silver Celtic Cross Necklace - Old St Patrick's Cross Chicago

About this Piece

Irish double-sided Sterling Silver Celtic cross made in Fadó's Wicklow workshop. St Patrick's Church is one of the oldest public buildings in Chicago and was one of the few to survive the Great Fire. This piece of jewellery is a tribute to the resilience of the building and of the proud people who attend there.

The pattern appears on Front and Back of the Cross.

Size: 25mm x 25mm.

Hallmarked in the Dublin Castle Assay Office

History of the Celtic Cross

The Celtic Cross first appeared in Ireland and Britain during the early middle ages, when missionaries were busy planting the roots of Christianity among Celtic populations. The style represents a unity of Christian and Celtic motifs - after all, early missionaries are largely responsible for recording and thus preserving many Celtic customs and artwork. This hybrid art form is known as insular art (from 'insula', the Latin for 'island').
The cross typically features a nimbus - a ring around the intersection - which also provides support. Its true origin is unknown, though some historians have suggested it may have originally represented the Roman sun god Invictus.
The most famous surviving versions of these crosses are found in the monumental stone 'high crosses' erected from the 9th-12th centuries, which also depicted stylized Biblical scenes. Though insular art would later be overtaken by Romanesque art, it earned a comeback with the 'Celtic Revival' of the 19th Century, during a time when Ireland was rediscovering its heritage.