Cross of Lorraine

It was the emblem of the Order of the Hospitallers of the Holy Spirit, founded in 1170 by Guy de Montpellier, who was appointed by the Pope as Master of the Hospital of Santa Maria in Sassia (the name of the first Innocentian hospital) in 1204. The symbol consists of a two-barred cross surmounted by the dove of the Holy Spirit. The two-barred cross was originally known as the Patriarchal Cross and later as the Cross of Lorraine. The smaller upper bar represents the titulus Crucis, the inscription that Pontius Pilate had placed on Jesus’ cross: in Latin Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, abbreviated as INRI. Today, it can be found in various other contexts: as a symbol of the fight against tuberculosis, as the emblem of Free France, and on the flags of several European states.