by Johanna le Mercer (mka Jo Anne Fatherly)

A Cross shaped like a letter "T" - known as a "Tau Cross" has several symbolic meanings, but in medieval Europe it was most often associated with St. Anthony, and known as "Saint Anthony's Cross." Archeological finds have included a number of Tau Cross reliquaries, rings, and pendants, and woodcuts and other art of the period often includes some fairly gruesome depictions.

SAINT ANTHONY
St. Anthony Abbot was a fourth-century Egyptian who established a monastery in the desert but himself lived as a hermit. He is usually identified as the founder of the monastic tradition in Christendom, although the popular tales more often centered on his temptations in the desert. Because he lived unusually long, he was also credited with protective powers as a saint. By 1070 relics of St. Anthony were being brought to the Dauphiné (in south western France) and in 1095 an Order of Hospitalers of St. Anthony - known as "The Antonines" was established. The order had a presence in England by the thirteenth century: the commanderie was in Threadneedle Street in London, and there was another house in York.

THE ANTONINES AND SAINT ANTHONY'S FIRE
The Antonines, who wore a black habit embellished with a large Tau cross, were granted the privilege of letting their pigs run free. The pigs were belled for identification, and thus the bell and the pig also became symbols of St. Anthony. They sold crosses and bells in various metals from cheap lead alloys to gold, as fundraisers to support their hospitals. A medieval hospital was more of a nursing home than a place of active medical treatment, and the Antonine hospitals became associated with one of the nastier endemic diseases, ignis sacer, which became known as St. Anthony's fire. Modernly identified as ergotism (caused by eating rye flour contaminated by a mold) and treatable with antibiotics, it was as inexplicable and terrifying as the AIDS epidemic is to us. The symptoms included intestinal pain, hallucinations, muscular spasms, contortions, a burning sensation in the extremities, and eventually gangrene and death. Besides custodial care of the sufferers, therefore, the Antonines also became experts at amputation.

THE KNIGHTS OF SAINT ANTHONY
St. Anthony's fire was never as common in England as it was on the mainland, partly because of climatic conditions, and partly because rye was not extensively grown or used on the island. In mainland Europe, however, it was a real hazard. According to some sources, 50,000 people died of the disease in Paris in a single month in 1418.

An Antonine Confraternity was founded in England in 1441. Among the privileges of membership was the right to choose one's own confessor, who in turn was empowered to commute various vows for money, a very useful fringe benefit. Toward the end of the fourteenth century, a German order loosely affiliated with the Knights of the Teutonic Order was founded. Membership in the Knights of Saint Anthony, like that in the Confraternity, was available to anyone with enough money to buy the protective amulet, a rope-like necklace from which hung a bell suspended from a Tau cross. This jewelry can be seen in a number of 15th century portraits.

Material for this article came from Timothy B. Husband,"The Winteringham Tau Cross and Ignis Sacer" found in the Metropolitan Museum Journal, Essays in Memory of Guy C. Bauman, Volume 27, / 1992, pp 19-36.

©1999 Jo Anne Fatherly