THIS COMBO INCLUDES 5 PIECES.
 
 
 
The TAU Cross is a symbol that is beloved and significant to all Franciscans. Saint Francis adopted the Tau Cross as his standard. He had such love of this symbol that he used it as his signature in later years. The Franciscan Sisters of Peace wear the Tau Cross as their official community symbol. Associate members also wear a version of the Franciscan Tau. Tau cross is known as St. Anthony’s Cross, the Advent Cross, and Saint Francis’ Cross, the Cross of Tau are associated with the most prominent saints in the Catholic faith. St. Anthony wore a tau-shaped cross on his cloak. St. Francis of Assisi adopted it as a personal emblem and used the tau to decorate the doors and walls of whatever home he was staying at. He also used it as his signature.St. Francis would also stretch out his arms, to show his friars that their habit was also the Tau Cross. He instructed them to not only let that serve as a reminder, but also as an active symbol for them to be a walking crucifix in their lives.                       The Tau is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet – like the omega of the Greek alphabet. The earliest reference to the Tau is from the prophet Ezekiel 9:4: “Go through the city of Jerusalem and put a Tau on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” The Cross of Tau symbol derives its name from the Greek letter that it resembles. Its T shape was believed to represent an ancient form of the crucifix. The Cross of Tau was also regarded as a symbol of salvation due to the connection between the tau and the Biblical mark placed on the forehead of the people destined to be saved, as mentioned in Ezekiel 9:4 . A related theory compares the tau with the shape formed by the hands of Moses in Exodus 17:11. In 1215, Pope Innocent III opened the Fourth Lateran Council by saying: “We are called to reform our lives, to stand in the presence of God as righteous people. God will know us by the sign of the Tau marked on our foreheads.” Francis was present for part of the Fourth Lateran Council, and perhaps his devotion to the Tau came from that call of Pope Innocent. But more personally, it came from his involvement with the lepers in areas around his home in Assisi. The Antonians were a community of men that existed in Francis’ time, whose chief ministry was the care of lepers. On their habit they wore the Tau Cross, representing their fidelity to the passion of Christ and their devotion to serve the least of his brethren. Francis worked with the Antonians in caring for lepers and this was probably his first introduction to the Tau. In Francis’ mind and heart devotion to the Tau was devotion to the cross and to the person of Jesus. It was a symbol of conversion and redemption; and so it remains today for both vowed and secular Franciscans throughout the world.