Chi Rho Mini Patch - 1"

This is a 1" x 1" mini PVC patch with velcro backing + a sew on loop patch. Designed for more subtle uses on clothing, hats, or gear, or on our handmade leather DVLP x Carriger Crafted Patch Accessory.

The Chi Rho is one of the oldest christograms (symbols that abbreviate the name of Christ). It joins the first two Greek letters of ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Christos): Chi (Χ), written like an X, and Rho (Ρ), written like a P. The Rho's vertical stroke runs through the center of the Chi.

Before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (AD 312), Constantine received a heavenly sign. The historian Eusebius (Life of Constantine, I.28–31) says he heard the story from the emperor himself. He tells of a cross of light seen above the sun, with the words Ἐν τούτῳ νίκα, known in Latin as "In hoc signo vinces" ("In this sign, conquer"). Eusebius also describes the labarum, a military standard topped by the Chi Rho.

Constantine won this battle and legalized Christianity the next year with the Edict of Milan. The Chi Rho then spread across the Roman world on coins, helmets, imperial standards, sarcophagi, church mosaics, and household objects. It reached as far as Roman Britain, appearing in the Hinton St Mary mosaic and the wall paintings of Lullingstone villa. When Julian the Apostate tried to restore paganism (361–363), he removed it from the standards, a sign of how strongly it had come to represent the new Christian order.

The Chi Rho carried forward into medieval Christendom with its most celebrated expression in the Chi Rho page of the Book of Kells. There Irish monks turned Matthew 1:18, "Now the birth of Christ...," into one of the most elaborate illuminations ever made. The whole page is devoted to the moment the Name enters the Gospel narrative.

Today the symbol still appears on altar frontals, vestments, church doors, and gravestones.