Talk:Maltese cross

Untitled
I have removed the assertation that the maltese cross is used by fire departments through out Australia. The star on the badges of the Australian Fire Brigades/Services is based on a stylised version of the Star of the Order of the Garter. The use of which seems to have transfered from the cap badges of the British (and Australian) military. Other organisations to use this star include police forces in the UK and Tasmania. The use of the Star of the Order of the Garter seems to be currently limited to the two South Australian fire brigades. Ozdaren 17:17, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Nephrotic Syndrome
Should another disambiguation link be made to account for the fact that the term "Maltese Cross" is also used to describe the cholesterol accumulations seen in the fatty casts of the urine of patients suffering from diseases leading to Nephrotic Syndrome? 69.22.224.90 (talk) 21:30, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Color
Shouldn't the Maltese cross be always white (silver)??? --Tonyjeff 00:06, 6 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Classically the Maltese cross was used by the Knights Hospitaller and yes the cross they used was white. Presumably they used silver for things like jewellery. White/silver probably remains the most famous colour of Maltese cross today because of its use in modern Maltese iconography and the modern incarnation of the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of Malta as well as several other organisations. However, other colours of Maltese cross have since been adopted by other groups e.g. red and yellow: http://www.fotw.us/flags/keywordm.html --Kip 16:13, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Also used in the most famous British medal "Victoria Cross".

Saint Florian
It said that the Saint Florian cross, often confused with the maltese cross is used by firefighters and EMS. This is incorrect. EMS uses the "star of life", a six pointed star that is unrelated to either the maltese cross or the Saint Florian. I removed the reference to EMS to make this article correct. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.96.38.93 (talk) 06:53, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:FIRELOGO.gif
Image:FIRELOGO.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 20:15, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

The oldest Swiss manufacturer and one of the big three of watches Vacheron Constantin uses the Maltese Cross as their trademark. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.73.150.54 (talk) 01:30, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Military William Order (1815)
This Dutch decoration bears a white maltese cross and a green Burgundian saltire.

Unicode Maltese Cross
Does anybody know why Unicode character for Maltese Cross (U+2720, see List of Unicode characters): &#x2720; looks quite unlike from what's described in this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.12.138.12 (talk) 06:01, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Creators of fonts are free to design their glyphs how they see fit. Possible the one here is creative license, or poor research of what it ought to look like. Or possibly the Unicode group did bad research naming the character (this is known to happen), and U+2720 really ought to be called "CROSS PATTEE" or something. ⇔ ChristTrekker 21:20, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Unicode notes that “Historically, the Maltese cross took many forms; the shape shown in the Zapf Dingbats is similar to one known as the Cross Formée”. That is, U+2720 depicts a cross formée a.k.a. pattée. Gorobay (talk) 23:14, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Maltese Cross Experiment
Should some mention be added of the famous physics CRT demonstration using a Maltese Cross? 82.23.34.139 (talk) 16:03, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

St John Ambulance teaching
The following text reads as a statement from personal experience. It should either be referenced, or removed.

"In 47 years in St. John Ambulance and also the Most Venerable Order of St John of Jerusalem, the teaching has been that the eight points of the cross represented the eight Beatitudes."

Since an 8 pointed object is easily amenable to any number of usages as an aid memoir, I does not seem to me to be useful to document all known such usages. I suggest that discussion of symbolic significance of the 8 points should be limited to usages that are important (either in modern usage, or historically)

BruceGramm (talk) 06:40, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Fire Departments
Edit: I did some more research on the subject of the use of St Florian "Maltese" cross in fire departments, and found that although the firefighter cross and the Maltese cross came from the same source, the term Maltese cross came after the symbolism of the firefighter variation (giving crosses to knights who show bravery in the face of difficult odds, in this case specifically from saving fellow soldiers and knights being burned by naphtha, symbolising the courage of modern firefighters in similar situations). Would it then be appropriate to change the text to show that the St Florian cross and Maltese cross came from the same source, rather than just simply saying that they are completely different? I only make this suggestion because any firefighter will tell you the St Florian cross IS a Maltese cross and as the text reads now firefighter history has it all wrong, but in fact at the very least the history is linked. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.231.114.104 (talk) 15:33, 8 April 2011 (UTC)


 * What do you mean by "same source"? —Tamfang (talk) 22:02, 8 April 2011 (UTC)


 * From what I have found, the origin of why the cross is used comes from the same cross that is now the Maltese cross; the cross used by the Order of Knights of St John (or Knights Hospitaller). They both originated from the same cross just evolved for different purposes. I'm not proposing that the firefighter cross be considered a Maltese cross, just that the origin is the same. It also seems that calling a firefighter cross a St Florian cross may also be inaccurate, since the cross is not associated with St Florian other than him being the patron saint of firefighters. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.231.114.104 (talk) 22:12, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

Aviation
The section describing the use of the Maltese Cross in non-precision instrument approaches needs to specify where the Cross will be seen - printed on the instrument approach chart a pilot refers to in the cockpit, painted on the runway, or where? Epischedda (talk) 13:45, 1 October 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20070310231302/http://www.mfin.gov.mt:80/page.aspx?site=NECC&page=maltesecoins to http://mfin.gov.mt/page.aspx?site=NECC&page=maltesecoins

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 * Original page is gone; archive version is good.—Odysseus 1 4 7  9  18:04, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

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External links modified
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Colour again
The article says in the lead that the Maltese cross is white and then says "The term is often wrongly applied to all forms of eight-pointed crosses irrespective of colour or background." Then the very first image, which I've just removed, is a black cross with a caption describing it as the standard version. Obviously they can't both be right. Richard75 (talk)
 * The claim was completely unsubstantiated. "Maltese cross" is just the name of the four-arrowheads type of heraldic cross. It appears to have been first used by the Order of Malta as a badge, from c. the 1560s. Use by the order of St Stephen (founded 1561) appears to be nearly contemporary, but we have no good references on that. There may or may not have been 16th-century usage by Amalfi and/or the order of Lazarus as well, we don't have references on that either. What is clear is that use of the design by the Maltese order was the most notable, and best documented, so that this has become the name most widely associated with the emblem. --dab (𒁳) 09:07, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Lazarus
There is no reference for the use of a green cross. Even if the Order of Lazarus did use a green cross during its existence, it was almost certainly not a "Maltese" cross, which did not exist at the time. The green Maltese cross may have been attributed later, but this needs a reference and a date. Vert (heraldry) was very rare in early heraldry. It is not impossible that a green cross was used by the order in the 14th century, as suggested by this:
 * "In 1314 Sigried de Flatte, Commander of Seedorf, imposed a rule on his knights which prescribed they would wear on the front of their habit, on their mantle and on their harness a square green cross. [...] On 15 April 1419, Robert le Conte, Commander of the commandery of Saint-Antoine-de-Grattemont, received the visit to the commandery of King Charles VI. In his welcoming address, he mentioned the rule by which the tenants, domestics and commandery servants were required to wear a green cross on their habit."

This sounds not implausible, and specific enough as to be verifiable. But verification is still to be done. --dab (𒁳) 18:25, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Already, the 1314 reference does not hold up,
 *  On a conservé une copie de la règle de la maison, que l'on prétend avoir été rédgîe en 1314, par le frère Siegfried de Flatte; mais l'authenticité de cette règle est très discutable. 

The 1419 reference, otoh, appears to be genuine. So the encyclopedic approach would be to cite this properly, and state that the order is known to have used a green cross in the early 15th century (which, unlike a green Maltese cross in the 12th century, is also heraldically plausible). --dab (𒁳) 18:29, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

"Cross paty" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Cross paty and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 October 24 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. A loose necktie (talk) 08:29, 24 October 2022 (UTC)