Mystical systems
Cross of Saint Peter
Direct answer
Cross of Saint Peter: The Cross of Saint Peter is a Latin cross turned upside down, a Christian emblem recalling the tradition that the apostle Peter was crucified head downward, later also used as an anti-Christian sign.
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At a glance
- Also called
- inverted cross, petrine cross, cross of st peter, upside down cross
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Tau Cross, Chi Rho, Celtic Cross, Pentagram
The Cross of Saint Peter is a Latin cross turned upside down, a Christian emblem recalling the tradition that the apostle Peter was crucified head downward, later also used as an anti-Christian sign.
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Is the upside down cross Satanic?
The Cross of Saint Peter, or Petrine cross, is an ordinary Latin cross inverted so that the crossbar sits near the foot. It comes from an early tradition that Peter, condemned in Rome under Nero, asked to be crucified upside down. In Christian use it is a sign of humility and of the office of Peter, and it appears in churches dedicated to him and in papal settings.
The same shape now carries an opposite meaning for many people. In horror films, in some forms of Satanism and in heavy metal imagery, turning the cross over is meant as a rejection or mockery of Christianity. That sense is recent. The two uses exist side by side, so the shape cannot be read without knowing where it is and who placed it there.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Symbols.
What sets Cross of Saint Peter apart
The Petrine cross is a symbol whose meaning is carried entirely by orientation: nothing is added or removed, the figure is only turned. That makes it unusually open to reversal of sense. It should also be kept apart from an inverted crucifix. The Christian emblem is a bare cross; a crucifix, bearing the body of Christ, turned upside down has no place in Church use and is the form chosen when insult is intended. Heraldry treats the bare inverted cross as an attribute of Peter, often with his crossed keys.
- Other names: Petrine cross, inverted cross
- Earliest text: the Acts of Peter, late second century
- Church sources: Origen as cited by Eusebius, Church History, book 3
- Famous painting: Caravaggio, Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1601, in Rome
- Christian sense: humility and the office of Saint Peter
Often mistaken for something else: An inverted crucifix shows the body of Christ upside down and is used to offend; the Cross of Saint Peter is a bare cross and a Christian emblem of long standing.
The story behind Cross of Saint Peter
The story of Peter's request is told in the apocryphal Acts of Peter, written in the late second century. Eusebius, in the early fourth century, cites Origen for the same tradition, and Jerome repeats it. Painters from Giotto to Caravaggio, whose Crucifixion of Saint Peter dates from 1601, show the scene. The inverted cross as a sign of the diabolical was spread widely by films of the 1960s and 1970s and by black metal bands afterwards.
Why Cross of Saint Peter matters
Cross of Saint Peter is perhaps the plainest case of one shape holding two opposed meanings, which only the setting can sort out.
Cross of Saint Peter in practice: an example
An inverted cross carved on a papal chair points to Peter; the same shape on a horror film poster is meant to disturb.
Where readings of Cross of Saint Peter go wrong
Assuming every inverted cross is Satanic is an error, and so is assuming none is meant that way.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- inverted cross, upside down cross meaning, petrine cross, cross of st peter, upside down cross
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
See Cross of Saint Peter in your personal almanac
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Common questions
Is the upside down cross Satanic?
Not originally. It is a Christian emblem of Saint Peter and has been used by the Church for centuries. Its use as an anti-Christian or Satanic sign is modern, and both meanings are in circulation today.
Why was Peter crucified upside down?
According to the Acts of Peter and later Church writers, he asked for it, judging himself unworthy to die in the same manner as Jesus. The account is an early tradition; no contemporary record of his death survives.
Does the Pope use the inverted cross?
It can appear in papal settings because the Pope is regarded as the successor of Peter. When it is seen on papal furnishings, viewers who know only the modern sense are sometimes puzzled.
