“At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign.” – Tertullian, The Chaplet (De Corona), Chapter 3.
From which ruin no one will be freed except he who has been sealed in front with the passion of Christ. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.167.
Shall you escape notice when you sign your bed or your body [with the cross]? . . . Will you not be thought to be engaged in some work of magic? Tertullian (c. 205, W), 4.46.
The Greek letter Tau and our own letter T is the very form of the cross. He predicted this would be the sign on our foreheads in the true catholic Jerusalem. Tertullian (c. 207, W), 3.340, 341.
The flesh is signed so that the soul too may be fortified. Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.551.
We have faith for a defense . . . in immediately making the sign and adjuring. . . . We often aid in this manner even the pagan, seeing that we have been endowed by God with that power that the apostle first used when he despised the viper’s bite. Tertullian (c. 213, W), 3.633.
“What do demons fear? At what do they tremble? Without doubt, the cross of Christ in which ‘they have been conquered, in which their principalities and powers have been stripped’ [Col. 2:15]. Therefore, ‘fear and trembling shall fall upon them,’ when they see the sign of the cross faithfully fixed on us …They will not, therefore, otherwise fear you, nor ‘will dread of you come upon them’ unless they see the cross of Christ in you, unless you can say, ‘But let me not glory except in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world’ [Gal. 6:14].” – Origen, Homilies on Exodus 6.8.
If you are tempted, seal your foreheads reverently. For this is the Sign of the Passion, displayed and made manifest against the devil, provided that you do it with faith, not to be seen by men, but by presenting it with skill like a shield. Because the Adversary, when he sees the strength of the heart and when he sees the inner man which is animated by the Word show, formed on the exterior, the interior image of the Word, he is made to flee by the Spirit which is in you. This is symbolized by the Paschal lamb which was sacrificed, the blood of which Moses sprinkled on the threshold, and smeared on the doorposts. He told us of the faith which is now in us, which was given to us through the perfect Lamb. By sealing the forehead and eyes with the hand, we turn aside the one who is seeking to destroy us. – Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition, Chapter 42
“Those who are to receive baptism shall fast on the Preparation of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, those who are to receive baptism shall all gather together in one place chosen according to the will of the bishop. They shall be commanded to pray and kneel. Then, laying his hand on them, he will exorcise every foreign spirit, so that they flee from them and never return to them. When he has finished exorcising them, he shall breathe on their faces and seal their foreheads, ears and noses [with the cross]. Then he shall raise them up.” – Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition, Chapter 20.
That religious voice has named the name of Christ, in whom it has once confessed that it believed; those illustrious hands, which had only been accustomed to divine works, have resisted the sacrilegious sacrifices; those lips, sanctified by heavenly food after the body and blood of the Lord, have rejected the profane contacts and the leavings of the idols. Your head has remained free from the impious and wicked veil with which the captive heads of those who sacrificed were there veiled; your brow, pure with the sign of God, could not bear the crown of the devil, but reserved itself for the Lord’s crown. – Cyprian, Treatise 3, chapter 2
[Uzziah] was marked upon his forehead with the spot of leprosy. He was thus marked by an offended Lord on that part of his body where those who deserve well of the Lord are signed. Cyprian (c. 250, W), 5.427.
Only those can escape who have been born anew and signed with the sign of Christ. “Have no pity upon old or young. And slay the virgins, the little ones, and the women, that they may be utterly destroyed. But do not touch any man upon whom is written the mark.” What this mark is and in what part of the body it is placed, God sets forth in another place, saying, “Go through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark [tau] upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof.” This sign pertains to the passion and blood of Christ. Whoever is found in this sign is kept safe and unharmed. Cyprian (c. 250, W), 5.464.
Women did not benefit from that sign [of circumcision]. However, all are sealed by the sign of the Lord. Cyprian (c. 250, W), 5.510.
In His suffering, He stretched forth His hands and measured out the world —so that even then He might show that a great multitude . . . was about to come under His wings and to receive on their foreheads that great and lofty sign. And the Jews even now display a symbol of this transaction when they mark their thresholds with the blood of a lamb. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.129.
He is the salvation of all who have written on their foreheads the sign of blood. I am referring to the sign of the cross, on which He shed His blood. . . . But I will show in the last book in what manner or in what region all will be safe who have marked on the highest part of their body this sign of the true and divine blood. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.129.
When the pagans sacrifice to their gods, if anyone bearing a marked forehead stands by, the sacrifices are by no means favorable. . . . And this has often been the cause of punishment to wicked kings. For some of their attendants who were of our religion were standing by their masters as the masters sacrificed. Because the attendants had the sign placed on their foreheads, this caused the gods of their masters to flee. As a result, they could not observe future events in the entrails of the victims. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.129.
Today, His followers, in the name of their Master, and by the sign of His passion, banish the same polluted spirits from men. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.129.
Since the demons can neither approach those in whom they will see the heavenly mark, nor injure those whom the immortal sign protects like an impregnable wall, they harass them by men and persecute them by the hands of others. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.130. While [Emperor Diocletian] sacrificed, some attendants of his, who were Christians, stood by and they put the immortal sign on their foreheads. At this, the demons were chased away, and the holy rites were interrupted. Lactantius (c. 320, W), 7.304.
Let the high priest, therefore, together with the priests, pray by himself; and let him put on his shining garment, and stand at the altar, and make the sign of the cross upon his forehead with his hand, and say: The grace of Almighty God, and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 8, chapter 12
God has honored you with spiritual anointing; and do you defile your child with mud? God has honored you, and do you dishonor yourself? And when you should inscribe on his forehead the Cross which affords invincible security; do you forego this, and cast yourself into the madness of Satan? If any look on these things as trifles, let them know that they are the source of great evils; and that not even unto Paul did it seem right to overlook the lesser things. For, tell me, what can be less than a man’s covering his head? Yet observe how great a matter he makes of this and with how great earnestness he forbids it; saying, among many things, He dishonors his head. 1 Corinthians 11:4 Now if he that covers himself dishonors his head; he that besmears his child with mud, how can it be less than making it abominable? For how, I want to know, can he bring it to the hands of the priest? How can you require that on that forehead the seal should be placed by the hand of the presbyter, where you have been smearing the mud? Nay, my brethren, do not these things, but from earliest life encompass them with spiritual armor and instruct them to seal the forehead with the hand (τῇ χειρὶ παιδεύτε σφραγίζειν τὸ μέτωπον): and before they are able to do this with their own hand , do you imprint upon them the Cross. – John Chrysostom, Homily 12 on 1 Corinthians, chapter 14