Can I wear someone else's cross?

What is usually argued for the ban on carrying someone else's cross ? First of all, it is a threat to transfer someone else's life cross, other people's illnesses, predetermined by fate to another person. Sometimes in favor of such a statement quote from the Gospel: "If anyone wants to follow me, deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Mark 8:34). However, you should not understand it so literally and relate the life cross and a small cross. In this case, the Lord speaks exclusively about the life path by which a person should walk, following God's commandments.

On the other hand, according to supporters of this belief, wearing someone else's cross can disrupt the personal biofield, etc. Thus, all these threats are exclusively occult, and in a consciously believing person can cause only laughter. At the same time, for the layman, who combines walking to the church with faith in energy, fate, the power of psychics and biofield, these things seem very important.

But from the standpoint of the Christian dogma, all such statements are only an absurd superstition, which is widespread because of ignorance or lack of understanding of the fundamentals of Christ's teaching by people. In an Orthodox environment, few people wear someone else's crosses, but for completely different reasons. First, every believing person usually has his own cross, which he carries on himself from baptism and until his death. If for some reason the cross broke or deteriorated, it is changed to a new one, and the old one is either burned or stored in the proper place of the house - in the holy corner near the icons. Secondly, wearing someone else's cross is not useful in terms of banal hygiene. An exception may be the case if it is a cross from one of your relatives, which has been preserved in the family as a relic. In this case, it can be worn by any other person, pretreated with an antiseptic.

Superstition forbidding the wearing of another's cross is connected with the attitude to the cross as a guardian or amulet, which protects the person by the fact of his presence. Such magism is absolutely alien to the Christian world view. The believer is not protected by the shape of a small piece of metal, but by the grace of God that dwells with each of us if we lead a Christian life worthy of being: we regularly receive communion, pray, read the Word of God, do good works. The natty cross in this case is a symbol of the victory of the risen Christ over death, and a reminder of what suffering the redemption of man was accomplished.

Therefore, in matters of faith, we recommend that you do not make a mistake, go directly to the priest, and do not listen to various gossip and superstitions. Learn the basics of your faith in order to fully discover the world of Orthodox Christianity.