Hacer la señal de la cruz.
My curiosity got the better of me last evening. I knew there was a particular word for this in Spanish, trouble is I found two.One from Spain and another from Mexico.
Santiguar (se)
Persignar (se)
My question is this;
In the Spanish speaking world, are there others?
Part two of the question: As a native English speaker I have likely forgotten if we have a particular English word for this.
What say you??
10 Answers
I found this in google.
Usamos la Santa Cruz, signándonos y santiguándonos y persignándonos:
a) Signándonos, cuando hacemos tres cruces con la mano derecha: la primera en la frente diciendo: "Por la señal de la Santa Cruz'; la segunda en la boca diciendo: "de nuestros enemigos" y la tercera en el pecho diciendo: "líbranos, Señor, Dios nuestro".
When we make three crosses with the right hand: the first on the forehead saying: 'By the sign of the Holy Cross', the second in the mouth saying: 'from our enemies' and the third in the chest saying: 'Deliver us, Oh, Lord, our God'
b) Santiguándonos, con la mano derecha extendida y llevándola a la frente diciendo "En el nombre del Padre", se baja al pecho y se dice: "..y del Hijo", y del hombro izquierdo al derecho diciendo: "...y del Espíritu Santo Amén".
With the right hand extended we bring it to the forehead saying: 'In the Name of the Father' then the right hand is lowered to the chest saying: '..the Son', and then from the left to the right shoulder saying '.. .and the Holy Spirit, Amen.'
c) Persignándonos, que no es otra cosa que signarse y santiguarse conjuntamente.
Which is nothing more than doing both signs alltogether.
I did it as a kid, I love doing it as an old man. I'm Catholic to the end, man!
First, thanks to ale_rd for his input. I did not know the Spanish particular meaning.
Second, thanks to you pacofinder for posting this (see my first sentence).
In English we say (those of us who do this): make the sign of the cross or bless yourself. Although we do the "persignar" at Mass before the Gospel reading we don't have to my knowledge a particular word for it. If I were explaining it to someone else I would say "make a cross with your thumb on your forehead, on your lips, and on your breast over the heart."
I used to do that when I was a kid and went to church, I didn't know it had a name!
I just said "hacer la señal de la cruz" as you mentioned it in the tittle.
I checked the RAE and note that they're not synonyms. "Persignar" is when you make three little crosses (around forehead, mouth and chest) and "santiguar" is when you make a big one where the extremes(?) of the cross are in the forehead, right and left shoulder and chest. Sorry if you already knew that!
Thanks for this question pacofinger.
And thank you all for your commentary. I especially like the Wikipedia article which is available in Spanish.
La señal de la Cruz wikipedia español
For what I remember from Chile:
persignar y santiguar is the same.
La señal de la santa cruz is to persignarse thrice. The first on the forehead, second on the mouth and then the regular one from forehead to chest left and right shoulders.
Hola Paco,
I thought you wanted sentences and then I looked again. You wanted English expersions for the Spanish words.
There does not seem to be one particular word in English for this practice.
In English we would say "Cross yourself"
Or "Make the Sign of the Cross"
Hola de nuevo, Paco.
Mi suegra hace la señal de la cruz tres veces antes de comer.
My mother in law makes the sign of the cross three times before eating.
Here is a good link about the señal de la cruz.
Hola a todos
Mil Gracias!
Thank you all for your responses to my question, it has been very helpful.
whats thrice mean?
