The Collaborative International Dictionary
Patriarchal \Pa`tri*ar"chal\, a. [Cf. F. patriarcal.]
Of or pertaining to a patriarch or to patriarchs; possessed by, or subject to, patriarchs; as, patriarchal authority or jurisdiction; a patriarchal see; a patriarchal church.
-
Characteristic of a patriarch; venerable.
About whose patriarchal knee Late the little children clung.
--Tennyson. -
(Ethnol.) Having an organization of society and government in which the head of the family exercises authority over all its generations.
Patriarchal cross (Her.), a cross, the shaft of which is intersected by two transverse beams, the upper one being the smaller. See Illust. (2) of Cross.
Patriarchal dispensation, the divine dispensation under which the patriarchs lived before the law given by Moses.
WordNet
n. a cross with two crossbars
Wikipedia
The Patriarchal cross (☨) is a variant of the Christian cross, the religious symbol of Christianity. Similar to the familiar Latin cross, the Patriarchal cross possesses a smaller crossbar placed above the main one, so that both crossbars are near the top. Sometimes the patriarchal cross has a short, slanted crosspiece near its foot ( Orthodox cross). This slanted, lower crosspiece often appears in Byzantine Greek and Eastern European iconography, as well as Eastern Orthodox churches.
The Byzantine Christianization came to the Morava empire in the year 863, provided at the request of Rastislav sent Byzantine Emperor Michael III. The symbol, often referred to as the patriarchal cross, appeared in the Byzantine Empire in large numbers in the 10th century. For a long time, it was thought to have been given to Saint Stephen by the pope as the symbol of the apostolic Kingdom of Hungary. The two-barred cross is one of the main elements in the coats of arms of Hungary since 1190. It appeared during the reign of King Béla III, who was raised in the Byzantine court. Béla was the son of Russian princess Eufrosina Mstislavovna. The cross appears floating in the coat of arms and on the coins from this era. In medieval Kingdom of Hungary was extended Byzantine Cyril-Methodian and western Latin church was expanded later.
The two-barred cross in the Hungarian coat of arms comes from the same source of Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire in the 12th century. Unlike the ordinary Christian cross, the symbolism and meaning of the double cross is not well understood.