"X" Is For The Shape Of Andrew's Cross

This is week 24 of the Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude.  The letter this week is "X".  If I am honest, I have been dreading this week as I just don't know a lot of words beginning with "x".  I looked up a list of words and there are a lot more than I knew, but it didn't help as I didn't know what most of the words meant. I chose a couple and looked them up and they just weren't very exciting :-(  And then I remembered that one of Jesus' disciples was crucified on an "X" shaped cross, so I thought about investigating that.

Tradition says that Andrew (the brother of Peter) was martyred by being crucified on cross in the shape of an "X".  Some sources said the reason for that is he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified on the same type of cross Christ had been (which was a "T" shaped cross).

Here is the quote from Wikipedia "A saltire is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross.^{[by whom?]} The word comes from the Middle French sautoir ("stirrup"), possibly owing to the shape of the triangular areas in the design.^[1]

It appears in numerous flags, including those of Scotland and Jamaica, and other coats of arms and seals. A variant, also appearing on many past and present flags and symbols, is the Cross of Burgundy flag.

A warning sign in the shape of a saltire is also used to indicate the point at which a railway line intersects a road at a level crossing."

I did not know there was such thing as a St. Andrew's cross and it is used in many country's flags. 

This is Scotland's, others can be viewed here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltire

Another interesting point is In Greek, the first letter for Christ (Chi) also happens to be 'X'-shaped, as in the Chi Rho Cross.  Again from Wikipedia "The Chi Rho (/ˈkaɪ ˈroʊ/) is one of the earliest forms of christogram, and is used by some Christians. It is formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters chi and rho (ΧΡ) of the Greek word "ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ" = KRistos = Christ in such a way to produce the monogram.^[1] Although not technically a Christian cross, the Chi-Rho invokes the authority of Jesus, as well as symbolising his status as the Christ.^{[citation needed]}

The Chi-Rho symbol was also used by pagan Greek scribes to mark, in the margin, a particularly valuable or relevant passage; the combined letters Chi and Rho standing for chrēston, meaning "good."^[2] Some coins of Ptolemy III Euergetes (r. 246–222 BC) were marked with a Chi-Rho.^[3]

The Chi-Rho symbol was used by the Roman emperor Constantine I as part of a military standard (vexillum), Constantine's standard was known as the Labarum. Early symbols similar to the Chi Rho were the Staurogram () and the IX monogram "