Labarum

• Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
  • n Labarum The standard adopted by the Emperor Constantine after his conversion to Christianity. It is described as a pike bearing a silk banner hanging from a crosspiece, and surmounted by a golden crown. It bore a monogram of the first two letters (ΧΡ) (which appear like the English letters X and P), of the name of Christ in its Greek form. Later, the name was given to various modifications of this standard.
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• • n labarum A Roman military standard adopted by the later emperors as the imperial standard. It consisted of a staff or lance carrying a purple banner on a cross-bar. This banner usually bore the effigy of the general or emperor; but Constantine the Great, after his conversion, placed upon it, woven in gold, the cross and the monogram (chrisma) or emblem of Christ, or , consisting of the Greek letters XP (Chr), standing for Christ. In later times the name was given to the monogram itself, or to the cross in the monogram.
  • n labarum A standard or banner of similar form, borne in ecclesiastical processions of the Roman Catholic Church.
  • n labarum Figuratively, a moral standard, guide, or device.
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• • n Labarum lab′a-rum a Roman military standard adopted as the imperial standard after Constantine's conversion. It bore the Greek letters XP (Chr), joined in a monogram, to signify the name of Christ: a similar ecclesiastical banner borne in processions: any moral standard or guide.
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