[L.; = Gr. λαβαρόν, of unknown origin.] The imperial standard adopted by Constantine the Great (306–337 A.D.), being the Roman military standard of the late Empire modified by the addition of Christian symbols; hence gen., a symbolical standard or banner.
1658. Phillips, Labarum, a military streamer, or flag, also a Church Banner, or Ensign.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, II. 189. On the South-side … is the Labarum; which is a Knot, consisting of the first Letters of Χριστὸς, which the Christian Emperours, from Constantine, placed in their Banners.
1835. Browning, Paracelsus, 54. A labarum was not deem’d Too much for the old founder of these walls.
1850. Sir J. Stephen, Ess. Eccl. Biog. (ed. 2), I. 347. The Labarum of Luther was a banner inscribed with the legend, ‘Justification by Faith.’
1850. Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 213. 206. Constantine wears the labarum and the phœnix.
1869. Farrar, Fam. Sp. (1873), iii. 106. That body of sacred truth … should now be inscribed upon the common labarum.
