Sebagian umat Kristen percaya bahwa mengenakan salib memberikan perlindungan dari kejahatan,[7][9][10] sementara yang lain, baik Kristen maupun non-Kristen, mengenakan kalung salib sebagai aksesori busana.[11]
Buku Museum Seni Metropolitan berjudul Metropolitan Jewelry karya Sophie McConnell dan Alvin Grossman menyatakan: "Pada abad-abad pertama era Kristen, salib adalah simbol rahasia yang digunakan oleh para penganut agama baru yang dianiaya."[12] Banyak uskup Kristen dari berbagai denominasi, seperti Gereja Ortodoks Timur, mengenakan salib dada sebagai tanda ordo suci mereka.
Sebagian besar penganut Gereja Ortodoks Tewahedo Ethiopia akan mengenakan salib yang diikatkan pada rantai atau matäb, yaitu tali sutra.[13][sumber tepercaya?] Matäb diikatkan di leher pada saat pembaptisan, dan penerima diharapkan untuk selalu mengenakan matäb tersebut. Wanita sering kali memasang salib atau liontin lain pada matäb, tetapi ini tidak dianggap penting.[14]
↑John Renard (1 August 2001). The Handy Religion Answer Book. Visible Ink Press. ISBN1578591252. Individuals wearing or displaying either a cross or the fish symbol might belong to any of a number of Christian denominations or communities.
↑Liz James (30 April 2008). Supernaturalism in Christianity: Its Growth and Cure. Mercer University Press. ISBN9780881460940. Most Christians who have worn crosses have probably not trivialized a core teaching of Jesus about renouncing self-centeredness, figuratively described as carrying one's cross. For them the symbol is perceived not as powerful magic, or as a lovely decoration to impress others, but as a reminder primarily to themselves of their commitment to one who laid down His life in love for friends and enemies.
↑William E. Phipps (4 May 2010). A Companion to Byzantium. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN9781405126540. In fact cross-wearers, and those depositing icons and other valuables in the graves of loved ones, probably considered themselves true to Christ and His Cross.
↑Mark U. Edwards (17 September 2006). Religion on Our Campuses. Palgrave Macmillan. hlm.22. ISBN1403972109. Consider, for example, dress and jewelry. An Orthodox Jewish male student may wear a yarmulke or a Moslem female student a headscarf, and Christian students of both sexes may wear crosses.
↑Jordan, Anne (5 April 2000). Christianity. Nelson Thornes. ISBN9780748753208. Most Orthodox Christians wear this cross for the rest of their lives.
↑On Wearing the Cross. Greek Orthodox Church. 2012. Diarsipkan dari versi asli pada 2013-06-01. Diakses tanggal 2012-04-11. At holy Baptism, every Orthodox Christian receives an image of the Precious Cross to be worn around the neck. From the moment of Baptism until the moment of death, every Orthodox Christian should wear the Cross at every moment.
↑Liz James (30 April 2008). Supernaturalism in Christianity: Its Growth and Cure. Mercer University Press. ISBN9780881460940. From the fifth century onward, the cross has been widely worn as an amulet, and the novel Dracula treats it as a protection against vampires. Many Christians continue to hang polished miniatures of the cross around their necks.
↑Michael Symmons Roberts (2011-09-12). "The Cross". British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The belief that the cross can ward off evil and protect the wearer goes back a long way.
↑Reader, John; Baker, Chris (7 May 2009). Entering the New Theological Space. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN978-0754663393. A cross necklace is a Christian symbol, but it is also common enough in secular style that it may be worn by those for whom it has little or no meaning beyond the cultural or fashionable.
↑The Ethiopian Orthodox Church (2003) [1970]. Aymero W; Joachim M (ed.). "The Sacramental: The cross and the crucifix". The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Orthodox mission. Diarsipkan dari asli tanggal 22 March 2013. Diakses tanggal 30 April 2015– via Ethiopianorthodox.org. Attached to a cord or fine chain [the cross] is worn around the neck of nearly all Christians right from childhood until death.
↑Siegbert Uhlig (2007). Encyclopædia Aethiopica: He-N. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN9783447056076. The Matäb, an emblem of Christianity in Ethiopia, is a blue (sometimes black) silk cord tied around the neck of a child during the baptism ceremony[...] Women may later append various elements on the M., though a simple cord is already considered a fully valuable M. The possible pendants include a cross[...] They can be freely combined, none of them being essential.