The patriarchal cross resembles a Latin cross with 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. It often appears in Byzantine, Greek and Russian iconography, and in Eastern Orthodox churches.

Webster's 1913 dictionary defines the patriarchial cross as "a cross, the shaft of which is intersected by two transverse beams, the upper one being the smaller."

The cross of Lorraine appears to resemble the patriarchal cross.