Religion:Crozier

A crozier or crosier (also known as a paterissa, pastoral staff, or bishop's staff) is a stylized staff that is a symbol of the governing office of a bishop or abbot and is carried by high-ranking prelates of Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Church of South India and some Anglican, Lutheran, United Methodist and Pentecostal churches.

In Western Christianity the crozier typically takes the form of a shepherd's crook, a tool used to manage flocks of sheep and herds of goats. In Eastern Christianity, the crozier has two common forms: tau-shaped, with curved arms, surmounted by a small cross; or a pair of sculptured serpents or dragons curled back to face each other, with a small cross between them.

Other typical insignia of prelates are the mitre, the pectoral cross, and the episcopal ring.

History

The origin of the crozier as a staff of authority is uncertain, but there were many secular and religious precedents in the ancient world. One example is the lituus, the traditional staff of the ancient Roman augurs, as well as the Staff of Moses in the Hebrew Bible. Many other types of the staff of office were found in later periods, some continuing to the modern day in ceremonial contexts.

The Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic crozier is commonly tau-shaped, with curved arms and surmounted by a small cross, or with a pair of sculptured serpents or dragons on top, curled back to face each other, and a small cross between them. The symbolism in the latter case is of the bronze serpent, Nehushtan, made by Moses as related in Numbers 21:8–9. It is also reminiscent of the rod of the ancient Greek god Asclepius, whose worship was centered around the Aegean, including Asia Minor, indicating the role of the bishop as healer of spiritual diseases.

Staff of Moses

The Staff of Moses is first mentioned in the Book of Exodus (chapter 4, verse 2), when God appears to Moses in the burning bush. God asks what Moses has in his hand, and Moses answers "a staff" ("a rod" in the King James Version). The staff is miraculously transformed into a snake and then back into a staff. The staff is thereafter referred to as the "rod of God" or "staff of God" (depending on the translation).

"And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs." And Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father in law, and said unto him, "Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt and see whether they be yet alive." And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace." The LORD said unto Moses in Midian, "Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life." And Moses took his wife and his sons and set them upon an ass; and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

— Exodus 4 (KJV)

Moses and Aaron appear before the Pharaoh of the Exodus, when Aaron's rod is transformed into a serpent. The Pharaoh's sorcerers are also able to transform their own rods into serpents, but Aaron's swallows them. Aaron's rod is again used to turn the Nile blood-red. It is used several times on God's command to initiate the Plagues of Egypt.

During the Exodus, Moses stretches out his hand with the staff to part the Red Sea. While in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, Moses does not follow God's command to "speak ye unto the rock before their eyes", instead he strikes the rock with the rod to create a spring for the Israelites from which to drink. Because Moses did not sanctify God before them but said "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?" Thus, Moses failed by honoring himself and not God. For not doing what God commanded, God punished Moses by not letting him enter into the Promised Land (Book of Numbers 20:10–12).

Official use

Eufemia Szaniawska, Abbess of the Benedictine Monastery in Nieśwież with a crozier, c. 1768, National Museum in Warsaw

The crozier is the symbol of the governing office of a bishop, abbot, or Apostle.

Western Christianity

The crozier is used in ecclesiastical heraldry to represent pastoral authority in the coats of arms of cardinals, bishops, abbots and abbesses. It was suppressed in most personal arms in the Catholic Church in 1969, and is since found on arms of abbots and abbesses, diocesan coats of arms and other corporate arms.

In the Church of God in Christ, the largest Pentecostal church in the United States, the presiding bishop bears a crozier as a sign of his role as positional and functional leader of the Church. In some jurisdictions of the United Methodist Church, bishops make use of croziers at ceremonial events.

Papal usage

Pope John Paul II holding the Papal ferula, not a crozier, 5 October 1997

Popes no longer carry a crozier and instead carry the papal ferula. In the first centuries of the church, popes did carry a crozier but this practice was phased out and disappeared by the time of Pope Innocent III in the thirteenth century. In the Middle Ages, much as bishops carried a crozier, popes carried a papal cross with three bars, one more than the two bars found on croziers carried before archbishops in processions (see archiepiscopal cross). This too was phased out. Pope Paul VI introduced the modern papal pastoral staff, the papal ferula, in 1965. He and his successors have carried a few versions of this staff, but never a crozier.

Eastern Christianity

Syro-Malabar Major Archbishop Mar George Alencherry with his crozier.

In Eastern Christianity (Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism), bishops use a similar pastoral staff. When a bishop is consecrated, the crozier (Greek: paterissa, Slavonic: pósokh) is presented to him by the chief consecrator following the dismissal at the Divine Liturgy.

Oriental Orthodoxy

A crozier of the Vardapet, Armenian Apostolic Church, 19th century

Description

Western croziers

Crook of the late 11th century Irish Insular Clonmacnoise Crozier. National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, Dublin

Insular croziers, produced in Britain and Ireland in the Early Middle Ages, have a more simple shape, perhaps closer to actual shepherd's crooks. They were regarded as important relics of church leaders, and have survived in untypical numbers, including the Clonmacnoise Crozier, Kells Crozier, Lismore Crozier, Prosperous Crozier, River Laune Crozier, St. Columba's Crozier, St. Fillan's Crozier, and St. Mel's Crozier.

In previous times, a cloth of linen or richer material, called the sudarium (literally, "sweat cloth"), was suspended from the crozier at the place where the bishop would grasp it. This was originally a practical application which prevented the bishop's hand from sweating and discolouring (or being discoloured by) the metal. The invention of stainless steel in the late 19th century and its subsequent incorporation in material used for croziers rendered moot its original purpose and it became more elaborate and ceremonial in function over time. In heraldry, the sudarium is often still depicted when croziers occur on coats of arms.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the crozier is always carried by the bishop with the crook turned away from himself; that is to say, facing toward the persons or objects he is facing, regardless of whether he is the Ordinary or not. The Sacred Congregation of Rites on 26 November 1919, stated in a reply to the following question,

In case an outside Bishop uses a Bishops' staff, this being either required by the function or permitted by the Ordinary, in what direction should he hold the upper part, or crook? Reply. Always with the crook turned away from himself, that is toward the persons or objects which he is facing. (AAS 12-177)

Eastern croziers

The croziers carried by Eastern bishops, archimandrites, abbots and abbesses differ in design from the Western crozier. The Eastern crozier is shaped more like a crutch than a shepherd's staff.

Gallery

• 
  Copy of the Aghadoe Crozier, Swedish History Museum, Stockholm. Originating from Aghadoe, County Kerry in the early 12th century, the crozier is formed from a single block of Walrus ivory, and contains a spiral design on the crook showing the head of an animal biting a human figure.
• 
  Walrus tusk, Holy Spirit as a dove, England, c. 1120–1130, Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris
• 
  Archangel Michael defeating the dragon, Limoges enamel, The Museum of Gloucester, 1220–1250
• 
  Crozier head with floral cluster, English, late 12th century
• 
  Ivory crozier showing the Agnus Dei, Italy, 13th century, Musée du Louvre
• 
  A traveling crozier, covered with embroidered fabric, 16th century, Czech Republic. Jagiellonian University Museum

See also

• Khakkhara

References

•  Morrisroe, Patrick (1908). "Crosier". in Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
• "Crosier", Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2005, http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=crosier, retrieved 28 July 2003 
• Moss, Rachel. Medieval c. 400—c. 1600: Art and Architecture of Ireland. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-3001-7919-4
• Noonan, James-Charles Jr. (1996), The Church Visible: The Ceremonial Life and Protocol of the Roman Catholic Church, New York: Viking, pp. 191, ISBN 0-670-86745-4, https://archive.org/details/churchvisiblecer0000noon/page/191 
• Sybille Schneiders: Baculus pastoralis. Bischofs- und Abtstäbe des 5. bis 12. Jahrhunderts in Irland und auf dem Kontinent : Typologie und Chronologie – Herkunft und Verbreitung – Besitzer und Gebrauch. Freiburg i. Brsg. 2017 https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/15776.
• "The Reichenau Crozier". Metalwork. Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/metalwork/metalwork_stories/Reichenau_Crozier/index.html. 

External links

• "PASTORALE". Enciclopedia Italiana. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. 1935. https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/pastorale_(Enciclopedia-Italiana). Retrieved 22 November 2024.