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Croziers
Croziers, descendants of shepherds staffs, are an "artefact of office" of bishops, abbots and abbesses. Medieval abbots and abbesses have left behind some beautiful personal croziers, either the crozier itself or its relief on a sepulchral slab. Presumably bishops also had personal staffs, though today they are associated with a particular institution rather than person. Abbots and bishops represented in, for example, portico reliefs are marked by their croziers, with bishops also wearing mitres.
The Crozier of Saint Robert of Molesme
Founder of the Cistercian Order
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon
Link to photos of over 40 Cistercian Abbeys in
Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Britain
Above
Gold plated crozier illustrating the Annunciation
Mid 1200s, Limoges' church - now in the Louvre, Paris
Right
Silver and enamel crozier showing San Galgano
Cattedrale di Santa Margherita, Montefiascone
(Photo from the catalogue of the Duccio Exhibition in Siena, 2003)
Link to photos of the Abbey and Hermitage of San Galgano in Tuscany
Below
Silver crozier showing the Annunciation
Crozier of the Bishop of Carlisle, Carlisle Cathedral
Link to photos of Carlisle Cathedral
Sepulchral Crozier c1300 of an Abbess of the Cistercian Nunnery of Santa Maria del Salvador ("El monasterio de la luz") Cañas, La Rioja, in the nunnery's Chapter House.
Sepulchral Relief of a bishop (/ abbot ?) in the Cistercian Reial Monestir de Santes Creus, Catalonia
Lots of croziers on the sepulchral slabs of the tombs of abbots in the chapter house of the Aragonese Royal Monastery of Our Lady of the Water Wheel (Rueda).
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