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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 tympanum reliefs are marked by their croziers, with bishops also wearing mitres.
Sepulchral reliefs of an abbot and two bishops with their croziers in the Chapter House floor of the Cistercian Reial Monestir de Santes Creus, Catalonia
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.
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
In the baddies side of the Tympanum of the Cathédrale Ste-Foy, Conques, a disgraced abbot forced onto his knees clutches his grounded crozier (bottom left) and prostrates himself before a grotesque hunch-backed devil figure with a net.
Annunciation
Above and below - croziers made in Limoges in the 1200s, now in the Cluny Museum, Paris
The Archangel Michael and Dragon
Annunciation
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
This bas relief of St Michael killing a dragon comes from the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Bonn - a treasure chest of medieval (and earlier) sculpture and art. For more follow this link to Holly Hayes' Sacred Destinations.
Below below
Silver crozier showing the Annunciation
Crozier of the Bishop of Carlisle, Carlisle Cathedral
Link to photos of Carlisle Cathedral
Lots of simple croziers on the sepulchral slabs of the tombs of abbots in the chapter house of the lovingly restored
Aragonese Royal Monastery of Our Lady of the Water Wheel (called Rueda).
The Romsey Abbess Sheela Na Gig (with crozier) - Romsey Abbey
The top half of the sepulchral plate of an abbess' tomb in Romsey Abbey - showing a reluctance to let go of temporal authority? Or maybe, like the Dom, she liked croziers. Then we found another one (below) - this time in the grassed nave space of Egglestone Abbey, near Barnard Castle.
Egglestone Abbey (near Barnard Castle)
Sepulchral plate for an early 1200s abbot of Sherborne Abbey - that's a mirror on the wall, because there is an un-expected bonus on the far side of the crosier .....
A prod with his crozier does not seem to be enough to deter a hungry wyvern having a go at an abbot's foot on the font in St James, Avebury.
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