crosier crozier pastoral staff paterissa pósokh Tomb Cormac's Chapel Cashel Celtic Knot Art ancient shepherd crook


A crosier (crozier, pastoral staff, paterissa, pósokh) is the stylized staff of office (pastoral staff) carried by high-ranking Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran and Pentecostal prelates. The other typical insignia of most of these prelates, but not all, are the mitre, pectoral cross, and the episcopal ring. In Western Christianity, the crozier is shaped like a shepherd's crook. A bishop/head of church bears this staff as "shepherd of the flock of God", , particularly the community under his canonical jurisdiction, but any bishop, whether or not assigned to a functional diocese, also uses a crosier when conferring sacraments and presiding at liturgies. The Roman Catholic Caeremoniale Episcoporum[1] says that, as a sign of his pastoral function, a bishop uses a crosier within his territory, but any bishop celebrating the liturgy solemnly with the consent of the local bishop may also use it. It adds that, when several bishops join in a single celebration, only the one presiding uses a crosier. A bishop usually holds his crozier with his left hand, leaving his right hand free to bestow blessings. The Caeremoniale Episcoporum states that the bishop holds the crosier with the crook towards the people or forward. It also states that a bishop usually holds the crosier during a procession and when listening to the reading of the Gospel, giving a homily, accepting vows, solemn promises or a profession of faith, and when blessing persons, unless he must lay his hands on them. In Anglican tradition the crosier may be carried by someone else before the bishop in procession. When the bishop is not holding the crosier, it is put in the care of an altar server, known as the "crosier bearer", who may wear a shawl-like veil around his shoulders called a vimpa, so as to hold the crozier without touching it with his bare hands. Another altar server, likewise wearing a vimpa, holds the mitre, when the bishop is not wearing it.


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