Insular crozier
[5] The first Insular staffs were produced in the 9th and 10th centuries during periods of political and religious upheaval in Ireland, when authority was often seen as needing to be made explicit, including during the Viking invasions.
[11] As the art historian Anthony T. Lucas points out, at the time the "most prestigious of all Irish relics and the one most frequently mentioned down the years was ... the Bachall Iosa or Staff of Jesus ... [said ] to have been received directly from Heaven by St.
"[12] Although the croziers are often associated with early Christian Irish saints from the 600-800 era, it is not thought that the wooden cores of the staffs date from that period, although some (but not all) historians think that the drops may have been constructed as containers for relics.
[12] As undoubted symbols of wealth and power,[13] the croziers may have at times been used for solemnising treaties, swearing oaths, or even as battle talismans.
"[16][17] The annuals recounting the life of St. Finnchu of Brigown, County Cork, mentions a battle against a king of Ulaid where the saint approaches the field with a crozier as a talisman.
[18] Representations of croziers appear in multiple other Insular art formats, including manuscripts, high crosses and stone carvings.
The art historian Griffin Murray speculates that the master craftsman behind the Clonmacnoise Crozier may also be responsible for two other extant examples.
[33] The designs on the crook of the Clonmacnoise Crozier are in the Ringerike style and include snake-like animals with ribbon-shaped bodies arranged, according to art historian Patrick Wallace, "in tightly woven knots", while the crest contains a series of "gripping dogs".
[34] Based on carvings on a number of high crosses, including that at Ahenny, County Tipperary, it can be assumed that the clerics held the staffs with both hands at chest height, with the drop facing outward.
[6] As thus the most visible portion of the crozier, the drops were the obvious focus point for figurative art, an element that is, apart from zoomorphism, otherwise almost entirely absent in Insular metalwork.
[37] The shaft is generally formed from a wooden core, usually of yew wood, sheeted with metal tubing, and often millefiori discs and inlaid glass bosses.
[41] Typical decorative elements include inserted triangular and rectangular plaques ornamented with inlaid silver, interlace, glass studs, and enamel.
[46][47][48] The art historian Griffith Murray estimates that there is "physical evidence for at least thirty-one Insular-type crosiers from Ireland", and around 20 other fragments composed of shafts, knops and base (ferrule).
[7] This late 9th or early 10 century[49] crozier was found fully intact by turf cutters in 1831 near Prosperous, County Kildare, but did not receive attention from antiquarians until 1851.
[53] The drop contains a modern inscription, probably 18th or 19th century, recording that it was once owned by St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, although there is no archival evidence to support this claim.
[56] The barrel shaped knope on the upper shaft is decorated with knotted interlace, and holds now empty settings that once contained studs, most likely of amber.
"[58] Rediscovered in London in 1851, it is associated with Kells, County Meath based on inscriptions under the crest on the crook (ordo conduilis ocius do mel finnen), which, roughly translated, asks for prayers for Cúduilig (or Cū Duilig) and Maelfinnén (or Máel Finnén).
The drop's metal casting is secondary and has an inset (or cavity) to hold a reliquary box, which is now filled with a small block of wood.
[14] While well preserved (a number of the plates were damaged, and its last major cleaning and refurbishment was carried out between 1971 and 1972)[64] and studied to that point, the crozier was "almost entirely destroyed" in 2009 when St Mel's Cathedral was decimated in a fire.
[59][65] In the aftermath, over 200 recovered objects, including stained glass windows by Harry Clarke and St. Mel's Crozier, were taken to the National Museum of Ireland for assessment and restoration, although such was the extent of devastation that many were "beyond help".
[59][66] Although somewhat corroded in parts, the River Laune Crozier (or Innisfallen) is fully intact and considered one of the finest surviving Irish examples, alongside those found at Clonmacnoise and Lismore.
It was discovered in 1867 deposited in the bed of the Launein the River Laune, one of the Lakes of Killarney in County Kerry by a fisherman who initially mistook it as either a salmon or a gun, before establishing it as a "curious handstick.
[68] The art historian Griffin Murray describes it as "probably broadly contemporary with the earliest stone church on the island and obviously relates a period of wealth and investment in the monastery at the time.
[72] Inscriptions on the metalwork record that it was produced by "Nechtain the craftsman" and commissioned by Niall mac Meic Aeducain, a bishop of Lismore who died in 1113.
[74][75] Nechtain placed the inscriptions in a very narrow space and so had to use abbreviations, and in some instances omitted a letter (for example "Niall" is spelled with only one "l", and the central "d" is missing from "Lasandernad").
The collar below the upper knope is made of copper alloy and contains relief designs of two large cat-like animals facing each other.
It is s traditionally associated with the Irish monk St. Fillan (Gaelic: Fáelán or "little wolf"),[84] who lived in the eighth century at Glendochart in Perthshire, central Scotland.
[86] Later it was thought to be able to heal people and animals, and under the ownership of its hereditary keepers the Dewars of Glendochart, acted as a ceremonial object for oaths of loyalty and dispute settlement, mostly related to the recovery of stolen cattle.
Both St. Fillan’s and the Coigreach are in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where they are displayed in the Kingdom of the Scots gallery and described as an "object-pair".
[83] The Bachul Mor (English: "Great Staff", sometimes known as "The Crozier of St Moluagh")[87][88] dates from c. 730 and is in very poor condition having lost most of its metal casing and suffered damage to both its crook and ferrule.
