Its origin before it appeared for sale in London in 1850 is lost, and it has been part of the British Museum's collection since 1859.

[5] Underneath the crest of the crook is engraved an inscription in mixed Latin and the old Irish language: ordo conduilis ocius do mel finnen, which, roughly translated, asks supplicants to pray for Cúduilig and Maelfinnén who were involved in its refurbishment.

Scholars have identified these names with individuals who were connected with the important Irish monastic settlement at Kells, County Meath.

The crozier was found without explanation in the cupboard of a London solicitor's office in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Enshrining items that had once belonged to saints or church leaders, such as their bones or fragments of their clothing, was an important feature of religious life in early medieval Ireland.