St. Fillan's Crozier

The Crozier of St Fillan, from an 1890 drawing. 8th century, reworked in the 11th century. National Museum of Scotland

St. Fillan’s Crozier is an 8th century Insular crozier crook (or head) traditionally associated with the Irish monk St. Fillan (Gaelic: Fáelán or "little wolf"), who lived in the eighth century at Glendochart in Perthshire, central Scotland. Only the head (or crook) of the crozier survives; the staff was lost an unknown date.

Sometime around the late 13th century it was encased in the the Coigreach (or the Quigrich, or Coygerach), a crosier-shrine of similar size and form built as a protective case for the crook, and made from silver, gold and rock crystal and dates from the late 13th century, with additions from the 14th or 15th centuries. The Coigreach was rediscovered in the mid-19th century by the archaeologist Daniel Wilson, who opened it and found St. Fillan’s Crozier inside the case.

Records show that the crozier (Scottish Gaelic: Baculus) was early on used for blessings and as a talisman or battle standard: it is recorded as having been brought onto the field at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Later it was thought to be able to heal people and animals, and under the ownership of the Dewars of Glendochart—its hereditary keepers until the mid-18th century—acted as a ceremonial object for oaths of loyalty and dispute settlement, mostly related to the recovery of stolen cattle.

Both St. Fillan’s Crozier (catalog nr H.KC 1) and the Coigreach (H.KC 2) are in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where they are displayed in the Kingdom of the Scots gallery, and are described by the museum as an "object-pair".

Description

The drop-plate of St Fillan’s Crozier, with the Coigreach to the right.

The crozier head is designed in the West Highland style, and like all contemporary Insular croziers formed from a wooden core lined with bronze plates, which are decorated with niello, lead sulphid, copper and silver. It is thought to date from c. 800 AD, and was reworked in the 11th century. It was found inside the late-14th or 15th century Coigreach (or "Coigrich", sometimes spelled "Quigrich"), an ornamented crosier-shrine built as a protective case to hold what was left of the earlier object.

The Coigreach is made from a bronze base lined with with a series of plaques decorated with raised bands of engraved metal ornamented with niello. Some of the bands have silver gilt and filigree, and a number of the plaques and filigree were removed from the crosier.

The head is 23.5 cm (9.3 in) in height and 20.0 cm (7.9 in) long. The rest the crozier (ie it's staff) is lost.

Provenance

Shrine of Saint Patrick's Hand, 20th-century replica

Fillan travelled from Ireland to Strath Fillan, central Scotland, in 730AD, apparently to Christianize the Picts. He founded a prior at Glendochart, and became greatly venerated in the region and eventually became a national saint. At his death Fillan bequeathed his relics to laymen in Glendochart rather than the priory monks. These relics further included his bell (or bernane) and forearm an arm relic is today known as the Shrine of St. Fillan's Hand, which for a period was mistakenly identified as the 14th century object now known as Shrine of Saint Patrick's Hand, but can be assumed as of a very similar type.

Sometime around the 13th or 14th century, the crozier was placed inside the purposely designed Coigreach, which then fell into the possession of the Dewar (sometimes spelled "Deoir" or "Jore") family sometime around 1400. They became its hereditary keepers and for five centuries passed it from father to son. Ownership of the crozier –effectively retaining its origional function as a staff of office and sign of authority– entitled the family to ownership of lands and the right tax local sales of grain. They kept the crozier at Eyich, outside Crianlarich, Perthshire.

In 1819 Archibald Dewar (d. 1831) emigrated to Ontario in Canada and brought the Coigreach with him. According to the National Museum of Scotland, while there and "as had been the custom in Scotland, the Coigreach was used to bless the drinking water of cattle of Scottish emigrants". Soon afterwards the antiquarian and archaeologist Daniel Wilson realised its value and arranged for its return to Scotland, under the ownership of the ownership of the Wuigrich to the Society of Antiquaries for the National Museum of Scotland. Shortly after this rediscovery the Coigreach was opened and found to contain the much earlier crozier.

References

Sources

• Bourke, Cormac; Hook, Duncan. "The Prosperous, Co. Kildare, Crozier: archaeology and use". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature, volume 117C, 2017
• Caldwell, D. H. (ed). Angels, Nobles and Unicorns: Art and Patronage in Medieval Scotland. Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland, 1982. ISBN 978-0-9503-1171-5
• McKeown, L. M. "The Shrine of St. Fillan's Hand". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, volume 3, No. 2, December 31, 1933. JSTOR 25513694
• Stuart, John. "Historical Notices of St. Fillan's Crozier, and of the Devotion of King Robert Bruce to St. Fillan". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, volume XII, 1876
• Towill, Edwin. "The Isle of Youth and the Baculus Iesu". Folklore, volume 90, No. 1, 1979. JSTOR 1259855

External links

• Crozier and Coigreach of St Fillan, National Museums Scotland