or CROZIER, a shepherd's crook; a symbol of pastoral authority, consisting of a gold or silver staff, crooked at the top, carried occasionally before bishops and abbots, and held in the hand when they give the solemn benedictions. The custom of bearing a pastoral staff before bishops is very ancient. Regular abbots are allowed to officiate with a mitre and crozier. Among the Greeks none but a patriarch had a right to the crozier.

in astronomy, four stars in the southern hemisphere, in the form of a cross, serving those who fail in south latitudes to find the antarctic pole.