Use of the Papal Ferula
Date: May 24, 2026
Author: Fr. Edward McNamara, LC
Question: At a recent ordination our archbishop, instead of using the ordinary crosier, used the papal ferula. We are used to seeing the bishop’s staff, which is curved or bent at the top in the style of a shepherd's crook. This time, however, he used the pope's staff, which is a rod with a knob on top, surmounted by a crucifix. One priest told me that the pope can give a permission to a bishop to use the papal ferula. Is this true? What are the circumstances in which the pope can grant such a permission? If the bishop has bought this papal ferula himself in Rome, is that really possible? — F.K., Ndola, Zambia
Answer: The practice of assigning the pastoral staff to a bishop did not originate in Rome but probably in Spain during the seventh century from whence it spread to the rest of Europe. The use of a pastoral staff is mentioned in 633 during the Council of Toledo as an already established custom in the region.
The pastoral staff should be distinguished from an archiepiscopal or patriarchal cross with two horizontal bars. Archbishops have the privilege of having such a cross carried before them. They are not usually used as a pastoral staff except on rare occasions such as opening a diocesan Holy Door.
The symbolism attached to the crosier is well expressed in the rite of ordination of a bishop. The newly ordained bishop receives the pastoral staff while the ordaining bishop says the following words:
"Receive the crosier, the sign of the pastoral office, and keep watch over the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishop to govern the Church of God.”
The pastoral staff is, hence, a symbol of the bishop's duty of guiding and governing the Church entrusted to him.
The pastoral staff has historically been known by several names: pedum, ferula, combula, baculus, virga pastoralis,and in English, paterissa or crosier.
It has also had several forms over time.
Originally it was a simple wooden staff, to which, in time, several accretions and embellishments were added. For example, in some places a globe or a Tau or T shape was added to the top, a letter potentially full of mystical interpretations (Ezechiel 9:4-6), or a small cross or two interlocking serpents about to kiss as a symbol of peace or perhaps a symbolic reference to the staff of Moses (see Exodus 4:2-4 and Exodus 7:10-12).
The curved head that we associate with the Latin crosier would seem to have first appeared in the 13th century, and the bottom was made more pointed.
According to Pope Innocent III (De myst. Missae c. 26), this design of being sharp at the end, straight in the middle and curved at the top meant that the bishop should "spur on the lazy, sustain the weak, gather the dispersed."
This basic design has remained constant over the last few centuries although over the last few years slightly new forms with less pronounced curves have been introduced, and wooden pastoral staffs have once again become popular.
The popes, however, practically never adopted the use of the crosier even though there is some evidence of occasional use of a staff by some earlier pontiffs. Pope Innocent III positively excluded the use of the pastoral staff by the pontiffs.
Among the reasons adduced for this omission, especially important during the Middle Ages, was that it would be improper since the reception of the pastoral staff implied investiture on behalf of a superior whereas the popes received their power from God alone.
Even today the rite for installing a new pope foresees the imposition of the pallium and placing of the Fisherman's Ring, but not the handing over of the pastoral staff.
Another practice that may have contributed to this may have been the centuries-old custom of carrying the pope into solemn celebrations while seated aloft a mobile portable throne called the sede gestatoria. This would have made the use of any pastoral staff somewhat superfluous.
On some rare occasions, however, such as the opening of the Holy Door and the consecration of a church, the popes did use a staff like the abovementioned patriarchal cross with two or three horizontal bars. This is also sometimes called the ferula.
With the advent of the liturgical reform, and taking into account the advent of television, an effort was made to transform the solemn papal celebrations into an exemplar and liturgical model for the whole Church, even while conserving some particular traditions of the Holy See.
It was thus decided to introduce the use of a papal pastoral staff to be used in the same manner as the bishop's use of the crosier. Since the patriarchal cross was the only historically verifiable use of a staff by a pope, its form provided a model for the design of the papal ferula.
Pope St. Paul VI had already used some other historical ferulas on certain occasions but is most associated with the slightly abstract pastoral staff, designed by Italian artist Lello Scorzlli in 1963 that was first used on December 8, 1965, at the closing Mass of the Second Vatican Council.
Pope St. John Paul II used the same design in a slightly lighter version and carried it all over the world. He also occasionally used other ferulas, such as a three-barred cross pertaining to Leo XIII to open the Holy Door for the Holy Year of Redemption in 1983.
Pope Benedict XVI occasionally used that ferula but also some other historical ones. One such ferula, much lighter than it looked, belonged originally to Pope Blessed Pius IX and another was made as a gift to him. Pope Francis would use both that of Pope Benedict XVI and that of Paul VI and occasionally use those specially made for him on pastoral visits outside of Italy. Pope Leo XIV initially used that of Benedict XVI but swiftly changed to that of Paul VI.
Leo has recently switched to a ferula designed for him by the Savi brothers. This new ferula is similar to that of Paul VI but represents both Christ's crucifixion and his resurrection insofar as the hands are not nailed to the cross but are in a raised posture.
As can be seen above, the choice of ferula does not follow any particular law, and each Holy Father is free to choose any design whatsoever. It is entirely a question of pontifical artistic sensibility.
Nor does it appear that there is any law that reserves the use of the ferula to the pope. As we saw above this design was chosen above all due to the historical fact that popes had not used the crosier in the papal liturgy.
Nor is there any official or obligatory design for the modern crosier. A kind of ferula is used by several prelates although the cross surmounting the orb is generally of much smaller dimensions than that associated with the popes.
Therefore, while I think it is a good thing for bishops to maintain the customary curved head of the pastoral staff, with its evocations of his ministry as the shepherd of his flock, there, is plenty of room for adaptation to local traditions and cultures.
From the legal standpoint, since there is no law that would impede a bishop from using a ferula analogous to that of the pontiff, there would appear to be no requirement that special permission be either sought or granted.
Another possibility, which I cannot exclude, is that the archbishop in question made an exceptional use, not of a ferula proper, but of an archepiscopal cross, which our reader believed to be an imitation of the papal ferula due to the similarity of its form.
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