Page 31 - Priorities #47 2010-June/July

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Father Martin with retired Bishop Wong, of the San Francisco Archdiocese, holding one of Father Martin’s crosiers.
Father Martin’s skill as a woodworker is renowned. His clocks are exquisite, his canoes
are works of art, and he’s even crafted small homes for our fine feathery friends on campus. What most people don’t know is that the greater Catholic community highly prizes one very unique wooden item that Father Martin crafts. Father Martin makes crosiers that numerous bishops in the United States and in Rome, Italy regularly use in ceremonies. In fact, Cardinal Leveda, who holds one of the highest offices in Rome, possesses one of Father Martin’s crosiers.
Father Martin said that in the 1970’s, the Bishop of Manchester, Odore Gendron, in New Hampshire heard about a crosier he had made for a bishop at St. Anselms and asked him to make one for him. After that, “word spread” and since then he’s made almost a dozen crosiers for bishops all over the United States, including: Boston, San Francisco, Maine, and Delaware just to name a few.
In Western Christianity, the crozier is shaped like a shepherd’s crook. A bishop/head of church bears this staff as “shepherd of the flock of God.”
Symbolism of the Crosier
Father Martin put his own unique spin on the symbolism of the crosier (pictured above). The “crook” part is constructed of three pieces of black walnut, which is from the southern states, and two pieces of Brazilian rosewood. The transitional pieces are made of ebony from Africa. The node and staff are made of cherry wood from the northeastern states. The four inset stones on the node are jade, which represents Asia, and set in silver which represents California. As a whole, the crosier represents the universality of the Church.