Definition of "pastoral staff" [pastoral staff]

• A staff, usually of the form of a shepherd's crook, borne as an official emblem by a bishop, abbot, abbess, or other prelate privileged to carry it. See Crook, and Crosier. (adjective)

Gnu Collaboartive International Dictionary of English: licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

• "But the emperor received him in audience and gave him a pastoral staff (the hrabdos)."
• "His relics wrought innumerable miracles; and often he himself appeared with long countenance, ripened by abstinence, his head sprinkled with grey hairs, his casule of cloth of gold, his mitre of glittering crystal, his face brighter than the sun, his eyes mild as the stars of heaven, the gems upon his hand and robes rattling against his pastoral staff beset with pearls."