Religious orders and congregations

Abbess

374D53AB5A264CF220542A4CF21DB5A crosier, a pectoral cross and a stole worn in a deacon’s way by an abbess of the Cistercian Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Spain. Apart from privileges concerning vestments, the abbess of that abbey had also numerous lay privileges and a real ecclesiastic power; she could e.g. impose excommunications.