Below is the recently designed coat of arms for a priest. The shield is divided per saltire, the upper and lower quarters being red and the other two being green. These colors, along with the silver (white) are the national colors of Italy, the country of the bearer’s ancestry. In the center there is an open royal crown with two arrows, points downward, passing through it crossed in saltire and the crown and arrows are gold (yellow). This is the heraldic device used to symbolize the armiger’s patron saint. The two silver (white) stars on either side evoke the armiger’s last name which, translated into English, means a bringer of light. The stars are the firmaments fixed lights. Above and below the main charge are two hearts. This is an allusion to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts as well as to the fact that the armiger has had a heart transplant and so has also had two hearts. The motto “Lift Up Your Hearts” is taken from the opening dialogue of the Preface of the Mass.

We had been in discussion about a coat of arms for some time but couldn’t seem to settle on a design that satisfied us both or, for that matter, even come up with a good starting point. This design, somewhat oddly, simply came to me in my minds eye all at once one afternoon and was accepted immediately by the armiger.