Archbishop Cushley of Edinburgh

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Below is the coat of arms of the Most Reverend Leo William Cushley, Metropolitan Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland. He was installed in the position last year but just this past Sunday received his pallium from Pope Francis.

2 thoughts on “Archbishop Cushley of Edinburgh”

Hans van Heijningen July 4, 2014 at 5:09 AM

I don’t see a pallium yet.
What a wonderful coat of arms is this! Who is afraid of the black? Even in perfect coats of arms the color-gamma is still too narrow. Blue and red field with silver or golden figures are most common. I welcome this ‘very black’ shield with gladness.
I plea for much more use of combinations with much black/green, to gain more relieve. Father Guy’s own crest is an example what I wished to see more in ecclesisastical heraldry.
There exists a family-crest Cushing gold with blue lozenges …. but perhaps the new metropolitan is of a different branche …..
The pall-couped ( here florished with lilies) is (up to me) a typical Scottish charge. I saw it also th the crest of bishop Cunningham (Galloway) and in some civic shields.

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guyselvester Post authorJuly 5, 2014 at 11:27 AM

I’m not sure why you’re expecting to see a pallium. While many metropolitans include the pallium in their achievements it is not a mandatory thing and, until recently, was hardly ever seen. The inclusion of the pallium in Benedict XVI’s coat of arms led to an increase of seeing them in the arms of metropolitans. However, Bruno Heim correctly points out that while they may be used the lack of a good way to depict them without the pallia obscuring the shield or very incorrectly hanging below it like of kind of chivalric decoration means that it should most definitely be omitted as an external ornament. It is better to depict the pallium as a charge on the arms. So, metropolitans who do not include the pallium in their heraldic achievements are not only exercising a good option they are, really, choosing the more heraldically correct way.

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