On August 20, 2020, the Most Rev. Robert Marshall (61) up until now a priest of the Diocese of Memphis, Tennessee will be ordained a bishop and installed as the thirteenth bishop of Alexandria, Louisiana. The diocese was founded originally as the diocese of Natchitoches and was later called Alexandria and then Alexandria-Shreveport until Shreveport was separated to be its own diocese in 1986.

Bishop Marshall’s coat of arms impaled with those of Alexandria are:

To the left we see the arms of the Diocese of Alexandria. The red background represents the Red River which runs through the city. The silver (white) cross stands for the Christian faith and is surrounded by four bells borrowed from the ancient See of Alexandria, Egypt for which the city that is the seat of the diocese is named. Over all of this is a crescent divided into gold (yellow) and black checks. This is borrowed from the Spanish arms for the family “Xavier” and serves as an allusion to St. Francis Xavier, the titular patron of the cathedral church.

Bishop Marshall’s arms depict a blue background with a silver (white) Cross of Calvary. This type of cross is depicted as a Latin cross (the lower arm being longer than the other three) atop three gradings or steps. Both the background color and the cross are derived from the coat of arms associated with the name “Martin”. This was the bishop’s mother’s maiden name and is used to honor his family heritage. The lower portion of the field is divided from the upper third called a “chief” by a narrow silver (white) wavy line. This wavy line represents the Mississippi River near to which the bishop has lived for most of his life. In addition, a symbol of the Mississippi River is included in the coat of arms of the Diocese of Memphis in which the bishop served as a priest prior to becoming a bishop.

 On the red background of the chief are a single silver (white) five-pointed star between two gold (yellow) pine cones. The star comes from the emblem of the LaSalle Christian Brothers who educated the bishop both in his high school and college years as well as educating his father and uncles. That Religious Community of men had a profound and lasting impact on not only the bishop’s education but also on his spiritual life and journey and on the lives of his family. The red background and pine cones are borrowed from the coat of arms of the bishop’s patron saint, St. Robert Bellarmine.

The motto below the shield is, “Live, Jesus In Our Hearts” from a prayer attributed to St. John Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719), founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and patron saint of teachers of youth.  The prayer is used multiple times each day in LaSallian schools throughout the world.  It is used most frequently in dialog.  The leader says, “Live Jesus in our hearts,” and the students respond, “Forever!”

It was my privilege to design the bishop’s personal arms, marshal them to the arms of the See and emblazon them.