Author Archives: guyselvester

Coat of Arms of Bishop David Talley

This is the coat of arms assumed on April 2, 2013 when David Talley was ordained an auxiliary bishop for Atlanta.

Bishop Talley’s arms are composed of a twelve-pointed silver (white) star known as the “Stellar Maris,” or “Star of the Sea,” a classic symbol honoring Our Blessed Mother between two Cherokee Roses that have silver (white) petals and gold (yellow) barbs and seed and are the state flower of Georgia displayed in the arms of the Diocese of Savannah and in the arms of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. The chevron, from the Prescott family arms is composed of Silver (white) and blue wavy bars, representing water and it signifies the Chattahoochee and the Savannah rivers that run throughout
the territories of the two Georgia dioceses.

In the base of the design, is the bark of St. Peter, gold (yellow) with a silver (white) sail charged with the IHS, the monogram of the Holy Name, in red. The bark is the central feature of the logo of the ”Year of Faith”.

(artwork by P. Sullivan)

Coat of Arms of Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, OR

This is the coat of arms of the Most Rev. Alexander Sample, former Bishop of Marquette, MI who was installed on April 2 as Archbishop of Portland, OR. The left side of the shield (as we view it) depicts the arms of the archdiocese. They are impaled with the personal arms of the archbishop which he assumed at the time he became a bishop. In the upper section the border that is shown only partially employs a now-defunct method known as dimidiation. This manner of depicting charges fell out in favor of full impalement quite some time ago. It’s not that dimidiation is unheard of any longer. Rather, it is simply rarely used.