Throughout the course of my priesthood, after my time as a Parochial Vicar concluded and I began to be placed in charge of my assignments I also began the practice of 1) devising armorial bearings for the different places in which I have served and 2) marshaling those newly-devised coats of arms with my own. Having jurisdiction over the church or parish was then illustrated heraldically.
In the image above the first coat of arms (upper left) is my personal coat of arms assumed at ordination in 1997. The next image (upper right) shows my arms impaled with those of the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Raritan, NJ where I served as the Sixth Rector (hence the four tassels instead of only two) from 2009-2015. The image at lower left shows my arms impaled with those of St. Joseph Church in Washington, NJ where I served as Administrator and then as the Twenty-Second Pastor from 2015-2023. During the last part of that time I was also Dean of the Morris Canal Deanery. The final image (lower right) shows my coat of arms impaled to the newly-devised parish coat of arms of St. Mary, Star of the Sea in South Amboy, NJ where I will serve as the Ninth Pastor from 2023 onwards.
Next week I’m moving to a new assignment as Pastor of St. Mary Church in South Amboy, NJ. The parish was established in 1851 dedicated to St. Mary, Star of the Sea. In 1853 property for the present church was purchased and in 1854 the appointment of its first resident pastor occurred.
While the parish still is, and always has been, dedicated to Our Lady under the title of “Star of the Sea” it has always been known simply as St. Mary’s. That’s actually rather common. People like short hand and nicknames and many churches dedicated to various titles of Mary are known by their parishioners simply as St. Mary’s.
As I prepare to begin my tenure as Pastor I looked to designing armorial bearings as a symbol for the parish. This has been my custom for years. So, naturally I took as a starting point the canonical patronal title of the parish—St. Mary, Star of the Sea—to devise the coat of arms. That title lends itself very well to a clear and simple design evoking the parish’s patroness.
I know the parish will always be known with great affection as St. Mary’s. I hope we can also foster the occasional use of the beautiful name of its patroness, Star of the Sea (in Latin: Stella Maris).
As Pastor of the parish I will impale my own armorial bearings with those of the parish.
In 2018, the Most Rev. Richard Henning, a native and a priest of Long Island’s Diocese of Rockville Centre, NY (and a high school classmate of mine) became Auxiliary Bishop of that diocese. I was pleased and honored to assist him with the design of his personal coat of arms to be adopted upon ordination to the episcopate.
Last year, the Holy Father appointed him to be the Coadjutor Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, just across Long Island Sound from his former diocese. A coadjutor bishop is appointed to share in the authority of the diocesan bishop in running the diocese and has the right of automatic succession to the See when the previous bishop dies or retires. (NOTE: there used to be such a thing as coadjutor without the right of succession, but such appointments are no longer made). Bishop Henning succeeded to the See of Providence on the first of May of this year upon the retirement of Bishop Thomas Tobin becoming the IX Bishop of Providence. So his armorial bearings have been altered to impale his personal arms with those of the See:
The arms of the Diocese of Providence are composed of a blue field on which are placed three silver (white) crosses with arms that appear to terminate in anchors. These crosses, heraldically known as “moline crosses,” are used to suggest an anchor. By employing the symbol of the State of Rhode Island this signifies that the Diocese of Providence encompasses all of the state it was established to serve. The crosses, three in number to signify The Trinity, are rendered in the traditional colors of water, blue and silver (white), because of the importance that water plays in the life of “The Ocean State.” These colors are also the traditional colors for the representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, in her title of Our Lady of Providence, is Patroness of the Diocese and of the See City.
Bishop Henning’s personal coat of arms is composed of a design depicted in red (Gules), white (Argent) and blue (Azure) which are the national colors of the United States.
Both the blue background and the single escallop shell allude to the sea as evoking the Bishop’s own background and the shell is also borrowed from the coat of arms of the See of Rockville Centre, the diocese in which he was born and raised and which he served as a priest and auxiliary bishop. The shell image also recalls the Bishop’s heritage in the Diocese of Brooklyn, dedicated to its patron, St. James. The episcopal ordination of Bishop Henning took place on the eve of the Feast of St. James. In concert with the Bishop’s motto, the shell is a traditional symbol of baptism and pilgrimage. It is in the depths of these waters that Christians find their salvation in Jesus Christ.
The white wavy line surrounding the blue field is similarly taken from the arms of Rockville Centre and it alludes to the diocese’s location on Long Island, NY. Furthermore, it indicates the sea as the place where the barque of St. Peter, an image used to evoke the Church, is located.
The blue background also evokes the Bishop’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and his years of service as a Professor and Rector at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, NY. The red wavy portion of the border evokes the Bishop’s devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and his former service as the Director of the Sacred Heart Institute for the Ongoing Formation of the Catholic Clergy.
This situation was one of those times that chance presented a challenge. The bishop wanted to impale his arms with those of the See as is customary in N. America. In addition, he had no good reason to change the diocesan arms and no desire–correctly–to change his personal arms. Impaling them side-by-side presented an aesthetic challenge because they both employ blue fields. In addition, it is customary not to continue a bordure all the way around the field when the arms are impaled. Rather, there is a kind of dimidiation employed whereby the bordure is discontinued along the impalement line. In order to make the division between the two coats of arms more visible, and slightly less confusing a division line of very light blue (blue celeste, if you will) was employed for aesthetic reasons. This is really more of an artistic style choice rather than a heraldic one. Once again, it was my pleasure to assist him with this project.
The Most Rev. Edward Cullen, a priest of Philadelphia who served as Auxiliary Bishop there from 1994-1997 and who went on to become the Third Bishop of Allentown, PA from 1997-2009, passed away on May 9, 2023 at age 90. RIP.
The coat of arms he assumed upon becoming a bishop in 1994 is simple enough. Because so many bishops want to include as much symbolism as they can he decided against symmetry by having the garb and the star next to each other. The problem is that symmetry is an important aspect of heraldic art. It might have been better to place the star in the center between two garbs. Even though that increases the number of charges it provides for a more symmetrical look and avoids the appearance of a bunch of charges merely splayed across a shield. The garb may only represent one thing but having two of them would still have looked better.
Some might say, “But then it is as if they represent two separate things.” Only if you are being tiresomely literal. Solely for the sake of symmetry and a better composition and appearance, two garbs with a star between them would have been a better choice.
It is unfortunate that the personal arms and the diocesan arms both had fields Gules. But, sometimes that kind of thing happens. It would not have been a good idea to change the field in the personal arms to something else. Occasionally, the luck of the draw created some unfortunate combinations when marshaling arms together. That’s just the way it is. In such situations a bishop could consider not impaling his arms with those of the See or the artist could get creative with the depiction of the coat of arms by doing something like employing a division line of a color other than merely black to separate the two impalements.
Overall he had a nice coat of arms but with a little bit of help it could have been even better.
On April 4, the Holy Father accepted the resignation due to health reasons of the Most Rev. Michael Jackels, (68) Archbishop of Dubuque Iowa. His personal arms reflect his baptismal patron, St. Michael the archangel, combined with the unicorn from his paternal family’s coat of arms. When he first became a bishop his assumed arms impaled these two elements which was an odd choice. When he was translated to Dubuque he impaled his arms with those of the archdiocese and marshaled the other two elements in a manner that worked out to be aesthetically pleasing.
The Most Rev. Louis Tylka (51) a priest of Chicago who became Coadjutor Bishop of Peoria in 2020 succeeded to the See on March 3 after the retirement of Bishop Jenky. The armorial bearings I originally designed for him in 2020 will now be displayed as impaled with the coat of arms of the See of Peoria.
On December 29, 2020 His Holiness Pope Francis appointed the Most Rev. Dermot Farrell (66), a priest of the Diocese of Meath and since 2018 Bishop of Ossory, Ireland to be the 51st Metropolitan Archbishop of Dublin. He succeeds Abp. Diarmuid Martin.
He had already assumed a coat of arms as Bishop of Ossory. The image below is not official but was a cut and paste job by me to see what his arms as archbishop will look like. In Ireland the archbishops of Armagh (who is the Primate of All Ireland) and of Dublin (who is the Primate of Ireland) use arms of the See that appear identical because this stems from a time when all archbishops tended to use arms depicting a pall (pallium) and a cross as symbols of being an archbishop. The archiepiscopal insignia then later became associated with certain metropolitical & archiepiscopal sees and it remains so to this day, including some (like the Church of Ireland Diocese of Dublin, or the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury) where it seems particularly incongruous. This is because the pallium is worn by Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archbishops as a symbol of sharing in the ministry of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) and, as such, they receive it from him as a sign of their office.
Below we see what Archbishop Farrell’s coat of arms may well look like (or something close to this). I note that his predecessor, App. Martin, did not use a coat of arms.
Here are the armorial bearings of the Archbishops of Washington, DC almost all of whom have been elevated to Cardinal with the notable exception of the first one, Archbishop Michael Curley who was also the Archbishop of Baltimore. At first the Archdiocese of Washington was part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Later, a dual archdiocese of Baltimore-Washington was created with Curley leading it. Eventually, Washington became a separate archdiocese but Curley was still appointed its archbishop making him, simultaneously, the archbishop of the oldest American diocese (Baltimore) and the newest at that time (Washington). A short time later Washington, DC received its own residential archbishop with the appointment of Patrick O’Boyle.
There is no coat of arms for Theodore McCarrick who is no longer a cardinal or even a cleric. A blank shield is used in place of his armorial bearings but his time in Washington in still noted because under Mr. McCarrick’s tenure the armorial bearings of the archdiocese were changed and that change, despite McCarrick’s disgrace, has been employed by his two successors as well. One can only hope that at some point in the future the original coat of arms of the archdiocese will be adopted again.
Archbishop Michael Curley (the archdiocesan arms hadn’t been adopted yet and Curley impaled his arms with those of Baltimore)Patrick Cardinal O’BoyleWilliam Cardinal BaumJames Cardinal HickeyArchdiocesan arms changed by Mr. Theodore McCarrickDonald Cardinal WuerlCardinal-Designate Wilton Gregory
On September 29, the Most Reverend Ronald A. Hicks (53), a priest and Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, will be installed as the Sixth Bishop of Joliet, Illinois.
His personal coat of arms was assumed in 2018 when he became a bishop and was prepared at that time by the late Deacon Paul Sullivan. After being named to Joliet he asked me to help him by marshaling his existing arms with those of the See of Joliet.
EXARANDORUM 