A few days ago I posted on the very nice coat of arms of the diocese of Fall River, MA. Yesterday, their new bishop, the Most Rev. Edgar da Cunha was installed. He was formerly the auxiliary bishop of Newark, NJ.
On Sept. 24th Edgar da Cunha will be installed as the new bishop of Fall River, MA. The diocese possesses a very nicely designed coat of arms that even includes a nice “can’t” or heraldic pun based on the name of the See. The wavy line that crosses the shield from the upper left to the lower right depicts a river that falls as one looks at it from left to right. Thus, it “says” the name of the diocese. In addition, the overall design is simple and uncluttered. The cross is a sign of the faith and the grace of God and the star is a symbol of the titular of the cathedral: St. Mary. The arms were designed by Pierre Chaignon la Rose.
Thanks to the assistance of a friend who attended the ordination I now have images of the coats of arms of the other two new Auxiliary Bishops of New York. The arms of the Most Rev. John O’Hara is below and below that the arms of the Most Rev. Peter Byrne.
On August 12 Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, until now Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore, will be installed as the IX Bishop of Springfield, Massachusetts. The coat of arms of the new bishop (above) combines his personal arms with those of the see of Springfield. (the four roundels with waves symbolize a field of springs and the cross is associated with St. Michael, patron of the cathedral.)
His personal arms (below) were assumed in 2004 at the time he became a bishop when he was appointed as Auxiliary in Baltimore.
The small cross is symbolic of St. Michael (a name from which Mitchell is derived); the red and white colors allude to the national colors of Poland; the flower alludes to his surname which, in Polish, means “rose flower”. The lower portion uses the colors derived from the arms of Calvert, Lord Baltimore. The red bend (vertical stripe) and open book are for preaching the Word. The motto is taken from Psalm 100.
(Artwork by Paul Sullivan)
On August 4, 2014 Cardinal Dolan of New York ordained three Auxiliary Bishops for the Archdiocese. They are the Most Revs. Peter Byrne, John O’Hara and John Jenik. While I have not yet seen the coats of arms assumed by all three I did come across the interesting and distinctive coat of arms assumed by Bishop Jenik. He designed the coat of arms himself and I am not sure of the symbolism behind the design. Many might see this as strange because it does not follow the usual “lucky charms” notion of heraldry with an overloaded shield filled with charges meant to be a pictorial CV of the bearer. Good for him! Such heraldry is atrocious and all too common among the American Catholic hierarchy.
Rather, Bishop Jenik’s coat of arms is very simple. This is one of the earmarks of good heraldry. The use of black and white may make it stark but not knowing the meaning of the design there may very well be a good reason for the choice of these colors. In addition, since heraldry is, at its heart, about identification and nothing else, the design is clear to see and easily identifiable. Again, these are attributes of good heraldry. It reminds me of some of the most ancient heraldic designs that present clear images and use as few colors as possible.
I say hats off to Bishop Jenik for an excellent and unique design for his coat of arms!
(Artwork by Paul Sullivan)
Saint Bonaventure, Cardinal-Bishop of Albano. As a Franciscan he bore simply the arms associated with the Order. He had also served as Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor. The artwork here is by the late Michael McCarthy of Australia.
Father Kevin Doran is being ordained Bishop of Elphin, Ireland on July 13. The description of his coat of arms (above) taken from the website of the diocese:
In the right side of the shield (seen from the point of view of the one holding the shield) we find represented the Coat of Arms of the Diocese of Elphin; two golden crossed croziers surmounting a lamb as the central symbol reflecting Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The red (gules) color is the color of love, of blood; the infinite love of the Father who sent the Son to shed His blood for us, the ultimate act of love.
The personal arms of Bishop Kevin occupy the left side. This part of the shield is in silver (argent). The anchor, symbol of hope, is taken from the Doran family motto, Spes Ancora Vitae (Hope is the Anchor of Life). The anchor is in green (vert), the symbolic colour of hope.
The blackbird references the legend of St. Kevin and the Blackbird, which is so well captured in the poem by Seamus Heaney. It reminds Bishop Kevin of the importance of fidelity to prayer and the relationship between prayer, compassion and service. The blackbird carries in his beak a copper pot, symbol of St Asicus, patron saint of the diocese of Elphin. St. Asicus was a coppersmith.
Fr. Kevin spent some years as parish priest of Glendalough, Co. Wicklow (The Valley of the Two Lakes). As he ministered to parishioners and pilgrims around the lakeshore, he was often reminded of the ministry of Jesus, much of which took place around the lake (or sea) of Galilee. As he undertakes his new mission in the Diocese of Elphin, (a diocese bounded on one end by the River Shannon and on the other by the Atlantic Ocean), he takes the ministry of Jesus as his model and inspiration. This is the symbolism of the wavelets in the lower part of the shield.
The coat of arms (above) of Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1896-1902. His son, William Temple was also Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942-1944. I would presume, however, that as a second son he did not use the same arms as his father but differenced them in some manner.
Above is the coat of arms of Archbishop Antje Jackelén, the Bishop of Lund in the Church of Sweden elected as the first woman to be Archbishop of Uppsala and Primate of the Church of Sweden. She was installed at Uppsala on June 15, 2014. Below is a photo of the new archbishop with (l.-r.) Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia and Archbishop Anders Wejryd, her predecessor as archbishop. The coat of arms follows a typical pattern in Scandinavian countries of the personal arms (in the 2nd and 3rd quarters) being quartered with those of the (arch)diocese. The motto translates to, “God is Greater”.
artwork: Ronny Andersen
The coat of arms above is that of Giuseppe Piemontese, OFM Conv who will be ordained on June 21 as the bishop of Terni-Narni-Amelia, Italy. A very pleasing design.
(…and if you say the name of the diocese very quickly the middle part sounds like you’re saying “Narnia”)
The new Archbishop of Gniezno, Poland, the Most Rev. Wojciech Polak, will be installed on June 7. In 1948 it was decided that the Archbishops of Warsaw would also be the Archbishops of Gniezno and, thus, Primates of Poland. These two offices were joined “in persona episcopi”. However, later in March of 1992 it was decided once again to separate the two archdioceses with each having its own archbishop. Josef Cardinal Glemp who was Archbishop of Gniezno and warsaw at the time was permitted to retain the title of Primate of Poland until he stepped down in 2009. From 2009 onwards the title Primate of Poland once again rests solely with the Archbishop of Gniezno and not with the Archbishop of Warsaw.
The arms of Archbishop Polak (below) show a simple design. However, the galero is shown with 30 green tassels instead of 20 and those tassels also appear ro have a skein of gold interwoven in them. Such a hat is used in Roman Catholic heraldry by Patriarchs, not Primates. Frequently, it is erroneously asserted that Primates are entitled to the same external ornaments as Patriarchs. This is false and untrue! So, this new Archbishop-Primate begins his tenure by claiming additaments on his coat of arms to which he has no credible claim.
Heraldry: FAIL
Back in 2012 a priest who, like me, grew up on Long Island and who, unlike me served as a priest of the diocese of Rockville Centre and also went on to serve the U.S. Air Force as a chaplain rising to the rank of Colonel, was honored by the then Pope, Benedict XVI, with the rank of Chaplain to His Holiness. This is the lowest of the three grades of prelates in the papal household who are collectively addressed as “Monsignor” (Italian for “My Lord”). Fr. Mark Rowan contacted me and asked if I could assist him with the design of a coat of arms. I jumped at the chance to help out a fellow Long Islander as well as a chance to assist someone who was serving not only the Lord but our country. Below is the end result:
The main background of the field is a shade of blue called, in heraldry, Bleu Celeste. It is borrowed from the coat of arms of the U.S. Air Force. Obviously, it alludes to the blue of the sky. On this is the single charge of the open globe combined with a Latin cross (one where the lower arm is longer than the other three) in silver. This charge is taken from the arms of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA. Superimposed over this is a small black roundel, called a “pellet”. This, in turn, has three small silver hills. It is borrowed from the coat of arms of the diocese of Rockville Centre, NY. The three small hills are, in turn, taken from the arms of Pope Pius XII who founded the diocese of Rockville Centre in 1957. That diocese is composed of territory taken from the diocese of Brooklyn so the black tincture represents the marshes, which recalled to the Dutch their homeland in Breuckelen on the Vecht in the Province of Utrecht. The Dutch who settled Brooklyn at first called it “Breuck-Landt,” meaning “broken land,” or “marshland,” inasmuch as a great deal of land was broken up by patches of water.
The upper third of the shield (called the “chief”) is separated from the rest of the background by a line whose shape is referred to as “nebuly”. This type of line in heraldry is used to suggest clouds. This same dividing line is also used in the coat of arms of the U.S. Air Force. Here, along with the bleu celeste, it alludes to Msgr. Rowan’s service as a Chaplain. The bumps or nebuli are six in number. This is a reference to the fact that Msgr. Rowan has served or provided support on six different continents in the course of his service as a Chaplain and has also administered six of the seven sacraments. (The seventh sacrament, holy orders, is reserved to bishops). On the gold (or yellow) colored chief stands a red winged lion that is the symbol of his patron saint, St. Mark, the Evangelist. The lion holds, in his right front paw a green trefoil, more commonly known as a shamrock, which is the symbol of Msgr. Rowan’s Irish ancestry.
The galero, or ecclesiastical hat, is used in Church heraldry in place of the more martial helmet, mantling and crest. Originally a pilgrim’s hat it was worn and used in heraldry by Cardinals. Later, it was adopted by the lesser prelates. Eventually a system of both colors and number of tassels was devised to indicate the various ranks within the hierarchy. Msgr. Rowan’s arms use a black galero like any priest but the cords and tassels are purple indicating he is a member of the papal household. This galero indicates the bearer is a Chaplain to His Holiness according to the Motu Proprio, “Inter Multiplices” of Pope St. Pius X in 1905.
On a scroll below the shield Msgr. Rowan has chosen the motto, “Christ Be Beside Me” which is taken from the prayer known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate”. After I completed this design and Msgr. Rowan approved the artwork was quickly and expertly executed by Mr. Sandy Turnbull of Australia. Mr. Turnbull is a member of the Australian Heraldry Society.
In recent years I have often had the great good fortune to collaborate on the design or re-design of coats of arms for various prelates and corporate bodies within the Catholic Church in Australia. My acquaintance and growing friendship with Mr. Richard d’Apice, President of the Australian Heraldry Society as well as a member of the Collegium Ecclesiastica Exarandorum, led to his occasionally consulting with me on designs upon which he was working. These days he acts as the agent with the bishop in question and we consult back and forth via email on the design itself. This happy collaboration is then added to even further by the artistic abilities of Mr. Sandy Turnbull who is also a member of the Australian Heraldry Society. With ease and great efficiency Mr. Turnbull is able to take our ideas and sketches and turn them into first rate heraldic depictions. To date we have worked together on approximately 28 commissions. Here are some examples of our most recent collaborations:
The coat of arms of the Most Rev. Michael F. McCarthy of Rockhampton who will be ordained and installed on May 29th.
The coat of arms of the Most Rev. Columba Macbeth-Green, OSPPE of Wilcannia-Forbes who will be ordained and installed on July 3rd.
Today, the Most Rev. Carl A. Kemme, a priest of the diocese of Springfield in Illinois will be ordained and installed as the bishop of Wichita, Kansas. His coat of arms (below) combines, or impales, the arms of the See (left) clearly based on those of Pope Leo XIII, with his personal arms (right). The design is clear, uncomplicated, and very nicely conceived. The artwork is well done.
The Most Rev. Peter L. Smith will be ordained auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Portland in Oregon on April 29 by Archbishop Alexander Sample. The new bishop is a priest of that archdiocese. The shield is shaped like that of a Zulu warrior because the bishop was born in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The flame represents the Holy Spirit, the upraised hands prayer and worship, the gold field stands for devotion to Christ. The jagged division line represents several mountain ranges important to the bearer and the star Our Lady as well as the star of Bethlehem.
The rose on the episcopal cross supposedly stands for Portland, “the rose city”. The designer of this coat of arms, James Noonan, repeatedly likes to design distinctive external ornaments that are particular to each coat of arms which is really heraldically unsupportable. The blazon can only specify that which is on the shield, not the external ornaments.
Design: James Noonan
Artwork: Linda Nicholson
Last May while I was vacationing in France I posted about saints who had been armigerous (i.e. who bore a coat of arms). On Sunday, April 27 there will be two more added to that number when Pope Francis canonizes his predecessors in the Chair of St. Peter, Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II.
The coat of arms of Pope John XXIII (above) was identical to the one he used as Patriarch of Venice with the addition of the external ornaments of a pope. The arms are: “Gules a fess Argent; in chief two fleur-de-lis Argent and overall a tower embattled Argent; on a chief Argent the lion of St. Mark Or”. The lower portion consists of the coat of arms that was adopted by Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli when he was named a bishop. Later, when he was promoted to Patriarch of Venice he added the chief (upper third of the shield) with the golden lion of St. Mark, the patron saint of the Venetian church, as is customary for all Patriarchs of Venice. This is one of the few examples in Italian Church heraldry where arms of the See are used. When he was stationed as Papal Nuncio to Paris, Roncalli had a young Bruno Heim serving as his secretary at the Paris Nunciature. The two shared an abiding interest in heraldry. At the time of his election to the papacy John XXIII was not in immediate touch with Heim who was serving elsewhere. John, himself an amateur heraldist approved his arms as they were with the Venetian lion included to be used as his papal coat of arms. A short time later he did employ his former secretary, Heim, to produce the artwork for the official version of the coat of arms. Heim tried to talk him out of retaining the chief of Venice in his papal arms but it was too late. So, it remained.
The coat of arms of Pope John Paul II (above) are also connected to the late Archbishop Heim. The arms are: “Azure a Latin cross skewed to dexter throughout Or; in sinister base the letter “M” Or”. These arms are also the ones adopted by Karol Wojtyła at the time he was made a bishop. However, in the earlier version the cross and “M” were black. On his election to the papacy Heim tried in vain to persuade the new pope to drop the letter “M” and replace it with another Marian symbol. The use of letters in heraldry is considered poor design. The new pope was adamant that his arms had to remain the same as those he had borne under a repressive Communist regime in order to show that he would not modify or weaken the stance he held as a bishop and cardinal in Poland. As a concession to good taste and design, however, so as not to have a color on a color he agreed to change the cross and “M” to gold on blue. Heim, who was afraid that his reputation as a knowledgeable expert in heraldry would suffer did his homework and then added an entire chapter to a second edition of his book, “Heraldry in the Catholic Church” on the use of what are called house markings, which resemble letters, as being particular to both Polish and Swiss heraldry (Heim was Swiss).
So, the age of saints is not long ago and distant but is with us right now. In addition, both of these down-to-earth men (John was the son of peasant farmers from Northern Italy and John Paul the son of a Polish civil servant) had coats of arms. Heraldry is often misunderstood as elitist, exclusive, snobbish and pretentious. Yet, these two men who were holy to a heroic degree such that they are now being held up as worthy of emulation by the faithful and who were known for their genuine humility each had a coat of arms.
Artwork: Bruno B. Heim
Earlier today the Most Rev. Myron Cotta was ordained as the Auxiliary Bishop of Sacramento, California. His newly assumed arms are below.
The field is divided by an inverted chevron alluding to a carpenter’s square for St. Joseph and the San Joaquin Valley. In chief there is an amphora charged with the letters “SC” for sacred chrism. The bishop’s given name, Myron, is the Greek word for the sacred oil.
In base there appears a monogram composed of the letters “I”, “M” and “H”. This stands for (if you can believe it) the Immaculate heart of Mary with the “M” taking the most prominent place. The bishop has a great devotion to Our Lady under this title.
The motto translates to “Grace and Mercy” and is in Portuguese to reflect the bishop’s ethnicity as being from the Azores.
Well, there is an overabundance of the use of letters in this achievement. Someone clearly never heard that the use of letters in heraldry is considered port design. The “SC” on the amphora is, in my opinion, unnecessary. The amphora alone is a sufficient symbol for sacred oil. Why not actually depict the Immaculate Heart of Mary instead of abbreviating it? The monogram is an example of extremely poor design. It’s weak and not self evident where the image of the Immaculate heart would have been. In addition, since most people don’t know that the name Myron means sacred oil they will naturally assume that the gigantic “M” in the coat of arms stands for Myron and not for Mary.
This was done by Paul Sullivan. Not one of his best efforts.
Below is an image from “The Florida Catholic” of the coat of arms of the newly ordained Auxiliary Bishop of Miami, the Most Rev. Peter Baldacchino. I am disappointed that the bishop chose to make no allusion to his baptismal patron, St. Peter, in the coat of arms. Similarly, I am disappointed that he passed up the obvious choice to have canting arms by depicting a baldacchino, or canopy, over an altar. In fact, it might have been interesting to depict the famous Bernini baldacchino of St. Peter’s Basilica as a way to combine the two. Instead, he has chosen a cluttered design filled with far too many charges in an attempt to create a “C.V. in pictures” which is precisely what a coat of arms is NOT.
The description of the symbolism in the design is also from “The Florida Catholic”:
Dominating the coat of arms is Christ crucified. The Cross emerges as a sign of victory over death, represented by the waters of the baptismal font, the source of Christian life which communicates to every Christian the victory of Christ. The baptismal font is a reference also to his own rediscovery of baptism through the Neocatechumenal Way and to the work of evangelization: bringing people to live their baptism so that they may receive divine life.
Beneath the Cross and baptismal font is found an image of a palm tree upon which a lobster rests, a well-known symbol of the early Church, representing the mystery of salvation through baptism: a sea creature, accustomed to live in the waters of sin, through the work of the Holy Spirit, can leave behind its natural environment and live upon a palm tree, symbol of eternity and paradise.
Above the Cross hovers a dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, who is the life of the Church, and without whom nothing can be done. In the upper part are found the moon, representing the Blessed Virgin Mary: “And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1); and the Cross of Malta, but also the star which leads the way to Christ. The palm tree is also a reference to the Archdiocese of Miami, and the lobster to the Turks and Caicos Islands, where Bishop Baldacchino ministered for 15 years. The coat of arms is completed by the three waves of the baptismal font representing the three rivers of the Archdiocese of Newark, where Bishop Baldacchino was ordained in 1996.
The motto translates to: “Where God is, there is joy”.
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
Fr. Guy Selvester's blog of Ecclesiastical Heraldry
