Really? Again?

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I know what you’re thinking. A blog…again Fr. Guy? Haven’t we been down this road before? Well, yes, we have but what I was always attempting to do with the other blogs was, frankly, too much. I don’t have the time to do a blog that is updated several times a day everyday. I don’t have the resources to do a blog that is a source of news and information about the Church, the USA, the world or anything else for that matter. I don’t have a lively enough interest in lots of different things to do a blog about, you know, lots of different things.

So, why am I betting (read: hoping) that the third time is a charm? Because this time I’ve decided to do a blog that I think will be more manageable. It’s about heraldry. The overriding passion, avocation really, of my life has been my abiding and ever-deepening interest in heraldry in general and ecclesiastical heraldry in particular. So, this blog is about just that: heraldry. Because that is a topic that elicits every reaction from enthusiastic agreement to mild amusement to searching for the quickest exit without making any sharp or jerking movements from those with whom I share it I know that it is never going to become anyone’s “go to” blog for anything. In addition, its not like heraldry has got breaking stories every hour of the day so there will be no need for me to attend to it all the time.

When there is something I want to write or something I want to share or something I want to criticize or something I want to bring to your attention, I will. For those of you who already like heraldry and have some knowledge of it that should be fun. For those of you who may be looking to learn more about heraldry I hope it will teach you a thing or two. For those who have just a passing interest in the subject and/or might be searching for information for a particular reason I hope this blog may prove helpful. For those of you who haven’t got the slightest interest in this topic: why are you still reading?

Oh! And for those wondering about the name. It is “heraldry” in one of the many translations into Latin that are considered acceptable.

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.