Arma virumque cano

This post concerning my coat of arms is the background for the current update of the same, which is the work of the same artist. While my current arms are found in the header to this blog, I attach them here for easier and hopefully clearer reference.

Modifications from the previous version are as follows: the more customary style of galero; the return to the earliest motto (Heb 12:29; cf. Dt 4:24 et al) found on my ordination card and a huge stack of letterheads I may never use up; the removal of the lily from the St. Joseph-themed charge, for simplicity's sake; the relocation of the burning bush “in chief” (centered) and quite prominent on the shield; the slight widening of the "bordure compony" (composite border of sable and argent), and the tinctures (colors) in the main part of the shield.

The tinctures are the most dramatic change. I consider purpure a blend of the red and blue in my previous shield, a tribute to both that becomes its own expression. It is a royal hue—more the Roman purple of Lent than the indigo of Advent.

The tenné below is not a tincture, properly speaking, but, in heraldic terms, a “stain” infrequently used in heraldry, only among the English and a few others.

The color originally was more of an orange, but I changed it to a tan approaching leather; both are attested in heraldry, as infrequently as it is attested at all. It made me wonder whether the color of Tennessee football and other sports was related to the name of the stain, Tenné, but it doesn’t seem to have any connection. Not the first stretch I’ve made. 

For one thing, I just like the color orange.

Yes, it was Frank Sinatra’s favorite and "happiest" color: did I just adopt it myself in tribute to him?  Not entirely, but his preference of it is not unimportant to me. Orange factors highly in my life, as a color of several cars over the years, and various personal items besides. For me it’s not the new black (impossible for a priest!), but a suitable sidekick.

Heraldic  a stain was used as a denigration of the bearer’s status. I’ve denigrated myself enough over the years, but would I want that fact to reflect in something so personal, so emblematic, so final (😆)?

Trust me: I’ve been thinking about other revisions since this declaration of arms. But the one thing I don’t want to, ahem, part with, I have not mentioned yet: it is the wavy bend sinister, the undulating dividing line that rises from the viewer’s bottom left to the top right. It both parts the purple and tenné and personally symbolizes Saint Christopher, as the river across which he carried the Christ child.

Another reason for the tenné is its resemblance to Amber, the rock used in Lithuanian and Polish jewelry. A darker version of the stain provides more of a contrast to the gold of the burning bush. Not that the orange is necessarily inappropriate, as I’ve held onto the earlier rendition with that color and I might use it sometimes. The difference is slight.