Arms of Bishop Vincent Leonard

 
Alexander Schrenk
 
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Alexander Schrenk
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30 January 2015 06:35
 

I was trawling around in some archival editions of the Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper earlier today and found an interesting heraldic transformation.

There are the arms that Vincent Leonard (1908–1994) bore when he was installed as Bishop of Pittsburgh on June 1, 1969:

 

http://i62.tinypic.com/212sfp5.jpg

 

Two weeks later, a story appears on the second page of the paper:

 

http://i57.tinypic.com/14kd2tw.jpg

 

That was 1969, I guess.

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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Michael F. McCartney
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30 January 2015 17:11
 

The second version of the Bishop’s personal is a decided improvement over the rather busy first version, either standing alone, or especially when impaled with the arms of the diocese (which are also quite nice).  I assume that impalement was the motive for the change.

The newspaper article explaining the new arms describes a white heart on blue and a silver book on red, so the line drawing is apparently missing a partition line separating chief from base - my guess would be per fess, but per chevron, or maybe per fess wavy/indented/engrailed/whatever, would also work.  I assume (hope) that white and silver in the article are intended to be synonymous.

 
Dcgb7f
 
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Dcgb7f
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01 February 2015 16:18
 

If I recall correctly, Pittsburgh had a good heraldrist running around at the time who produced good designs for several bishops… I forget his name. Fr Guy certainly would remember him. The new design’s artwork looks a lot like his work, whereas the first design just looks like every other pre-1969 coat of arms.

 
Alexander Schrenk
 
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Alexander Schrenk
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01 February 2015 16:38
 

Dcgb7f;103466 wrote:

If I recall correctly, Pittsburgh had a good heraldrist running around at the time who produced good designs for several bishops… I forget his name. Fr Guy certainly would remember him. The new design’s artwork looks a lot like his work, whereas the first design just looks like every other pre-1969 coat of arms.


You must be thinking of Dr. Geza Grosschmid.

 
gselvester
 
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gselvester
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02 February 2015 05:40
 

Yes, the late Dr. Géza Grosschmid did the redesign of these arms. He also was my mentor in heraldry and he was a friend and collaborator on many projects with the late Abo. Bruno Heim. Thank God Bp. Leonard listened to him.

 
Michael Y. Medvedev
 
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Michael Y. Medvedev
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12 February 2016 15:19
 

A happy end!