http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Assumption_seal_200px.png
Does the crowned letter "M" represent the Virgin Mary? I read somewhere online that it does, but I’m looking for more credible sources. The same goes for the letters "ATR" on the book.
If you can name some credible Web sites or books that provide explanations, I would appreciate it.
The crowned M stands for Maria regina (Mary, Our Queen).
The ATR on the book may be a reference to the Augustinian of the Assumption, the Order that founded the college whose motto is "Adveniat Regnum Tuum" (Thy Kingdom Come).
gselvester;75347 wrote:
The crowned M stands for Maria regina (Mary, Our Queen).
The ATR on the book may be a reference to the Augustinian of the Assumption, the Order that founded the college whose motto is "Adveniat Regnum Tuum" (Thy Kingdom Come).
Father, would you be able to recommend any books on the tradition and use of monograms in the Catholic Church in general and in Marian art in particular?
If not, I guess I can try The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute located at the University of Dayton.
I discovered the institute when I came across this link:
As some of you know, I’m working on a project dealing with academic heraldry. I located the blazon and design rationales for the devices of Assumption College, but they are in French and Latin. I’ve attempted a translation with the help of online translation tools. Would someone please check the translations for me? Thanks in advance.
Blason des Armes du College
Escartelé d’azur et d’argent à la croix fleurdelisé gironée de l’un de l’autre, cantonnée en chef à dextre du monogramme de Marie d’argent couronné d’or, et en pointe d’une fleur-de-lis du même à senestre; chargée en coeur d’un livre relié de gueules, la tranche or et ouvert d’argent portant les lesstres grecques “Alpha” et “Omega” de gueules.
Blazon of the Arms of the College:
Quarterly Azure and Argent in the first quarter the monogram of Mary Argent, bearing a coronet [set, as seen in the margin, with eight, five-pointed stars (five visible)] Or and in the fourth quarter a fleur-de-lis Or. Overall, a cross flory quarterly and counterchanged thereon an open book Argent bound Gules, edged Or, and inscribed with the Greek letters Alpha and Omega Gules.
Quarterly Azure and Argent on a cross flory quarterly-counterchanged between the monogram of Mary Argent, bearing a coronet [set, as seen in the margin, with eight, five-pointed stars (five visible)] Or in the first quarter and a fleur-de-lis Or in the fourth quarter, an open book Argent bound Gules, edged Or, and inscribed with the Greek letters Alpha and Omega Gules.
Le Cimier
….Elle indique l’esprit des religieux de l’Assumption qui se résume en ces quelques mots: L’amour de Notre-Seigneur, de la Sainte Vierge, sa mére, et de l’Eglise, son épouse, en dévouant toute sa vie á l’avénement du régne du Christ dans les âmes et par tous les moyens modernes d’apostolat.
Explication of the Crest:
The crest, [a roundel] is red, bearing the white monogram A.R.T., which represents the motto of the Augustinians of the Assumption: “Adveniat regnum tuum” (Thy Kingdom Come!). The motto is the religious spirit of the Assumptionists distilled in just a few words: Love of Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, his mother, and the Church, his wife. He devoted his whole life to the advent of the reign of Christ in all souls and modern forms of the ministry.
La Devise
Cette devise est prise du directoire des Assomptionistes et leur a été donnée par le Père, Emmanuel d’Alzon, leur fondateur. Elle est tirée de l’Epître de saint Paul aux Galates: "La formation de Jésus-Christ dans les âmes ajoute le Père d’Alzon, voilà le but unique de l’éducation! Quand les jeunes âmes confiées à nos soins auront été mises sur la voie où elles pourront s’approcher des perfections de l’Homme-Dieu, elles auront reçu la plus admirable préparation àla vie."
Explication of the College Motto:
“Donec formetur Christus in vobis.” The motto is taken from the Order of the Assumptionists and has been given by Father Emmanuel d’Alzon, the founder. It is derived from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians. “The formation of Jesus Christ in the souls,” adds Father d’Alzon, “that is the soul purpose of education! When the young souls entrusted to our care go out into the world or become men of God, they will have received the most wonderful preparation for life.”
The Seal of the College
The seal of the college contains a version of the arms surrounded by an annulet inscribed in Latin. The inscription on the annulet reads: SIGILLUM * COLLEGII * B * M * V * IN * CAELOS * ASSUMPTÆ * VIGORNII * MASS (COLLEGE * SEAL * BLESSED * VIRGIN * MARY * ASSMUMED * INTO * HEAVEN * WORCESTER, MASS). The book on the shield of the seal is inscribed, in red, with the A.R.T monogram, “Adveniat regnum tuum” (Thy Kingdom Come), and the fleur-de-lis in the fourth quarter is white. There is no explanation given for why the inscription and fleur-de-lis differ from those on the arms proper.
Let me suggest a few corrections to your translations.
Blazon of the Arms of the College
Quarterly Azure and Argent, a cross flory gyronny [not quarterly] counterchanged between in dexter chief the monogram of Mary Argent ensigned by a [celestial] crown Or and in sinister base a fleur-de-lis Or, in fess point over all an open book Argent bound Gules edged Or inscribed with the Greek letters Alpha and Omega Gules.
[The seal of the order does show a cross flory counterchanged on the quartered field, but the blazon describes a cross gyronny. If all the depictions of the arms show the cross conterchanged quarterly, the blazon may be wrong. If so, the English blazon would read "Quarterly Azure and Argent a cross flory counterchanged between…"]
Explanation of the Crest
[The motto?] expresses the spirit of the religious of the Assumption, summarized in these few words: [to] love our Lord, the Blessed Virgin his mother, and the Church his bride by devoting all one’s life to bringing about the reign of Christ in souls by all the modern means of apostolic activity.
[Without the text which preceded the pronoun "elle", it is unclear what expresses the spirit of this order. To what does the pronoun "elle" refer?...Religious here is a noun, not an adjective. It means "members of a religious order" i.e. monks, nuns, sisters, brothers etc….It is not Christ who devoted his whole life, but the members of the order who devote theirs.]
Explanation of the College Motto
This motto is taken from the directory [perhaps "the rule" or "the constiturions"] of the Assumptionists and was given them by their founder, Father Emmanuel d’Alzon. It is taken from the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians: "The formation of Jesus Christ in souls," adds Father d’Alzon, "that is the sole [not soul] goal of education. When the young souls entrusted to our care have been set on the way by which they can approach the perfection of the God-Man, they will have received the most admirable preparation for life."
[The expression here "l’Homme-Dieu" refers to Christ as the incarnate Son of God, both man and God.]
The college seal shows the initials ATR. I wonder whether that may not also be the inscription on the book in the arms. If the arms were blazoned incorrectly (describing the cross as gyronny when it is really quarterly), perhaps the author of the blazon also misinterpreted the inscription, missing the T in the gutter and mistaking the Lombardic(?) R for an Omega. The blazon is also a bit vague on the tincture of the fleur-de-lis, describing it only as "the same". One would think this referred the last mentioned tincture (Or), but this too may have been an error. Do colored depictions of the arms clearly and consistently show the monogram and crown of different tinctures? It would make more sense to me if monogram, crown, and fleur-de-lis were all Argent.
I hope this is helpful.
Thinking some more about this blazon, it seems highly unlikely that the cross is meant to be gyronny (as stated in the blazon), since this would mean that at some points the cross would be azure on an azure field and argent on an argent field.
Fr Dohrman is correct about the gyronny. The French blazon may be wrong, or the term gironée may not be a perfect cognate with gyronny in English. I suspect the former; I’m not an expert in French blazon, but there are some key errors even in regular French, most notably that croix, as a feminine noun, must be modified by a feminine adjective, which would be fleurdelisée, not fleurdelisé.
Besides, at least according to the heraldic translator at heraldica.org, the French term for a cross flory is a croix florencée; fleurdelisée is used to blazon a cross fleuretty, which this isn’t.
The rest of the syntax seems odd, too—I’m not sure I’ve seen French blazons using the "of the same" formulation, and I don’t think a charge in the fourth quarter would be blazoned as being in sinister point but rather in the fourth quarter. Perhaps some of our Francophone members will chime in.
I guessed that some of the oddities of the French blazon may have been simple typos (cf. lesstres). In general, though, I think we are dealing with a botched blazon (Is that the correct term?)
According to my sources, gironnée is the same as gyronny, being of 8 pieces unless otherwise blazoned. Also fleurdelisée appears to be the correct term. Florencée describes a fleur-de-lis with the extra filaments as used in the arms of Florence.
En point senestre would be more natural than en point[e] ... à senestre.
Thanks Father Dohrman and Joe:
I put up a .jpeg of the source of the blazon in my album. However, when I opened the file in the album, it was very pixelated, unlike the original. I hope it works better for you.
Is there a way to attach files or photos to forum emails and thread replies without using a url?
Dohrman, at the head of this thread is a picture of the arms. It’s accurate. I’ll try and put up another color picture later today, and respond to some of the comments the two of you made. Thanks for chiming in.
I’m still doing research on the man who designed the arms. I believe he was a hobbyist, so that may account from some of the errors in the blazon. He’s mentioned in the source.
Fr. Dohrman:
Thank you so much for the translation. It is very helpful. Let me know if you can read the picture of the source in my album.
Let me address five of the points you brought up.
1. The depiction of the arms and seal in the source with their blazons shows the letter "M" supporting the crown. That’s why I chose "bearing a crown" as opposed to "ensigned by" one. In some other emblazons the "M" is just barely "ensigned by" the crown, the gap between the two being barely visible from a distance. I decided to go with the depiction in the source.
2. My copy of Friar’s Dictionary of Heraldry defines a celestial crown as an Eastern Crown with its rays terminating in mullets. It also shows a picture of each type of crown. Neither one matches the crown in the depiction of the arms.
3. Here is the missing text to which the pronoun "elle" refers: L’écran de couleur rouge (gueules) portant le monogramme A.R.T d’argent est la devise de la Congrégation des Assomptionistes: “Adveniat regnum tuum,” Que votre régne arrive!
4. The distinction between the seal and the arms is the distinction between the inscriptions on the books.
The book on the arms is inscribed with the two letters Alpha and Omega.
The book on the seal is inscribed with the initials ATR for “Adveniat regnum tuum." The Victorian convention for "monograms" seems to be the only reason I can come up with for the "T" being larger and placed in the middle. By the way, I’m looking for a good source on monogram etiquette if you know of one.
5. The fleur-de-lis of the arms appears to be hatched Or. The fluer-de-lis of the seal appears to be hatched Argent. There are few color depictions the seal, but they show the fleur-de-lis as Argent. I have come across no color depictions of the arms.
http://www1.assumption.edu/acad/opportunities/images/structure/ac_seal.jpg
If what you’re looking for is an accurate blazon, I would offer:
Quarterly Azure and Argent a cross flory counterchanged between in the first quarter a letter M ensigned with a crown and in the fourth a fleur-de-lys Or, over all an open book inscribed with the letters ATR proper.
I would say that there’s almost zero chance that the arms on the seal are supposed to be different from what you’re characterizing as the arms. I think the differences you’re seeing are almost certainly the result of errors on the part of one or the other, and since the seal as depicted on the college’s website would be authoritative, that should indicate which version is correct.
Unless the blazon you’re working from was prepared by the designer, that is, in which case we may have a slight evolution in design over time.
Joe,
I’m familiar with the image you posted. Take a look at the colored version of the seal. It is posted in my album. It is one to two years old and is emblazoned differently from the website logo you posted. It, like the current logo version of the seal at the head of this thread, were both created after the blazons and the illustrations which accompany the original depictions of the arms and seal, which are intentionally different, as evidenced by the 1954 French document in which they appear. I’ve posted a jpeg of that document in my album. Let me know if you can open it; it comes from the college archives.
There is also an armorial flag, but I don’t have a picture of it yet. There is also a version of the arms rendered in stone on one of the buildings. It is distinct from the seal in the manner described above. The campus signage, promotional materials, and documents tend to bear the seal, as opposed to the arms.
Interesting; I was trying to recall the name of Br. Gerard Brassard (author of this article) when looking at this thread earlier today. Brassard was a very accomplished heraldist, designer of a great many arms of Catholic institutions in New England and eastern Canada and author of a never completed series of books on the historic arms of the Catholic bishops of the US. So he was not at all an amateur, other than in the sense that any herald in the US is an amateur.
I apologize for not having looked at the album pictures before.
I do note that Brother Gerard did not discuss the version of the shield on the seal, illustrated in the article. Perhaps the ART was moved from the crest to the book to make up for the absence of the crest in the seal version of the arms?
I still tend to think that the variation in tinctures in the M and the fleur de lys was inadvertent, but maybe not.
Kenneth,
Thanks for pointing Joe to the album or making the image available.
Joe,
I’m hoping to discover whether Br. Gerard did explain the difference between the arms and seal when I visit the archives again next week. I will get the full article then. I was told that Br. Gerard was involved in heraldry and that some of his work is on the stacks at the college library. I will look for some of it later today, after the game.
Concerning the tincture of the "M" and fleur-de-lis on the arms, note what Fr. Dohrman said about the questionable line "of the same" in the blazon of the arms. Maybe it’s not so questionable, given that the hatching of the emblazonments seem to confirm the "intent" of the line. Maybe the gold fleur-de-lis, along with the Alpha and Omega, is another intended mark of distinction between the arms and seal. That’s my best guess at this point.
Do you have more information on Br. Gerard and his heraldry? What are your sources?
