At mass today in the suburbs of Toronto, our new pastor was installed by one of Toronto’s auxiliary bishops, John Boissonneau.  A sign was put up near the door announcing the day’s visitor and proceedings, along with the bishop’s arms.

http://www.archtoronto.org/about_us/images/crest_bishopb.jpg

From the Archdiocese’s website:

Quote:

ARMS

Per chevron Argent and Azure in chief two Baskets of three loaves Azure and in base a Basket of two fish Argent.

 

EXPLANATION

 

The blue chevron represents both Lake Ontario and the dome of St. Augustine’s Seminary where the bishop spent half his life as a student and a Faculty member. It also represents the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.

 

The three baskets, two filled with bread and one filled with fish, represent the abundance of God’s loving care in the person of Jesus as symbolized by the gospel miracle of feeding of the five thousand.

 

The baskets also allow for a play on words between the Old French word for a basket, “boisseau”, and the bishop’s family name.

 

MOTTO

 

Ut sit in Domino fiducia tua – So that your trust may be in the Lord – is from the Book of Proverbs 22:19 and expresses the central theme of the bishop’s previous ministry in priestly formation. His goals is to lead others in faith to trust the Lord with their lives, confident of the abundance of His loving care for them.

If you’ve got arms, might as well use ‘em.

A very attractive coat of arms.  Simple, meaningful, and well executed.

A grant from the CHA?

Richard G.;95749 wrote:

A grant from the CHA?

I don’t know.  It doesn’t appear in the register’s online entries, but of course not all entries are online yet.

Even if this particular coat isn’t an official grant, perhaps the example of other arms granted by the CHA raised the bar re: design & execution.

Now THAT is how you do ecclesiastical heradry!

Did the heralds intentionally avoid the word “counterchanged”?

“Per chevron Argent and Azure in chief two baskets of three loaves and in base a basket of two fish, counterchanged” is a bit more economical and less repetitious.

I also think that the “in chief” and “in base” could be done without.  I’d expect that any reasonable herald would know what to do with “Per chevron Argent and Azure two baskets of three loaves and a basket of two fish, counterchanged”.

‘I’d expect that any reasonable herald would know what to do with “Per chevron Argent and Azure two baskets of three loaves and a basket of two fish, counterchanged”.’

True enough if the intended audience were primarily heraldistas; but IIRC this was from the church’s website for the benefit of the faithful.

And even if it were taken from a CHA grant document, I suspect (or would hope) that the CHA would focus primarily on engaging and informing the Canadian public, and therefore opt for clarity for their public over brevity for the heraldist.  Brevity is only the soul of wit when the reader can perceive what’s being said.

Since none of the other bishops of that diocese, including the Cardinal-Archbishop, have a grant from the CHA I think it is better to assume these are not from a CHA grant. My understanding is that it is difficult to get Catholic bishops to apply for grants (which cost money) when for so many years they were accustomed to assuming arms (which is free). The CHA, unlike other heraldic authorities, does not seek to force people to obtain grants. They prefer to persuade people as to the correctness of obtaining a grant rather than merely assuming arms.

The artwork, though, looks very much like what we’re used to seeing from the CHA. I wonder how much more a grant is than just the artwork from one of their artists.

The grant itself is only $435 (or thereabouts), paid to the CHA.  When I got mine, I had to pay the artist directly.  I was assigned an artist and provided a quote by my herald, but then paid the artist for both preliminary and final artwork.

The bishop’s arms are very much in the CHA style - whether it was one of the CHA’s stable of artists, or someone emulating them, I don’t know.

The arms of this bishop were painted by a known heraldic artist as were two of the other auxiliaries of this particular diocese.