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The Diocese of Shrewsbury was erected in 1850. Until 1908 the Bishops of Shrewsbury had their own coats of arms but during this century every bishop has taken the same arms as his predecessor and has changed only the motto. Bishop Brian's motto is "Adveniat Regnum Tuum" - "Thy Kingdom Come"
DESCRIPTION OF THE DIOCESAN COAT OF ARMS
It consists of a silver shield on which is a red St Chad's cross. This is a cross with arms of equal length. The cross has a rectangle in the centre and at the end of each arm. In the middle is a gold fleur-de-lys (the heraldic lily) upside down, and on the fleur-de-lys is a gold leopard's head, viewed from the front, and also upside down. The description of the shield in heraldic language is:
"Argent, a cross potent gules jessant de lys or" |
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The Diocese of Shrewsbury covers the counties of Cheshire and Shropshire. In medieval England these present day counties formed either part of the Diocese of Lichfield (St Chad's Diocese) or part of the Diocese of Hereford (St Thomas of Hereford's Diocese). For this reason, when Edward Kirby was designing the coat of arms in 1908, he decided to incorporate something relating to both of these pre-Reformation dioceses. From Lichfield, he chose the St Chad's cross and, from Hereford, a leopard. St Thomas family name was Cantilupe and the family had three leopards' heads on their coat of arms. When Thomas became Bishop of Hereford in the thirteenth century, he kept the leopard head but used it upside down. This was because he wanted to declare to the world that as a bishop he had turned away from the ferocity of the leopard and was a man of peace.
The fleur-de-lys was a popular heraldic symbol in the Middle Ages. Over the last few centuries it has been used as a religious symbol, particularly of Our Lady. One can often see fleur-de-lys in mosaic floors in Lady chapels or as decoration on the walls. |
