Ecclesiastical Heraldry in the News!

No, I don’t (yet) mean the arms of the new Pope.  The new Bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico, the Most Reverend Oscar Cantu, has his coat of arms emblazoned, blazoned, and discussed in an article on the website of television stations KVIA, which serves both El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

I’m glad that the article gives a blazon for the arms, as otherwise I would have mistaken the charges on the fess (the horizontal white stripe) for some kind of robot.  (Which lets you know how much science fiction I watch!)  Still, I found the blazon to be a bit confusing.  “Upon a field party per fess Azure and Vert two crosiers in saltair [sic], the one per bend a bishop's crosier Or and the one per bend sinister, a veiled abbot's crosier Argent; upon a table Sable a host and chalice Proper all upon a fess overall of the fourth.”

It’s been my experience that one blazons the charges on the field first, and only then the charges which lie on other charges.  In other words, “Per fess Azure and Vert two crosiers in saltire, the one bendwise a bishop's crosier Or and the one bendwise sinister a veiled abbot's crosier, overall on a fess Argent on a table Sable a host and chalice Proper.”

Further, I would note that not even the College of Arms in London is any longer blazoning tinctures with “of the first,” “of the second,” etc. as being confusing.  Witness the blazon in the second paragraph quoted from the article, where you have to hunt through three-quarters of the blazon to figure out which tincture is the “fourth” one cited.  It’s easier simply to repeat the tincture if necessary.  Which isn’t necessary anyway in my proposed blazon.

As a final quibble, the croziers are not “per bend” and “per bend sinister.”  The gold one is “bendwise,” “lying in the direction of the bend” according to J.P. Brooke-Little’s An Heraldic Alphabet, and by extension the white crozier is lying in the direction of a bend sinister.  “Per bend” is how it would be divided if it were of two different tinctures with the line of demarcation running down its length.  This is not the case, and even if it were, it would be a crozier “bendwise per bend A and B,” with A and B being different tinctures.

But what do I know?

The full article can be found on-line at http://www.kvia.com/news/Coat-of-Arms-of-new-Las-Cruces-bishop-and-its-meaning/-/391068/19111956/-/xh955b/-/index.html

Heraldry in the Air

I don't know why I hadn't seen these before.  I mean, Southwest Airlines is based here in Dallas, Texas.  And they've always had a bit of "flair" in how they run their business and how they decorate their aircraft.  And I'd seen a couple of these uniquely painted planes before: the one (well, apparently, there's actually three of them) painted to look like Shamu, the orca, or killer whale; and the one painted as the Texas flag.  But the other day, I ran across some photos of some other Southwest planes, of a more heraldic nature.

While the airline seems to be sticking with the motif of state flags (of some of the states which they service), the flags of some states here in the United States can be heraldic.  For example,

the State of Maryland, whose flag is the arms of the Calverts, Lords Baltimore, who founded the then colony.  (The state seal also features the Calvert arms, which consist of the quartered arms of Calvert, Paly or and sable, a bend counterchange, and Crossland, Quarterly argent and gules, a cross bottony counterchanged.)

Another plane has the flag of the State of New Mexico, with a red stylized sun symbol, also looking (and acting) heraldic.

They also have Arizona, Florida, California, Nevada, and Illinois in addition to the others already noted above.  Information about Florida and the rest of their "Specialty Fleet" can be found on-line at: http://www.southwest.com/html/cs/landing/floridaOne.html

So if you find yourself near an airport serviced by Southwest Airlines, you might keep an eye out for one of these aircraft.  You could be rewarded by seeing some flying heraldry!