James Gibbons

Religious or Ecclesiastical heraldry portal

This page is part of the Ecclesiastical heraldry portal	Heraldry of the World
Ecclesiastical heraldry per country Catholic heraldry Roman Catholic Arms of Popes Cardinals (2,121) Archdioceses (645) Archbishops (3,474) Dioceses (2,489) Bishops (10,342) Nunciatures (210) and more Armenian Catholic Chaldean Catholic Coptic Catholic Ethiopian Catholic Hungarian Catholic Greek Catholic Maronite Catholic Ruthenian Catholic Syriac Catholic Syro-Malabar Catholic Syro-Malankara Catholic Liberal Catholic Old Catholic Free Catholic	Centre for Ecclesiastical Heraldry : We will help you designing your coat of arms Other Christian churches Anglican Churches Lutheran Churches Orthodox Churches Reformed Churches Unitarianism Other religions Judaism Total pages in the Ecclesiastical section : 19,214 Total images in the Ecclesiastical section : 18,343

JAMES GIBBONS

Born : July 23, 1834
Deceased : March 24, 1921

Bishop of Richmond, 1870-1877
Archbishop of Baltimore, 1877-1921
Cardinal 1887

Official blazon

Impaled. Dexter: Quarterly azure and argent, a cross botonny throughout quarterly of the second and gules, in dexter chief a mullet of the second (See of Baltimore); Sinister: Sable, on a fess between three leopards' faces argent langued gules, an escallop of the last (Gibbons).
Motto: Emitte Spiritum Tuum (Send forth Thy Spirit, Ps. 103:30).

Origin/meaning

As common in US episcopal heraldry, the arms show the arms of the diocese impaled with the personal arms of the bishop.

The three leopards' faces are taken from the arms of the Gibbons family of Ireland. The escallop shell on the fess is one of the symbols of St. James the Apostle, the Cardinal's baptismal patron.
The motto is taken from the Psalm 103, verse 30: Emitte Spiritum Tuum et creabuntur, et renouabis faciem terrae, which is translated: "Thou shalt send forth thy spirit, and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth."

Until 1910, Archbishop Gibbons had another coat of arms which was blazoned:
Impaled. Vert and azure, at dexter an archbishop's pall proper; at sinister the Holy Spirit argent, radiant or, descending from clouds of the third, in base a globe of the fourth. The motto was the same.

It is not known if he used arms as Bishop of Richmond.