Peter Brignall

PETER BRIGNALL

Born :
Deceased :

Bishop of Wrexham, 2012-present

Official blazon

Origin/meaning

The ermine field indicates a mark of dignity. The chief is red, the Latin expresses this as caput sanguineum: the significance is that of the Welsh martyrs numbered among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. The blood of the martyrs is the seedbed of the church.

The engrailed bend has nine scalloped bays on the lower edge, the significance being the ninth hour (3 o'clock) the time of Jesus' death. The upper edge having seven scalloped bays the significance being the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit or the seven Sacraments of the Church. Also and not irrelevantly that the Cathedral Church became so in the seventh year of the 20th century, that it was completed and consecrated in the seventh year of the previous half century, nor that seven Welsh bishops met with Saint Augustine of Canterbury to assert the distinctiveness of their church.

The clarions are express symbolically the life of the Diocese responding to the call to invoke God in gratitude and praise. They are composed of gold blocks (masoned) having numerological exactness to express the date of the martyrdom of S.Richard Gwyn: The curved part being composed of 15 blocks The top part composed of 10 blocks which together give the date 15th October; and the curved part being 8 courses, the top part of 4 courses which give the year [15]84.

The cornucopia is seen in art as a prop held by angels containing creation's fruits or in this case flowers, providing a botanical progression through the Diocese - the upper- i.the coastal area by Lymonium lumilelax flowered sea lavender; ii. Veronica spicata spiked speedwell for the Marches and; iii. Hieracium snowdonense for the dramatic gradients. the lower- iv.Snowdrops which are the analogue of the Feast of the Presentation or Candlemas, it was in the Temple that Simeon spoke of the first and prophesied Mary's dolours (Luke 2:34-35) representing therefore the Cathedral Church's dedication,,'Our Lady of Sorrows', v. a red rose, the national flower of England thereby representing Bishop Peter's father, and vi. pinks, the national flower of Germany representing his mother.

The motto is a quotation from Saint Hildegard ofBingen (1098-1179) from a letter to the monks of S.Eucharius in Trier.