Robert Joseph Cunningham

ROBERT JOSEPH CUNNINGHAM

Born : June 18, 1943
Deceased :

Bishop of Ogdensburg, 2004-2009
Bishop of Syracuse, 2009-present

Bishop of Ogdensburg

Bishop of Syracuse

Origin/meaning

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

For his personal arms Bishop Cunningham adopted a design that reflects his life as a priest and as a bishop. The design is composed of a red field, which is taken from the arms of the Bishop's home diocese of Buffalo. Thereupon is placed a silver chevron, to represent a carpenter's square, taken from the seal of Saint John Vianney Seminary, where Bishop Cunningham prepared for the priesthood. The chevron is also emblematic of His Excellency's second baptismal patron, Saint Joseph, patron of the Diocese of Buffalo, and upon the chevron are three black stars taken from a (non related) Cunningham family arms.

Above the chevron is a silver fleur-de-lis for Saint Louis, King of France, who was the patron of the parish where the Bishop was serving when he received the call to the fullness of the most holy priesthood as he was named Bishop of Ogdensburg. On either side of the fleur-de-lis are two gold oak leaves. They symbolize the Diocese of Ogdensburg, derived from "oakdene". Below the chevron is a Paschal Lamb. This symbol, taken from the door of the tabernacle of Saint Louis Parish, also reminds the Bishop of his home parish of Saint John the Baptist, who was first to refer to Christ as the Lamb of God.

For his motto, Bishop Cunningham uses the phrase, "ECCLESIA MATER NOSTRA." This phrase, from the eighth chapter of the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, expresses the Bishop's profound belief that the lives of all of the faithful can only reach the goal that God provides for them by being nurtured, educated, loved and sustained by the efforts of THE CHURCH OUR MOTHER.

The achievement is completed with the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop by instruction of the Holy See, of March 1969, confirmed in March 2001.

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Literature : http://www.syrdio.org/bishop.asp (2009)