Oscar Hugh Lipscomb
OSCAR HUGH LIPSCOMB
Born : September 21, 1931
Deceased :
Archbishop of Mobile, 1980–2008
Official blazon
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 upper partition of the personal arms contains a number of allusions to Mobile and its Catholic community. The wavy line and silver color of the partition refer to the Mobile River and Mobile Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico. The oak leaf recalls the trees for which the city is famous, St. Matthew Parish, Oakdale, where the Archbishop served for eight years, and is also a mark of the Archbishop’s reverence for his longtime predecessor, Archbishop Thomas Joseph Toolen, whose coat of arms had an oak tree as its principal component. The two trefoils which flank the oak leaf are heraldic versions of the shamrock, and as such they commemorate St. Patrick Parish, of the Archbishop’s youth to which he returned to be its final pastor, while at the same time they pay honor to the Irish priests and sisters who have so greatly sustained the Church in Alabama and Mississippi throughout its long history.
The red saltire figures prominently in the armorials of Somerset, England, from which the Lipscomb family apparently draws its origin; but its eminent place in the Archbishop’s arms is as much a reference to the state flag of Alabama as it is to his ancestry. The ermine pattern honors the Archbishop’s baptismal patron, St. Ansgar (Oscar) of Metz, Apostle of Scandinavia (d.865); in ecclesiastical art this saint is usually depicted wearing a fur cape.
Over the saltire is positioned a small blue shield which bears a silver crescent. This bespeaks the Archbishops’s conviction that devotion to Mary must be at the center of every priest’s life. The crescent, as a symbol for the holy Virgin, is employed because of its use in the Archdiocese of Mobile arms, and it occurs in the arms of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where the Archbishop received his priestly training; as well as in the arms of the Catholic University of America, Washington, where he received his graduate degree in history; and marks his parish of baptism, St. Mary, Mobile, to which he was first assigned as a priest. Additionally, the crescent marks the arms of Archbishop John Lawrence May of St. Louis, under whom Archbishop Lipscomb served as Chancellor in Mobile for ten years.
As his motto, Archbishop Lipscomb has chosen a phrase from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians: “In all that we do we strive to present ourselves as ministers of God in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love” (6:4,6). It testifies to the spirit in which he takes up his pastoral service, as well as the spirit which he hopes will prevail as a result of his efforts
The achievement is completed with the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of archbishop.
Religious or Ecclesiastical heraldry portal
This page is part of the  |
 |
|
Catholic heraldry
|
Other Christian churches Other religions
|
Contact and Support
Partners:
Your logo here ?
Contact us
© since 1995, Heraldry of the World, Ralf Hartemink 
Index of the site
The Catholic Week, July 31, 2020.