George William Coleman

GEORGE WILLIAM COLEMAN

Born : February 1, 1939
Deceased :

Bishop of Fall River, 2003-2014

Official blazon

Arms impaled. Dexter: Argent; a bend wavy Azure; overall a cross nowy Gules charged with a mullet of six points of the first. Sinister: Per fess Or and Azure, a cross flory between in the first and fourth quarters a trefoil and in the second and third a fleur-de-lys, all counterchanged.

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 Coleman has adopted a design that reflects his life and his heritage.
In the Heraldic Scroll of Ireland the family "Coleman" bears a design that is composed of stars have been replaced by two trefoils (the heraldic representation of the shamrock), representing the Bishop's Irish heritage and the fact that he was baptized in St. Patrick's Church in Somerset and by two fleur-de-lis that are taken from and are representing the Shea family.

For his motto, His Excellency, Bishop Coleman has adopted the Latin phrase "DOMINI SUMUS." By the use of this phrase, which is taken from Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans (14,8), he expresses the teaching of Saint Paul on the relationship of Christians to the Lord: "For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, WE ARE THE LORD'S."

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.