The papal coat of arms has undergone a few major adjustments to more clearly reflect the symbolism of Mary and St. Joseph.
The
five-pointed star has been replaced with an eight-pointed star, and the
spikenard flower looks more like a flower rather than a bunch of
grapes, as it did in its original form.
The Vatican published the new coat of arms on its website March 27.
Italian
Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, an expert on heraldry,
told Catholic News Service that changing the star was "better" because
the five-pointed star often carries with it "military significance,"
while the eight-pointed star "has always symbolized Mary" in Catholic
Church tradition.
The new papal blazon contains the same symbols, though now more modified, that Pope Francis had on his episcopal coat of arms.
The
dark blue shield is divided into three sections -- each of which has
its own symbol. On the top is the official seal of the Society of Jesus,
representing Jesus and the religious order in which the pope was
ordained as a priest in 1969.
The symbol shows a blazing yellow sun with
inside the red letters, IHS, the sign for the name of Jesus. A red
cross rises up from the letter "H," and three black nails rest below.
The
bottom part of the shield depicts a gold star and a gold spikenard
flower, which represent respectively Mary and St. Joseph, demonstrating
the pope's "particular devotion to the Holy Virgin and St. Joseph," the
Vatican said.
The shield is surrounded by the papal insignia -- a miter and the keys of St. Peter.
The
miter was something Pope Benedict XVI established in 2005, putting an
end to the beehive-shaped three-tiered tiara that, for centuries, had
appeared at the top of each pope's coat of arms.
The
silver miter has three gold stripes to mirror order, jurisdiction and
magisterium, and a vertical gold band connects the three stripes in the
middle to indicate their unity in the same person.
The
two crossed keys have been part of papal emblems for centuries and
symbolize the powers Christ gave to the apostle Peter and his
successors.
The papal emblem uses a gold key to
represent the power in heaven and a silver key to indicate the
spiritual authority of the papacy on earth. The red cord that unites the
two keys alludes to the bond between the two powers.
One
detail Pope Francis changed in the papal insignia is removing the
pallium from the elements surrounding the shield. The pallium, the
woolen stole symbolizing a bishop's authority, was added to Pope
Benedict's coat of arms in 2005.
Another change
made to Pope Francis' insignia: His motto is now inscribed on a white,
red-edged banner underneath the shield; earlier, the motto was just a
line of text running under the shield.
Pope
Francis' motto, which is the same as his episcopal motto, is based on
the Gospel account of "The Call of St. Matthew," the tax collector, in a
homily given by the English eighth-century Christian writer and doctor
of the church, St. Bede the Venerable.
The
homily "pays homage to divine mercy" and marks a significant moment in
the pope's spiritual discernment toward religious life, the Vatican said
in a March 18 press release.
It was after
confession on the feast of St. Matthew in 1953 that a 17-year-old Jorge
Mario Bergoglio strongly felt "the loving presence of God in his life,"
the Vatican said. It was that experience of God's mercy and his "gaze of
tender love" that called the young man to religious life, following the
example of St. Ignatius of Loyola, it said.
The
motto is the Latin phrase "Miserando atque eligendo," which means
"having mercy, he called him." The phrase refers to a line in St. Bede's
homily: "Because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him."
St.
Bede's homily looks Mt 9:9-13 in which Jesus saw the tax collector,
Matthew, sitting at a customs post and said to him, "Follow me." St.
Bede explained in his homily, "Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the
usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of
men."
"He saw the tax collector and, because he
saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him:
'Follow me.' This following meant imitating the pattern of his life --
not just walking after him. St. John tells us: 'Whoever says he abides
in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.'"
St.
Bede continued: "This conversion of one tax collector gave many men,
those from his own profession and other sinners, an example of
repentance and pardon. Notice also the happy and true anticipation of
his future status as apostle and teacher of the nations. No sooner was
he converted than Matthew drew after him a whole crowd of sinners along
the same road to salvation."