Heraldic Commentary Update 2

On the blue field there is a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her head is surrounded with a nimbus of 12 five-ray silver stars. She is clad in a dress of the same color and a blue cape. In her right, natural-colored hand she holds green stems: one bearing a silver lily flower in bloom and the other – a bud of the same color. Her left hand is lying across half her chest. Mary stands on a crescent with its back downwards. Her right foot crushes the head of a green serpent wrapped around the cres- cent. Mary’s figure is surrounded by golden rays shaped as ob- longs of various lengths; together those rays create a shape of an oval radiant aureole. The shield is in Baroque style; its edges are gilded. Under- neath is located a blue scroll bent in semi-circular shape facing downwards with its ends rolled up and reaching 1/3 of the shield’s height. The scroll bears the Order’s motto: “PRO CHRISTO ET ECCLESIA” in capital letters of Antiqua font, white in color. In heraldry the white color usually equals the silver. Only infrequently is white used as a separate color of its own. It won’t be a heraldic mistake if rays, crescent, stars, and edges of the shield are represented by a metal color, while the dress of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as the flower and bud of the lily are left white, should the metal colors be used for the coat of arms in the proposed new design. Gdańsk, January 27, 2009 Tomasz Steifer, PHT Graduate of the History Department of the University of Warsaw and of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, founding member of the polish Heraldic Society PL 80-180 Gdańsk, ul. Jabłoniowa 43 26