(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 14.05.2025).- Below is an explanatory article about the Pope’s Coat of Arms and Motto, by the Vice-President of the Italian Genealogical Heraldic Institute, Don Antonio Pompili.
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Above the Coat of Arms
Cut: in 1st azure, a silver lily; in 2nd white, a fiery heart pierced by an arrow set in a bar, all in red and supported by a natural scroll.
Shield surmounted by a silver mitre, adorned with three gold bands joined by a shaft of the same, with waving band, lined in red, crossed and bordered with gold, and fastened with decussated Petrine keys, one with a gold band and the other with a silver bar, tied by a red cord.
Motto
IN ILLO UNO UNUM
Explanation:
The Holy Father Leo XIV’s Coat of Arms stands on a blue background, a colour reminiscent of the heights of the heavens and characterized by a Marian meaning, a classic symbol referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the lily (flos florum).
On the other background, white, the emblem of the Augustinian Order stands out, a burning heart pierced by an arrow. This figure symbolically represents the words of Saint Augustine in the Book of Confessions: «Sagittaveras tu cor meum charitate tua» («You wounded my heart with your love»). This is an element that, from the 16th century onwards, would always be present in the Augustinian emblem, albeit with different variations, such as the presence of the book, which symbolizes the Word of God capable of transforming the heart of man, as it was for Augustine. The book also recalls the illuminating works that the Doctor of Grace brought to the Church and to humanity. The white (in the papal Coat of Arms, ivory) is a colour that reappears in other Coats of Arms of Religious Orders and can be read as a symbol of holiness and purity. The motto, «In Illo Uno Unum» («In the One Christ We Are One»), echoes the words that Saint Austin spoke in a sermon, Exposition on Psalm 127, to explain that «although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.»
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