Coat of Arms
The Most Reverend J. Peter Sartain

Description

The episcopal heraldic achievement, or bishop's coat of arms, is composed of a shield with its charges(symbols), a motto scroll and the external ornaments. The shield, which is the central and most important feature of any heraldic device is described (blazoned) in 12th century terms, that are archaic to our modern language, and this description is done as if being given by the bear with the shield being worn on the arm. Thus, it must be remembered, where it applies, that the terms dexter and sinister are reversed as the device is viewed from the front.

By heraldic tradition, the arms of the bishop of a diocese, call the "Ordinary" are joined to the arms of his jurisdiction, seen in the dexter impalement (left side) of the shield. In this case, these are arms of the Diocese of Joliet.

The fleur-de-lis, the French form of the lily, honors the Blessed Virgin and commemorates the French ancestry of Louis Joliet for whom the See City of Joliet is named.

The fleur-de-lis appears on the coat of arms of the Archdiocese of Chicago from which the Diocese of Joliet was formed. The wavy-lined cross represents the northern reaches of the Mississippi River which Louis Joliet discovered with Pere Marquette. The trimount is taken from the coat of arms of Pope Pius XII who established the Diocese of Joliet-in Illinois. The quadrate section of the cross displays the checky crescent from the coat of arms of Saint Francis Xavier, Patron of the Diocese of Joliet. The field of the crest is blue and all other ornaments are gold.

For his personal arms, seen in the sinister impalement (right side) of the shield, Bishop Sartain has adopted a design that reflects his life and ministry as a priest, and a now as a bishop.

These arms are composed primarily of the three colors (red, blue, and silver) that are used in the coat of arms of the Diocese of Memphis on Tennessee, where he was serving as Vicar General when he was elected to receive the fullness of Christ's priesthood as a bishop, and then to lead God's people in the Diocese of Little Rock. On the upper red portion of the design is a cross of eight parts, in alternating silver and gold. Such a cross is used here to pay devotion to several of Bishop's Sartain's patron saints who followed the Lord along the way of the Beatitudes, St. Thomas More, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.

On the lower silver portion of Bishop Sartain's design are the blue wavy bars that are used to signify three rivers, the Mississippi, the Tennessee and the Arkansas, that represent, the geographic region of America that have been his life, his heritage and his roots.

For his motto, Bishop Sartain has selected the beginning of the 8th verse of the 27th Psalm, "Of You My Heart Has Spoken." In this phrase, the psalmist expresses his spontaneous love for God and his trust in God's ways. Bishop Sartain interprets the verse as a call to prayer and love because we are made for God, our hearts speak spontaneously of Him and through Him, of one another.

The device is completed with the external ornaments which are a gold episcopal processional cross, which is placed in back of the shield and which extends above and below the shield, and a pontificant hat, called a "gallero" with its six tassels, in three rows, on either side of the shield, all in green. These are the heradic insignia of a prelate of the rank of Bishop by instruction of the Holy See of March 31, 1969.