Today marks the 122nd birthday of Archbishop Mariano Madriaga. The first coat of arms the late Filipino ecclesiastical heraldist has ever designed might have been his own when he was made bishop in 1938. We still cannot tell if he did assume his personal coat of arms when he was a priest, however, as a bishop, a coat of arms is always a must.
He was one of the few bishops with a heraldically proper coat of arms in 1938. Other bishops had borne a coat of arms that is full of realistic religious imagery and landscapes, examples are the coats of arms of the Servant of God Alfredo Verzosa and the Venerable Alfredo Obviar. However, what sets the coat of arms of Archbishop Madriaga apart from the others is that the symbols are not all borrowed from religious symbolism. In fact, it was one of the earliest Filipino ecclesiastical coats of arms in the a form of canting: a rebus or visual play depicting the bearer's name, as well as his hometown.
Here is a blazon given by Msgr. John Brillantes of Escudos Eclesiasticos PH: Azure, issuant from a base Vert charged with a flaming heart transfixed with an arrow fesswise all Or, a whistling pine tree Proper between the monogram of the Blessed Virgin Mary Or in chief and two pears Or pendent, stalked and leaved in nombril; overall two arms and hands clasped in fesse Argent.
As of this time, we do not have a copy of the official description of the archbishop’s coat of arms, but based on research on similar themes of his coats of arms commissions, we may interpret the symbolism as such:
- His given name is the masculine form of the name Mariana, possibly evolved from the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, hence her monogram is in chief.
- His last name evolved from the Basque word "madari" which means "pear", hence this fruit is placed between the tree.
- The pine tree alludes to the etymology of Agoo, from aroo or agoho, referring to whistling pine trees abundant on the western coast before the Spanish colonization.
- The clasped hands represents union, the literal translation of La Union, where Agoo is located.
- The heart pierced by an arrow is possibly in honor of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine and patroness of Agoo. Interestingly, the archbishop's birthday coincides with the feast of the Conversion of St. Augustine according to the Roman Martyrology.
His motto translates to “I will remember the mercies of the Most High.”
His coat of arms bears a striking resemblance to that used
by Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903, one year after the Madriaga's birth.
The late pontiff’s coat of arms is blazoned: Azure, on a mount
in base a pine tree proper; between in dexter chief a comet, or radiant star,
argent, and in base two fleurs-de-lis or. Over all a fess of the third.
corporate arms of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan. Notice the clasped hands
have different skin color and sleeves. From a marble depiction located on the floors of the Dagupan Cathedral. Rendered by unknown artist. Photo by Vicky Salvador on Facebook.
Another thing I have observed is that he slightly modified his coat of arms either when the see of the Diocese of Lingayen was transferred to Dagupan in 1954, which prompted a new diocesan coat of arms, or on its elevation into an archdiocese in 1963. The pears were only added later during the aforementioned time, and the clasped hands with plain sleeves were changed to one with darker colored skin and the other with a black sleeve with white squares. The change on the clasped hands might be a misinterpretation by other artists, we can only verify this if we have an official copy of his coat of arms drawn by the archbishop himself.
Finally, there is the unknown cavity at the lower left side of the base, which Madriaga explicitly drew in two renditions of his coat of arms when he was Bishop of Lingayen. Does this allude to a lake? In any case, this cavity cannot be expressed in heraldic terms.
Overall, the coat of arms of the renowned Filipino ecclesiastical heraldist basically gives us the idea of the archbishop's process in the conceptualization of coats of arms of his fellow bishops during his prime years in ecclesiastical heraldry, which will be featured in future articles.
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References:
Photo of personal coat of arms of Archbishop Madriaga from Bro. Kendrick Panganiban.
Photo of coat of arms of Pope Leo XIII from the "Heraldischer Atlas" by Hugo Gerhard Ströhl (1899): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ströhl_Heraldischer_Atlas_t49_3_d01.jpg
Paguergan, Fr. Ral Jaden, compiler, “His Excellency Most Rev. Mariano A. Madriaga” in Carlista Episcopology (unpublished manuscript, 2013).
Photo of coat of arms of then-bishop Madriaga from Manolo Quezon on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2740710835956995&set=gm.2482692611750476
Photo of coat of arms of Archbishop Madriaga from Vicky Salvador on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10154964087255200&set=a.10154963902310200
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