The late Jaime Cardinal Sin is the most influential Catholic prelate in Philippine history, known for upholding social justice and care for the people of God above all. His coat of arms is one of the most iconic and remembered, yet it has fallen into several unfaithful renditions across time. This article will shed light on the original coat of arms of the late cardinal and also attempt to provide an accurate blazon. I wish to thank Ken Matthew Rufin for providing the sources for the original coat of arms of Cardinal Sin as Auxiliary Bishop of Jaro.
The elements of Cardinal Sin's coat of arms remain unchanged since he was made Auxiliary Bishop of Jaro in 1967, with only a few modifications throughout the years. We currently do not have a copy of the blazon and the explanation of the arms, but based on the artstyle and the thematic choices of the blazon, we may verify that his coat of arms was designed by ecclesiastical heraldist Archbishop Mariano Madriaga.
Blazon: Tierced per fess. In chief Gules a pilgrim staff Or between two escallops Argent. In fess Or three roses in fess Gules. In base a Latin cross Proper charged with a Sacred Heart of the same all proper.
- The pilgrim staff and the escallops are the most popular symbols of St. James the Great, the namesake of Jaime Cardinal Sin; Gules (red) is selected as the field tincture to allude to the saint’s martyrdom. The same symbols and tincture is also seen in the original coat of arms of the Diocese of Bangued which was also designed by Madriaga.
- The fess contains three red roses. These are symbols of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary (rosary, from the Latin “rosarium” meaning “a garland of roses”), the patroness of the parish in New Washington, Aklan, hometown of Cardinal Sin. Three roses are placed to allude to the then-three mysteries of the rosary. The symbol also hints that it was Madriaga who designed the coat of arms since it is only him in Philippine ecclesiastical heraldry who uses roses as symbol of the Holy Rosary instead of the actual rosary itself, as seen in the former coat of arms of the Diocese of Daet and the former coat of arms of Bishop Manuel Del Rosario. However, instead of the typical Azure (blue) field color and the green leafed rose as in the aforementioned coat of arms, a pure red rose and an Or (gold) field is used. We may speculate that this is patterned after the coat of arms of the Archdiocese of Jaro. Throughout his early life and seminarian studies in the Saint Vincent Ferrer Seminary of Jaro, he was under the said archdiocese until the establishment of the Diocese of Capiz in 1951, where he was ordained to the priesthood. The roses in the coat of arms of the archdiocese allude to the miracle of the roses witnessed by St. Elizabeth of Hungary, titular of the archdiocese.
- The base symbols are tricky to decipher since we don’t have the original explanation. At first glance, the shape of the cross may be confused to a Greek cross where its sides are equilateral, but it is actually a Latin cross which the horizontal crossbeam is positioned higher from the center. On its center is a red heart which at first glance might be the Immaculate Heart since the wreath surrounding it is in Argent (silver), but in the later coat of arms of the cardinal, it is actually the Sacred Heart, just with a silver crown of thorns. I have attempted to find the possible connection of the Sacred Heart to the life of the cardinal, but came empty handed. We may just speculate that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the personal devotion of the cardinal, but with the cross underneath, it might suggest something else. I just hope we may find more sources in the future so that this may be clarified.
His motto is the most famous one yet: “Serviam”, which
translates to “I will serve”.
After the Vatican instruction issued in 1969 which suppresses the miter and crozier as external ornaments of a bishop's coat of arms, then-bishop Sin had his coat of arms modified to remove such elements. It was in 1970 when he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the archdiocese due to the ailing Archbishop Jose Maria Cuenco. Later in January 1972 he was made Coadjutor Archbishop, and ten months later on October he succeeded as Archbishop of Jaro.
Blazon: Tierced per fess. In chief Gules a pilgrim staff Or between two escallops Argent. In fess Or three roses in fess Gules. In base a Latin cross Argent charged with a Sacred Heart proper.
As archbishop, his coat of arms was properly impaled as per heraldic custom with the coat of arms of the archdiocese. The symbols of his personal coat of arms remained the same, except for the tincture of the Latin cross which was changed to Argent and the crown of thorns into Sable. The only source that we have on his coat of arms is painted on the dome of the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral, but due to its height, we can only manage to take amateur pictures. If based on the design of the galero and scroll, this might have still be designed by Archbishop Madriaga as based on his similar design for the coat of arms of Archbishop Antonio Mabutas of Davao.
Final Blazon: Tierced per fess. In chief Gules a pilgrim staff Or between two escallops Argent. In fess Or three roses in chevron Gules. In base a Latin cross Or charged with a Sacred Heart proper.
Later as Archbishop of Manila in 1974 and Cardinal in 1976, his personal arms was impaled with the arms of the said archdiocese. This time, his coat of arms was designed by Filipino National Artist and heraldist Galo Ocampo, who also designed the cardinalate coat of arms of Rufino Cardinal Santos. The modifications made to his personal arms this time are the Latin cross which was changed from Argent to Or, and the roses from a fess to a chevron arrangement. The latter might not be a wise choice since a personal coat of arms must not have major modifications, but this might be made so that the roses may occupy the whole space of the fess.
Curiously, there is a heavily modified version of the cardinal’s coat of arms where the field is divided per fess, the Azure chief has a checkered bend between two scallops and the Or base has the three roses. Was this officially endorsed or allowed by Cardinal Sin? We’ll never know, but the fact remains that any heavy modification of a coat of arms except for impalement is not allowed in heraldry, let alone an unofficial one for official use.
There are also other inaccurate versions of the cardinal's coat of arms: One seen on a stained glass window and on the floor of the Manila Cathedral which depicts the pilgrim staff as a sword instead, the Latin cross with a longer vertical crossbeam, and the roses into Argent, which is already a tincture rule violation. This was the basis of the rendition done by Araldica Vaticana albeit the roses in Gules and the pilgrim staff without a hook. This later became the basis of SajoR's version on Wikipedia. Currently, the only issue is that the pilgrim staff is still mistaken to be a sword, but with a better depiction as the author had done in the first image of this post, we may avoid this confusion.
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References: (to be followed)