Coat of Arms

The coat of arms for Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, ninth bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend, combines diocesan and personal elements.

The crescent moon at the top left of the shield symbolizes the Blessed Virgin, the patroness of the diocese and the cathedral under the title of her Immaculate Conception; the battlement, or rampart, recalling the historic foundation of the See City of Fort Wayne; and the three crosses of equal size representing the Most Blessed Trinity, the basic mystery of our faith. The lower portion of the left side includes heraldic reference to the city and area of South Bend. The lily is a traditional symbol of Saint Joseph, whose name identifies the county of which South Bend is the seat and also the river which flows through it. The use of the “fleur de lis,” the French form of the lily, recalls the pioneer settlement of the territory by the French and the early missionary labors of French priests, particularly Holy Cross Father Edward Sorin and his companions who founded the University of Notre Dame.

The figure of the six-winged angel is one of the familiar symbols of the four Evangelists, in this instance of Saint Matthew, patron of the co-cathedral in South Bend. The curving line between the lower two sections of the shield represents the Saint Joseph River, the south bend of which gave the city its name. It is interesting to note that such curved lines are known in heraldry as “bends.”

The top right of the shield, the most prominent field in Bishop Rhoades’ armorial achievement, is dedicated to the Holy Eucharist and commemorates Pope John Paul II’s nomination of the ecclesial year (2004-2005) throughout the Universal Church as the Year of the Eucharist. Bishop Rhoades, whose episcopal ordination took place during the eucharistic year, particularly desired to emphasize that “the Church draws her life from the Eucharist,” as Pope John Paul II states in the opening sentence of his encyclical, “Ecclesia de Eucharistia.” Bishop Rhoades also wished to highlight the centrality of the Holy Eucharist in the life and ministry of priests and bishops as the source of pastoral charity and nourishment for self-giving service in imitation of Jesus’ gift of self re-presented in the eucharistic sacrifice.

The top portion of the bishop’s shield represents the gift of Christ’s body and blood in the holy Eucharist. The deepest heraldic red background commemorates the blood of Christ poured out for us on the cross and made present in the eucharistic banquet. The Sacred Host represents the body of Christ truly present in the Eucharist and is irradiated with the golden rays of the sun as seen from behind, signifying that Jesus is the “Light of the World.”

The Host is uniquely inscribed with a cipher, or monogram, bearing the initials “IHC,” the first three letters of the Greek word “Jesus” (IHCOYC). The use of Greek, the original language of the New Testament and the early language of the Christian Church, honors the bishop’s maternal Greek heritage.

Bishop Rhoades likewise wished to honor the Mother of God and to invoke her maternal intercession in the mission of the new evangelization to which Pope John Paul II has committed the Church at the beginning of the third millennium. In so doing, he selected the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Tepeyac Hill in the present-day Mexico City. There, the Virgin Mary instructed the humble peasant Juan Diego, on whose feast day Kevin C. Rhoades was consecrated to the episcopacy, to return to his own local bishop to present a sign so that all in the Church could believe her message to him.

When Juan Diego opened his tilma, or humble peasant’s poncho, in front of his bishop, the roses that the lady had instructed Juan Diego to collect fell to the ground in a shower of brilliant color and sweet fragrance, even though at that time it was deep in the winter season when nothing in nature was in bloom. At that instant, the glorious image of the Mother of God appeared on his tilma. And so all came to believe. This appearance of Mary had a decisive effect on the evangelization of America and so Our Lady of Guadalupe is invoked today as the patroness of all America and the Star of the first and new evangelization. The lowly peasant Juan Diego has himself been raised to the altar of sainthood.

The bottom field of the personal arms symbolically depicts the opening of Juan Diego’s tilma, in the same confident belief in the Blessed Virgin embraced long ago by the humble Mexican peasant, with three roses on a silver field. Bishop Rhoades has selected the Rosa Mystica, the red heraldic rose that centuries ago was set aside as one of the heraldic emblems for Jesus’ Mother. The simple silver background of the lower half of his arms represents both spiritual purity and priesthood and the humble cloth of Juan Diego’s tilma. Dividing the two separate fields of the arms is a device known in the heraldic science as dancetty.

It is a device commonly employed in heraldry to depict mountains. For Bishop Rhoades, this division device symbolically represents four specific mountain ranges that will forever remain close to his heart: the mountains surrounding his home region of Mahanoy City, PA.; the imposing Appenines that frame the Eternal City where the bishop prepared for the priesthood; the mountains cradling his beloved Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD., from whence as rector Bishop Rhoades came to Harrisburg; and the verdant peaks that are the imposing terrain of the See of Harrisburg.

Surmounting the episcopal shield is the Pilgrim’s Hat, the heraldic emblem for all prelates and priests of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. For the rank of bishop, both residential and titular, the Pilgrim’s Hat is worked in deep green, the true color of the Office of Bishop. For bishops, there are six tassels suspended on either side of the hat in a pyramidal style. The hat is properly known in the Church as the galero and the tassel takes the name fiocchio. These, too, are worked in green for the Office of Bishop. Behind Bishop Rhoades’ coat of arms is the episcopal cross. For the rank of bishop, this cross has only one transverse arm. The cross may be jeweled or depicted as plain, as in the case of the cross of Bishop Rhoades’ heraldic achievement, and most resembles the processional cross used at Mass.

The personal Arms of Bishop Rhoades was devised by James-Charles Noonon, Jr. of Philadelphia. The impalement of the arms of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend with the personal Arms of Bishop Rhoades was undertaken by Emily MacMichael of Fort Wayne.