IDTG

Back in July of 2006, in the journal of the American College of Heraldry “The Armiger’s News”, the late Dr. David Pittman Johnson wrote a very good article trying to codify the system of ecclesiastial heraldry of the (Eastern) Orthodox Church.

As opposed to the Roman Catholic Church that has many established rules regarding its heraldry, the Orthodox Communion does not, mainly due to its decentralized structure.

Among the difficulties of this attempt is the fact that (1) heraldry is not very common in the East and in particular among the Orthodox clergy (at any level) and (2) each Orthodox Church is independent of each other and has its own particular rules and traditions within its hierarchy.

A good introduction on the organization Orthodox Church can be found, where else, on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_Church_organization

I won’t reproduce the text here but will urge anyone with an interest in ecclesiastical heraldry and particularly Orthodox heraldry to read this very well written article. 

At this point, I want to make a note to say that the rules presented not only may apply to the Orthodox Communion but also those classified as “Eastern” or “Greek” Catholic.

I feel it necessary to say that what Dr. Johnson describes are not the rules of heraldry within the Orthodox Communion but rather a combination of observations and suggestions. Until such time as there are rules established by the Head of a particular Orthodox Church, every member of the clergy is pretty much free to do as he pleases. It is though recommended to try to create some standards and Dr. Johnson has provided us with an excellent foundation to do so.

The arms at the top of this post are those of the Rev. Fr. Deacon Nenad Jovanovich, head of the Board for Heraldic & Genealogical Studies at the Center for Research of Orthodox Monarchy (CROM-BHGS). These arms were emblazoned by the talented new heraldic artist Terry Sarros (who is also an associate and artist of the CROM-BHGS) following the basic principle of the rules described in the cited article but with a variation more appropriate for Serbia.

 It should be noted that the CROM-BHGS, under the leadership of the Rev. Fr. Deacon, has done much excellent work in the creation and promotion of heraldry within the Orthodox ecclesiastical community worldwide. A small sample of the work this group has done can be seen in their online gallery of ecclesiastical heraldry at this link: http://www.czipm.org/galerija-heraldika02-02.html

The article in question can be found at this link: 
http://www.americancollegeofheraldry.org/ORTHODOX.htm
and reprinted at the CROM-BHGS: http://www.czipm.org/dpj.html

Note: The image above was used with the approval of the Rev. Fr. Deacon Nenad Jovanovich and the artist Mr. Terry Sarros.
Note: I too am an associate of the CROM-BHGS.

Today’s entry will be about my coat of arms, how I came about deciding on this design and the symbolism behind it. The blazon of my arms is

Per fess Azure and Argent a Saltire counterchanged between in chief an Athenian Owl (Athene noctua) tourné Argent in base an Oak Tree eradicated Azure.

Kimon Andreou

The emblazonment you see above was created for me by an amazingly talented artist named Srechko Nikitovich of Serbia who is a member of the Center for Research of Orthodox Monarchy, led by the Rev. Deacon Fr. Nenad Jovanovich.

The path to these arms did not come about immediately or without effort.

Originally, I had the hope that perhaps I may lay claim to ancestral arms from one of my family lines. Alas, my Greek ancestry through the “Andreou” line does not have an armigerous member that I or anyone else in my family know of (more on my adventures in genealogy in a future blog entry). However, on my mother’s side I found a number of my ancestral lines bearing arms. My mother’s patrilineal line is the Martínez de Vergara, who descend originally from the Basque Country of Spain through Gibraleón, Huelva in the south of Spain.

The arms above are those identified as belonging to my mother’s patrilineal line. The blazon is

En campo de oro, un árbol de sinople, frutado de oro, con un lobo pasante de sable atado al tronco, bordura de gules con ocho aspas de oro”

or

Or an oak tree Vert fructed Or a wolf passant chained to its bark Sable, a bordure Gules charged with eight saltorels Or

and there are multiple sources confirming this blazon, though my main source is the book by Juan Mujíca titled “Nobleza Colonial de Chile”. In this book, my ancestry is traced from the original Juan Martínez de Vergara from Gibraleón, Huelva, Spain all the way to my grandparents in Santiago, Chile.

Though an argument can be made that I can use those arms, perhaps with a difference, I opted not to since I am fond of the arms following the name. However, I did want to take my maternal arms into consideration when designing my new personal arms.

In my quest to develop my arms, I did a lot of research on line and joined the excellent American Heraldry Society (AHS), of which I eventually became the Ass. Director of IT.

It was at the AHS where, after a couple of rookie mistakes, I received the assistance of certain excellent individuals: David Pritchard, Kenneth Mansfield, Terry Sarros and Maj. José Juan Carrión Rangel of the Spanish Air Force.

It was David who suggested of using a saltire as a cant of my surname. It was Maj. Carrión who explained the symbolism of the Vergara arms. It was Kenneth and Terry who assisted with the layout and the mockups. All of them helped with their strong, constructive criticism.

Now, on to the symbolism.

My surname is “Andreou” or, in Greek, “Ανδρέου” which is the name “Andrew” in the original Greek (Andrew is a Greek name). The saltire is also known as “St. Andrew’s Cross” and that’s why it is commonly found amongst the symbols of countries whose patron saint is St. Andrew (most famous being Scotland). So, the use of the saltire as a cant of my surname is natural. The fact that I am Greek Orthodox and St. Andrew is the patron of the Greek Orthodox Church is an added bonus

The owl is the Athenian Owl, commonly found on the reverse of tetradrachms (4 drachmas) of ancient Athens. The obverse of the tetradrachms portrayed the goddess Athena, patron goddess and namesake of Athens. The owl being the western symbol of wisdom comes from the mythology of the owl being Athena’s favored animal, as goddess of wisdom. My choice of using the owl is due to my constant quest for more knowledge, however mundane it may be to the average person. My choice of the Athenian owl specifically, is as a link to my Greek heritage and my growing up in Athens, Greece.

The oak tree, as one might surmise, is a nod to my maternal arms of Vergara. I much prefer the tree versus the wolf or any of the other choices of the Vergara arms and also chose to blazon it eradicated as I felt it added more character

The choice of color came about in a rather interesting way…. I was trying various tinctures of the field and the charges and every time came back with the owl being Argent. On the other hand, the tree was not as pleasing in Argent and went through even more tincture combinations, eventually ending up with blazoning it Proper. This created the constraint of making the field on which the owl would be to have one of the colors or stains while the tree’s field would have to be one of the metals.

This “problem” resulted in the decision of parting the shield per fess and having Argent in base for the tree and some undecided color in chief for the owl. After multiple tries of colors with meaning to me, whether the meaning was national pride (e.g. American red, white & blue) or just because I like the color, I ended up with Azure as the field for the owl. Azure as my favorite color and the combination of Azure & Argent being the common colors of my background (Greece & Chile) and who I am (USA).

At this point, the saltire had to stand out and was blazoned counterchanged. The blazon for my arms at this point was Per fess Azure and Argent a Saltire counterchanged between in chief an Athenian Owl (Athene noctua) tourné Argent in base an Oak Tree eradicated Proper. However, something didn’t feel right…

After some time thinking about it I finally realized it! It was the tree. It had to change. It had to change to Azure.

This final change made the shield achieve the desired goal of simplicity. I only had 3 charges and 2 tinctures.

After Kenneth emblazoned this latest blazon, I knew it was the right one immediately.

In any case, I put this latest emblazonment through the time honored “fridge test” to be certain. Sure enough, it passed the test and I promptly adopted my arms.

After coming up with a crest, I submitted my registration with the United States Heraldic Registry (USHR), which I highly recommend that every armiger does – it’s free!

Below are the arms of those who helped me with my arms:

Arms of Mr. David A. Pritchard

Arms of Major José Juan Carrión Rangel

Arms of Mr. Kenneth Mansfield

Arms of Mr. Terry Sarros