For at least 800 years, each pope has had a personal coat of arms. Pope Benedict XVI’s coat of arms was created by Archbishop Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo. It includes many symbols that speak of his understanding of his ministry as Pope, including a miter and a pallium. The miter has three gold stripes to symbolize order, jurisdiction and magisterium. A vertical gold band connects the three stripes in the middle “to indicate their unity in the same person,” Archbishop Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo said.
Other symbols in the coat of arms include the Holy See’s insignia of two crossed keys, which symbolize the powers Christ gave to the apostle Peter and his successors. The gold key on the right represents the power in heaven and the silver key on the left indicates the spiritual authority of the papacy on earth. The cord that unites the two keys alludes to the bond between the two powers. Nestled on top of the keys lies the shield of Pope Benedict, based on his coat of arms as archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany.
The shield is divided into three sections, each with its own symbol. The central element on a red background is a large gold shell. The shell recalls a legend in which Saint Augustine came across a boy on the seashore who was scooping water from the sea and pouring it into a small hole he had dug in the sand. When the saint pondered this seemingly futile activity, it struck him as analogous to limited human minds trying to understand the infinite mystery of the divine. In addition, the shell symbolizes the pilgrim. It is also present in the coat of arms of the Schotten monastery in Regensburg, Germany. The Holy Father is close to this monastery.
The upper left-hand section of the shield depicts a brown-faced Moor with red lips, crown and collar; it is a symbol of the former Diocese of Freising dating back to the eighth century. Though it is not known why the Moor came to represent Freising, in Milestones, the pope said for him “it is an expression of the universality of the church which knows no distinctions of race or class since all are one in Christ.”
Finally, a brown bear loaded with a pack on his back lumbers up the upper right-hand section of the shield. The bear is tied to an old Bavarian legend about the first bishop and patron saint of the Diocese of Freising, Saint Corbinian. According to the legend, when the saint was on his way to Rome, a bear attacked and killed his horse. Saint Corbinian punished the bear by making him carry the saint’s belongings the rest of the way to Rome.
Source: From Pope John Paul II to Benedict XVI, 2005 USCCB.
