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The arms were designed and
emblazoned by The Rev’d. Fr. Guy W. Selvester, MDiv, MA.
The coat of arms of the Reverend Gregory Pilcher of
the Order of Saint Benedict, Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy
Sepulchre, reflects his family name and his ethnic heritage.
The name “Pilcher” means, among other things, a person who makes “pylches”, that
is, garments of fur. The main part of the field is composed of one of the
heraldic furs called pean. This is a black background powdered with gold
coloured ermine spots. The black of the fur also alludes to the black
Benedictine habit. The chief or upper third of the shield has a red background
on which is two symbols of the armiger’s ancestry. On his mother’s side he is
French Canadian (the gold fleur de lis) and on his father’s side he is Scottish
(the gold thistle).
The shield is placed on the symbol of the Equestrian Order of the Holy
Sepulchre, a red Jerusalem cross, to represent the armiger’s membership in that
chivalric order. In addition, his priesthood is reflected by the ecclesiastical
hat, called a galero, placed above the shield. This hat is used in
ecclesiastical heraldry in place of the more martial helmet, mantling and crest.
The hat is black with two tassels that hang one each on either side of the
shield.
Fr. Pilcher’s motto, “Duc in Altum” (put out into the deep) is from the fifth
chapter of Luke’s gospel, verse four. |
