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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. |
