Petrus Maria Vrancken

PETRUS MARIA VRANCKEN

Born: November 8, 1806
Deceased: August 17, 1879

Co-adjutor Apostolic Vicar of Batavia, 1847-1852; Titular Bishop of Colophon
Apostolic Vicar of Batavia, 1852-1874
Titular Archbishop of Attalea in Pamphylia, 1874-1879

Colour variant 1

Colour variant 2

Official blazon
English	blazon wanted

Origin/meaning

There are several variants known of the arms of this bishop. I a Dutch manuscript the arms are described as shown above as variant 1. However, his seal showed a normal cross, and not a shorter cross. In a recent article (2022) W. Lem shows a picture of the arms as shown in a book (below). This shows the crosses with 8 points, instead of the five in variant 1, and the lion holding a cross. On the seal the star could be both 5 or 8 points. The colours shown on the book are different as in variant 1, hence a reconstruction of the seal in the colours of the book, resulting in variant 2 above. However, variant 2 does not include the mitre and pastoral staff common for bishops at the time, and shows 6 tassels, instead of the 10 tassels used by the bishop (even though 6 would be more appropriate for a bishop).

His seal

From a publication

The meaning of the arms is not known. The stars can refer to Maastricht (he was born near that city), which would be a 5-pointed star. The cross can be a generic Christian symbol, the lion can be the lion of the Netherlands (for the Dutch East Indies), where the bundle of arrows is replaced by a cross.

Religious or Ecclesiastical heraldry portal

This page is part of the Ecclesiastical heraldry portal	Heraldry of the World
Ecclesiastical heraldry per country Catholic heraldry Roman Catholic Arms of Popes Cardinals (2,111) Archdioceses (644) Archbishops (3,371) Dioceses (2,486) Bishops (10,118) Nunciatures (210) and more Armenian Catholic Chaldean Catholic Coptic Catholic Ethiopian Catholic Hungarian Catholic Greek Catholic Maronite Catholic Ruthenian Catholic Syriac Catholic Syro-Malabar Catholic Syro-Malankara Catholic Liberal Catholic Old Catholic Free Catholic	Centre for Ecclesiastical Heraldry : We will help you designing your coat of arms Other Christian churches Anglican Churches Lutheran Churches Orthodox Churches Reformed Churches Unitarianism Other religions Judaism Total pages in the Ecclesiastical section : 18,832 Total images in the Ecclesiastical section : 17,800