Harry Anselm Clinch

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HARRY ANSELM CLINCH

Born: October 27, 1908
Deceased: March 8, 2003

Auxiliary bishop of Monterey-Fresno, 1956-1967, titular bishop of Badiae
Bishop of Monterey in California, 1967-1982

Arms (crest) of Harry Anselm Clinch

Auxiliary Bishop of Monterey-Fresno
Arms (crest) of Harry Anselm Clinch

Bishop of Monterey in California
Official blazon
English blazon wanted

Origin/meaning

As common in US episcopal heraldry, the arms show the arms of the diocese impaled with the personal arms of the bishop.

The three black lozenges on a golden field are taken from a CLinch family in Ireland (not necessarily related to the Bishop). These arms have been differenced by the addition of an open black book, leaved in gold, and bearing the Greek letters, alpha and omega, in the same tincture. In the background a black cross with a double traverse is apparent above and below the book.

These charges bespeak St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church and the baptismal patron of Bishop Clinch. The book symbolizes the deep influence of St. Anselm on Catholic philosophy and theology, and his chief achievement in philosophy, the ontological argument for the existence of God, viz., that God exists in reality, because He is that than which nothing greater can be though, and since to exist in reality is greater than to exist in the mind, He therefore has real existence. St. Anselm claims a place beside Athanasius, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Indeed, he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Clement XI in 1720, and in the Office read on his feast, April 21st, it is said that his works are a pattern for all theologians. The golden alpha and omega on the black book commemorate this proof of the existence of God, by the light of human reason, with which this Benedictine saint enlightens the minds of men darkened with the stain of original sin (the black book).

The cross with the double traverse is at once the archiepiscopal cross representing St. Anselm as Archbishop of Canterbury, while it signifies the membership of this Saint in the Benedictine Order which bears a like cross on its coat of arms. Black is the Benedictine color. Anselm became a monk in the Benedictine Abbey of Bee in 1060, and in 1063 when Lanfranc was appointed Abbot of Caen, Anselm was elected to succeed him as Prior. Fifteen years later, this humble Prior was appointed the Abbot of Bee. Eventually, St. Anselm was dragged by force to the bedside of King William Rufus that the pastoral staff of the Archbishopric of Canterbury might be placed in his hand. St. Anselm was canonized by Alexander VI in 1491, the year in which America was discovered by Columbus.

The motto, "Salus Animarum Suprema Lex", is translated, "The salvation of souls is the supreme law," This motto was that of the late Archbishop Molloy of Brooklyn, who died within hours of Bishop Clinch's appointment to the episcopate.


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Literature: Information from the Diocese of Monterey in California