Philip Tartaglia

PHILIP TARTAGLIA

Born : January 11, 1951m
Deceased :

Archbishop of Glasgow, 2012-present
Bishop of Paisley, 2005-2012

Bishop of Paisley

Archbishop of Glasgow

Official blazon

Argent two salmon hauriant back to back and crossed in saltire Vert the dexter gripping in its mouth a ring Or, within a bordure Gules charged with five bannocks Or.

Origin/meaning

The arms were officially granted in 2007.

Thea rms are based on the gospel John 6, 5-14, which is described heraldically: the two fish (which are crossed in saltire in allusion to the presence of Saint Andrew) surrounded by the five barley loaves.

One fish has a gold ring in its mouth. This refers to the legend of St. Mungo and is featured in Glasgow's civic and ecclesiastical heraldry since the sixteenth century. This addition records that Philip Tartaglia is Glaswegian by birth and is a distinguished former pupil of St. Mungo's Academy, as well as an ordained priest of the Archdiocese of Glasgow.

The colours that feature in the arms - green, white and red - correspond to the Italian Tricolour, in reference to the bishop's family origins, and to the years spent in Rome at the Pontifical Scots College, first as a student and post-graduate, from 1969-1980, and ultimately - and all too briefly - as rector from May 2004 until November 2005 when he was ordained bishop.

The miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes has always been understood as a foretelling of the Blessed Eucharist. So this theme is ideal for a bishop appointed in the Year of the Eucharist. And all the more so as in 1980 Bishop Tartaglia defended a thesis in the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on the Decree on the Eucharist promulgated by the Council of Trent.

And no wonder that he has chosen as his motto the Latin phrase, "Da robur, fer auxilium", taken from the traditional Eucharistic hymn "O Salutaris Hostia'~ composed by St. Thomas Aquinas, with which we are so familiar. These words serve as an invocation: "Thine aid supply, thy strength bestow", - but also as a program for his apostolate in Paisley.