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| Ideas for incorporating heraldry during the Easter Triduum Designed and rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
Palm Sunday
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| Palm Sunday coat of arms Designed and rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
As Palm Sunday has already passed, I'm adding my design for its coat of arms along with those for the Triduum. While Palm Sunday is not included in the Triduum, Passion Sunday does kick off Holy Week as a major liturgy of the Church.
Blazon for the attributed arms of Palm Sunday: Gules, issuing from base three palms conjoined Proper enfiled by a celestial crown Or.
Maundy Thursday
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| Maundy Thursday coat of arms Designed and rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
Maudy Thursday kicks off the Triddum with the most unusual liturgy--foot washing, consecrating additional bread and wine for Good Friday, stripping the altar of all finery, and exiting in silence. Typically, the reserved sacrament is moved to the altar of repose, and watched all night by the faithful gathered in prayer.
For these arms, I wanted to illustrate both water and the Eucharist to commemorate what I believe to be the two major themes for the day.
Blazon for the attributed arms of Maundy Thursday: Bendy sinister barry wavy Argent and Azure on a pale Gules a chalice Or ensigned with a plate charged with the monogram of the Holy Name Sable.
Good Friday
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| Good Friday coat of arms Designed and rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
Good Friday will always rekindle precious memories from seminary--watching and praying as Maundy Thursday moves into Good Friday. I learned in those days the correct way of creeping to the cross.
Dividing the field "per pale" using white and black helped create the visual contrast I was seeking for arms marking Good Friday. In some respects, the field division serves as that great veil between life and death, light and darkness, and so on. Counterchanging the crosses and trimount in base help reinforce this theme too.
Blazon for the attributed arms of Good Friday: Per pale Argent and Sable, on a trimount in base a Latin cross palewise between two Tau crosses counterchanged.
Holy Saturday
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| Holy Saturday coat of arms Designed and rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
Green can represent life and on Holy Saturday the faithful wait in certain hope for the coming resurrection. The door of the tomb will be opened! The white canton and red cross help indicate the coming joy of Easter--the cross can found in the agnus dei image as the Lamb of God holds a banner or pennon of the same design.
Blazon for the attributed arms of Holy Saturday: Vert, a mounded cave faced with stones Proper charged with an opening Sable on a canton Argent a cross throughout Gules.
The Great Vigil of Easter
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Easter Vigil coat of arms
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The paschal candle plays a central role during the liturgy of the Easter Vigil. The candle is lit from the new fire and its flame shared with the congregation to light their own candles. The Exsultet is sung, proclaiming our salvation history as the candle light grows. "The Light of Christ," is chanted and responded with, "Thanks be to God."
The paschal candle plays yet another role during the liturgy, albeit not a rubric one will find in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The bottom of the paschal candle is plunged three times into the water at the baptismal font prior baptism (or for simply blessing the water at the font) in a rather saucy but sacred act referencing the new creation made by God in baptism.
A semme of stars against a dark shade of blue to represent the night sky helps showcase a representation of the paschal candle, and making the arms of the Easter Vigil simple and clear. The four waxed nailheads surrounding the cross each contain a piece of incense.
Blazon for the attributed arms of the Easter Vigil: Azure, a semme of six-pointed stars Argent on a paschal candle issuing from base Argent enflamed Proper a Latin Cross points ending with four wax nailheads between in chief the Greek letters Alpha and in base Omega all Gules.
Easter Sunday
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Easter Sunday coat of arms
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The Day of Resurrection is the highest and holiest day of the liturgical calendar. While this day can be represented by so many symbols, I wanted to design arms as simply as possible that could convey the importance of the day with as few charges as possible.
The blue pile appearing to issue forth from the empty tomb visually provides upward momentum made complete with a simple cross of gold. Blue also helps reference the sky and the heavens too. I thought these arms were rather striking and simple, which is exactly what I was seeking.
Blazon for the attributed arms of Easter Sunday: Argent issuing from base a cave Proper charged with an opening palewise Sable debruised by a pile Azure charged with a Latin cross Or.
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