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The coat of arms of St. Norbert's Abbey in De Pere, WI
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
When my research on Pierre de Chaignon la Rose (1872-1941) led me to St. Norbert's Abbey in De Pere, Wisconsin, I began learning about the first religious house established by the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré in the US. I am most appreciative of the Norbertines' assistance in finding documents in the archives related to la Rose's work designing the abbey's coat of arms.
By shear coincidence, the Norbertine community in De Pere was preparing for its centennial celebration, marking 100 years since its elevation to an abbey in 1925. As a result of my inquiry, I was invited to write a brief article on the coat of arms for Abbey Magazine which circulates to approximately 14,000 friends and supporters of the De Pere community. Scroll to the bottom of the post to read the article.
Given the space constraints for the article, I'm expanding here so as to complete the story of these Norbertine arms.
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The arms of St. Norbert's Abbey and its college
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
The new elevation from priory to abbey would cause new heraldic ensigns to be created, as I don't believe the priory used arms. For this commission, la Rose created three coats of arms for the new abbot's consideration: 1) the personal and impaled arms of the abbot, the new arms for the abbey, and a proposed coat of arms for the college.
In March 1925, la Rose wrote to Abbot Bernard H. Pennings, O.Praem. (1862-1955) in response to the abbot's submission of a few designs rendered by members of his community. La Rose held nothing back.
"I do not find any of the designs which you have been good enough to send me acceptable heraldry, for reasons which I will try to explain...
"The modern notion, which dates from the rapid decline of the art in the 17th century and later: that a coat-of-arms should be in more or less symbolic terms, a moral portrait of its owner, or in the case of an ecclesiastical coat, should even declare its owner's religious programme, etc, etc, is wholly erroneous.
"The arms of your own venerable Order are a case in point: they declare in themselves or express absolutely nothing. They are simply the personal arms of Saint Louis, which he himself permitted as a special royal favor to the Order, to bear, differentiating the coat from his own by the addition of two croziers diagonally crossed" (La Rose letter to the Right Reverend Father Abbot Pennings, March 21, 1925).
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The coat of arms of the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (modern)
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
In a sense, la Rose's argument regarding the order's arms is legitimate, as the arms lack any bespoke identification reflecting the Norbertines. There is another version of these arms whereby the fleurs-de-lis are arranged in semme with the crossed croziers overall.
The blazon for the arms of the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (modern): Azure, two croziers in saltire with crooks outwards between four fleurs-de-lis all Or.
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The shear used as a charge
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025
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Since la Rose believed the arms of the order to be insufficient for his design, he turned to St. Norbert himself for inspiration, appropriating the heraldic shear as one means of identification. More detail about la Rose's rationale for the abbey's arms is covered in the article below.
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The coat of arms of St. Norbert's Abbey in De Pere, Wisconsin
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
The blazon for the arms of St. Norbert's Abbey: Argent, a cross saltire between as many shears all Gules on a chief Azure a crescent of the field between two fleurs-de-lis Or.
Now at the ripe age of 100 years old, the coat of arms of St. Norbert's Abbey illustrate what la Rose called "carrying power" for those arms illustrating sound heraldry. In other words, good heraldry will pass the test of time.
Unification & Differencing
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Unification and differencing in arms for Roman Catholic
religious communities
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
In response to the proposed designs sent by the abbot which included mottoes below the shield as well as designs for the college arms, la Rose addressed those points by sharing the rules for illustrating unification and differencing in arms for Roman Catholic religious communities. The graphic above summarizes la Rose's points in simple terms.
Proposal for St. Norbert's College
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The unadopted arms proposed for St. Norbert's College in De Pere, WI
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
La Rose's third proposal for the abbot's consideration were arms for St. Norbert's College, a foundation of the newly elevated abbey.
La Rose continues in his letter to Abbot Pennings:
"Now for St Norbert's College, these arms again should be sufficiently differentiated from those of the Abbey to prevent the least visual confusion- but should also show a close relationship. One of the most frequent mediaeval practices was to "difference" two similar shields by a change of color.
"Therefore, while retaining the distinctive design of St.Norbert's heraldry, I have changed the colors into the green and silver now (I gather from the letters you sent me) used by the College.
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The open book inscribed with Euntes Docete ("Go and Teach") for St. Norbert's College
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025
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"I have retained the blue chief of the Abbey arms, but changed it now with an open book, the symbol most common traditionally to academic arms, thus indicating St. Norbert's College.
"And as an open book, even in heraldry, normally bears a short legend on its pages, I have inscribed them with the Euntes Docete, which, although it should not be used as a "motto" on a ribbon beneath the shield, may with perfect heraldic propriety appear in its present position- or it may be replaced by any other brief legend that may seem desirable" (La Rose letter to the Right Reverend Father Abbot Pennings, March 21, 1925).
La Rose moved the proposed motto from the
Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19-20,
Euntes Docete ("Go and Teach) from an external ribbon and inscribed an open book to use as the chief for St. Norbert's College. For one reason or another, la Rose's design for the college would not be adopted.
The blazon for the unadopted arms of St. Norbert's College: Argent, a cross saltire between as many shears all Vert on a chief Azure an open book bound and edged with two clasps Or thereon EUNTES DOCETE.
St. Norbert's College Today
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(L-R): The coat of arms of St. Norbert's College and Berne Abbey in The Netherlands
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
St. Norbert's College bears its own coat of arms as seen above, the inspiration for those arms came from the Norbertine's Berne Abbey located in Holland. Why? The founders of St. Norbert's in De Pere, Wisconsin originated from Berne Abbey and showing this historical connection must have been viewed as important to the designer of the college's arms (St. Norbert College, 1989).
"Berne Abbey took its coat of arms from Fulco of Berne who gave his castle to a group of religious. The Norbertines were the first permanent occupants, and Berne Abbey was the last of the Norbertine abbeys founded by St. Norbert himself.
"Fulco's coat of arms had alternating stripes, three red and three blue, with eight scepters superimposed. The eight scepters indicated that Fulco was related by eight lines to the Emperor of the Holy Roman empire...the Dartmouth colors of green and white for the alternative stripes, and gold for the scepters were adopted" (St. Norbert's College, 1989).
The rationale for the college's arms comes from a pamphlet found in the college archives and linked below. I created the following two blazons:
The blazon for the arms of St. Norbert's College: Argent, three bars Vert overall an escarbuncle of eight points each ending with a fleur-de-lis Or.
The blazon for the arms of Berne Abbey: Azure, three bars Gules overall an escarbuncle of eight points each ending with a fleur-de-lis Or.
Abbey Magazine
Finally, here's my brief article in Abbey Magazine, Spring/Summer 2025. It might be necessary to pop out the article into a larger window for the document to reload.
Works Cited
La Rose, Pierre de Chaignon (21 March, 1925). La Rose letter to the Right Reverend Father Abbot Pennings. Unpublished.
St. Norbert's College (1989). The coat of arms of St. Norbert's College. Archives Publications. 6.
