Abp John Carroll
ARMS: Argent two lions rampant combatant Gules supporting a sword palewise point in chief proper hilted and pommelled Or
SOURCE/NOTES & CREDITS: Blazon text Sources: Private correspondence in 2011 with Joseph McMillan, President of the American Heraldry Society, who did considerable research on the Carrolls reworked by J. H. Gaylor. Background illustration: none. Text by D. Q. Wedvick adapted from Wikipedia internet article.
Archbishop John Carroll was born in Maryland 8 January 1735, was a cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence) with whom he went to school. Educated at the College of St. Omer in Flanders, France, he was ordained a priest on 14 February 1761. He served in pastoral work founding the parish of St. John the Evanglist in Silver Springs, MD in 1774. In 1784 upon Benjamin Franklin’s recommendation to the Papal Nuncio in Paris, France, Fr. Carroll was named Superior of Missions in the United States of North America, thus establishing a hierarchy in the US and removing the Catholic Church in the US from the jurisdiction of the Vicar Apostolic of the London District. Fr. Carroll was the only person to be elected a Catholic bishop rather than appointed, with the election approved by Pope Pius VI on 8 Nov 1789. Consecrated by Bishop Charles Walmesley on 15 August 1790 in the Chapel of Lulworth Castle, Dorset, England, he took his chair in the Church of St. Peter, Baltimore, MD which became his pro-cathedral in the Diocese of Baltimore with jurisdiction then the whole of the United States. Abp Carroll died on 3 December 1815 at age 80 with 26 years as a bishop and archbishop. dqw 2012 0907
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor.
Wedvick Armorial, 145b, Carroll, 2012 0908
