Blazon: Per fess Azure and Vert a fess Argent between in chief a star of six points Argent and in base issuant from a chalice Or a communion wafer irradiated Argent, the fess charged with an escallop Gules.
SOURCE/NOTES & CREDITS: Background illustration for arms is from the Wikipedia article on Cardinal McGuigan. The Wikipedia article on McGuigan is also the source for biographical information adapted for this caption. The blazon for the arms was developed from the illustration by John Hamilton Gaylor for which we thank him.
Cardinal James Charles McGuigan was born 26 Nov 1894 to an Irish Catholic family that emigrated from Northern Ireland just before the Famine. McGuigan became a priest and was only age 35 when appointed Archbishop of Regina in 1930. He was transferred as Archbishop of Toronto on 22 Dec 1934 and named a cardinal on 18 Feb 1946. He was the only Cardinal in Canada between 1947 and 1953.
He participated in the papal conclave that elected Pope John XXIII and McGuigan attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Though he was liberal, he opposed some of the Council’s reforms stating he believed they would make the Catholic Church “Protestant within 50 years”. He retired as Archbishop of Toronto on 30 March 1971.
My interest in him comes from his promotion of and positive influence on authors and editors such as Anton Charles Pegis.
Cardinal McGuigan died on 8 April 1974, age 79.
The artwork is an interpretation of John Hamilton Gaylor
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