Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman
ARMS: Sable, a chevron Ermine between three coronels Argent.
SOURCES, NOTES AND CREDITS: Blazon: page 111, “Cardinals and Heraldry”, Mark Turner Elvins, Buckland Publications, Ltd, London, 1988. B&W Illustration for background, page 111, “Cardinals and Heraldry”, Mark Turner Elvins, Buckland Publications, Ltd, London, 1988. Text adapted by D. Q. Wedvick from page 111, “Cardinals and Heraldry”, Mark Turner Elvins, Buckland Publications, Ltd, London, 1988 and from the Wikipedia article. An heraldic note: on page 74 of J.P. Brooke-Little’s, “An Heraldic Alphabet” states: the definition of a cronal, spear-cronal or coronel as “The deeply scalloped head of a tournament spear resembling a crown.” dqw.
Cardinal Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman was born 2 Aug 1802 in Seville, Spain, the child of Anglo-Irish parents who settled in Spain for business reasons. Upon the death of his father in 1805 he was brought to Waterford, Ireland. He went to Ushaw College, England and then English College in Rome, which had reopened in 1818, receiving a doctorate in theology in 1825 and he was ordained a priest 19 Mar 1825.
Both as a scholar and preacher he made a powerful impression on those who read his papers or heard him. One of those impressed was the then Anglican priest Fr. John Henry Newman who wrote very favorable reviews on his lectures.
This eventually resulted in his being Consecrated a Bishop on 8 June 1840 as coadjutor to Bishop Thomas Walsh, Vicar-Apostolic of the Central District. And he also was appointed President of Oscott College near Birmingham.
Pope Pius IX on 29 Sep 1850, by Letters Apostolic, restored the hierarchy of England and Wales and appointed Bishop Wiseman as Archbishop of the newly established Metropolitan See of Westminster with 12 Suffragan sees. The next day on 30 Sep 1850 Archbishop Wiseman was created a Cardinal.
Cardinal Wiseman, at first unpopular in England, because of the restoration of the hierarchy, became so respected over the years that when he died on 15 Feb 1865, his funeral was compared with that of the Duke of Wellington’s.
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor
Wedvick Armorial, 201a, Wiseman,
2011 0517
dqw266@gmail.com
