ARCHDIOCESE - Coadjutor Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr has adopted a design for his episcopal coat of arms that reflects his life and his heritage.

COURTESY PHOTO

The upper portion is red, on which is displayed four white lilies that form a cross which has a gold snake intertwined. The lily is a classic, symbolic representation for St. Anthony of Padua, the archbishop's particular patron, a devotion that was fostered in his home parish of St. Anthony in Hospers, Iowa.

The gold snake, cross and the red field are all taken from the arms of Archbishop Schnurr's home diocese, Sioux City, Iowa.

In the lower portion the scales of justice, representing the archbishop's doctorate in canon law, is joined to the Greek letter rho to form the Chi-Rho ("Christ).

Archbishop Schnurr's episcopal motto, Quaerite faciem Domini - "Seek the face of the Lord," is drawn from Psalm 104 and expresses the convicton that Christ's followers must always look to Christ as the focal point for their pilgrim journey on earth.

The coat of arms is completed with the external ornaments, which are a gold archiepiscopal processional cross, which is placed in the back of the shield and which extends above and below the shield, and a pontifical hat, a galero, with its 10 green tassels in four rows on either side of the shield. These are the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of archbishop.