Bishop David Toups was on a plane to Florida, returning from his introduction to members of the Diocese of Beaumont as its sixth bishop, when he began sketching out the idea for his personal coat of arms. The symbol would soon marshal the crest representing the Diocese of Beaumont after his ordination on August 21, 2020.
It’s a duty with which every bishop in the Roman Catholic Church has been tasked for more than one thousand years — part of an ancient heraldic tradition dating back to the Middle Ages.
“There’s a lot of continuity and deep symbolic significance” to the practice, Toups said.
Just as families in Medieval times had a coat of arms to distinguish them in times of battle or celebration, bishops designed crests describing their life as they were called to lead their diocesan family, Toups explained.
It’s a tradition of which Toups never anticipated being a part, until getting a call from the papal nuncio informing him that Pope Francis had appointed him as the next Bishop of the Beaumont Diocese, following the papal acceptance of then-Bishop Curtis Guillory’s retirement after 20 years leading the diocese.
At the time, Toups was rector and president at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Clearwater, Florida.
He’d been enmeshed in seminarian life and academia for roughly 20 years.
The move would require leaving the world of spiritual teaching for one of spiritual leading — not just at one church, but at a consortium of 49 parishes within nine counties serving nearly 70,000 Catholics throughout the Golden Triangle.
His home base would be St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica, a historic site established in 1907 with roots dating back to 1879.
It was a life-changing move – one Toups asked to consider with consult from spiritual advisors.
“What is there to consider?” Toups recalls the papal nuncio asking. “The pope has appointed you.”
Toups reflected on his long-held favorite Biblical verse – “For those who love God, all things work together for the good,” Romans 8:28.
“It happened to be my family’s favorite verse, and the first verse I ever knew,” Toups said.
Speaking with then-Bishop Curtis Guillory on a first visit, Toups learned that verse actually was the motto in Guillory’s personal bishop’s crest.
It was then he knew the appointment was fate..
“We call that a Godincidence,” Toups said during his introduction to the diocese’s community of priests on June 9, 2020.
As he set about creating the crest that would adjoin the diocesan crest, he considered his personal history, its roots ensconced in the Gulf Coast South and a spiritual life steeped in academia.
Toups had created a family crest years ago, “so heraldry wasn’t new to me,” he said.
But one part would resonate with members of Beaumont’s parishes – the motto.
“It’s unusual to carry over a motto” from one bishop to the next, Toups noted, “but it shows the continuity of Bishop Guillory and I. It was a beautiful sign of providence.”
From there, however, the personal crests diverge.
Bishop Guillory’s was set amid the colors of Africa – red, green and black – within which were set personal symbols, like a sprig of cotton referencing his descent from sharecroppers.
Bishop Toups’ crest would signify a story steeped in its own layers of symbolic figures and colors.
His background colors are red, yellow and blue, their meaning laid out in diocesan documents.
Red represents the color of blood, especially the blood of Jesus, which was shed for all in the ultimate act of love.
Gold symbolizes nobility, and the first virtue, faith, “which helps us to believe in God’s plan of salvation.”
The color blue “symbolizes the separation from worldly values and the ascent of the soul toward God.”
Silver “is the second of the noble metals and displays as white, which symbolizes the purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which all Christians share through the gift of sanctification.”
Rules of ecclesiastic heraldry dictate that in a coat of arms, color cannot be laid upon color nor metal upon metal.
At top left of the crest is a golden feather set upon a backdrop of red. It is a plume fashioned into a quill – part of the ancient Dubs (Toups) family crest that serves as a reminder of familial lineage – but also nods to the fact that “much of my priesthood was spent in academia, in the intellectual side of the church,” Toups notes.
“the plume/quill represents the importance of the intellectual pursuit of the truth and (my) desire to be a shepherd faithful and true,” he added.
Toups was inspired by Mother Teresa’s statement that she was simply “a pencil in the hand of God, but it is he who writes.”
Beside that image, in contrasting hues, is a red lion set amid a plane of gold.
The lion comes from a symbol denoting the diocese of St. Petersburg, where Toups was first ordained into the priesthood in 1997.
It also references his middle name – Leon, after his father – and therefore makes his coat of arms “canting,” or heraldic bearings that that represent the bearer’s name. The lion also symbolizes courage, “which the Bishop asks of God to pour upon him as he embraces the Office of Bishop,” according to Diocesan documentation.
At the bottom of the shield is a pelican — a bird featured on the Louisiana flag of Toups’ youth in recognition of his Houma, Louisiana upbringing — feeding its chicks.
Its silver wings spread amid a base of blue, and within its chest, three drops of blood sit below the dipping beak of the pelican as it prepares to feed its young.
In symbolic reference to the Eucharist, “the pelican in times of famine would pinch its chest and feed the chicks from their own flesh so that they don’t die,” Toups explained.
The image, attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas, is “a powerful and ancient symbol of Jesus, who, to prevent us from starving, serves us with his very flesh and blood. This image serves as the base/foundation of the entire shield to remind us all that the Eucharist is the ‘source and summit’ of our lives as Catholic Christians,” according to diocese documents explaining Toups’ crest.
On a personal level, the three chicks represent Toups, his 2 older siblings and “the sacrifice parents make for their kids,” he said.
Set amid a base of blue, its meaning elevates to one depicting Toups’ movement from an Earthly family to his larger family as a servant of God.
At the center of his coat of arms is a silver star.
“It is a symbol of Mary, star of the sea guiding mariners to safety as patroness of storms,” Toups explained.
It’s a symbol not lost on any in the Golden Triangle’s history of hurricanes and devastating storms.
But it further represents Bishop Toups’ vow to “entrust his new pastoral service to the protection and the guiding light of the Blessed Virgin Mary….and a prominent symbol of his new home in Texas, ‘the Lone Star State,’” according to Diocese documents.
Following his installment as bishop, Toups’ personal coat of arms was adjoined to another that has long represented the Beaumont Diocese – what is known as “marshaling” in heraldic tradition.
The left half, or heart, of the diocesan coat of arms has passed down through six generations of paschoral leadership.
Its symbolism is worn on the garments of priests during diocese-wide services, like the Chrism Mass celebrated the Tuesday of Holy Week and is part of the imagery decorating the metal doors of the Basilica.
On a base of blue sits a golden vase inscribed with the Greek letters X (Chi) and P (Rho) – the monogram of Christ, the “X” meaning, “the anointed one,” Toups said.
Above are two flowers representing the Beaumont diocese’s descension from the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston; a star in between references the “Lone Star State.
The vessel represents that which “contains the sacred oils used for the administration of the sacraments,” Toups explained, but also acknowledges the region’s role as the “origins of oil in Southeast Texas – a gold mountain, a Beau Mont.”
Though the word originated from the maiden name of the city’s founder, its symbolic meaning stuck and has its place in the intricate layered imagery of its subsequent diocesan nomenclature.
The bishop and diocesan coats of arms form a shield unified by a golden processional cross decorated with five red gems symbolizing Christ’s wounds during crucifixion.
Atop the cross is a green hat from which flows on each side a total of six.
They represent the crest-bearer’s stature within the Catholic hierarchy.
Designing his coat of arms was merely a step toward Toups assuming his newest role in a journey of faithful service.
It was a learning curve aided by fellow bishops.
One steered him toward the talents of Renato Poletti – a member of the Italian government who dabbles in ecclesiastical heraldry as a hobby – to create the final design of his coat of arms from Toups’ early rough sketch.
Another bishop advised him toward a jeweler in Pittsburgh to create the Bishop’s ring that would bear the signet of his crest.
And it was Toup’s sister Vicki Sheaffer that suggested he use their parents’ wedding rings as the base metal for that piece.
It was all part of the heraldry that would lead to his installment as Beaumont’s sixth bishop in a place he would now call home.
“I feel very much at home here in Southeast Texas,” Toups said, noting that a parish member created the crest-embroidered capes that now covers the shoulders of the servers aiding him during mass.
“It was a nice little touch” to his installment as the next bishop, Toups said, one making him feel welcomed to the community he now calls home – a home to which he felt called to serve.
“I love being in a small diocese. It’s like being the pastor of a large parish, and I feel like this is right,” Toups said. “This is where God wanted me to be.”
kbrent@beaumontenterprise.com
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