Pope Benedict's Coat of Arms

Yesterday while I was watching EWTN waiting for the coverage of the Popes address at Catholic University I saw most of an episode of Defenders of the Faith in Word and Deed about Pope Benedict XVI. It had a very interesting story about the Popes coat of arms in it.Which was also his Coat of Arms as archbishop of Munich and Freising.

His Coat of Arms includes:

The Moor of Freising - Which I think is from the ancient Coat of Arms from Freising. Pope Benedict (then Cardinal Ratzinger) thought this was a good sign of the universality of the church.

The Pilgrim’s Seashell - Which has to do with a story about Saint Augustine. He was walking along the seashore when he saw a boy trying to to empty the sea into a hole he had dug in the sand.When Saint Augustine heard what he was trying to do he told him that it was impossible the boy answered "Not more impossible than that thy human mind should understand the mind of God," Here is the whole story from a book which is on the Baldwin Project called In God's Garden by Amy Steedman on the Baldwin Project.

and The Bear of Corbinian - Bishop Corbinian was traveling to Rome when a bear came out of the woods and attacked the bishops horse. The horse was to injured to carry Bishop Corbinian and his pack the rest of the way to Rome so Bishop Corbinian put the pack on the bears back and made him carry it the rest of the way to Rome where Bishop Corbinian let the bear go.

By the Way here is an interesting page on EWTN about Pope Benedict's Coat of Arms.

Gus