Appearance
The eagle rug is normally woven or embroidered so as to depict an eagle soaring over a city that is surrounded by walls and towers. The walled city represents the bishop's episcopal authority over his Diocese, and his defence of the faithful in it. The eagle soaring above the city represents the bishop's uprightness of life, and his sound theological preaching of the Gospel, which should soar above all worldliness and elevate the hearts and minds of the faithful. Around the eagle's head is a halo, in imitation of the eagle used to depict St. John the Divine, and symbolizing theological attainments and the grace of the Holy Spirit. The eagle is also a reminder that, "as an eagle can see clearly over distances, so must a bishop oversee all parts of his diocese."
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Famous quotes containing the word appearance:
“Men of all professions affect such an air and appearance as to seem to be what they wish to be believed to be—so that one might say the whole world is made up of nothing but appearances.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“This mesa plain had an appearance of great antiquity, and of incompleteness; as if, with all the materials for world-making assembled, the Creator had desisted, gone away and left everything on the point of being brought together, on the eve of being arranged into mountain, plain, plateau. The country was still waiting to be made into a landscape.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“A bureaucracy is sure to think that its duty is to augment official power, official business, or official members, rather than to leave free the energies of mankind; it overdoes the quantity of government, as well as impairs its quality. The truth is, that a skilled bureaucracy ... is, though it boasts of an appearance of science, quite inconsistent with the true principles of the art of business.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)