Coat of Arms
The original seventh-century pectoral cross of St. Cuthbert was discovered when his grave was opened in 1827, and is now preserved in the cathedral treasury. The motto, gratia gratiam parit, appears in the Adagia of Erasmus, a collection of Greek and Latin adages, and can be loosely translated as ‘friendship begets friendship’ or ‘kindness begets kindness’. The full coat of arms includes an eider duck as the crest. This is because, while resident in the Farne Islands, St Cuthbert instituted special laws to protect these and other seabirds nesting there, creating what may have been the first bird protection laws anywhere in the world. Consequently, eider ducks have long been known as 'cuddy ducks' (Cuthbert's ducks) in the Pitmatic dialect as spoken in Northumberland.
Read more about this topic: St Cuthbert's Society
Famous quotes containing the words coat and/or arms:
“Prepare your silken coat before it rains, and don’t wait until you are thirsty to dig a well.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The sturdy Irish arms that do the work are of more worth than oak or maple. Methinks I could look with equanimity upon a long street of Irish cabins, and pigs and children reveling in the genial Concord dirt; and I should still find my Walden Wood and Fair Haven in their tanned and happy faces.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)