Zagrebačka nadbiskupija

Archdiocese of Zagreb

Coat of Arms

Description of the Coat of Arms of Cardinal Josip Bozanić

 

PIGEON on a blue background signifies The Holy Spirit, God's life-giving power

A Holy Spirit, the third divine person, portrayed by the Gospel and later Christian art in a form of a pigeon, the Church in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed professes as LIFE GIVER

STAR signifies worshipped Jesus' Mother Mary, who is the image and beginning of the Church as it should be completed in the future

Jesus' Mother on this earth shines to the travelling god's people as a sign of certain hope and comfort (LG 68). As was the embodiment of Jesus Christ in the lap of a Virgin of the Holy Spirit, so is the embodiment of the mysterious Body of Christ in the world's history a work of the Holy Spirit. 

CHURCH – Christ's fiancée, in Mary, the Mother of God sees its image and role model. The Holy Virgin the Christian tradition called Morning Star, the one who has by believing in God's word announced the sunrise of Justice- Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
God's faithful called her Star of the Sea, seeing her as a compass in the stormy seas of history: personal, national and human

COLOUR BLUE of the shield in the coat of arms signifies the clear sky and deep blue sea. Colour blue is also a symbol of Zagreb.

MOTTO- THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE – taken from John 10, 10
 

In Jesus Christ, God has, in his relationship with humans, forever and irrevocably chosen life: I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10, 10)