Blazon:
Arms: Azure two barrulets wavy Gules fimbriated Or alternate with a cross fleury between two Catherine wheels in pale of the last.
Motto: Adimple Ea Quae Desunt (Complete That Which is Lacking)
Design Rationale:
The shield is inspired by the arms of St. Francis de Sales, patron of the city of Columbus, Ohio, in which the armiger was born and raised. The central charge on the shield is the Cross, a symbol of the armiger’s faith and focus on Christ in all that he does. The arms of this particular Cross (called a cross flory) each terminate in a fleur-de-lis, a stylized lily often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. In addition, the fleur-de-lis represents the armiger’s patron, St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, and the Holy Trinity. The Cross flory also appears on the Dominican order’s arms, whose friars staffed the armiger’s childhood parish and greatly influenced him. At the top and bottom of the shield, wheels, specifically spiked “Catherine wheels” allude to the armiger’s surname, Carter.
On a scroll below the shield appears the armiger’s motto, “Adimple Ea Quae Desunt.” This line, “Complete That Which is Lacking,” is from Colossians 1:24 in which St. Paul is telling the people of Colossae, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of His body, which is the Church.” Thus, it is a reminder to the armiger to complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions by joining his sufferings thereto and a plea to God to fulfill in the armiger what is lacking.
