Arms of a Scottish Canon of St Peter's Basilica

In theory there have been three Scottish clerics made canons of St Peter's Basilica: Henry Benedict, Cardinal Stuart, Henry I and IX (1725-1807), and Charles Cardinal Erskine (1739-1811) were the first two, both born in Rome. With the former Keeper of the Vatican Archives, a priest of the Diocese of Paisley and former pupil of St Aloysius' College, we have the first native Scot in that prestigious office, Monsignor Charles Burns OBE.

Monsignor Burns has now recorded arms at the Lyon Court, note the AMARANTH galero with twelve RED fiocchi appropriate to a PROTONOTARY APOSTOLIC:

 

 

Ross Herald Extraordinary kindly dug out what I think may be the only other arms of a monsignor in the Lyon Register, Monsignor David McRoberts, who was Keeper of the Scottish Catholic Records: Monsignor Roberts was a "Domestic Prelate of His Holiness" and so entitled to an AMARANTH galero with twelve VIOLET fiocchi (shown in the Lyon Register as the same colour as the galero).

 

 

Interestingly, it looks as if these two ranks of monsignor (the Protonotary Apostolic and the Domestic Prelate) have now (since 2013) been scrapped by Pope Francis. Only the third rank, Chaplain of His Holiness, remains and is to be much less readily distributed.