It’s not often that I get to combine my two passions: heraldry & cryptography. Actually, this is the first time I’ve been able to truly combine the two!

The image above is the the new seal of the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). As you’ll notice, there is heraldry and there is a string of numbers and letters along the inner gold border. You should be able to see a much clearer image here.

The blazon of the shield is relatively simple: Argent in dexter chief two swords point to chief in saltire, in sinister chief a lightning bolt in bend sinister and in base a key fesswise all Sable, a chief Or.

However, the “cool” part is the supposed secret message encrypted and written on the logo. The coded message is: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a

This, at first glance, looks like the result of a hash function and in this case (being 32 characters) it “smelled” like a MD5 hash function.

Since hash functions are only one way, this code cannot be reversed to find out what the original text is. So, this leaves us to guessing…

In this article on Wired.com, we have a clue that the code is somehow related to the “mission” of USCYBERCOM.

So, what is this “mission”? To find out, we can check the closest thing I could find to an official website, the fact sheet on USCYBERCOM on the US Strategic Command site. Here, we find that the “mission” of the Cyber Command is:

USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes, and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.

So, let’s see what happens if we MD5 hash this text. What’s there to lose, right?

Lo and behold! The result is 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a !

I cracked the code!

Then I go to Wikipedia to gather info for the blog post and see that it’s not really secret. After recovering from the blow to my ego, I revamped the structure of this post. For the record, the original would’ve been Pulitzer Prize worthy!

A new site has been added to the small world of heraldry blogs and this one is dedicated to Catalan heraldry.

The arms above are those of the author of the blog, Javier de Crüilles, a native Spaniard residing in the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona.

The blog, aptly named “Heráldica Catalana” is hosted here: http://heraldicacatalana.blogspot.com/

This blog is one of the smaller ones on the internet and even if it never will have the readership of, say, TMZ, it still gets its fair share of communication from various visitors.

In the past 19 months or so of existence on the web, the majority of the messages I’ve received through this site can be classified in certain set categories.

This got me thinking about writing a few posts on the most common themes of the messages received as it may be of interest to someone.

So, stay tuned

It was announced on Wednesday that the St. Peter Codex, perhaps the most important heraldic endeavor in centuries, has been terminated.

The project’s objective was to create an illuminated manuscript with the armorial of all the Popes. The entire project was to be hand painted and illuminated by the master of the art Andy Jamieson with the consulting supervision of the expert on the heraldry of the Catholic Church, Fr. Guy Selvester.

It was a very ambitious project that, if completed, would have been a masterpiece! The plan also called for a formal presentation to His Holiness the Pope in a ceremony in the Vatican.

The reasons for termination were primarily, as expected, financial. There just weren’t enough patrons/donors that had the will and funds to contribute to this endeavor.

However, another big reason for the failure of the project was the unchivalrous behavior of so many members of orders of “chivalry”. In other words, there were members of certain orders that flat out refused to participate if members of another order were.

It appears that high-school clique antics are alive and well, way beyond reaching adulthood.

I’m happy to report that what, in my opinion, is the best Spanish language blog out there is back online!

That blog is, of course, the Blog de Heráldica maintained by José Juan Carrión Rangel

Back in February I had reported the owner’s decision to retire from blogging but, it looks like his enormous readership convinced him to return.

I, for one, am glad that it’s back up!

Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga was the first official Japanese ambassador to the Americas and Europe, having traveled there in the early 17th century.

He was a Samurai whose mission from Japan to the Christian west spanned from 1613 through 1620 and it was the last one until 1862!

Mon of the daimyo Date Masamune

The objective was to establish a close relationship with the West and increase trade to the benefit of the Japanese. Hasekura was sent by the daimyo (regional powerful lord) Date Masamune of Sendai who had plans to become the Shogun.

In the correspondence that the daimyo sent with Hasekura, it was said that he was planning to convert to Christianity and offered to accept Catholic mercenaries.

This came at a time when Christianity had started taking root in Japan and a number of them were converting, though not all feudal lords welcomed the new religion. Hasekura and his entourage were among those who were at least friendly towards the religion and the majority converted during their trip.

Hasekura himself converted in Spain in 1615 and on February 17th was baptized by King Philip III’s personal chaplain and had as his godfather the Duke of Lerma. His Christian name was Felipe Francisco Hasekura.

Of interest is that on Hasekura’s way to Rome to meet with the Pope, he had to spend a few days in Saint Tropez due to bad weather. While there, he met with French nobles marking the first official contact between France and Japan in history.

There are some funny stories from the French side about their “exotic” visitors:

“They never touch food with their fingers, but instead use two small sticks that they hold with three fingers.”
“They blow their noses in soft silky papers the size of a hand, which they never use twice, so that they throw them on the ground after usage, and they were delighted to see our people around them precipitate themselves to pick them up.”
“Their swords cut so well that they can cut a soft paper just by putting it on the edge and by blowing on it.”

(Marcouin, Francis and Keiko Omoto. Quand le Japon s’ouvrit au monde. Paris: Découvertes Gallimard, 1990. ISBN 2-07-053118-X. Pages 114–116)

In Rome, he got to meet the Pope and made many high level contacts with members of the Church. The people of Rome, to whom he became endeared, even made him a Citizen of Rome.

On the return trip to Japan, several of Hasekura’s men decided to stay behind in Spain where their descendants still carry the surname “(Hasekura de) Japon”.

To continue the story of this mission, when Hasekura returned all those years later to Japan, his home country was a very different place.

Almost immediately after giving his report to the daimyo, Christianity became an outlaw religion. All Christians had to change their religion otherwise they would either face exile (for nobles) or death (for everyone else).

Hasekura remained faithful to the end and among his remains a rosary, a cross and other items were found.

During his years in Europe, he acquired a Coat of Arms and they are depicted above. The blazon is: Argent a two arrows in saltire overall a swastika Sable.

Today, April 29, is the veneration of Saint Torpes of Pisa, better known by the town named after him: Saint Tropez.

Saint Torpes is one of those few saints that are venerated by both the Eastern and Western Churches who lived in the first century AD having martyred in 65AD.

Torpes was a Roman whose full name was Caïus Silvius Torpetius who, according to legend, was either senior military person or a leader of emperor Nero’s guard. It is said that he was martyred when, in the presence of the emperor, he professed his faith.

He is highly venerated in his birthplace of Pisa and the locations where his body finally arrived. The legend says that his decapitated body was placed on a boat with a rooster and a dog to devour the corpse.  The boat was set adrift and floated towards north-western Italy.

A woman named Célèrine had a vision at that time saying that Torpes would visit her village. As foreseen, the boat with the corpse, rooster and dog did indeed reach that small seaside village. Upon arrival the rooster fled one way and the dog the other.

The village was renamed to Saint Tropez, in honor of the saint.

Interestingly, the village towards which the rooster fled was renamed Cogolin and the village towards which the dog went to Grimaud.

It is the arms of the town that we see at the top of this post, the blazon of which is amazingly easy: Azure the Saint Tropez (Torpes) Or holding in his right hand a sword Argent point to base, standing on a base Or charged with the text “SAINT-TROPEZ”

Personally, I find these arms to be ugly. I never liked shields with text on them, even though it is relatively common in the Iberian peninsula and France.

In all the years I lived in Athens, Greece I knew of bus stops, streets, etc. named “Δουκίσσης Πλακεντίας” (Doukisis Plakentias) but, as most kids, never really thought much of it.

Honestly, I had not thought about it until I got into heraldry and inevitably learned about titles of nobility and other related items.

What piqued my interest was that we had a location named after a duchess when Greece did not have noble titles outside of the royal family. So, I did some research and found out that the duchess in question was not Greek but rather French!

The Duchess of Plaisance was born Sophie de Marbois-Lebrun in 1785 in Philadelphia in the United States to François Barbé-Marbois, Marquis of Barbé-Marbois (ennobled by Napoleon I) during his tenure as Consul-General of France to the United States.

The arms to the left are those of Barbé-Marbois, blazoned: Gules a Horse rampant Or, overall on a fess Argent 3 Mullets Gules, on a canton Azure 3 bendlets Or. As a Comte-Sénateur (Count-Senator) of the Empire, his arms of office had the canton of his position (a mirror with a snake curled around its handle gazing at itself) that hid the canton of his arms.

Sophie married to Charles-François Lebrun, Duke of Plaisance who was originally ennobled by Napoleon I during the First Empire and, interestingly enough, managed to retain his peerage after the Bourbon restoration, even though he supported Napoleon through the Hundred Days.

The arms of the Duke are those displayed at the top of this post in the heraldic style of Napoleonic Empire. The blazon of the arms is: Sable a Wold statant guardant Or, supported Or, surmounted by two billets Argent, a chief Azure semy of mullets Or.

It is said that the marriage was unhappy and that she lived in Italy while her husband was Governor of the Netherlands. However, the marriage did produce a single child, a daughter Eliza.

When the Greek War of Independence began in 1821, both the Duchess and her daughter Eliza were ardent supporters of the cause and contributed vast sums of money. She was living in Paris at this time, having returned from Italy, and as chance would have it, she met in 1826 the former Imperial Russian Minister John Capodistria (Ιωάννης Καποδίστριας) who had retired to Switzerland.

A few years later in 1830, when Capodistria was now the first Governor of the new Hellenic Republic, the Duchess moved with her daughter to the Greek capital in Nafplion (Ναύπλιον).

The Duchess of Plaisance continued her immense financial support towards Greece even after the country’s independence and was a major supporter and financial backer of public education. However, after a while, she grew to become an ardent critic of the Governor and his policies. Their differences were so great that she chose to leave her adopted country for Italy. When the Governor was assassinated in 1831 she appears to have been pleased that Capodistrias was finally out of office and publicly supported the assassins. She went so far as to personally distribute pamphlets in Paris, after the assassination, condemning the immoral and unjust way Capodistria ran the country.

COA of King Otto I of Greece

As a side note, Nafplion was the capital of Greece until 1834 when the new King of Greece (and not “of the Greeks” as the next King was), King Otto I of Greece, of the House of Wittelsbach, moved the capital to Athens.

Later the same year (1834), Sophie returns to Greece but to the new capital of Athens where she purchased a large swath of land around Mt. Penteli (approx. 200 hectares). It is where her land used to be where all the landmarks named after her stand today.

An interesting note here is that her initial attempts to acquire the land was met with hostility by the monastery of Mt. Penteli that had placed the entire mount under it’s control. Though the monks couldn’t legally stop her, the asking price for the land was so high, nobody could afford it. Sophie had to appeal to her friend, Prime Minister Ioannis Kolletis to intervene on her behalf.

Her contributions were many to the young state were many and her status in the Athenian society was unique. In her later years, after the death of her beloved daughter, she became very eccentric. Some examples:

• She had her daughter embalmed and placed in the basement of her house.
• She would grant titles of nobility to various who would visit with her and attend her meetings
• She dabbled in mysticism
• It is said she maintained contacts with the various bandits that terrorized Athens

At one point, Sophie decides to convert from Catholicism, the Church she grew up in to a different one. However, what is surprising is that she did not convert to the religion of the vast majority of the populace (Greek Orthodoxy) – as one would expect – but rather, to Judaism.

As new convert, she spent a lot of time and money in helping the Greek Jewish community and in 1854 she financed the rebuilding of the Jewish synagogue in Chalkida.

Some of her other notable achievements are:

• The financing of the publication of the Annals of Messolonghi
• The building of her mansion in downtown Athens, that today is the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens. This structure is considered one of the most important architectural gems of the Othonian years.

After her death in 1854, at the age of 69, her property was inherited by her nephew who in turn sold most of it the Greek government. The remainder was purchased by her erstwhile banker, George Skouzes. Skouzes had incidentally been married to the personal secretary of the Duchess.

Yes, the number is right. I am talking about Pope Benedict XII who was elected into the Papacy in December of 1334, enthroned in January of 1335 and died on this day (April 25) in 1342.

The arms at the top of this post are those of Benedict XII and are not (entirely) blank.

The blazon is simple: Argent a bordure Gules.

However, the anniversary of his death is just an excuse to write about his most intriguing Coat of Arms. Why indeed would he have arms that look like a blank?

To be honest, when I first saw them, I thought that they were just a placeholder denoting that this particular Pope did not have arms. But, when I probed a bit more, I discovered that he did and these are indeed his arms!

Though I didn’t find a definitive reason why he had these arms, I can only speculate.

Born Jacques Fournier sometime around 1285, he came from a humble family and was the son of a baker or mill worker. His uncle was a Cistercian monk and Abbot (who incidentally became a Cardinal later) and took charge of young Jacques’ education.

It was his exposure to the life in the monastery that attracted Jacques to the cloth. As he rose in prominence, he took on more and more responsibilities.

He was one of the key players in the persecution of the Albigensians (aka Cathars) and was known for his zeal in this pursuit.

For his work in the purge of the heretics, he was rewarded by Pope John XXII with a cardinalate of Prisca on December 18, 1327. Since he maintained the white robes of the Cistercian Order he was known from then on as the “White Cardinal”.

This is the reason, I believe, he chose those very simple arms. The Argent (white) field as a pun on his nickname and the Gules (red) bordure (border) to denote his rank as Cardinal (from the red galero Cardinals use).

If true, it was a stroke of heraldic genius!

Today, April 23rd, is the day Christian churches around the world commemorate the memory of St. George who was martyred on this date in 303 AD, in Nicomedia (the then Imperial capital).

I won’t relate the entire story of his life, martyrdom and the legend with the slaying of the dragon. You can read all that on such places as Wikipedia:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_and_the_Dragon

However, I will go over the heraldic influence of the Saint – it has been enormous!

Below is a short sampling of arms with the with either St. George’s cross or the Saint himelf:

[View with PicLens]

You can view a lot more on Wikimedia Commons at these locations:

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Saint_George_in_heraldry
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Argent_a_cross_gules