Most Rev.
Michael J Hoeppner
Bishop
of
Crookston
Coat of Arms
The Hat - Galero
The galero (an ecclesiastical hat) is in use today in ecclesiastical heraldry as part of the
achievement of the coat of arms of a Roman Catholic prelate. The color of the galero and
number of fiocchi (tassels) indicate the cleric's place in the hierarchy. A bishop's galero is
green with six tassels per side.
An archbishop's galero is also green but has ten tassels.
Both patriarchs and cardinals have a galero with fifteen tassels; the difference being that a
patriarch's is green while the cardinal's is red or scarlet. Popes do not use a galero in their
personal coats of arms: rather the Papal Tiara and Keys of Saint Peter are used.
The circular galero surmounts the shield and the processional cross that in heraldry is
properly known as the episcopal cross. The interior of the galero is properly rendered in
scarlet. Tassels adorn the brim and fall from stylized knots made of cording of the same
color.