At the center of the shield appears a representation of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, painted gold (Or). “The priesthood is the Love of the Heart of Jesus,” wrote Saint John Marie Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, and this sentiment has guided Bishop Chylinski in his priesthood and in his work forming seminarians as future priests. It is also reflected in the motto he has chosen to accompany the coat of arms: Dabo vobis cor novum, “I will give you a new heart” (Ezekiel 36:26).

The image of the Heart of Christ is surrounded by four crosses pattée, sometimes referred to as Maltese crosses. The coat of arms traditionally born by the Chylinski family in Poland has one of these crosses, as well as a horseshoe, in gold.

Four of them are used here; in conjunction with the wounded Sacred Heart, they recall the stigmata, the wounds in Christ’s hands and feet. In his ministry as a counselor (he earned a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, now Divine Mercy University); as national chaplain of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association (2018-22); as director of counseling services for Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary; and as a member of the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing, he desires to keep in view the wounds of the Savior, for “by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

The crosses also call to mind Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio, the twentieth-century Italian Capuchin friar and priest who bore the wounds of Christ in his body. Bishop Chylinski has long been devoted to Saint Pio, and entrusted his vocation to the saint’s intercession many years ago.

The shield itself is ensigned with external elements that identify the bearer as a bishop. A gold processional cross appears behind the shield. Bishop Chylinski has placed a blue gem at the center of the Cross as a tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary, particularly under her title of The Immaculate Conception. Bishop Chylinski’s appointment as an auxiliary bishop was published on her solemn feast day, December 8, 2023.

He has also placed a scallop shell at the node where the Cross meets the pole, to allude to Saint James the Greater. The Bishop’s middle name is James, and in 2017, on the tenth anniversary of his priestly ordination, Bishop Chylinski walked the 500-mile Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route that stretches from the border with France across northern Spain, and terminates at the shrine of Saint James the Greater (Santiago in Spanish) near the north-west Spanish coast. Medieval pilgrims began the tradition of taking a scallop shell from the beaches near the shrine and affixing it to their cloaks or walking sticks to show that they had completed the pilgrimage.

The galero or “pilgrim’s hat” is used heraldically in various colors and with specific numbers of tassels to indicate the rank of a bearer of a coat of arms. A bishop uses a green galero with three rows of green tassels.