Il potere dello stemma araldico dell'Arma Christi

The paper presents a wide analysis of the iconography and the meaning of the image of the Arms ofCrist in the illustrative tipology enclosed into a shield, that is the properly heraldic variant of blason. Next to the apotropaic and indulgential functions derived from the religious cult connected to the Arma Christi in late Middle Ages, the article also shows the peculiar nobiliar purposes of identification of thefaithful’s social status as christian soldier, neighbour in Christ and in His genealogy, which in the endallowed an abridgment of the escathological journey of reunification with God after death and throughpurgatory. This work was originally written as final essay of the third year of the Course in Heraldry and Documentary Sciences of the Italian Heraldic and Genealogical Institute in september 2008.