Help me identify this mysterious pendant with unknown inscription
July 13, 2016 11:40 AM   Subscribe

We found this pendant in my grandparents' house when clearing it. But no one can work out what it is / what it means, or what the inscription signifies.


Images here.

The pendant is metal (though what metal I'm not certain - pewter?). It has a Celtic seeming cross on one side and an inscription on the other with a five-pointed star in the centre. The inscription reads:

B.V.M. TRV-RON ECC: CATH:

The ECC CATH I suppose is Ecclesia Catholica, the Catholic church. That would imply BVM is Blessed Virgin Mary I think - but what the TRV-RON is I do not know. And what did this pendant signify? What was it for / what does it commemorate?
posted by Hadrian to Society & Culture (31 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Found on an ebay board:

BVM is certainly Blessed Virgin Mary, and ECC: CATH: is Ecclesia
Catholica, the Catholic Church or the Church Universal. Is your patron
sure of the accuracy and order of the other initials? Otherwise they might
be TVR (Turris-Tower), one of the Virgin's epithets and OPN, Ora Pro Nobis
(pray for us).
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 11:51 AM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Yes, I perhaps should have added - the one or two results on google provide no information (as you can see from the images the inscription as I present it is accurate).
posted by Hadrian at 11:55 AM on July 13, 2016


There was a discussion about a similar one here. No conclusion, but maybe you could contact the original poster.
posted by defreckled at 12:10 PM on July 13, 2016


Response by poster: Again, I'm sorry to seem to be shutting this down but - I have seen that post and tried to pursue it to no avail.
posted by Hadrian at 12:13 PM on July 13, 2016


Maybe it's Greek?
posted by cooker girl at 12:22 PM on July 13, 2016


Someone on Yahoo! Answers (I know, I know), speculates that the RON might be an acronym (from the Dutch) for the Knights of the Order of Orange-Nassau, a Dutch chivalric order.

Grain of salt, and all that.
posted by magstheaxe at 12:30 PM on July 13, 2016


Maybe it's Greek?

There's no Greek letter that looks like the Latin "R".
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:48 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


That's one of the hundred pages that came up when I Googled, all of them relating to Greek. Just throwing it out there.
posted by cooker girl at 12:52 PM on July 13, 2016


One note about the ECC: CATH:, assuming it does stand for Ecclesia Catholica: This doesn't necessarily mean that it's referring to the Roman Catholic Church. "Catholic" is more or less a synonym for "Universal", and is used by all sorts of sects to refer to their belief that (their brand of) Christianity is universal for all people, and that all (true) Christians are joined together in a single (true) church. For example, lots of Anglican services include a prayer for "the holy, catholic, and apostolic church" which certainly isn't meant to be a prayer for the Roman church.
posted by firechicago at 12:53 PM on July 13, 2016


Oh, I also found some references to Druids putting trv-ron in the search box in Facebook.
posted by cooker girl at 12:57 PM on July 13, 2016


"Catholic" is more or less a synonym for "Universal",

True, but the use of Latin (Ecc. Cath, instead of Cath. Ch.) and the use of the acronym BVM point pretty solidly to Roman Catholicism or Anglicanism, and no other branch. RC is more likely, with Anglicanism a somewhat distant second. The phrase "Blessed Virgin Mary" is almost exclusively used in Catholic contexts, with limited use in Anglicanism and Orthodox contexts. Anglicanism used Latin, but often paired "Ecclesia Anglicana" with "Ecclesia Catholica."
posted by flibbertigibbet at 2:04 PM on July 13, 2016


There is an actual order of nuns (U.S., founded in the first half of the nineteenth century) known as the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary who use the initials "BVM" to refer to themselves. (Notice how the B.V.M. gets periods and TRV-RON does not.) Barring brilliant discoveries here, I would send the order a picture and ask them if they recognize it.
posted by praemunire at 3:12 PM on July 13, 2016


Not an exact match, but what about this?
posted by notjustthefish at 3:42 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


Not an exact match, but what about this?

Actually, that could be an exact match, depending where you start reading the inscription around the circle. V is often used in place of U in inscriptions, so TRV-RON = TRURON. So this pendant would appear to be related to Truro Cathedral, Cornwall. Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 to 1896, was Bishop of Truro from 1877 to 1882. While in the latter office, for reasons I can't quickly discern, he signed his letters E. W. Truron. Example. More examples.
posted by beagle at 5:17 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


Truro Cathedral, Cornwall

Or more formally, The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro.
posted by zamboni at 5:33 PM on July 13, 2016


Episcopal style. Apparently "Truron" was the Bishop's way of signing in Latinate fashion.

Some, at least, of the rest of the medallion inscription being based on Latin, I think we can safely say that ECC: CATH: B.V.M. TRV-RON means: Ecclesia Catholica Blessed Virgin Mary Truro, or as zamboni has it, The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro.
posted by beagle at 5:45 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


Potential corroboration on the "Templar of Royal Virtue" theory here.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 5:52 PM on July 13, 2016


Ecclesia Cathedralis Beata Virgo Maria Truron sounds about right.
posted by zamboni at 5:56 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


For those advocating for the Truro/Truron interpretation, may I ask why there's a dash between TRV and RON? I'm personally leaning towards the "Templar of Royal Virtue" + some other Templar title interpretation because of the dash.
posted by mhum at 5:59 PM on July 13, 2016


Spacing, maybe? I figure if it was another abbreviation/initialism, TRV-RON would have the same periods as the B.V.M.
posted by zamboni at 6:04 PM on July 13, 2016


Anyway, it's probably a souvenir from Truro Cathedral. You could email their shop and see if anyone remembers it.
posted by zamboni at 6:10 PM on July 13, 2016


"Ecc: Cath:" being "ecclesia cathedralis" makes a lot more sense for an English item.

The images don't really seem to fit the heraldry of Truro Cathedral, but perhaps they're meant to reflect a special occasion.
posted by praemunire at 6:26 PM on July 13, 2016


...although, come to think of it, the "points" of the medallion do look quite a bit like fleur de lys, and the fleur de lys is associated with Truro Cathedral.
posted by praemunire at 6:29 PM on July 13, 2016


Weighing against "Templar of Royal Virtue" is that if you Google that phrase, in quotes, you get ONLY the one single solitary result cited above by Lazlo Hollyfeld.
posted by beagle at 6:31 PM on July 13, 2016


The pendant itself is very similar in design to this one, produced by St Justin, a Cornwall based jewelry manufacturer.
posted by zamboni at 6:47 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


I don't know that this helps at all, but apparently there's a "Volume labelled 'Ecc. Cath. BVM, Truron, Thesaurius 1880-1887'" in the Cornwall Record Office.
posted by lore at 11:57 PM on July 13, 2016


I wish I had something more solid, but a Google search for "Ecc Cath" gives a lot of examples of "Ecc Cath [Latinized or Abbreviated Place Name," particularly in old Google Books archives.

Lib. Ecc. Cath. Dunelm (Dunelm)

Ecc. Cath. Norw (Norwich)

Ecc. Cath. St. Trinit. Bristol (Holy Trinity, Bristol)

In context, the terms seem to be referring to specific cathedrals or churches. So, as in my comment above, the shortened, Latinized version of "The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro" could very well be "Ecc. Cath. B.V.M. Truron." I still can't explain why they'd throw a hyphen in the middle of TRVRON, but I'm pretty satisfied at this point that the lettering is just the stylized name of the cathedral.
posted by lore at 1:04 AM on July 14, 2016


Oh, blurf, notjustthefish already found the "volume" reference. Still, I hope my other "Ecc. Cath" finds are of some help.
posted by lore at 1:07 AM on July 14, 2016


From a 2008 abovetopsecret.com forum, trying to identify the mystery medallion:
Hey, I think I have a matching but silver cross...received after my mother passed away as a forgotten gift from a relative in yes, England..I searched it all the way to Truro..Church...where I saw them selling lookalikes...not sure but thinking mine maybe an original...hope to hear soon.
posted by zamboni at 6:28 AM on July 14, 2016


I emailed an English priest whose blog I follow and he replied with the following, that agrees with it being Truro Cathredral.
For some reason, I can't get the images up. The inscription is pretty certainly ECClesia [or ECClesiae] CATHedralis Beatae Virginis Mariae TRURONensis. That is, The Cathedral Church [or Of the Cathedral Church] of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Truro. You could try the Dean or Archivist at Truro Cathedral in Cornwall. Possibly a chorister's of Verger's pendant???
posted by Fukiyama at 6:29 PM on July 14, 2016 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Many thanks everybody for all your kind research! Will look into it further.
posted by Hadrian at 8:43 AM on July 20, 2016


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