Coat of ArmsARB

Eagle: A noble device signifying a person of action, ever more occupied in high and weighty affairs, and one of lofty spirit, ingenious, speedy in apprehension, and judicious in matters of ambiguity; true magnanimity and fortitude of mind; a symbol of power and sovereignty. The Eagle also symbolizes courage, freedom, and immortality. It proudly served as an emblem of the might and unity of empire for Babylon, the Caesars, Charlemagne and many Holy Roman and Byzantine emperors as well as for Russian czars, Aztecs and Napoleon. [Miguel de Boera served under Ferdinand & Isabella as well as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain).]

Helmet (helm): Resting on the chief of the shield, and bearing the crest; indicates rank: Gold, with six bars, or with the visor raised (in full face) for royalty. Steel, with gold bars, varying in number (in profile) for a nobleman.

Feathers (Plume): Ostrich feathers. When three or more occur, they are termed a plume or in French, a panache. When more than three heights (rows) occur, the term pyramid of feathers is used. Denotes willing obedience and serenity.

Javelin (spear, tilting spear, lance, dart,): If a stranger kept the point of his spear forward when he entered a strange land, it was a declaration of war; if he carried the spear on his shoulder with the point behind him, it was a token of friendship. Bestowed only on the valiant and well-deserving soldier. It is the emblem of knightly service and signifies devotion to honor.

Shield - The Pale (type of shield with vertical stripes): The term is from Middle English, from Middle French pal meaning stake, and from Latin palus for one of the stakes of a palisade or fort. It typically represented Military strength and fortitude and was bestowed upon those who have impaled or otherwise defended cities, or who have supported the government of their sovereigns, and for standing uprightly for their prince and country.

The colors on the stripes – gold and black – are the colors of the Spanish flag.

Note alternate spelling…

Sepulcher/sarcophagus of Miguel de Boera in its original location

in the Church of Santa Ana…until 1936.

Miguel de Boera

Military man who served in Italy during the reign of King Ferdinand, the Catholic, under Ramon de Cardona, Viceroy of Naples. He participated in the conquests of North Africa in (Tripoli, Bugia, Oran and Mazalquivir) and he fought in the celebrated Battle of Ravenna against the army of the Duke of Nemours. During the reign of Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain) he was put in command of the galleys(warships) as Captain-General. Returning to Catalunya, he was made general in charge of the forces which guarded the French frontier against the invasion from Roussillon in 1543. At his death, he was interred in the Church of Santa Ana in Barcelona; his sarcophagus was removed (shortly before the Spanish Civil War in 1936) to the Museo Maritimo (Maritime Museum) in Barcelona where it was displayed with his coat of arms and shield. (The museum “borrowed” it planning to make a reproduction, but apparently never did.) Don Miguel is the most illustrious ancestor of the Boera family. I found documentation regarding the family coat of arms at the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Additional reference: Historia de la Marina Catalana- Arcadi Garcia Sanz, published by Editorial Aedos, Barcelona (1977)

pp. 390-391.

(From Wikipedia, Googling the rank Captain-General):

Spain (Navy)

During the 16thand 17th centuriesthe two main naval captain-general posts were Capitán-General de la Armada de la Mar Oceana and Capitán-General de Galeras, roughly CIC for theAtlantic and the Mediterranean respectively.

A peculiar usage of the term Captain-General arose in the Spanish Navy of the 16th century. A Capitán-General (General Captain) was appointed by the king as the leader of a fleet (although the term 'squadron' is more appropriate, as most galleon fleets rarely consisted of more than a dozen vessels, not counting escorted merchantmen), with full jurisdictional powers. The fleet second-in-command was the 'almirante' (admiral), an officer appointed by the capitan-general and responsible for the seaworthiness of the squadron. One Captain-General that sailed under the Spanish flag that is now well known was Ferdinand Magellan, leader of the first fleet to sail around the world.

Under the Nationalist regime of 1939-1975, the only holder of the rank of Capitán General de la Armada was the Caudillo, Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

Footnote to history: A descendant of Don Miguel, Henry Sanchez, an Annapolis graduate, served in the United States Navy during World War II commanding the aircraft carrier USS Princeton, retiring with the rank of Rear Admiral. The present-day Michael Boera is a decorated Major General in the United States Air Force, having served in the Gulf War, the Bosnian War and in Afghanistan.

Excerpt fromA Tale of Two Weddings:

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

After the traditional (great) breakfast prepared by Mári...freshly squeezed Castellon oranges, assortment of pastry and café con leche...I take a taxi to La Plaza Catalunya. It’s a mistake since it takes forever due to the unreal traffic congestion and the charge – 12€ - is due to metering by time in addition to distance. Ridiculous! It’s easy to find the Iglesia de Santa Ana...not far behind the Hard Rock Cafe. It’s open and I take many pictures of our illustrious ancestor, Don Miguel de Boera, from all angles. I’m pleasantly surprised (actually, shocked) to find my color painting of our coat-of-arms superimposed on the biography framed alongside the sepulcher. I had sent it along to the young Catalan history scholar, Sergio Rodriguez, several years ago as an e-mail attachment; he must have been responsible for this welcome addition. I introduce myself to the priest who remembers me from the re-dedication ceremonies (June 13, 2001) marking the return of the sarcophagus from its 65-year “residency” at the Maritime Museum.

Bidding goodbye to Don Miguel, I take a very enjoyable stroll down Las Ramblas (now La Rambla in Catalan, the official language for all signage), pausing often to appreciate the great variety of “human statues” who earn their living from this unique mime form, the street cafes, pet and flower shops, and souvenir stalls...all the while dodging the thousands of other tourists (and pigeons) who flock to this renowned paseo. I cannot pass by the Mercat de Bouqueria without taking time to fully explore this colorful marketplace once more. I only wish I could still smell the rich blend of fruit and flowers with olives, fish, smoked ham and other aromas.

Reaching the end of the paseo at the columnar monument toCristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus), I walk along the waterfront – past marinas crowded with hundreds (thousands?) of sailboats, motorboats, and yachts – to the harbor area called Barceloneta, formerly a fisherman’s district, where I now easily find El Carrer de (Almirante) Miguel Boera, Siglo XV, XVI (running perpendicular to El Carrer de Andria Doria)...located on a previous visit.

This is a photo of Don Miguel’s sarcophagus when it rested in the Maritime Museum near the harbor in Barcelona:

The Latin inscription on the sarcophagus reads as follows:

D.O.M.- ILLI MICHAELI DE BOERA EQVITI AVRATO QVI IN

NOBILI PVGNA RAVENNE ORDINEM DVXIT QVIQVE INEXPVG-

NATIONIBVS TRIPOLIS BVGIAE ORAN MASSALCHEBIR CVM

SVIS MILITIBVS REGI FERDINANDO ET PHILIPPO EIVS GENERO

STRENVAM OPERAM NAVAVERQAT DEINCEPS FACTVS TRIERAR-

CHVS CAROLO QVINTO ROMANORVM IMPERATORI OFFICIOSE SER-

VIENS MVNVS DVCTORIS GENERALIS HISPANIARVM TRIREMIVM ALIQVA DIV

OBIVIT IOANNE DE BOERA ET DESOLER EIVS PIENTISSIME VXORI.

[On a visit to Spain by a member of our immediate family, Patricia Boera made a rubbing of the stone inscription which we have kept in our archive. There is a “shorthand” in old Latin that we stumbled across in a little book in the library of Dr. Frank Irwin when he was president of Lyndon State College. Of course we know that the “V” stands for a “U,” but we found that a symbol that looks like an open “9” substitutes for “US;” a “P” with a cross at the bottom stands for “PER;” an “R” with a tail that looks like an “x” is equal to “RUM.” Additionally, if the carver was running out of space, he would simply insert an “I” inside a “D” as seen in ORDINEM…or a small “I” in between the “L” and the “T” in MILITIBUS.]

The probable interpretive translation is:

TO GOD, MOST GOOD, MOST GREAT –(Here lies) THE ILLUSTRIOUS MICHAEL DE BOERA, GOLDEN KNIGHT*, WHO LED ARMIES BOTH IN THE CELEBRATED BATTLE OF RAVENNA AND IN THE CONQUESTS OF TRIPOLI, BUGIA, ORAN AND MAZALQUIVIR**, WITH HIS MILITARY FORCES UNDER KING FERDINAND AND HIS SON-IN-LAW PHILIP***; HE CONSISTENTLY EXCELLED, AND WAS MADE CAPTAIN OF A GALLEY. AS A REWARD FOR DEDICATED SERVICE TO THE HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR CHARLES V, (HE BECAME) CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF THE SPANISH GALLEYS (of the Mediterranean fleet****). SOME TIME AGO HE DIED FROM UNKNOWN CAUSES, LEAVING BEREAVED HIS DEVOTED WIFE, JOAN DE BOERA Y DE SOLER.

(*) I originally believed “EQUITI AURATO” to mean Knight of the Golden Fleece, but have more recently learned that it is literally a “Golden Knight,” a member of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George. On that Order’s web site, this quote appears:

“Recent researches have discovered that a notable Spanish naval officer, Miguel de Boera, was accorded membership in the Order in the early 16th century. Boera, whose exact date of birth is unknown, was last recorded in 1543. His funeral monument has recently been restored in the Parish Church of Santa Ana (cf. below), Barcelona, formerly the Colegiata de la Santa Sepulcro de Barcelona.”(We can only estimate his date of birth as circa 1480.)

(**) Occupation of Mazalquivir (Mers El Kébir, Algeria) in 1505; conquest of Oran in 1509, Bugia and Tripoli in 1510;Battle of Ravenna 1512.

(***) Philip married Juana of Castile, the daughter of the Catholic King Ferdinand, mother of Charles V.

(****) Cf. Wikipedia explanation above.

Iglesia de Santa Ana….. Plazoleta de Santa Ana
Iglesia de Santa Ana is a marvelous church in the old heart of the Catalonian capital. Dating back to the 11th Century, it originally constituted part of a monastery complex located outside the city’s walls. The ancient basilica combines elements of several different styles, including the Romanesque (the visibly older part) and Gothic (introduced during later renovations). The most noteworthy parts of the church are its cloister and the main hall, dating from the 15th Century.

The Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem

The Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem* already had properties in Catalonia as a result of previous donations, some even previous to the first crusade, made by Catalan pilgrims returning from the Holy Land. But it was as a result of the pacts over the Kingdom’s inherence that in 1141 a group of monks led by Gerard, newly appointed Prior of the Order for Spain, formally settled in the city. Gerard, in exchange for certain benefits, signed the waiver of the Order’s rights to the crown of Aragon.

The Order of the Holy Sepulchre was re-founded after the First Crusade, and accepted the same monastic rules as the Augustinian monks, and there is evidence of the presence in Barcelona of the Augustinians from the year 801. The first documents concerning the Holy Sepulchre community activities in Barcelona are dated 1145, and some years went by before the construction of the final church and convent. But there is evidence of the construction by Augustinian monks of an earlier church of Santa Anna between 1141 and 1146.

The historian Aureli Campmany in his work on Santa Anna in 1929 refers to this first church, “of which it seems that not a vestige remains.”

The church today

The church of Santa Anna, a few meters from the popular Plaza Catalunya, has an intimate, almost clandestine, look. As a matter of fact during Napoleon’s invasion it was closed by the French, and it seems that it was used by the Catalan resistance against the invaders.

It is a place hidden from people, and even, one might say, from time, and you get into it by crossing a little square, completely surrounded by modern buildings. It has two doors, one that opens on to Santa Anna Street and the other onto Ribadeneyra Street, and both are shut during the night giving more protection and mystery to the building.

The church is part of an old convent and still keeps part of the original buildings attached, a beautiful cloister with a garden and a chapter room.

While writing The Ring(Atria Books-Simon & Schuster,English edition 2008),Spanish author Jorge Molist investigates the original site, unknown until now, of the church of Santa Anna, ancient headquarters of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in Catalonia. On his web site he also writes about the mystery of the Templar cross.

“In search of scenarios for my book "The Ring," I went to a fascinating church. My interest was heightened by knowing that it was the headquarters in Catalonia of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. The parish of Santa Anna, a few meters from the Plaza Catalunya looks secluded, almost secret…. [Finalmente en dicha iglesia se encuentra el sepulcro de Miguel de Boera capitán general de las galeras españolas después en tiempos de Fernando el Católico y de Carlos V.] Finally in this church is the tomb of Miguel de Boera, captain-general of the Spanish galleys in the times of Ferdinand and Charles V. Perhaps that's why my novel in the Mediterranean - the Costa Brava and Valencia - the last of the Templars, (this) powerful galley captain, becomes the protagonist.” (Cf. )

*(N.B. - Miguel is cited as a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre in some references and, in a church bulletin at the turn of the (19th) century, as a Knight of the Order of Jerusalem…one-and-the-same, since it is the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

The re-dedication/re-consecration massat the Church of Santa Anna on June 13, 2001 was celebrated by Bishop Jaime Treserra, and attended by the mayor of San Feliu de Guixols (birthplace of Don Miguel), a representative of King Juan Carlos,Princess Monika von Habsburg (descendant of The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), representatives of the mayor of Barcelona, the governor of Catalunya and the national government, among other dignitaries. My wife, Julie, and I were honored guests representing the Boera family for this impressive occasion, along with cousin Maryló’s children, Luis Alfonso, Cristina and Javier.

More…Text below and images posted byWilliam Newton, Esq.on his web site>

Santa Anna

Església Major de Santa Anna
Built: 1141-1400
Founded: 1141
Function: Former monastic church; currently parish church
Address: Santa Anna 29
Mass times: Daily Mass: 10:00 am; 12:00 moon; 8:00 pm
Sundays and Holy Days: 10:30 am; 12:00 pm; 1:00 pm
***Virtual Tour:
Santa Anna is one of the major parishes of Barcelona, not only because it has one of the oldest and most architecturally interesting churches, but it also has a fascinating history. It was founded in 1141 for the Canons of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, under the Augustinian rule and with the patronage of Count Ramon Berenguer I, then ruler of Catalonia. Its construction from the 12th through the 14th centuries resulted in an interesting mix of Romanesque and Gothic styles, but with a very clear reference on the interior to the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
In 1420 the monastery was united with that of the Augustinian friars of Santa Eulalia del Camp, whose monastery stood nearby but whose numbers were declining. Their monastery was handed over to the Dominicans, and the friars moved in with the canons at Santa Anna. For a time, the complex used the name of both Saint Anne and Saint Eulalia.
In 1592, after 450 years of history, the canons decided to formally leave the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, although the Knights of the Order continue to hold annual events in the church to the present day. By a Papal Bull issued by Clement VIII in 1595, the complex became a secular collegiate church. In 1608 a Bull by Paul V brought Santa Anna under the direct oversight of the Holy See, under which it remained until 1835 when it was given to the diocese and became a parish.
In the 1870's during the construction of the expanded city grid, some of the structures on the site had to be torn down. The church was declared a National Monument in 1881, and a new and larger church was begun next to the old one in 1887. This church was completed in 1914, but only had a short-lived existence as it was burnt by the Leftists in 1936, and had to be demolished in 1938, as shown here:

Today the remaining buildings of the complex include the old church itself, the chapter house, and the cloister. One of the best aspects of visiting the church, which gives the pilgrim a feeling of stepping back in time, is the way that it is approached. Along Santa Anna Street, which is a busy shopping thoroughfare in the old city, one enters through a massive Gothic gate that stands at the entrance to the tiny square on which the complex is located:

Here we see the exterior of the church: