Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term
United States
Fast and impeccable, FR/SP > EN
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English
de gueules
Here is the whole blazon: "D’or à la Croix de Terre sainte de gueules, au chef d’azur chargé d’une Vierge"
"la Croix de Terre sainte" refers to the Cross of the Holy Land (Jerusalem)
"une Vierge" refers to the Virgin Mary (the building is crowned with a very large statue of the Virgin Mary, which overlooks the city - the center is right outside the walls of the Old City).
I have no idea what the "de gueules" is doing there. (Also no idea what "chef d'azur" is about... or "chargé"...)
I have already asked a group of bilingual people in Paris. They were stumped. One of them said that the only solution was to have “un dictionnaire d’héraldisme."
Thanks in advance for your help.
Trish
| 3 +7 | gules |
cc in nyc
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| 4 | red |
Didier Fourcot
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| 3 | rouge |
Jocelyne Cuenin
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May 24, 2011 16:58: Stéphanie Soudais changed "Term asked" from "\"de gueles\"" to "de gueules"
Aug 27, 2011 06:19: cc in nyc Created KOG entry
Non-PRO (1): Yolanda Broad
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Proposed translations
gules
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Note added at 56 mins (2011-05-24 17:46:38 GMT)
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The color is indeed red. but the English term for "gueules" is "gules."
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Note added at 4 hrs (2011-05-24 21:02:14 GMT)
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Apparently colors get capitalized, so Gules.
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Tony M
: Yes, this is the correct heraldic term.
4 mins
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Thank you!
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philgoddard
2 hrs
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Thank you!
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Evans (X)
: I once narrowly avoided translating a whole book about heraldry. It's very specialist stuff... This is definitely the right term.
3 hrs
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Thank you! And yet, it looks like fun, especially for OCD translators.
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Didier Fourcot
: I had misunderstood the question if the request is to translate "de gueules", the answer is Gules indeed, I attempted a description in plain English, not in heraldry terms, a very special idiom borrowing French terms with an old spelling
4 hrs
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Thank you! The description you posted looks absolutely correct. I chose to translate from one technical lingo (French heraldry) to another (English heraldry).
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Sylvain Lourme
7 hrs
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Thank you!
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Dieezah
1 day 8 hrs
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Thank you!
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Heloise Harrap
: Exactly! I had this a few months ago in a tourism text and it took ages to find...I wish you'd been around then :)
12 days
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Thank you for the kind kudos. :-)
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red
D’or : yellow background
à la Croix de Terre sainte de gueules: red cross of the Holy Land
au chef d’azur : blue horizontal band at top
chargé d’une Vierge: Virgin mary inside the blue band
Most of the useful references have already been posted
Germany
Linguist, tourist guide, GDR/RDA/DDR
Native in: French (Variant: Standard-France) 
Works in: German to French, English to French, French
rouge
the background is gold
gules=red; colour comes after charge -> croix de terre sainte rouge
The chief (blue) is charged with the Virgin
Voir un exemple de blason sous Wikipedia ci-dessous anglais-francais.
...Chief :
A horizontal band across the top of the shield, conventionally occupying one third of the shield but usually drawn smaller, say one quarter the depth. A very common charge, the chief does not obscure other charges such as a bend or saltire.
azure=blue; or=gold/yellow
Les gueules : une des cinq couleurs du blason que l'on représente en émail par le rouge et en gravure par des hachures verticales.
"D'après quelques-uns, "gueules" viendrait du mot latin "gulae" parce que l'on donnait ce nom à des peaux, teintes en rouge, dont les seigneurs fourraient leurs habits et couvraient leur écu quand le champ de leurs armes devait être rouge.
Suivant d'autres, gueules viendrait du mot persan "gul", mais gul veut dire rose et non pas rouge ; c'est pour cela que, malgré les probabilités qui sembleraient justifier les deux étymologies que nous venons d'indiquer, il nous semble plus logique d'accepter comme vraie celle qui a été donnée pour le "gueules" par Ménage, qui a vu l'origine de ce mot dans la couleur rouge de la gueule des animaux."
"Cet émail indique le courage, la vaillance et le carnage des combats, ainsi que le sang versé pour le service de l'Etat."
"Le Chef est la pièce honorable placée au haut de l'écu dont il occupe environ le tiers : il doit donc laisser sous lui deux fois autant d'espace que celui qu'il remplit."
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Note added at 16 hrs (2011-05-25 09:41:19 GMT)
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Je me suis trompée et j'ai donné ma réponse en francais. Excusez-moi.
Les armes de l'ordre sont: "d'argent à une croix pattée de gueules et d'azur,
They are distinguished by the cross of red and blue which dates from the origins of the Order
Reference comments
United States
Fren & Span to Eng, a ProZ Pro!
Native in: English
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English
Basic Heraldry
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jkmacmul/h...
Discussion
Colors and charges get capitalized, according to this reference: http://www.theweebsite.com/heraldry/
"Or a cross of the Holy Land gules, a chef azure charged with the Virgin Mary."
"Or" means "gold".