Spotlight on Symbols – 5

Pelican

June 18, 2006

 The last crest we will discuss in the chancel window is found in the lower left hand corner.  It is one of the oldest symbols of the atonement and is sometimes referred to as the “pelican in her piety.”  One of the oldest renditions of the pelican is in the “Passion Typological Window” in the Cathedral of Notre Dame dating back to 1205-1215.  Other ancient cathedrals like that in Durham shaped their altars in the form of a pelican. 

Why did the pelican symbolize the atonement?  Because of a couple of Medieval legends regarding the sacrifice of mother pelicans for their young.  One story derives from the Physiologus, a second century Christian book from Alexandria, Egypt which recorded the legends of various animals and how they allegorize certain biblical truths.  The Physiologus claimed that when baby pelicans are born they strike at their mothers, so their mothers kill them while striking back.  However, on the third day she opens her side and restores them to life with her own blood.  Another more common legend is that in times of famine a mother pelican pecks out her breast and feeds her young with her blood. 

Even though pelicans do not really make such a sacrifice the image is certainly fitting for Christ’s work on the cross for us.  The Bible says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to holiness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pt. 2:24). 

The accomplishments of Jesus’ self-sacrifice are further captured by this text:  “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations” (Ep 2:14,15).