Pelicans And Christ's Sacrifice On Calvary

[Sarah147]

Hello,


I just read this in the Shrine pamphlet from the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament (Mother Angelica). It's a little creepy and yet beautiful at the same time...

[quote]
The Altar

The Altar is inlaid with a glass and gold mosaic of a pelican piercing its breast to feed its young. It was long believed that if a pelican could not find food to feed its young, it would sacrifice itself to nourish them with its own blood. The pelican is considered a symbol of Christ and His Sacrifice on Calvary. The pelican is often depicted on altars, since it is from the altar that we are fed with the very Body and Blood of our Lord.

[/quote]

I've never heard of such a thing before.

[Chamomile]

[font="Arial"][size="2"]It's in Adoro Te Devote...[/size][/font]

[quote]
[font="Arial"][size="2"]Pie pellicane Iesu Domine,[/size][/font]
[font="Arial"][size="2"]Me immundum munda tuo Sanguine:[/size][/font]
[font="Arial"][size="2"]Cuius una stilla salvum facere[/size][/font]
[font="Arial"][size="2"]Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.[/size][/font]

[font="Arial"][size="2"]([/size][/font][font="Arial"][size="2"]Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican;[/size][/font]
[font="Arial"][size="2"]Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran---[/size][/font]
[font="Arial"][size="2"]Blood whereof a single drop has power to win[/size][/font]
[font="Arial"][size="2"]All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.)[/size][/font]
[/quote]

[font="Arial"][size="2"]I think it's a beautiful image. [/size][/font]

[font="Arial"][size="2"]One of the churches in my Diocese has an altar like that [/size][/font]

[JenDeMaria]

[quote name='Chamomile' timestamp='1296683740' post='2207920']
[font="Arial"][size="2"]It's in Adoro Te Devote...[/size][/font] [/quote]

How funny! The translation of Adoro Te Devote I'm familiar with goes:

[b]O Pelican, self-wounding on the Rood,
Me unclean man yet cleanse with Thine own blood
Of which a single drop, for sinners spilt,
Can purge this wicked world of all its guilt.[/b]

A rood, of course, is a very old English word for a cross.

Oh! I almost forgot. In the language of heraldry, a pelican diplayed opening her breast to feed her young is called "a pelican in her piety". I wonder if that's why the Latin reads "Pie pelican"?

Edited February 6, 2011 by JenDeMaria

[MissScripture]

[quote name='JoyfulLife' timestamp='1296680707' post='2207876']
Hello,


I just read this in the Shrine pamphlet from the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament (Mother Angelica). It's a little creepy and yet beautiful at the same time...



I've never heard of such a thing before.
[/quote]
In the sacristy in the Chapel at St. Cecilia Motherhouse (Nashville Dominicans) there is a stained glass window of a pelican, I believe. I thought that was really weird, until my sister explained that to me. lol

[Maximilianus]

"Pelican of Mercy, cleanse me in Thy Precious Blood." St. Thomas Aquinas

[url="http://cathcandy.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/the-pelican-in-her-piety/"]The Pelican in Her Piety[/url]