Divine Pelican

Being that there is an overtly obvious avian influence in my blog I wanted to talk about one of the more obscure birds whose symbolism has fallen by the wayside. In medieval and renaissance Europe the veneration of the pelican as a religious symbol is little talked about today. Louisiana adopted the pelican as its state bird and the state seal bears the image; however, lore of the pelican predates the formation of America. Prior to the advent of Protestantism in Europe the pelican became a symbol of Christ; yet earlier than this the pelican has its own special place with depiction in Peru and India. An Indian folktale tells of a pelican that killed her young, but was so contrite she sacrificed herself to resurrect her children with blood drawn from her breast. The Physiologus a text from the second century speaks of a similar happening; a pelican devout to their young, however, will kill them if they have been stricken at by their young. In remorse they will peck out their own breast to and sprinkle their young to allow them to live again.

Interestingly enough in Palm one hundred and two David wrote, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl in the desert” (Ps. 102:6).

This self sacrifice and act of redemption translated well within the context of European Christianity; the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of humanities’ sins transforms Christ into a divine pelican. St. Thomas Aquinas in his Eucharistic hymn “Adoro te devote” in the sixth verse identifies Christ as a “pelican of mercy”:

Pie Pelicane, Jesu Domine,
Me immundum munda tuo sanguine:
Cujus una stilla salvum facere
Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

The “poetic” English translation:

Pelican of mercy, Jesu, Lord and God,
Cleanse me, wretched sinner, in Thy Precious Blood:
Blood where one drop for human-kind outpoured
Might from all transgression have the world restored.

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 makes mention of this specific verse being sung independent of “Adoro te devote” during the Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Here we can see the Roman Catholic absorption of the pelican as a symbolic of Christ as well as of the Eucharist.

The most notable visual reference (artistic depiction) of the pelican is seen in Nicholas Hilliard’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, c.1575 known as “The Pelican Portrait” held at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) of Great Britain. Hilliard is equally famous for “The Phoenix Portrait” believed to have been painted a year later. Queen Elizabeth was accustomed to wearing the image during the commission of state portraits as a codified message to the English expressing her selfless love, charity, and redemption.