Jesus, Our Pelican

This morning I came across the hymn "Hidden God" ("Adoro te devote" ) by St. Thomas Aquinas. It contained the following verse:

Deign, O Jesus, Pelican of heaven,

Me, a sinner, in your Blood to lave,

Pelican of heaven? Now I vaguely remembered some legend concerning the pelican that linked it to Jesus, but I wasn't sure. So I looked it up.

Pelican: The Pelican is a symbol of the atonement and the Redeemer and is often found in Christian murals, frescos, paintings and stained glass. The pelican was believed to wound itself in order to feed its young with its own blood. In the hymn "Adoro Te," St. Thomas Aquinas addresses the Savior with, "Pelican of Mercy, cleanse me in Thy Precious Blood." (NOTE: A slightly different translation of the verse than the one I encountered.) Allusion is even made to this belief in "Hamlet" (act iv): "To his good friend thus wide I'll ope my arms And, like the kind, life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood."

And from another source:

According to legend, in a time of famine a mother pelican would draw blood from her own chest and give the blood to her chicks.

Thus the pelican symbol in Christianity, also called pelican-in-her-piety, symbolizes the sacrifice of Christ on the cross (because he gave his blood for others) as well as the Eucharist (because it represents Christ's blood and provides spiritual nourishment).

Aha. You learn something new every day.