In medieval bestiaries, the pelican is a figure of Christ.
This notion came from the belief that a pelican, in times of starvation, would
peck holes in her own breast and allow her chicks to feed on her blood. Laertes
invokes this idea when, in Hamlet IV/v,
speaking of his murdered father he boasts that, "To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms;/And like the kind
life-rendering pelican,/Repast them with my blood." The room in Jerusalem traditionally
identified as the site of the Last Supper contains a crusader-era pillar topped
by a capital which depicts a pelican performing this act.
Vert: green
Vulning: the term for a pelican feeding her
young with her own blood
Gules: red
Endorsed: wings drawn back from the body
Embowed: bowed forward on the breast
Torteau: circular devices are known as
"rondels." When red in color, they are "torteau."
Fess: a horizontal stripe across the
middle of the shield, occupying about a third of the height
On vert, pelican vulning with beak gules,
With wings endorsed and crescent neck embowed.
Five torteaux fessed on breast like crimson jewels,
Above her brood gives vent to crimson flood.
When famine's fast unfastens hunger's cry,
With uncrossed wings her love becomes a cross,
Herself the satisfaction to the plea,
Her loss proof none that seek her shall be lost.
We crossless cross our arms and smiling sing,
And we are touched, ourselves untouchable,
Our careless carols sweetly warbling
With voices tuned and souls invulnerable.
Oh Nostro Pelicano, vulned Christ
Invade the void. Teach us to pay the price.
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