Did you work it out?
This piece of stained glass was found during excavations at Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland.
The bird is a Pelican.
It seems to have been from a window in a magnificent private Chapel originally built by the Bishop of Durham, Anthony Bek.
The Chapel was built in 1308 under the supervision of Galfrid the Bailiff of Auckland at a cost of £148.
But the glass dates from a couple of centuries later.
It is thought it to be from the time of a later Bishop of Durham, Richard Foxe 1494-1501.
Richard Foxe’s coat of arms consisted of a pelican feeding its young in a nest. So the picture of the Pelican in glass may be connected to him.
It is hard be certain of this; the portrayal of a Pelican was not uncommon in those times. Foxe himself would have used the image because of his own spiritual understanding of what the bird represented.
In the Middle Ages, the Pelican was taken as a symbol of Jesus. It would be described as ‘a Pelican in its piety’.
Piety in this use means the loving bond between family members – parents towards their children in care and nurturing – and children towards their parents in respect and help.
The Pelican is to be found in Christian symbolism right into modern times.
A pelican seems to push its beak into its breast when nurturing its young. As it does this a red liquid seems to gush forth which the chicks feed upon.
In ancient times it was thought that the bird was piercing its own breast in order to bring forth blood as food for its offspring.
We would understand that the pelican is in fact regurgitating food it has stored.
Along with the everyone else, early Christians would not have had this insight; instead, they thought of it as a reminder of Jesus who gave his own blood for the life of us all.
We all know of the story in Saint John’s Gospel of the soldier piercing the side of the dead Christ with a lance. From the wound came out blood and water interpreted as signs of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist.
In the Middle Ages the image of the Pelican became a frequent symbol of Christ’s sacrifice and his feeding his people with himself.
A Communion Hymn, O Godhead hid, which we think was written by Saint Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-1274) has the verse
O loving Pelican! O Jesus, Lord!
Unclean I am, but cleanse me in thy blood;
of which a single drop, for sinners spilt,
is ransom for a world’s entire guilt.
Translation Edward Caswall.
Sadly the chapel was destroyed just after the Civil War. Oliver Cromwell appointed Arthur Haselrig (1601-1661) as governor of Newcastle.
Haselrig acquired considerable amounts of property in the North-east including Auckland Castle (the Commonwealth had abolished bishops in the Church of England and so their lands were forfeit).
He decided that he would build a house for himself on site and so he had the chapel blown up so that the stone could be reused.
The large medieval Banqueting Hall was kept and this was later converted into a new chapel by Bishop John Cosin at the Restoration of the Monarchy.
Did you work it out?
We have one winner and one honourable mention as listed below. Fr. Adrian provides the detailed answer above.
Winner:
Pauline.
Honourable mention:
Patty.
Well done to both of you.