The Christian and Catholic symbolism of the State Flag and Seal of Louisiana is sadly not well known. However it is one of the most Catholic of symbols that one sees as to Government in the United States.
The pelican ,like the mythical phoenix , had symbolism in pre Christian religion. It even makes qa few appearances in the Hebrew scriptures. Especially Psalm 102. I am become like to a pelican of the wilderness: I am like a night raven in the house Saint Augustine talked at length on the symbolic nature of the pelican as to this Psalm. In one of many observations about the significance of this bird he notes:These birds are said to slay their young with blows of their beaks, and for three days to mourn them when slain by themselves in the nest: after which they say the mother wounds herself deeply, and pours forth her blood over her young, bathed in which they recover life. This may be true, it may be false: yet if it be true, see how it agrees with Him, who gave us life by His blood. It agrees with Him in that the mother's flesh recalls to life her young with her blood; it agrees well. For He calls Himself a hen brooding over her young. Matthew 23:37
St Augustine was one of several early fathers that made the connection of the Pelican and Christ. Perhaps Augustine was influenced by the famous early Christian work the Physiologus. HEre the Pelican is described as shedding sheds its own blood in order to sprinkle its dead young, so that they may live again, and is a type of the salvation of mankind by the death of Christ on the Cross.
The ball gets really rolling later on as to the pelican and its connection to Christ and the Euchurist. St. Gertrude had a vision of Christ in the form of a pelican feeding humankind with His blood. Her vision has Eucharistic connotations. Jesus told His astonished followers, "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life" (Jn 6:54). THe Euchurist was often reserved above the altar in tabernacles shaped in the form of a pelican. St Thomas Aquinas in his hymm Adoro te devote wrote:
Pie Pelicane, Iesu Domine,
Me immundum munda tuo sanguine:
Cuius una stilla salvum facere
Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.
Translation
Deign, O Jesus, Pelican of heaven, me, a sinner, in Thy Blood to lave, to a single drop of which is given all the world from all its sin to save
On a side note look at what this Divinity student had put on his arm.
One cannot help but notice that the Louisiana state seal is very similar to what is on artwork and on the altars of Europe. What we see on the seal and the flag is basically is a Heraldic charge. This ancient charge is called the "Pelican in Her Piety" We can see even today its uses such as on the Coat of Arms of Cardinal Pell of Australia.
Here are some links that show the pelican in Christian art and liturguical use. Please not the similarities they have as to the offical state seal and flag.
A Church in at Cambridge in the UK
Pelican stained glass window in a Congregational church in Amherst, MA.
St. Fidelis Cathedral in Victoria Kansas
A modern Icon of Padre Pio and the Pelican
St Padre Pio often focused on the Pelican and the Euchurist. Here is the he hand-embossed silver door of the tabernacle depicts a Pelican at this Friary in Italy.
Here is he carved choir stalls were installed between 1484 and 1494 at the Ripon Cathedral in Yorkshire where we see a misericord of a pelican in her piety.
A portrayal of "Pelican in her Piety" at the Philotheou Monestary at Mount Athos
This Beautiful Mosaic at St. Mary's Basilica in downtown Minneapolis(look at the similarties to the seal)
At the beautiful Saint Anthony of Padua Church, New Bedford, Massachusetts
This are just a few of the many images that are around the World.
Interesting article of Christian symbolism
The Symbolism of the Pelican
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