Christ Pictured as a Pelican?

I’m not sure how many times in the past I might have walked past a stain glass window or church carving that featured a pelican without knowing about the symbolism. But a few years ago, one of the pastors at our church brought up the fact that Christ was compared to a loving pelican. The ancients had come to an idea that a pelican would feed her hungry chicks by tearing strips from her own breast. This behavior was compared to Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. It became a popular image about Christ’s relationship to the church. Both St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas referenced the story. Queen Elizabeth wore a pelican pendant in one of her portraits.

So when I came across this carving on a visit to Ireland, I finally knew what I was looking at.