Wednesday 20 April 2011

THE CRUCIFIXION BIRD




The common or garden goldfinch is featured a great deal in paintings of the Madonna and Christ Child and there are several accounts of its importance in terms of Good Friday. The most common legend has it that a goldfinch alighted on the cross and tried to remove thorns from the head of Christ with its beak (hence the bird has a face stained with the blood of Christ). Then again, the bird appears, as above, with the infant Christ as a prophetic symbol of what is to come.
The British Goldfinch and its Siberian cousin are basically the same, a quite gaudy bird with feathers in black, brown, red, white and yellow. Readers from the USA have, I believe, a species that is yellow and black.

Photo: Wikipedia
They are one of my favourite breeds of bird and we have at least 8 pairs that come to take the niger seed from our feeders...this is getting a bit Fr Zish!
Please note: I am being good this week and not posting on controversial issues, in fact, not posting too much really, the approach of Good Friday is something that I always find rather sombre.



5 comments:

  1. For a moment I wiondered if we might get a diatribe against Goldfinches who distribute Communion ;-) Pardon my bizarre sense of humour!

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  2. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity"

    We can go back to 'normal' next week(only joking ofcourse)!

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  3. Birdsong and birds are such a blessing of peace and renewal at this time of year.

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  4. The crossbill is so called because it is believed it tried to remove the nails during Christ's crucifixion.

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  5. In fact, Herbert Friedman wrote an entire book about the goldfinch as reminder of the Passion. http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Symbolic_Goldfinch.html?id=7ShGAAAAMAAJ

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