Animal Symbolism
The Phoenix is a legendary Arabian bird said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix. According to most versions, only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years. Legend tells that the phoenix is a bird that will not die because it did not eat of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The Phoenix as a Christian Symbol represents the Resurrection and of eternity.
A lamb is the young offspring of the sheep. The Lamb as a Christian Symbol represents Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God, the Jesus Christ, in allusion to the paschal lamb (pertaining to the passover, or to Easter). Christ is called the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36), as the great sacrifice of which the former sacrifices were only types (Num. 6:12; Lev. 14:12-17; Isa. 53:7; 1 Cor. 5:7).
The Pelican as a Christian Symbol represents atonement and charity. 'Pelican in her piety' in heraldry and symbolical art, is a representation of a pelican in the act of wounding her breast in order to nourish her young with her blood a practice fabulously attributed to the bird. The pelican cutting open its own breast represents Christ's death on the cross, and the shedding of his blood to revive us and therefore adopted as a symbol of the Redeemer and of charity.