Pelican in her piety

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Revision as of 14:08, 27 April 2006 by Iasmin (talk | contribs) (corrected mistaken reference to the laurel for the pelican symbol)
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A Pelican in her Piety is an ancient heraldic device symbolizing self-sacrifice.

The device shows an heraldic pelican on a nest full of chicks, wings outspread. The pelican is tearing open her own breast to feed the young with her blood.

In the SCA displaying a Pelican in her Piety (or any depiction of a pelican) is restricted to the members of the Order of the Pelican, one of the three great orders of peerage.