 In medieval Europe, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood by wounding her own breast when no other food was available.As a result, the pelican came to symbolise the Passion of Jesus and the Eucharist, supplementing the image of the lamb and the flag.A reference to this mythical characteristic is contained for example in the hymn by Saint Thomas Aquinas, "Adoro te devote" or "Humbly We Adore Thee", where in the penultimate verse, he describes Christ as the loving divine pelican, one drop of whose blood can save the world.