Read slowly over the course of about a year and a half in 2024 and 2025. I highlighted passages while reading but didn’t take many notes, though I may add to these with time.
Part IX - Les oiseaux des bois et des champs
Chapter 76 - Les oisillons de la Passion de Jésus-Christ
Le roitelet (kinglet), le chardonneret (goldfinch), le rouge-gorge (robin), le pinson (chaffinch), l’hirondelle (swallow) dans le traditionnisme chrétien
These garden birds with bright markings all tend to be associated with our Lord’s Passion. There are various folk-tales. In particular, the goldfinch, robin, and chaffinch are said to have gone to alleviate our Lord’s suffering by removing the thorns of his crown from his flesh. In the process they were gloriously marked by the Precious Blood.
On Easter morning when the risen Lord burst forth from his tomb, all the swallows of Judea took to the four winds to announce the Alleluia and the Surrexit Dominus vere to all the nations of the earth.
The presence of a goldfinch near or in the hands of the infant Christ in many Renaissance paintings is probably to do with these various legends. The colours of the goldfinch (red for blood, sacrifice; yellow for glory, solar illumination) seem particularly appropriate to symbolize the Passion and Resurrection together.
