church-lamb
The church-lamb is a lamb buried under the altar by the first founders of Christian churches. When a person enters the church when services are not being held, they may see the lamb, and if it appears in the graveyard, especially to the gravedigger, it portends the death of a child. The lamb is meant to represent Christ (the Lamb of God) as the sacred cornerstone of the church, imparting security and longevity to the physical edifice and congregation.
Relationships
- co occurs with
- grave-sow, Strand-varsler, Kyrkogrim, Kirkonväki, Kirkegrim
- syncretized with
- Lamb of God
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“It is said that the first founders of Christian churches would bury a lamb ("church-lamb") under the altar. When a person enters the church when services are not being held, he may see the lamb, and if it appears in the graveyard (especially to the gravedigger), then it portends the death of a child.”
#9280 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5