The Agnus Dei Window

Of the three east gable windows, this is the window on the right. The main detail shows a lamb holding a staff surmounted by a cross and a banner. The banner itself also bears a cross. In this image the lamb symbolically carries the cross and banner as it merely touches the staff with its right front hoof. In religious art such an image is known as an Agnus Dei (Lamb of God, in Latin). Sheep and lambs have been sacrificial animals for thousands of years. In Judaism a lamb, known as the Paschal Lamb, was sacrificed on the eve of the Passover to commemorate the night when God took the lives of the first born sons of the Egyptians and spared or passed over the first born sons of the Israelite slaves. The commemorative Passover sacrifice took place in the court of the Temple at Jerusalem and was usually a ram lamb, one year old and without flaw.