<P> The dove as a Christian symbol is of very frequent occurrence in ancient ecclesiastical art . According to Matthew 3: 16, during the Baptism of Jesus the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and came to rest on Jesus . For this reason the dove became a symbol of the Holy Spirit and in general it occurs frequently in connection with early representations of baptism . It signifies also the Christian soul, not the human soul as such, but as indwelt by the Holy Spirit; especially, therefore, as freed from the toils of the flesh and entered into rest and glory . The Peristerium or Eucharistic dove was often used in the past, and sometime still used in Eastern Christianity, as Church tabernacle . </P> <P> However the more ancient explanation of the dove as a Christian symbol refers to it as a symbol of Christ: Irenaeus in the 2nd century explains that the number 801 is both the numerological value of the sum in Greek of the letters of the word "dove" (Greek: περιστερά) and the sum of the values of the letters Alpha and Omega, which refers to Christ . In the Bible story of Noah and the Flood, after the flood a dove returns to Noah bringing an olive branch as a sign that the water had receded, and this scene recalled to the Church Fathers Christ who brings salvation through the cross . This biblical scene led to interpreting the dove also as a symbol of peace . </P> <P> Ancient Greeks believed that the flesh of peafowl did not decay after death, and so it became a symbol of immortality . This symbolism was adopted by early Christianity, and thus many early Christian paintings and mosaics show the peacock . The peacock is still used in the Easter season especially in the east . The "eyes" in the peacock's tail feathers symbolise the all - seeing God and - in some interpretations - the Church . A peacock drinking from a vase is used as a symbol of a Christian believer drinking from the waters of eternal life . The peacock can also symbolise the cosmos if one interprets its tail with its many "eyes" as the vault of heaven dotted by the sun, moon, and stars . By adoption of old Persian and Babylonian symbolism, in which the peacock was associated with Paradise and the Tree of Life, the bird is again associated with immortality . In Christian iconography the peacock is often depicted next to the Tree of Life . </P> <P> 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 became a symbol of the Passion of Jesus and of the Eucharist since about the 12th century . </P>

What is the meaning of the peacock in christianity
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