Cockerels on Church Steeples

From the Daily Mail, 16-7-2018

QUESTION: Why are church steeples topped with golden cockerels?

While many early weather vanes — used to show the wind direction — were in the shape of flags, banners or pennants, the weathercock became a popular symbol of Christian iconography.

In the sixth century, Pope Gregory I called the cockerel the most suitable emblem of Christianity. During Pope Leo IV’s reign (847-855), a cockerel was mounted on the top of the Old St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Later that century, Pope Nicholas I issued a decree that all churches should have a cockerel on their dome or spire to serve as a reminder of Jesus’s prophecy of St Peter’s betrayal on the day of the Last Supper: ‘Before the rooster crows you will deny me three times’ (Luke 22:34). The cockerel is also a symbol of the rising sun so, ‘like Christ, it announces the arrival of the day after the night, the arrival of good after bad’.

The oldest known weathercock is the Gallo di Ramperto. It has been on display in the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia, Italy, since 1891, after having greeted the dawn on the steeple of a local church for more than 1,000 years.

- Amelia Hughes, Beaumaris, Anglesey.




http://blog.cuckooland.com/world-famous-weathervanes/ Selected quote:

Weather vanes are an ancient tradition, with the earliest told-of taking place on the Tower of the Winds in Athens in Ancient Greece – though the oldest that we’ve seen is the “Bronze Banner” – a relic left behind by the Vikings that was unconvered by archaeologists a few years ago. However, the oldest weather vane that we can still see is this one – il Gallo di Ramperto – the Rooster Ramperto. Perhaps the basis of the traditional cockerel weather vane design, the Gallo di Ramperto, is thought to have been built between 820 and 830 in Brescia, Italy, in which it lived upon a church tower for more than a thousand years until 1891, when it was removed and placed in the Museum of Santa Giulia where it can still be seen, at the grand old age of 1,194 years old!

Later that century, Pope Nicholas I issued a decree that all churches should have a cockerel on their dome or spire to serve as a reminder of Jesus’s prophecy of St Peter’s betrayal on the day of the Last Supper: ‘Before the rooster crows you will deny me three times’ (Luke 22:34). The cockerel is also a symbol of the rising sun so, ‘like Christ, it announces the arrival of the day after the night, the arrival of good after bad’.

The Church and its funny pronouncements. But I think it is an interesting history. It's one of those things that was once very important but has fallen out of style. I wonder how many little cultural things we've lost ever time.