Before The Rooster Crows

One of the more interesting sights we saw on our vacation in Germany was churches with rooster weather vanes where we expected a cross to be:

One local tour guide told us that the roosters signified Protestant churches while crosses signified Catholic churches (and a Google search seems to back up that bit of lore), but another local tour guide told us that both Protestant and Catholic churches have roosters or crosses.

But why would a church have a farm animal on its steeple? All of the tour guides agreed that the rooster stemmed from the Gospel story of Peter’s betrayal of Jesus on the eve of the Crucifixion. As set forth in Matthew 26: 34-35, 69-75

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered [to Peter], “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”
But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

***

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.
But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”
After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away.”
Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

One tour guide explained that the rooster was a reminder to stand firm in your faith–and not change like the weather or deny your faith like Peter did.

This whole concept is very interesting to me, and I’d like to learn more about this tradition and its meaning.

I wonder what it is like to worship in a place where the symbol on the steeple harkens back to a story of betrayal and shame. Is it a constant reminder of our human shortcomings? Does it steele worshipers to be stronger than Peter? Do I really think that I would have been more faithful than one of the chosen Apostles?

Have you seen a church with a rooster on the steeple?

What do you know about this tradition?