The prophet Samuel

Samuel was a longed-for child who came into the world with a little help from God. Therefore, when he was a small child, his mother handed him over to the priests in the Tabernacle (also known as the Tent of the Congregation) in the ancient city of Shilo.  Here, he was to be raised to serve the Lord as a priest.

Samuel lived over a thousand years before Jesus and was instrumental in the introduction of the monarchy in Israel. As a judge, it was his task to first anoint Saul as king, in accordance with the people’s wishes, and thereafter David.

The statue

The statue depicts Samuel with a sacrificial lamb on his lap and a knife in his right hand. According to tradition, this is supposed to be a forewarning of Jesus’s death, whose purpose was to save humankind.