This is a very interesting ritual of Church tradition: According to the Vatican . . .
This morning, for the Memorial of Saint Agnes, two lambs whose wool will be used for the weaving of the sacred pallium, were brought to the Pope. The pallium is a stole of white wool with six black crosses, which is kept in an urn at the Tomb of Saint Peter and conferred by the Pope on June 29th, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, to the new metropolitan archbishops, so as to remember the special communion that binds them to the Apostolic See. The lambs are raised by the sisters of the Roman convent of San Lorenzo and offered to the Pontiff by the Canons Regular of the Lateran on the day of the Memorial of Saint Agnes, the Roman martyr traditionally depicted with a lamb.
Pope Benedict XVI blesses the lambs for use in the sacred pallium.
