The caladrius is an all-white bird that lives in the king's house. If it looks into the face of a sick man, it means that he will live, but if the caladrius looks away, the sick man will die of his illness. To cure the sick man, the caladrius looks at him, and drawing the sickness into itself, the bird flies up toward the sun, where the disease is burned up and destroyed. The caladrius is an unclean bird which must not be eaten.

The caladrius represents Christ, who is pure white without a trace of blackness of sin. Because the Jews did not believe, Christ turned his face from them and toward the Gentiles, taking away and carrying sins to the cross. Christ turns away from the unrepentant and casts them off; but those to whom he turns his face, he makes whole again.