Cultured pearl Cultured pearl A cultured pearl is a pearl created by an oyster farmer under controlled conditions. Cultured pearls can be farmed using two very different groups of bivalve mollusk: the freshwater river mussels, and the saltwater pearl oysters. A pearl is formed when the mantle tissue is injured by a parasite, an attack of a fish or another event that damages the external fragile rim of the shell of a mollusk shell bivalve or gastropod. In response, the mantle tissue of the mollusk secretes nacre into the pearl sac, a cyst that forms during the healing process. Chemically speaking, this
Parable of the Pearl but loss? Has your trust in yourself and your merits Come to naught before Christ and His cross? </poem> A less common interpretation of the parable is that the merchant represents Jesus, and the pearl represents the Christian Church. This interpretation would give the parable a similar theme to that of the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. The phrase "Pearl of Great Price" has also been interpreted more widely to apply to things of great value in a number of religious contexts. For example, it is the title of a selection of Mormon