Tom
Fitzgerald
wrote:
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Hi, guys —
i am a 17-year-old student from England, and although
I am an Atheist, I am very interested in religion and
have a peculiar question. I would be curious to know:
- Why is the Communion wafer circular?
Given that the Eucharist forms such a vast and important part of Catholicism, there must be some reason or reasoning
behind it, even if it's only a practical, rather than symbolic,
one.
I very much hope you can enlighten me and satisfy my curiosity!
Thanks kindly for your time,
Tom
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Why is the Communion wafer used for the Eucharist circular? }
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Mike
replied:
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Hi, Tom —
Thanks for the question.
I found this in the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia on
the New Advent website under Altar
Breads.
I think this is the best we can do. The following
is from that article:
Bread is one of the two elements absolutely necessary
for the sacrifice of the Eucharist. It cannot be
determined from the sacred text whether Christ
used the ordinary table bread or some other bread
specially prepared for the occasion.
In the Western Church the altar-breads were probably
round in form. Archaeological researches demonstrate
this from pictures found in the catacombs, and Pope
St. Zephyrinus (A.D. 201-219) calls the
altar-bread coronam sive oblatam sphericae
figurae.
In the Eastern churches, they are round or square.
Formerly the laity presented the flour from which
the breads were formed. In the Eastern Church, the
breads were made by consecrated virgins; in the
Western Church, by priests and clerics (Benedict
XIV, De Sacrif. Missae, I, section 36). This
custom is still in vogue in the Armenian Church.
The earliest documentary evidence that the altar-breads
were made in thin wafers is the answer which Cardinal
Humbert, legate of St. Leo IX, made [in] the middle
of the eleventh century to Michael Cerularius,
Patriarch of Constantinople. These wafers were
sometimes very large, as from them small pieces
were broken for the Communion of the laity, hence
the word particle for the small host;
but smaller ones were used when only the celebrant
communicated.
.
.
.
As a rule the image of Christ crucified should
be impressed on the large host (Congregation for Sacred Rites, 6 April, 1834), but the monogram
of the Holy Name (Ephem. Lit., XIII, 1899,
p. 686), or the Sacred Heart (ibid., p.
266) may also be adopted.
The altar-breads assumed different names according
as they had reference to the Eucharist as a sacrament
or as a sacrifice: bread, gift (donum),
table (mensa) allude to the Sacrament, which
was instituted for the nourishment of our soul;
oblation victim, host, allude to sacrifice. Before
the tenth century the word "host" was
not employed, probably because before this time
the Blessed Eucharist was considered more frequently
as a sacrament than as a sacrifice, hence the Fathers
use such expressions as communion (synaxis),
supper (coena), breaking of bread, etc.,
but at present the word "host" is used
when referring to the Eucharist either as a sacrament
or as [the|a] sacrifice. |
Also in a recent document from the Vatican it stated:
Redemptionis Sacramentum - On certain matters to
be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy
Eucharist
1. The Matter of the Most Holy Eucharist
[49.] By reason of the sign, it is appropriate
that at least some parts of the Eucharistic Bread
coming from the fraction should be distributed
to at least some of the faithful in Communion. Small
hosts are, however, in no way ruled out when the
number of those receiving Holy Communion or other
pastoral needs require it and indeed small hosts
requiring no further fraction ought customarily
to be used for the most part.
From the Congregation For Divine
Worship And The Discipline Of The Sacrament
19 March 2004 |
Hope this helps,
Mike
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