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Home , Eucharist, Ignatius of Antioch

The Early Fathers Witness to the valid is one that is celebrated by the himself, or by some person authorized by him. St. Ignatius of , Bishop of Antioch, wrote seven letters to various Christian **** communities as he was being taken to for martyrdom. They were written in The or Teaching of the Twelve about the year 107. (Some hold for 110.) Apostles . Dating is disputed. Some We have them intact. No reliable scholar portions may be as early as parts of the doubts the authenticity of these letters. . Some refuse to date earlier than 140. Others hold that at least The to the Ephesians . portions of the document provide us with 13. Do your best then to meet more often the oldest written and give thanks* and glory to God. When outside of the of the New you meet frequently, the powers of Satan Testament. are confounded.... (* Eucharist) 9. At the Eucharist, offer the eucharistic The . prayer in this way. Begin with the : 7....There is no pleasure for me in any "We give thanks to thee, our Father, for the meats that perish, or in the delights of this holy Vine of thy servant ...." Then, life; I am fain for the of God, even over the particles of bread: "We give the flesh of , who is the seed of thanks to thee, our Father,..." "As this David; and for my I crave that broken bread, once dispersed over the of His which is love imperishable. hills, was brought together and became one loaf, so may thy be brought The Epistle to the Philadelphians. together from the ends of the earth into thy 4. Make certain, therefore, that you all kingdom." No one is to eat or drink of your observe one common Eucharist; for there Eucharist but those who have been is but one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, baptized in the name of the Lord;.... and but one of union with His Blood, and one single of —even as 10. When all this is finished, give thanks in also there is but one bishop, with his these words:.. "Thou, Almighty Lord, hast and my own fellow servitors, the . created all things for thine own name's This will insure that all your doings are in sake; to all men thou hast given meat and full accord with the will of God. drink to enjoy, that they may give thanks to thee, but to us thou hast graciously The Epistle to the Smvrnaeans . given spiritual meat and drink, together 7. They even absent themselves from the with life eternal, thou thy Servant...." Eucharist and the public prayers, because they will not admit that the Eucharist is the 14. Assemble on the Lord's Day, and break selfsame body of our Savior Jesus Christ bread and offer your Eucharist; but first which suffered for our sins, and which the make of your faults, so that Father in His goodness afterwards raised your sacrifice may be a pure one.... up again. Consequently, since they reject God's good gifts, they are doomed.... **** St. Justin the wrote Dialogue With 8... The sole Eucharist you should consider Trypho the Jew in about the year 155. It is 1 the oldest existing defense/explanation of and, having given thanks, said, 'Do this in the Christian faith to Jews. remembrance of Me; this is My Body." And in like manner, taking the cup, and 41. "Also, sirs," I said, "the offering of fine having given thanks, He said, "This is My wheat flour which was prescribed to be Blood." And He imparted this to them offered on behalf of those cleansed from only. The evil demons, however, have leprosy was a type of the Bread of the passed on its imitation in the mysteries of Eucharist, the celebration of which our Mithra. For as you know or are able to Lord Jesus Christ prescribed in memory of learn, bread and a cup of water together the passion He suffered on behalf of those with certain incantations are used in the men who are cleansed in their souls of initiation to the mystic . every evil.... It is of the offered to Him in every place by us, the gentiles, **** that is, of the Bread of the Eucharist, and likewise of the cup of the Eucharist, that St. , Bishop of Lyons, France, was He speaks at that time;..." a probably from , who came to France. No one knows how or why 65.... (St. Justin gives a brief explanation anymore. It is believed that he was a pupil of the conduct of the Eucharist.) After the of the great . He wrote Against president gives thanks, and all the people Heresies in Greek between the years 180- have shouted their assent, those whom we 199. call deacons give to each one present to partake of the Eucharistic bread and 4,17,5.... He took from among creation that and water; and to those who are absent, which is bread, and gave thanks, saying, they carry away a portion. "This is My Body." The cup likewise, which is from among the creation to which 66. We call this food Eucharist; and no one we belong, He confessed to be His Blood. else is permitted to partake of it, except He taught the new sacrifice of the New one who believes our teaching to be true .... By these words He makes it and who has been washed in the washing plain that the former people will cease to that is for the remission of sins and for make offerings to God; but that in every regeneration, and is thereby living as place sacrifice will be offered to Him, and Christ has enjoined. For not as common indeed, a pure one; for His name is bread nor common drink do we receive glorified among the gentiles. these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God 4,18,2. Sacrifice as such has not been and had both flesh and blood for our reprobated. There were sacrifices then, salvation, so too, as we have been taught, sacrifices among the people; and there are the food which has been made into the sacrifices now, sacrifices in the Church. Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set Only the kind has been changed; for now down by Him, and by the change of which the sacrifice is offered not by slaves, but our blood and flesh is nourished, is both by free men. the flesh and blood of that incarnated Jesus. The Apostles, in the Memoirs which 4,18,4. But what consistency is there in they produced, which are called , those who hold that the bread over which have thus passed on that which was thanks have been given is the Body of their enjoined upon them: that Jesus took bread Lord, and the cup His Blood, if they do not 2

acknowledge that He is the Son of the distributed it to His disciples, He made it Creator of the world, that is, His Word, His own Body by saying, "This is my through whom the wood bears fruit...? Body"—that is, the "figure of My Body." How can they say that the flesh which has A figure, however, there could not have been nourished by the Body of the Lord been, unless there was in truth a body. and by His Blood gives way to corruption Some empty thing, which is a phantasm, and does not partake of life?... For as the were not able to satisfy a figure. Or, if He bread from the earth, receiving the pretended that bread were His Body, invocation of God, is no longer common because in truth He lacked a Body, then He bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two have given bread for us. It would elements, earthly and heavenly, so also our support the vanity of Marcion, had bread bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, been crucified! are no longer corruptible but have the hope of resurrection into eternity. The Resurrection of the Dead (Between 208-212). 5,2,2.... He has declared the cup, a part of 8,2. No soul whatever is able to attain creation, to be His own Blood, from which salvation, unless it has believed while it He causes our blood to increase; and the was in the flesh. Indeed, the flesh is the bread, a part of creation, He has hinge of salvation.... The flesh feeds on the established as His own Body, from which Body and , so that the soul, He gives increase to our own bodies. too, may fatten on God. When, therefore, the mixed cup and the baked bread receives the Word of God and The Crown (211). becomes the Eucharist, the , 3,2. The of the Eucharist, which and from these the substance of our flesh is the Lord commanded to be taken at meal increased and supported, how can they say times and by all, we take even before flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of daybreak in congregation, but from the God, which is eternal life—flesh which is hand of none other than the presidents.... nourished by the Body and Blood of the We take anxious care lest something of our Lord, and is, in fact, a member of Him? Cup or Bread should fall on the ground.

**** ****

Tertullian, born in Carthage, between 155- St. (d. 235). Elected 160, of pagan parents. He became a lawyer Bishop of Rome by a small group, against of considerable stature. After his St. Callistus. The conflict persisted conversion, he wrote in defense of through the reign of Pope St. Pontianus. . He had a very solidly Both men were exiled to Sardinia. Possibly approach in the years 197206, but both resigned beforehand because of the began to drift into a heresy known as exile. In Sardinia they were reconciled, . From the period 213-220, he and both were martyred there. was certainly in their camp. The first to write in after Greek begins to wane The (about 215). After in the West. the Didache, this document is the earliest and most important of the various Church Against Marcion . Orders as it provides a considerable body 4,40,3. Having taken bread and having of information on the and 3 hierarchical organization of the Church. we are anointed. That is to say, to drink the This section picks up the liturgy after the Blood of Jesus is to share in His bishop has baptized and confirmed new immortality. The strength of the Word is . the Spirit, just as the blood is the strength of the body. Similarly, as wine is blended 23. And then the deacons immediately with water, so is the Spirit with man. The bring the to the bishop; and he one, the Watered Wine, nourishes in faith, the bread into the antitype of the while the other, the Spirit, leads us on to Body of Christ; and the cup of mixed wine immortality. The union of both, however— for an antitype of the Blood, which was of the drink and of the Word—is called the shed for all who believe in Him.... Indeed, Eucharist, a praiseworthy and excellent the bishop shall explain the reason for all gift. Those who partake of it in faith are these things to those who partake. sanctified in body and soul. By the will of Breaking the Bread into individual the Father, the divine mixture, man, is particles which he then distributes, he shall mystically united to the Spirit and to the say: "Heavenly Bread in Christ Jesus!" and Word. he that receives shall answer: "Amen!" And the , or, if there are not **** enough, the deacons, too, shall hold the and shall stand by in reverence and , 185-253/54, a very prolific modesty... while he that gives the cup says: Christian writer, surrounded by "In Almighty!" and the one controversy. receiving says: "Amen!" ...And when these things are completed let each hasten to do on Exodus (after 244). Horn. good works and to please God and live 13,3.... You are accustomed to take part in justly, devoting himself to the Church, the divine mysteries, so you know how, practicing what he has learned and when you have received the Body of the advancing in the service of God. Lord, you reverently exercise every care lest a particle of it fall, and lest anything of **** the consecrated gift perish. You account yourselves guilty, and rightly do you so St. , born of pagan believe, if any of it be lost through parents, probably in Athens, Greece in negligence. But if you observe such 150. He became Christian and traveled caution in keeping His Body, and properly seeking Christian teachers, settling in so, how is it that you think neglecting the Egypt. Persecution forced him from there, word of God a lesser crime than neglecting and he never returned. Died 211-216. His Body?

The Instructor of Childre n, written before **** 202, presented a kind of idea of education by the Word (Jesus) who is presented as a St. of Carthage, Bishop of tutor. Carthage, born between 200-210 of pagan parents. Converted to Christianity about 2,2,19,4. The Blood of the Lord, indeed, is 246, and was made Bishop of Carthage in twofold. There is His corporeal Blood, by 248 or 249. Beheaded near the city which we are redeemed from corruption; September 14, 258. and His spiritual Blood, that with which 4

Letter of Cyprian to a Certain Cecil (Date Pamphilus, (About 263-340), unk) most famous for his History of the Church, 63,4.... To order certainly is that which known as the Father of Church History. comes from His sacrifice and which comes Bishop of his native Caesarea in Palestine down from it: because Melchisedech was a in 313. priest of the Most High God; because he offered bread; and because he blessed Proof of the . (Between 316-322) . And who is more a priest of the 5,3. Inasmuch as Melchisedech, a priest of Most High God than our Lord Jesus Christ, the pagans, never known to offer flesh in who, then, when He offered sacrifice to his sacrifices, but only wine and bread; God the Father, offered the very same inasmuch as he blessed Abraham, he is which Melchisedech had offered, namely surely by this token our first Lord and bread and wine, which is, in fact, His Body Savior—He from all the sent out to and Blood! all peoples offer a spiritual sacrifice in accord with ecclesiastical regulations, 63,9. We find that the cup which the Lord representing by wine and bread the offered was mixed; and that what was mysteries of His Body and His saving wine, He called Blood. From this it is Blood. Melchisedech had by divine apparent that the Blood of Christ is not inspiration a prior knowledge of these offered if there is no wine in the cup; nor is mysteries, and of things employed as the sacrifice of the Lord celebrated with a figures of things to come. legitimate unless our offering and sacrifice corresponds to the passion... I **** wonder, indeed, whence this practice has come, that, contrary to the evangelic and St. Ephraim is the great classic author in apostolic tradition, in certain places, water the Syrian Church. Born about 306, alone, which cannot signify the Blood of probably of Christian parents, he was Christ, is offered in the cup of the Lord. ordained to the diaconate before 338, and remained a the rest of his life. He is The Lord's Prayer . (About 251/52) called the "lyre of the ," and his 18. As the prayer continues, we ask and works, nearly all of which are in poetic say, "Give us this day, our daily bread." form, are a treasure house. And we ask that this bread be given us daily, so that we who are in Christ and Homilies . daily receive the Eucharist as the food of 4,4. Our Lord Jesus took in His hands what salvation, may not, by falling into some in the beginning was only bread; and He more grievous sin and then in abstaining blessed it and signed it, and made it holy in from communicating, be withheld from the the name of the Father and in the name of heavenly Bread, and be separated from the Spirit; and He broke it, and in His Christ's Body.... Therefore do we ask that gracious kindness He distributed it to all our Bread, which is Christ, be given to us His disciples one by one. He called the daily, so that we who abide and live in bread His living Body, and did Himself fill Christ may not withdraw from His it with Himself and the Spirit. And and from His Body. extending His hand, He gave them the bread which His right hand made holy: **** "Take all of you, eat of this, which My 5 word has made holy. Do not now regard as bread that which I have given you; but take, eat this Bread, and do not scatter the crumbs; for what I have called My Body, that it is indeed. One particle from its crumbs is able to sanctify thousands and thousands, and is sufficient to afford life to those who eat of it. Take, eat, entertaining no doubt of faith, because this is My Body, and whoever eats it in belief eats in it Fire and Spirit. But if any doubter eat of it, for him it will be only bread. And whoever eats in belief the bread made holy in My name, if he be pure, he will be preserved in his purity; and if he be a sinner, he will be forgiven." But if anyone despise it or reject it, or treat it with ignominy, it may be taken as a certainty that he treats with ignominy the Son, who called it and actually made it to be His Body.

4,6. After the disciples had eaten the new and holy Bread, and when they had understood by faith that they had eaten of Christ's Body, Christ went on to explain and to give them the whole Sacrament. He took and mixed a cup of wine. Then He blessed it and signed it and made it holy, declaring that it was His own Blood which was about to be poured out... Christ commanded them to drink, and He explained to them that the cup which they were drinking was His own Blood. " Whenever you are gathered together in My name in Churches everywhere, do what I have done in memory of Me. Eat My Body, and drink My Blood, a covenant new and old."

Citations taken from: The Faith of the Early Fathers , 3 Vols., by Rev. William A. Jurgens, publisher: The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN, 1979. 6