How was communion bread in the Catholic Church made before?

[pjcsisabel]

I somewhat understand that the way the communion hosts are made today in the Catholic Church—thin, white circular wafers—is mostly because of economic and practical reasons. Firstly, due to the large number of communicants in every mass, particularly for areas with a high number of Catholics, using a larger piece of bread using a greater amount of flour and water would be much more expensive compared to the very economical small wafers we use. Secondly, with the way the wafers are made—small, uniform, pre-cut, hard pieces of wafers—it lesses the chance of crumbs falling into the ground while it’s being given to the faithful, and also importantly, lessens the chances of the bread spoiling early since we do store the hosts for use in adoration or communion to the sick.

However, would it be possible that the bread was made in a slightly different way before? Probably even as early as the Middle Ages or around the Counter-Reformation? The only requirement by canon law is to use pure wheat and water and, based on that, you can actually produce a bread that actually looks like a bread, not a thin, white disc. I ask this as a sort of historical question since I saw a movie set in 16th century England which featured a priest giving communion and the bread he was using was very much like the wafers we are using now, which I thought was a kind of anachronism. I would imagine that the breads the Church used for communion hundreds of years ago may have looked a little different from the mass produced wafers we are accustomed to today, perhaps a little more brown and having a little more texture.

I also ask this as a sort of legal question. Based on what I’ve said, would it be actually licit to use bread that’s not made exactly like the white wafers we universally (I think) use today? I mean just as long as it’s made recently and from pure wheat and water it’s fine, right?

 

[ProVobis]

I hope this helps

newadvent.org/cathen/01349d.htm

 

[Corki]

I also ask this as a sort of legal question. Based on what I’ve said, would it be actually licit to use bread that’s not made exactly like the white wafers we universally (I think) use today? I mean just as long as it’s made recently and from pure wheat and water it’s fine, right?

There is no requirement for hosts to be a particular shape or color. I have been in parishes where they make their own altar bread. As long as only wheat flour and water are used, it’s fine. The end results looks sort of like matzoh.

The real problem is the crumbs. So many parishes fail to use patens and the homemade versions are more crumbly, risking dropping the Blessed Sacrament on the floor during distribution of Communion.

 

[Bonnie]

I also ask this as a sort of legal question. Based on what I’ve said, would it be actually licit to use bread that’s not made exactly like the white wafers we universally (I think) use today? I mean just as long as it’s made recently and from pure wheat and water it’s fine, right?

Yes - it’s licit. I used to make whole wheat communion wafers for the parish we were in (the priest asked me as he knew I was a baker). I used whole wheat flour and water. It was thin and round, but not as thin as machine-made wafers. Because it was whole wheat, it was quite chewy. No salt meant it didn’t have the “bread” flavor people are used to.

We eventually went back to the machine-made wafers. They don’t have much of any flavor so the lack of salt isn’t noticeable, and the moisture content is lower so they last longer in the tabernacle.

 

[Phemie]

Yes - it’s licit. I used to make whole wheat communion wafers for the parish we were in (the priest asked me as he knew I was a baker). I used whole wheat flour and water. It was thin and round, but not as thin as machine-made wafers. Because it was whole wheat, it was quite chewy. No salt meant not the “bread” flavor people are used to.

We eventually went back to the machine-made wafers. They don’t have much of any flavor so the lack of salt isn’t noticeable, and the moisture content is lower so they last longer in the tabernacle.

I also baked altar bread for our parish a few times. The disadvantage is that it all had to be consumed at the Mass where it was used because it couldn’t be stored or it would go stale and hard as rock. For that reason we tended to use home made only on Holy Thursday or at particular celebrations, not at regular Sunday Mass.

 

[WT1]

In the early church the bread and wine were made in the homes of the faithful and presented at the mass during the collection (we remember this by the presenting of the gifts in the modern mass). The blessing of the bread and wine (not the consecration) by the priest is very much like Jewish blessings that are still used on the Sabbath today. It is very likely that Jesus used a similar blessing in the upper room with the apostles.

 

[pjcsisabel]

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

WT1, I actually forgot the thng about the offertory that represented the ancient practice of the community actually making the bread and wine and presenting it to mass. Thanks for pointing that out.

What I did not realize, though, is that some Catholic parishes still practice having some of the parishioners bake the communion bread. I thought it was a Protestant thing, since most denominations don’t have a strict rule on how the breads are made so there isn’t that much doubt as to the validity of the sacrament. But now I see that it appears so unusual to me because, from where I live, there are literally hundreds of people during mass, especially during solemnities and feasts, that it would really take a lot of work and resources to bake communion bread for all the communicants. It’s probably a practice that’s now more suitable to smaller parishes.

ProVobis, what intrigues me with the newadvent.org site you linked is that pure, natural water is actually a requirement, and that breads made with distilled water is of doubtful validity. Perhaps there are some sort of exception to this? Particularly for areas where water that is “natural”, as in coming from a natural source may not really be safe to drink, etc.? Because I’m quite sure that the water used for the machine made wafers that’s universally used in my country is either the purified (as in cleaned) kind that’s sold in water purification stores or the water that comes straight out of the tap, which in the case of areas within our country’s capital, is actually chlorinated for disinfection.

A follow question, too. With all the flour types available today and the canon law requirement of the bread being made from only wheat, what flour type should be used exactly in today’s flour terms? Wheat flour, white flour, either of the two? Is there even a difference? There are even the bleached types under white flour and I doubt those are allowed.

 

[Bonnie]

There are even the bleached types under white flour and I doubt those are allowed.

Bleached flour is fine - that’s why the commercially made altar breads are so white. Most bleaching is done with oxygen.

Ditto with water. In cities, there is no such thing as “natural” water - it’s all treated. Distilled water is very pure - no minerals or contaminants - so I don’t see why it couldn’t be used.

 

[FrDavid96]

Bleached flour is fine - that’s why the commercially made altar breads are so white. Most bleaching is done with oxygen.

Ditto with water. In cities, there is no such thing as “natural” water - it’s all treated. Distilled water is very pure - no minerals or contaminants - so I don’t see why it couldn’t be used.

Tap water is fine. The designation “natural” doesn’t mean what it might mean today if one buys a bottle of water in the supermarket.

It means that it cannot be water that was obtained by breaking open a coconut or squeezing some kind of fruit, or something like rosewater.

 

[FrDavid96]

…
A follow question, too. With all the flour types available today and the canon law requirement of the bread being made from only wheat, what flour type should be used exactly in today’s flour terms? Wheat flour, white flour, either of the two? Is there even a difference? There are even the bleached types under white flour and I doubt those are allowed.

As long as it’s wheaten flour, it’s fine. What is not permitted is barley, rice, or some other grain; nor the addition of some other grain to the wheat flour.

White, wheat, unbleached, organic, etc. etc. All those descriptions are fine as long as it’s only wheat.

Now, the inevitable followup: yes, the Church has already said that enriched flour (that which has added vitamins etc) is acceptable because the added vitamins are so minimal that the process does not affect the flour in any way that matters.

 

[Phemie]

What I did not realize, though, is that some Catholic parishes still practice having some of the parishioners bake the communion bread. I thought it was a Protestant thing, since most denominations don’t have a strict rule on how the breads are made so there isn’t that much doubt as to the validity of the sacrament. But now I see that it appears so unusual to me because, from where I live, there are literally hundreds of people during mass, especially during solemnities and feasts, that it would really take a lot of work and resources to bake communion bread for all the communicants. It’s probably a practice that’s now more suitable to smaller parishes.

The baking is easy: water, flour, mix, knead a bit, roll into circular loaves, score and bake. Doesn’t take as long as baking a batch of homemade rolls. It’s the fraction rite that takes forever if the congregation is large.

The homemade loaves we used in our parish were about the size of a saucer and about 1/2" thick. Scored into about 25 pieces, breaking those up for hundreds of parishioners takes too long. Think about how often you’d have to repeat the “Agnus Dei” to accompany that.