Leavened and unleavened bread

[Monica4316]

Hi

I know that the Western church uses unleavened bread for Communion, and the Eastern church uses leavened bread… I know the Catholic Church accepts both ways.

But I’ve heard some Eastern Orthodox say that only leavened bread should be used, because that’s how it was in the early Church, and unleavened bread is an “innovation” that contributed to the Schism…

Is this true?

Where did the practice of unleavened bread come from?

I read that St Thomas said that first the Church used unleavened bread, then they went to leavened bread to fight a heresy (which said that we should obey all the OT customs), and then the Western Church went back to unleavened bread when the heresy was over. Is there any evidence for this?

thanks

 

[trinichiqn]

Unleavened Bread was used in the Jewish Passover.

 

[malphono]

There have been several threads about this issue in this forum, which can be easily found by doing a search. Rather than cite them, I will simply note that there are some exceptions among the Orientals. The Armenians and, I believe, the Chaldeans (including the ACoE), traditionally use unleavened bread. So too the Maronites, and although many Maronites (or perhaps I should say “psuedo-Maronites”) will insist this is a “latinization” there is reason to believe that is not the case. The jury is still out (and has been for several hundred years) on that one.

 

[PJM]

=Monica4316;6941419]Hi

I know that the Western church uses unleavened bread for Communion, and the Eastern church uses leavened bread… I know the Catholic Church accepts both ways.

But I’ve heard some Eastern Orthodox say that only leavened bread should be used, because that’s how it was in the early Church, and unleavened bread is an “innovation” that contributed to the Schism…

Is this true?

Where did the practice of unleavened bread come from?

I read that St Thomas said that first the Church used unleavened bread, then they went to leavened bread to fight a heresy (which said that we should obey all the OT customs), and then the Western Church went back to unleavened bread when the heresy was over. Is there any evidence for this?

thanks

**Current Code of Canon Law:

Art. 3.

THE RITES AND CEREMONIES OF THE EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION**

Can. 924 §1. The most holy eucharistic sacrifice must be offered with bread and with wine in which a little water must be mixed.

§2. The bread must be only wheat and recently made so that there is no danger of spoiling.

§3. The wine must be natural from the fruit of the vine and not spoiled.

Can. 925 Holy communion is to be given under the form of bread alone, or under both species according to the norm of the liturgical laws, or even under the form of wine alone in a case of necessity.

Can. 926 According to the ancient tradition of the Latin Church, the priest is to use unleavened bread in the eucharistic celebration whenever he offers it.

Love and prayers,
Pat

 

[dcointin]

I haven’t done any serious research on the issue, but what I’ve read suggests that no one knows the origins of why the west uses unleavened, and the east leavened, bread. There are arguments for both practices, but reasonable people on both sides believe that both are equally valid.

When Christ instituted the sacrament of the eucharist on Holy Thursday, he would have used unleavened bread since it was done in the context of the Passover celebration, but whether or not this was used after is unknown. St. Paul speaks of the Eucharist being celebrated in the context of an ordinary meal in 1 Corinthians, which would suggest ordinary food (i.e. leavened bread), but that can’t be considered a proof. The concept of leaven is used with both positive (Matt. 13:33) and negative (1 Cor. 5:8) connotations in Holy Scripture.

Does anyone know of any references in the fathers that suggest one practice or the other?

 

[Vico]

Unleavened Bread was used in the Jewish Passover.

References for your statement.

Mark 14.12 (cf. Matthew 26; Luke 22) shows thatthe last supper was a Passover meal. “his disciples said to him, where do you want us to go and prepare, that you may eat the Passover” (Mark 14:12)

and Passover uses unleavened bread:

Exodus 12:8 “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”

 

[prodromos]

There have been several threads about this issue in this forum, which can be easily found by doing a search.

Unfortunately, many of those threads were purged when the Eastern Christianity subforum was shut down.

 

[Modelsim]

Many Eastern churches use leavened bread because Jesus himself is risen. It’s the same reason that the congregation stands during the entire divine liturgy, because they are in the posture of the resurrection.

 

[prodromos]

Hi

I know that the Western church uses unleavened bread for Communion, and the Eastern church uses leavened bread… I know the Catholic Church accepts both ways.

But I’ve heard some Eastern Orthodox say that only leavened bread should be used, because that’s how it was in the early Church, and unleavened bread is an “innovation” that contributed to the Schism…

Is this true?

Where did the practice of unleavened bread come from?

I read that St Thomas said that first the Church used unleavened bread, then they went to leavened bread to fight a heresy (which said that we should obey all the OT customs), and then the Western Church went back to unleavened bread when the heresy was over. Is there any evidence for this?

thanks

From the website of the Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billings (webmasters: sisters@poorclares.mt.org)
REFLECTIONS ON EUCHARISTIC BREAD AND WINEThe requirement of unleavened bread is for liceity. In the early centuries, both Eastern and Western Churches used leavened bread for the Eucharist, but in the eighth and ninth centuries the use of unleavened bread became the general custom in the West. In keeping with the scope of the Code, the canon properly addresses only the practice of the Latin Rite… (“The Code of Canon Law, Text and Commentary,” page 659).

 

[ConstantineTG]

Leavened bread may be used in the Latin Rite in cases of extreme necessity. Perhaps you are on ship in the middle of the ocean and ran out of unleavened bread. Its Sunday and you have to celebrate Mass. Or you are in a location and were hit with a huge earthquake, and have only access to leavened bread.

But in normal circumstances, I believe the priest is under pain of sin if he tries to use leavened bread.

 

[prodromos]

Read page 217-218 and 238 of The Church’s Liturgy By Michael Kunzler. This is the first volume published in English of a series of International Handbooks of Catholic Theology under the general editorship of Cardinal Christoph Schnborn, Archbishop of Vienna.

The Church’s Liturgy By Michael Kunzler (page 217-218)
The main information you want is in section 3.6.2. The “Fruits of the Earth and Work of Human Hands”, at the bottom of page 217, but there is also relevant information just prior to that

The Church’s Liturgy By Michael Kunzler (page 238)
Read section 3.8.3. The Fraction, Agnus Dei and Commingling.
It speaks of the West’s former traditional use of leavened bread for the eucharist.

Primary Readings on the Eucharist By Thomas Fisch
This goes into the reason why the West introduced unleavened bread for the eucharist around the 800’s

 

[prodromos]

Fr. Joseph Jungman – in his book The Mass of the Roman Rite – states that:"In the West, various ordinances appeared from the ninth century on, all demanding the exclusive use of unleavened bread for the Eucharist. A growing solicitude for the Blessed Sacrament and a desire to employ only the best and whitest bread, along with various scriptural considerations – all favored this development.

“Still, the new custom did not come into exclusive vogue until the middle of the eleventh century. Particularly in Rome it was not universally accepted till after the general infiltration of various usages from the North” [Joseph Jungman, The Mass of the Roman Rite, volume II, pages 33-34]
Fr. Jungman goes on to say that,". . . the opinion put forward by J. Mabillon, Dissertatio de pane eucharistia, in his answer to the Jesuit J. Sirmond, Disquisitio de azymo, namely, that in the West it was always the practice to use only unleavened bread, is no longer tenable" [Jungman, The Mass of the Roman Rite, volume II, page 33]
Now, the fact that the West changed its practice and began using unleavened bread in the 8th and 9th century – instead of the traditional leavened bread – is confirmed by the research of Fr. William O’Shea, who noted that along with various other innovative practices from Northern Europe, the use of unleavened bread began to infiltrate into the Roman liturgy at the end of the first millennium, because as he put it,“Another change introduced into the Roman Rite in France and Germany at the time * was the use of unleavened bread and of thin white wafers or hosts instead of the loaves of leavened bread used hitherto” [Fr. William O’Shea, The Worship of the Church, page 128].*
"Moreover, this change in Western liturgical practice was also noted by Dr. Johannes H. Emminghaus in his book, The Eucharist: Essence, Form, Celebration, because as he said:“The Eucharistic bread has been unleavened in the Latin rite since the 8th century – that is, it is prepared simply from flour and water, without the addition of leaven or yeast. . . . in the first millennium of the Church’s history, both in East and West, the bread normally used for the Eucharist was ordinary ‘daily bread,’ that is, leavened bread, and the Eastern Church uses it still today; for the most part, they strictly forbid the use of unleavened bread. The Latin Church, by contrast, has not considered this question very important.” [Dr. Johannes H. Emminghaus, The Eucharist: Essence, Form, Celebration, page 162]

 

[dvdjs]

Read page 217-218 and 238 of The Church’s Liturgy By Michael Kunzler. This is the first volume published in English of a series of International Handbooks of Catholic Theology under the general editorship of Cardinal Christoph Schnborn, Archbishop of Vienna.

The Church’s Liturgy By Michael Kunzler (page 217-218)
The main information you want is in section 3.6.2. The “Fruits of the Earth and Work of Human Hands”, at the bottom of page 217, but there is also relevant information just prior to that

The Church’s Liturgy By Michael Kunzler (page 238)
Read section 3.8.3. The Fraction, Agnus Dei and Commingling.
It speaks of the West’s former traditional use of leavened bread for the eucharist.

Primary Readings on the Eucharist By Thomas Fisch
This goes into the reason why the West introduced unleavened bread for the eucharist around the 800’s

Just want to clarify what you are claiming:

1. Leavened and unleavened bread were used in the west prior to the 800’s at which time the use of unleavened bread became predominant;
2. Unleavened bread was used predominantly in the west until the 800’s at which time the west switched to the use of unleavened bread.
   Is the evidence solid to support one or the other of these histories?

 

[prodromos]

Origines Ecclesiasticæ: The Antiquities of the Christian Church by Joseph Bingham.

Read from page 757 onwards. Plenty of good information from a historian who does not have a dog in this fight.

And before someone brings up the fact that the Armenians use unleavened bread.
books.google.com/books?id=f8dhdXb5vAgC&pg=PA530&lpg=PA530&dq=%22unleavened+bread%22+armenian&source=web&ots=02DXlzGRUM&sig=Idzt97Jkygf6QpeWNwWzSYVjplAThe two most striking peculiarities in the true Armenian rite - the use of unleavened bread and wine without water - are shown by Le Brun (tom. iv. diss. x. a. 10) to have been introduced by an Armenian council about 640, in order to symbolize the Monophysite doctrine that Christ had only one nature.

John

 

[prodromos]

Just want to clarify what you are claiming:

1. Leavened and unleavened bread were used in the west prior to the 800’s at which time the use of unleavened bread became predominant;
2. Unleavened bread was used predominantly in the west until the 800’s at which time the west switched to the use of unleavened bread.

I’m not claiming anything. I have merely provided references (predominately Catholic) which state that the West used leavened bread until the 800’s.

Is the evidence solid to support one or the other of these histories?

Judge for yourself.

John

 

[Hesychios]

I saw an article once that indicated the earliest known forms for baking unleavened hosts were found in north Africa, dating from the eight century. I’ll be darned if I can find that article now, it must have been five years ago. I am not expecting anyone to accept this information without verifying it somehow.

I recall someone posting that either the Gallic church or the Spanish (Mozarabic) church once had a rite of preparation in the liturgy (perhaps it was both but I am inclined to think it was the Spanish church, for some reason).

I seems to me that the change in discipline to stop communing infants dates from just after the switch to unleavened bread and the two may be connected. I don’t have the time or energy these days to dig around for that kind of stuff, and I don’t care much about it anymore, but if anyone is curious they might start looking.

 

[Monica4316]

Would the Orthodox Church say it is wrong to use unleavened bread? (I don’t mean in Orthodox churches, but in general). Is there a theological reason for only using leavened bread?

 

[Monica4316]

In the “Miracle of Lanciano”, which happened in the 8th century, it appears that unleavened bread was used… showing that it was already a practice in the West during that time

therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/lanciano.html

 

[Vico]

…
I seems to me that the change in discipline to stop communing infants dates from just after the switch to unleavened bread and the two may be connected. …

Infants were excluded from Latin communion when bread only began to be used (1215 A.D.).

 

[Aramis]

Leavened bread may be used in the Latin Rite in cases of extreme necessity. Perhaps you are on ship in the middle of the ocean and ran out of unleavened bread. Its Sunday and you have to celebrate Mass. Or you are in a location and were hit with a huge earthquake, and have only access to leavened bread.

But in normal circumstances, I believe the priest is under pain of sin if he tries to use leavened bread.

Yes. He sins in using leavened bread in the Roman Mass. But the bread is still transubstantiated, and the mass is still valid.

It’s the same as a suspended priest saying mass. He sins, but the faithful in attendance do not.

The only non-extreme exception to the prohibition on leavened bread in the Roman Mass is when the priest has unleavened bread for the communion there, and leavened for use in a parish or mission of a rite that uses leavened bread.