ANAPHORA (*Ἀναφορά*: presentation, offering). — It originally designated the bread to be offered in the Mass and later became a generic term for the Mass itself. In Eastern liturgies it more properly signifies the principal part of the Sacrifice, corresponding to the Canon of the Latin Mass with the Preface and the prayers for Communion. E. Renaudot (*Liturgiarum Orientalium Collectio*, I, 2nd ed., Frankfurt am Main 1847, pp. 172, 224; II, ibid., loc. cit., pp. 45, 75) provides 38 different formularies to be used on various days. The oldest and most fully preserved anaphora is that of St. Serapion, bishop of Thmuis in Egypt (4th century). Fragments of other more ancient ones include those of St. Mark, the *Didachē*, the papyrus of Der-Balyzeh, and St. James.
Among the Syrians the term anaphora also denotes the veil that, after the Consecration, covers the chalice and paten.