ANAMNESIS (ἀναμνησις). - Remembrance, commemoration, is that part of the Canon of the Mass which immediately follows the Consecration and which recalls the principal mysteries of the life of Christ. It is therefore strictly dependent upon and connected with the Consecration. The substance of the anamnesis consists in the remembrance of the mysteries, the offering to the Father, the request for acceptance of the sacrifice, the effects of the sacrifice itself and of Communion, while the recalling of the sacrifices of Abel, Abraham, and Melchisedech gives rise to the ancient figures and constitutes the characteristic of the anamnesis. In other liturgies it is called Post pridie, post mysteria, post secreta, while St. Isidore refers to it as Confirmatio Sacramenti. It is sometimes also called Collatio ad panis fractionem, because the breaking of the bread follows II. The Mozarabic Liber Ordinum has many forms of the anamnesis, while the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries have only one: "Unde et memores nos servi tui..." which is that of the Roman liturgy and which the Liber Pontificalis (ed. L. Duchesne, I, Paris 1886, p. 127) attributes without foundation to Pope Alexander I. Identical in all anamneses is the substance, even if the form in some is more prolix. It is always, however, filled with unction in the remembrance of the most salient moments of the life of the Redeemer. Their variety is explained by the fact that the anamnesis varied according to the days and feasts, constituting a rich collection of texts of great theological importance, especially in the East.
The anamnesis is part of the primitive liturgy and of the Apostolic Canon. To be convinced of this, one need only refer to St. Justin: "De pane illo praedici quem nobis Christus noster facer praecepit in memoriam corporis a se assumpti et de calice quem in memoriam sanguinis sui cum gratiarum actione fieri praecepit" (Dial. cum Tryph., 70) and to St. Cyprian: "Resurrectionem Domini mane celebramus... passionis eius mentionem in sacrificiis omnibus facimus" (Epist. LXIII, 16-17: PL, 4, 387).
These texts are evidence of the antiquity of the anamnesis. From the liturgical point of view, the anamnesis is therefore of fundamental importance, and a careful analysis of the texts reveals the command of Christ to the disciples to renew the mystery of the Supper, the faith in the real presence of the body and blood in the consecrated bread and wine, and that the mystery of transubstantiation is completed with the words of the Consecration. Moreover, in the anamnesis we have the demonstration that the Canon has a historical procedure with the account of the Supper, the consecration of the bread and wine, the remembrance of the Passion, the death, the descent into hell, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Christ. All this undoubtedly constitutes the primitive nucleus of the Mass, reduced to its essential elements (v. CANON; EPICLESIS; MASS).