Anamnesis (Ὀνόμησις)

ANAMNESIS (Ὀνόμησις). - Remembrance, commemoration, it 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 therefore depends strictly on the Consecration and is connected to it. The remembrance of the mysteries, the offering to the Father, the petition to accept the sacrifice, the effects of the sacrifice itself and of communion form its substance, while the recalling of the sacrifice of Abel, Abraham and Melchizedek gives life to the ancient figures and constitutes the characteristic of the a. In other liturgies it is called Post pridie, post mysteria, post secreta, while St. Isidore calls it Confirmatio Sacramenti. At times it is also called Collatio ad panis fractionem, because the fraction of the bread followed it. The Mozarabic Liber Ordinum has many forms of the a., while the Gelasian and Gregorian have only one: Unde et memores nos servi tui... which is that of the Latin liturgy and which the Liber Pontificalis (ed. L. Duchesne, I, Paris 1886, p. 127) attributes without foundation to Pope Alexander I. The substance is identical in all a., even if the form in some is more prolix. Always, however, it is full of unction in the remembrance of the most salient moments of the Redeemer's life. Their variety is explained by the fact that the a. changed according to the days and feasts, constituting a rich collection of texts of great theological importance, especially in the East.

The a. is part of the primitive liturgy and of the apostolic canon. To be convinced of this it suffices to 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 proof of the antiquity of the a. From the liturgical point of view the a. is therefore of fundamental importance, and an accurate analysis of the texts shows the recommendation 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 complete with the words of the Consecration. We have moreover in the a. the demonstration that the Canon has a historical progression with the account of the supper, the consecration of the bread and wine, the remembrance of the passion, of the death, of the descent into hell, of the resurrection and of the ascension of Christ. All this undoubtedly constitutes the primitive nucleus of the Mass, reduced to its essential elements (v. CANONE; EPICLESI; MESSA).

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