BREAKING OF BREAD (Ἐλᾶσις τοῦ δρῦσου). - It is the act of breaking bread to indicate a meal in
(de Hieronymi Fracastori... carmina, Padua 239)
FRACASTORO, GEROLAMO
Portrait - Vatican Library, copy from the Ferraioli collection.
common (pars pro toto), which in ancient Christian literature many times means the celebration of the Eucharist.
Similar expressions are found in the Old Testament (Is. 58, 7; Jer. 16, 6-7; Lam. 4, 4; Ez. 18, 7, 16) and in part reflect the thought of the Jews, among whom the rite of breaking bread, performed by the father of the family at the beginning of a common meal, had a religious character and indicated a sacred bond, by which all the table companions were united.
This custom was adopted by Jesus, who as head of a new spiritual family broke bread before the crowd he fed in the miracle of the multiplication (Mt. 14, 19; 15, 36; Mk. 6, 41; 8, 6; Lk. 9, 16; Jn. 6, 11). On the eve of his death he repeated the rite in the institution of the Eucharist (Mt. 26, 26; Mk. 14, 22; Lk. 22, 19; I Cor. 11, 24), which St. Paul calls « panis quem frangimus » (ibid., 10, 16).
Because of the twofold use made of it by the Lord, the f. p., in the New Testament, can indicate either an ordinary meal or the Eucharistic Supper; only from the context is it possible to establish the meaning of the expression in individual cases. The f. p. at Emmaus (Lk. 24:30-35), on the shores of the lake (ibid., 24:41-43; "piscis ausus") and during the stormy voyage toward Malta (Acts 27:35) is today commonly considered an ordinary meal, whereas that celebrated by the first Christians in Jerusalem (ibid. 3:42, 46) and by St. Paul at Troas (ibid. 20:7, 11) is held to be Eucharistic. When the f. p. has a Eucharistic meaning it does not indicate the consecration under one species, but the entire sacred rite, which is named from its most conspicuous part (a potiori).
Among Christian writers (e.g., Didaché 14, 1; Ignatius Martyr, Eph., 20, 2; ἄρτον κλῶντες) the f. p. means the Eucharist, as also in the art of the Catacombs (cf. I. Wilpert, F. p., die älteste Darstellung des eucharistischen Opfers in der « Cappella greca » entdeckt und erläutert, Freiburg im Br. 1895; v. RANCHETTO).
From the f. p. one passed to the Fractio Sacramenti, which is that rite of the Latin Mass by which the Host is divided into three parts (corpus trifarium) and which from the times of Amalarius (9th century) acquired an ecclesiological meaning (cf. the erudite work of H. De Lubac, Corpus Mysticum. Eucharistia et Egitto au moyen âge, 2nd ed., Paris 1949, pp. 297-339). In the 16th century Melchior Cano maintained that in the Fractio Sacramenti the reason of sacrifice proper to the Eucharist is verified (De locis theologicis, Bassano 1776, l. XII, cap. 12, p. 302), but his opinion, already combated by St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 83, a. 4; a. 6, ad 6), had no following (v. FRAZIONE DELL'OSTIA).
Bibliography11 works
Antonio Piolanti