FRACTION OF THE HOST. - In the early Church, the rite of breaking the Eucharistic Bread was purely a ministerial function, an action arising from the necessity of dividing the large, round, and thin Eucharistic Bread into pieces to distribute it to the faithful in Communion. The Fathers (Cyprian, Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem) do not give special emphasis to this function; only St. Augustine mentions prayers during the rite. Subsequently, another action was associated with it: the immersion or commingling of the two consecrated Species (Bread and Wine) before their distribution. Soon, mystical and symbolic meanings were attached to this rite, to which Theodorus of Mopsuestia (d. 428, Hom. VI) alludes. In the East, as early as the 4th century, the importance of the fraction of the Host diminished, and greater emphasis was placed on the rites of consecration and commingling; in the West, however, greater importance was given to the fraction of the Host, which became more elaborate and solemn.
The fraction of the Host took place immediately after the Canon, before Communion or during the distribution of the Eucharistic Bread (Hippolytus); only the Copts break the Bread already before the consecration, at the word "fregi." In the Eastern liturgies, the Eucharistic Bread was broken after the recitation of the Pater noster; in the Latin liturgy, it accompanied (St. Cyprian, St. Augustine) and in the Milanese, Gallican, and Mozarabic liturgies, it took place before the Pater noster. In the Roman liturgy, St. Gregory the Great ordered the recitation of the Pater noster before the fraction of the Host, as in the Eastern liturgies. In the ancient Roman rite, the kiss of peace also preceded II.
The present Roman rite of the fraction of the Eucharistic Bread is not original but results from a simplification made over the centuries. The ancient rite was more complex.
According to the ancient papal order of the Ordo Romanus, the pope gave the sign of peace after reciting the Pater noster followed by the embolism, saying "Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum"; this was done with crosses made over the chalice, and the fermentum, i.e., a consecrated Species from a previous Mass (the first traditional Roman commingling), was immersed in II. Against Capelle, Andrieu considers the phrase "mitti Sancta in eum" original, as the archaic recension of the "Ordo I" is mutilated here (M. Andrieu, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 57-60). While the bishops and priests exchanged the kiss of peace, the pope detached a "parcella" (the right side) from the Eucharistic Bread (and the first fraction) and placed it on the altar (for the new fermentum, or for viaticum, or to signify the unity of the species of the Sacrifice on the altar and the Communion given at the throne; cf. L. Duchesne, op. cit. in bibl., p. 196); the rest of the Eucharistic Bread was placed on the paten and taken to the throne. Having left the altar and taken his seat on the throne, the pope gave the sign to the bishops to continue the fraction of the Host begun by him at the altar, i.e., that of the other Eucharistic Breads to prepare the fragments for Communion (and the second fraction of the Host, properly the most original and characteristic, as it was solemn because it took place at the throne). During this function, the "Agnus Dei" was sung by order of Pope Sergius I (682-701), drawn from the Greek liturgy, whereas previously the action took place in silence. Once the fraction of the Host was completed, the pope communicated himself by detaching a new "parcella" from the Host (and the third fraction of the Host) and dropping it into the chalice for the second commingling, first done in silence, then accompanied by the formula "Fiat commixtio etc."; after which he drank from the chalice. Thus, in the papal Mass, there were three fractions and two comminglings. The first commingling, the "fermentum," was specifically Roman, as was the first fraction; the third fraction and the second commingling were done in the Greek-Oriental manner of commingling the two consecrated Species as a sign of unity. The immersion of the fermentum, i.e., a consecrated Species from a previous Mass, was not omitted even when, the pope being impeded, a bishop performed the rites (Ordo Romanus, I, 6; M. Andrieu, op. cit., pp. 62 and 112). Originally, this act seems to have been peculiar to Masses in the parish churches of Rome to signify unity with the pope; in the papal Mass, however, it was secondary, introduced later, so as not to omit anything from the ceremony; its use then became general in all Masses. The symbolic meaning of the fermentum in the papal Mass, more than in the parish Masses, came to signify the unity of the Sacrifice and its continuity. Some authors assume that this rite of the fermentum also existed in the Eastern liturgy (J. A. Jungmann, op. cit. in bibl., p. 363, n. 39). Outside Rome, in the dissemination of the Roman rite, where the use of the fermentum was unknown, to fulfill the rite of having a species to mix, a new fraction of the Eucharistic Bread was introduced, i.e., a particle was detached from the Host of the same Sacrifice, to avoid a pause before the Pater noster at the end of the embolism; then it was immersed in the chalice, at the same moment and with the same ceremonies as the fermentum (Ordo III, n. 3; Andrieu, pp. 124-26). It is noteworthy that the redactor of this Ordo here omitted the same words as the rite of the second and third fractions of Ordo I, nn. 97 and 107 (Andrieu), thus intending to reduce these two rites to the three fractions of the two comminglings. Ordo III, n. 3 is the first witness outside Rome of the elimination of an ancient Roman characteristic rite, such as the first commingling and the first fraction. It is therefore strange that such ceremonies were performed during the embolism of the Pater noster, having no connection with the annexed rite. Thus, outside Rome, the simplification of the rites of fraction and commingling began: with the single commingling, namely that in which the pope immersed the fermentum into the chalice at the first commingling. Of the rite of the second commingling, the prayer "Haec commixtio etc." (instead of the Pater noster) remains; it is recited immediately after the commingling, at the "Pax Domini." The present single but double fraction, before the Pater noster, corresponds to the first fraction, which took place before the pope left the altar, and together with the third, before drinking from the chalice. In the same way, for this single but double fraction, the Host is divided today into three parts: first into two, and then a particle is detached to be immersed in the chalice; thus the division of the Host into three parts is well explained. Today, the celebrant consumes the first and second parts, whereas in the past, with the second part, the celebrant communicated the ministers "and kept it as viaticum" (Micrologus).
But time passed before this simplification and unification were achieved. In the course of the 10th–12th centuries the second and properly true fraction of the Host disappeared, both because the number of communicants diminished and because the form of the Host was changed and particles were introduced for the Communion of the faithful. The Romano-Germanic Pontifical of 950 is the first witness to this (Jungmann, op. cit., pp. 369–70; Ordo X, no. 51 ff.; Andrieu, op. cit., pp. 360–61). Nevertheless, traces of this second fraction of the Host survive from the 12th century onward (Jungmann, op. cit., p. 370, n. 11). The recitation of the Agnus Dei still recalls II. The second fraction of the Host was performed on the paten at the chair and over the acolytes’ bags, but with the reduced number of communicants and the smaller form of the Host, the bags disappeared and the size of the paten was reduced. In memory of the fraction on the paten, the Host is now placed before the breaking and, after the breaking, the particles are placed on the paten; yet the single double fraction itself, like the pope’s third fraction, is performed over the chalice, beginning from the 12th–13th century (Jungmann, p. 374, n. 33). Outside Rome, and after the use of leavened bread had also ceased in Rome, one or other of the first or third fraction of the Host and of the two comminglings had to be suppressed. Proof of this completeness is furnished by the Ordines Romani published by Mabillon and Martène and by the authors Amalarius (850), John of Avranches (before 1057), the Micrologus of Bernold (d. 1100), and Durandus (d. 1296). Since only one commingling was in use already in the time of Amalarius, some performed the fraction and commingling before the “Pax Domini” (Ordo VI, no. 50; Andrieu, op. cit., p. 237; Ordo IX, no. 36; Andrieu, ibid., p. 326) without (or passing over in silence) the third fraction and the second commingling (Ord. Ecc. of the Pater noster by Bernard of 1145); others, however, having performed the fraction of the Host at the “Pax Domini,” inserted the particle after the “Agnus Dei” or before Communion itself (Martène, Ordo V, n. VII; Sacramentarium Ratoldi; Sacramentarium Fuldense, ed. G. Richter–A. Schönefelder, nos. 21–22). Finally, after the reform of Innocent II (PL 217, 905), in the Roman Curia Missal, disseminated by the Franciscans, the usage still in force today was introduced; the same applies to the Ordo Alissae of Burchard of 1502. There is one exception, but it corresponds to the ancient usage of not performing the commingling at the altar, when, at a Solemn Mass, the pope places the third particle on the paten; then, having left the altar, at the chair, after the Communion of the Eucharistic Bread, he performs the commingling before drinking from the chalice (Ordo Rom. XIV, addition; PL 78, 1190–91; Innocent III, De sac. Alt. Myst., bk. VI, ch. 9; ibid., 217, 911), at the moment of the third fraction and the second commingling.
The Milanese rite of the fraction of the Host and the commingling is carried out as in the Roman rite, but after the conclusion of the Canon, i.e., before the Pater noster, with special formulas; meanwhile the choir sings the “confractory.” In the Gallican liturgy, too, the Eucharistic Bread is broken before the Pater noster, while the choir sings an antiphon; perhaps there was formerly a similar use of the Roman fermentum (Haberstroh, pp. 28–29). In the Mozarabic rite, after the oration “Post pridie,” the celebrant breaks the Bread into two parts, then divides one into five particles and the other into four; these particles have special names: 1) corporatio, 2) nativitas, 3) circumcisio, 4) apparitio, 5) passio, 6) mors, 7) resurrectio, 8) gloria, 9) regnum. The particles are placed on the paten in this order:
\[\begin{array}{c|c}
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 \\
6 & 7 & 8 & 9 \\
\end{array}\]
The commingling is performed after the Pater noster and the Creed, with the particle 9 regnum, according to formulas different from those of feast days.
This rite of the fraction of the Host appears to have come later and recalls the usage of the Celtic liturgy. In this liturgy, indeed, after the conclusion of the Canon, an intinction of the Bread in the chalice was first performed, as in the Syriac liturgy; this was followed by a more complex fraction of the Host: the number of particles varied according to the character of the day in seven different ways, from 5 particles up to 65 on the feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. The commingling was performed after the “Pater noster.” Both in the Mozarabic and in the Celtic liturgy a “choir-fractory” was sung. As for the custom of arranging the particles in the form of a cross, used in the Mozarabic and Celtic rites, it should be noted that canon 3 of the Council of Tours of 567 forbids the arrangement of the particles in the form of a human figure (“non in imaginario modo”) and prescribes the form of the cross (“sub crucis titulo”; Duchesne, p. 232).
In the Eastern liturgy there are three coordinated actions: fraction, delivery, and commingling. From the fraction, in relation to the commingling, the breaking off of particles to give to the faithful is distinguished. The Fathers (Basil, St. John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria) knew of the breaking off; they make no mention of the delivery and commingling. All these rites are first found introduced into the Chalcedonian and Syriac rites from the 6th century onward. United with the delivery is the intinction, i.e., the Eucharistic Bread is placed in the chalice but immediately withdrawn to moisten the other particles.
In the Byzantine rite the Bread is divided into four parts, which are then placed on the diskos (paten) in the form of a cross:
IC
NI-KA
XC
The particle IC is placed in the chalice, then water is poured in.