50 Fun Facts About Holy Communion

Which astronaut privately took Communion on the Moon in 1969, using a kit from his Presbyterian pastor?

Buzz Aldrin, a church elder, made bread and wine the first food and drink ever consumed on the Moon. It was also the first religious ceremony held there.

Which fruit juice brand began in 1869 when a Methodist dentist made unfermented wine for Communion?

Welch's began as a grape juice pasteurised to stop it turning alcoholic, because its maker's church opposed intoxicating drink of any kind. His son Charles helped found the company.

Which conjuror's phrase may have begun as a parody of the Latin words of consecration in the Catholic Mass?

Hocus pocus, on one old theory, mocks the Latin for 'this is my body', spoken by the priest over the bread. An Anglican archbishop proposed the link in 1694, though the phrase's true origin is uncertain.

Leonardo da Vinci's mural The Last Supper covers a wall of a convent dining hall in which Italian city?

Milan's convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie has held the mural since Leonardo painted it in the 1490s. The work was commissioned by his patron Ludovico Sforza, the city's duke.

Three of the four Gospels describe the Last Supper as a meal for which Jewish festival?

Passover is why Roman Catholic Communion bread is unleavened, copying the flat bread of the Jewish feast. Eastern Orthodox churches use a risen loaf instead.

Which Christian denomination, like the Quakers, practises neither Communion nor baptism in its worship?

The Salvation Army dropped both rites because its founders, William and Catherine Booth, feared Christians were leaning on outward signs rather than the grace behind them.

Which bird, once thought to feed its chicks its own blood, became a medieval symbol of the Eucharist?

Pelican mothers, medieval bestiaries claimed, wounded their own breasts to feed or revive their young. The image, known as a pelican in her piety, still turns up in church carvings and heraldry.

In Arthurian legend, which relic sought by the Knights of the Round Table came to be linked with the Last Supper?

The Holy Grail got that identity from the poet Robert de Boron, who had Joseph of Arimathea catch Christ's blood in it. In the first Grail romance, from about 1190, the object was left unexplained.

The word Eucharist comes from the Greek eucharistia, a noun with which everyday meaning?

Thanksgiving is the root sense because Jesus gave thanks over the bread and cup at the Last Supper. Within about a century the Greek word for that act had become the name of the whole rite.

Eastern Orthodox priests usually give Communion to laypeople, bread and wine together, using which utensil?

A spoon lets worshippers receive bread soaked in wine without touching either, and it also serves infants. Tradition says it should be made of gold, or at least gold-plated.

Which disciple, paid thirty pieces of silver, is named as the betrayer of Jesus during the Last Supper?

Judas Iscariot is singled out as the traitor during the meal itself in two of the four Gospels. Leonardo da Vinci reportedly struggled to find a villainous enough face for him in his famous mural.

Which day in the Christian calendar, named from the Latin for 'commandment', commemorates the Last Supper?

Maundy Thursday takes its name from mandatum, the first word of Jesus's instruction to love one another. In Britain the monarch marks the day by handing out specially minted coins.

Under Catholic rules, children must receive which sacrament for the first time before their First Communion?

Confession, formally the sacrament of penance, has to come first under Catholic rules. Eastern Orthodox churches differ, giving the Eucharist even to infants.

Which church furnishing, often holding a saint's relics, is where a Catholic priest consecrates bread and wine?

The altar is greeted with a kiss by the priest as Mass begins. In the Roman catacombs, the Eucharist could be celebrated on a stone slab laid over a martyr's grave.

When a Catholic minister offers the host with the words 'The Body of Christ', what does the receiver reply?

Amen is a Hebrew word usually rendered 'so be it', which makes the one-word reply a statement of belief. The same answer is given when the cup is offered.

At a Catholic Mass, the Communion Rite opens with the congregation saying or singing which text?

The Lord's Prayer earns its place partly through its plea for daily bread, which some early Christian writers read as a reference to the Eucharist.

Which stemmed cup, often made of gold or silver, holds the wine at a Catholic Mass or Anglican Communion?

Chalice comes from calix, the everyday Latin word for a cup. Church examples have outlasted household silver because secular cups were usually melted down when fashions changed.

Which Catholic doctrine, affirmed by a council in 1215, says bread and wine truly become Christ's body and blood?

Transubstantiation holds that the whole substance changes while the look and taste of bread and wine stay exactly as they were. The Fourth Lateran Council used the term in 1215, though theologians had coined it over a century earlier.

When Jesus called himself the Bread of Life, he was comparing himself with which food from the Exodus story?

Manna fed the Israelites in the desert, lying on the ground each morning like frost. Jesus told his listeners that he, unlike it, was a bread from heaven that gives lasting life.

In John's Gospel, which act does Jesus perform at the Last Supper in place of blessing bread and wine?

Washing his disciples' feet was so lowly a task that Peter at first objects to Jesus doing it. Many churches repeat the gesture every Holy Week.

Which of the two main parts of a Catholic Mass centres on Bible readings and precedes the Eucharistic one?

Liturgy of the Word is the first half, building up to the Gospel reading and ending with the Prayer of the Faithful. Only then are bread and wine brought forward.

Which part of the Mass sees bread and wine carried forward in procession, often while a collection is taken?

Offertory gifts can include offerings for the poor as well as the bread and wine. Catholics also call this opening of the Liturgy of the Eucharist the Preparation of the Gifts.

Which hymn within the Eucharistic Prayer borrows the cry of the angels in the prophet Isaiah's vision?

Sanctus is Latin for 'holy', the word the angels call out three times in Isaiah. In the United States and some other countries, worshippers kneel as soon as it ends.

Which chant is sung at a Catholic Mass while the priest breaks the consecrated host before Communion?

Agnus Dei means Lamb of God, and the chant began as a Syrian custom. Pope Sergius I brought it into the Roman Mass around the year 700.

Which term names the words of praise closing the Eucharistic Prayer, said as the priest lifts bread and cup?

Doxology comes from Greek words meaning 'glory' and 'saying'. The one at Mass gives all honour to God the Father through Christ, and it is preferably sung rather than spoken.

Which locked fixture in a Catholic church holds consecrated hosts kept back after Mass for the sick?

Tabernacle means 'dwelling place', and a lamp is kept burning in front of it whenever the Eucharist is inside. Until the late 20th century it also had to be draped in a tent-like veil.

Which small plate, known in Eastern churches as a diskos, holds the bread at a Communion service?

Paten rules call for gilding on the inside when the plate is made of a metal less precious than gold. In the Byzantine Rite the diskos stands on a foot fixed underneath.

Which vessel, named from the Latin for 'to show', displays a consecrated host for Eucharistic adoration?

Monstrance blessings are given at the service of Benediction, when the priest lifts the vessel over the people. The blessing is seen as coming from Christ rather than from the priest himself.

Catholic law says valid Communion bread must be made from which grain, ruling out fully gluten-free hosts?

Wheat flour and water are the only ingredients Latin canon law allows. In 1995 a letter from the future Pope Benedict XVI accepted low-gluten hosts as valid.

The word Mass is generally traced to Latin words the priest speaks at which point in the service?

The dismissal in Latin is 'Ite, missa est', and missa at first meant simply a sending away. The closing formula ended up lending its name to the whole rite.

Members of which church take bread and water, never wine, when Communion is passed round each Sunday?

Latter-day Saints call the rite simply the sacrament. Broken bread and tiny cups of water are blessed, then passed to the congregation on trays.

Which group marks Communion only once a year, with most attendees passing the bread and wine along untouched?

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that only an 'anointed' 144,000 should eat and drink, so nearly everyone else simply hands the bread and wine on. The date is set by the Hebrew calendar.

Which reformer taught that Communion is a commemorative meal, breaking with Luther over it at Marburg in 1529?

Huldrych Zwingli and Luther agreed on many points at that meeting, but not on whether Christ is really present in the bread and wine. Zwingli led the Reformation in Switzerland.

Which name do Eastern Orthodox churches give their Eucharistic service, usually in John Chrysostom's version?

Divine Liturgy services come in three forms in the Byzantine tradition, and the one named after Chrysostom is used on most days of the year.

Which feast of the Eucharist, championed for decades by Juliana of Liège, is marked with street processions?

Corpus Christi was extended to the whole Catholic Church in 1264. It falls nine weeks after the Last Supper is recalled in the more sombre mood of Holy Week.

Which medieval theologian wrote the Eucharistic hymns Pange Lingua and Panis Angelicus for a new feast?

Thomas Aquinas wrote them for Pope Urban IV while living in the Italian hill town of Orvieto. The last two verses of Pange Lingua are sung on their own as Tantum Ergo.

Catholic law asks the faithful to receive Communion at least once a year, during which season?

Easter Communion is one of the precepts of the Church, a short list of minimum duties that also covers Sunday Mass and days of fasting.

According to Luke's Gospel, two disciples recognise the risen Jesus when he breaks bread at which village?

Emmaus is where the pair, after walking the road with Jesus without knowing him, see who he is over supper. Its site is uncertain, since manuscripts of Luke disagree on the distance from Jerusalem.

The earliest written account of the Last Supper appears in which letter of Paul, older than the Gospels?

First Corinthians dates from about AD 55, roughly 25 years after the meal. Paul retold the story while correcting abuses at the Corinthian church's shared suppers.

Which Surrealist painted The Sacrament of the Last Supper, set inside a transparent dodecahedron?

Salvador Dalí finished it in 1955 after nine months of work. The collector Chester Dale thought it too important to keep for a few people and gave it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

A Communion wafer is called a host, from the Latin hostia, a word with which original meaning?

Sacrificial victim is the sense because the Mass is understood as making Christ's sacrifice present again. The host who throws a party gets the name from a different Latin word, hospes.

Which Latin name, meaning 'provision for a journey', is given to the Communion brought to a dying person?

Viaticum is seen as food to strengthen a person for the passage from this life to the next. Roman officials once used the same word for their travel allowance.

Which priest-king in Genesis brings out bread and wine for Abraham, an act seen as prefiguring the Eucharist?

Melchizedek, king of Salem, appears for just three verses, yet early writers such as Clement of Alexandria read his gift as a preview of the Eucharist. One psalm is the only other place the Hebrew Bible names him.

Which pope lowered the age for First Communion in 1910, reportedly moved by the story of the Irish child Ellen Organ?

Pius X set the age at about seven, where many places had required ten, twelve or more. He is said to have been moved by a girl who longed for the sacrament and died at four, remembered as Little Nellie of Holy God.

Followers of which reformer, burned at the stake in 1415, made Communion wine for laypeople a central demand?

Jan Hus was already dead when his followers made Communion in both kinds one of their Four Articles of Prague. Their Czech nickname means the people of the cup.

Which Archbishop of Canterbury compiled the first Book of Common Prayer, putting Communion into English?

Thomas Cranmer wrote and compiled the first two editions, turning to the language of the people. Mary I had him burned at the stake in 1556, but his prayer book outlived her.

Which Greek term names the part of the Eucharistic Prayer that calls the Holy Spirit down upon the gifts?

Epiclesis first meant the extra name used to call on a god in ancient Greek religion. Christians borrowed the word for the moment the priest asks for the bread and wine to be made holy.

Which term names the practice, used in many Western churches, of dipping the Communion bread into the wine?

Intinction comes from a Latin word for dipping in. It lets a worshipper receive both bread and wine without drinking from a shared cup.

Which leavened loaf, stamped with a seal before baking, do Eastern Orthodox churches use for the Eucharist?

Prosphora means 'offering' in Greek, and each loaf is made of two rounds of dough baked one on top of the other. The seal usually carries a cross and letters standing for 'Jesus Christ conquers'.

Which Roman martyr, by legend a boy killed guarding the Eucharist, is patron of first communicants?

Tarcisius, in the story, was taking the consecrated hosts to Christians in prison when a mob set on him. He is also the patron of the boys and girls who serve at Mass.