Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/553

 HOST

493

HOST

The feast called " Saint-Sacrement du Miracle" was for centuries solemnly celebrated at Douai where, from Easter Tuesday, 14 April, 1254, until the time of the Revolution, an annual procession took place in commemoration of the host in which the people de- clared that they distinctly beheld the Body of the Lord. In 1792 the miraculous host disappeared; it was beheved to have been foimd again in a bequest made by one of the faithful but, for want of certainty, no honour was afterwards paid it. The collegiate church of Sainte-Gudule at Brussels preserves miracu- lous hosts which, after the perpetration of many out- rages by the Jews in 1370, were collected and, subse- quently to 1529, became the occasion of an annual procession still celebrated.

It is said that, in the thirteenth century, miracu- lous blood issued from a Host and that for a long time afterwards it lasted without the slightest alteration. Miracles of bleeding Hosts are reported to have oc- curred in many places during the Middle Ages, and both the miracle and the sacrilege that occasioned it were sometimes commemorated by processions or monuments. In 1290 a Parisian Jew committed a series of outrages upon a Host and he was put to death. An expiatory chapel was erectetl over his house, and this sanctuary was successively named: "La maison oil Dieu fut bouilli", "L'^glise du Sauveur bouil- lant ", "La chapelle du miracle ", and finally " L'cglise des billettes". In 1444 this ppi.sode was dramatized, and in 1533, on the feast of Corpus Christi, "The Mystery of the Holy Host " was played at Laval. We might also mention the miraculous Host that bled when touched by profane hands and was carried, in 1317, to the Abbey of Herckenrode in the County of Loos, where it was venerated luitil the time of the Revolution, and the miracle of BUuiot that occurred in 1331 in the Diocese of Autim (now the Diocese of Dijon), when a Host left a bloody impress upon a cloth.

In olden times many cities possessed a miraculous Host, but the French Revolution destroyed a certain number of them, especially the one at Dijon where each year a Mass of expiation is yet celebrated in the church of St. Michael. In other places the miraculous Hosts have disappeared, but their ancient feast is still commemorated. In the se\-enteenth century the Benedictine abbey at Faverney (Haute-Saone) was the scene of a noted miracle. On the night of 23 May, 160S, while the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was in progress, a fire consumed the tabernacle, the linens, and the entire altar; but the ostensorium re- mained stationary, being suspended in the air without any support. This prodigy lasted for thirty-three hours, was well authenticated by thousands of per- sons, and was made the object of an investigation, the documents of which have been preserved. The osten- sorium contained two Hosts, so that the crucifLx could be seen from both sides. One of the Hosts was given to the city of Dole, where it was destroyed in 1794, and the other is preserved in the parish church of Faverney, where the anniversary is celebrated annu- ally on the Monday after Pentecost. These miracles have been selected from among a multitude of others, and we have not pretended to emphasize either the most authentic or the most marvellous. Moreover, the subject we have just treated is so vast that it would be easy to compile from the historical material a work of great theological interest, both conclusive and detailed.

The most complete work on this subject, in spite of a few gaps and occasionally weak criticism, is Corblet, Histoire dogma- tique et arclieologique du sacremeni de I'Eju-hnriMie (Paris, 1886): Vol II, 55S-SS gives a ver>- exhaustive bibliography, to which might be added a few recent works: de S.\rachaga, Les collec- tions d'histoire et d'art du musee eurharintique de Paray-le- Monial CLyons, 1S66), containing a bibliography of the Mono- graphie sw les hosties de miracles: Rohaoi.t de Fleuhy, La meaaCt etudes archSologiques, IV (Paris, 1887), 21-40.

H. Leclekcq.

GuEEK Host

Host (Canonico-Liturgical). — The name host in hturgy is given to the bread used in the celebration of the Holj' Eucharist — Panis ad sacrificium Eucharisti- cum dcstinatus (Du Cange, " tilo.ssarium "). Christ at the Last Supper consecratetl bread and wine, and pre- scribed their use in the Eucharistic Sacrifice for all future times. Hence bread (of wheat) and wine (of the grape) have always been considered in the Church the sole legitimate matter for the celebration of Mass. The Scholastics, especially St. Thomas (Summa Theol., Ill, Q. Ixxiv, art. 1) and Denys the Carthusian (IV, dist. xi, q. 3), point out the peculiar fitness of these elements whieli constitute the remote matter of the sacrament. Their use is universal, and hence they render the Eucharistic worship possible anjTvhere. Furthermore, there are reasons of anal- ogy. As bread is the ortlinary food of the body, so the Divine Victim is the nour- ishment of our souls; just as it is necessarj- that the wheat l)e ground, mixed with water, and subjected to fire in oriler to become bread, so the faithful, in order that they may Ije united to Christ and live by His spirit, must by mortification die to themselves. Bread is like- wiseafigureof theChurch. The manygrains of wheat converted into one loaf symbolize the various members united in one body. Alluding to this symbolism, so natural and expressive, the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" (ch. ix) places on the lips of the faithful the following words of thanksgiving before partaking of the Holy Eucharist: "As this fragment (of bread) was scattered over the liills, and was gathered together, and became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thj' kingdom", and the "Con- stitutions of the Holy Apostles" (Book VII, n. 25) in the Eucharistic thanksgiving enjoins the faithful to say: "Do Thou, O Lord .\lmighty, everlasting God, so gather together Thy Chiu'ch from the end of the earth into Thy kingdom, as this corn was once scat- tered, and is now become one loaf."

Valid M.\tter. — It is required that the matter used for the Consecration be not only valid and as far as possible genuine, but also that it be licit and as far as possible perfect, i. e. new, fresh, and pure. Hence the Eucharistic host must be bread, made of fine wheaten flour, mixed with natural water and baked. It must be bread, as it was the typical food used by Christ (Matt., xxvi, 26— cf. Acts, ii, 42; I Cor., x, 16). The Fathers of the Church with one accord teach that bread is changed into the Hotly of Christ by the words of Consecration; and all the councils that treat of this subject define the same (Fourth Lateran, ch. "Firmiter"; Florence, "Deer. Unionis"; Trent, Sess. XIII, XXI, and XXII). It must be made of wheaten flour, because, according to sacred tradition, such was used by Christ at the institution of this sacrament. History attests that the Jews used only wheaten bread at the Passover, and in Palestine the word bread, without a qualifying term, signifies wheaten bread. Hence both the Eastern and West- ern Churches have always used this kind of bread. Some sectaries introduced at times foreign matter in its composition; thus, St. Augustine (Lib. de Hseres., c. xxvi) tells us that the Cataphrygians mixed with the wheaten flour the blood of infants, extracted from them through minute punctures made in their bodies. The Council of Florence (Deer, pro Armenis) says that the third sacrament is that of the Eucharist, whose matter is wheaten bread and wine of the grape. Moreover, in the rubrics of the Mis.sal (De Defectibus, III, 3) we read: " If the bread is not wheaten. or if it is wheaten yet mixed with flour of another kind in such quantity that it is no longer considered wheaten