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Ciborium
The vessel pictured on this 19th-century holy card is a ciborium (plural ciboria). The word is of rather doubtful etymology. Some derive it from the Latin word cibus, "food," because it is used to contain the Eucharistic bread (host) in Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and some Anglican churches; while others trace it to the Greek kirorion, "cup.” In shape the ciborium is reminiscence a chalice, but the cup is round rather than oblong, and provided with a conical cover usually topped by a cross. The interior bottom of the cup is slightly raised at the center so that the last crumbs the host may be easily removed. Ciboria are most often fabricated in gold or silver; when base metals are used the interior of the cup is lined with gold. How the Eucharistic bread and wine are interpreted demarks one of the major theological divides in Christianity. In three of the Synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it is reported that during the Last Supper Jesus took a loaf bread, broke it into pieces, and offering it to his disciples said, 'Take some and eat; this is my body.' He then took a cup of wine and also offered it to them saying, 'Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood….' Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and some Anglican churches believe that when Jesus made these declarations the underlying reality of the bread and wine was converted to his actual flesh and blood. The earliest non-canonical mention of the Eucharist appears in Chapter 9 in what has become known at the Didache, an anonymous Church Order written in Greek ca. 90 AD but without explicit mention of this belief.
Nevertheless this belief was current is early Christianity as evidenced in a letter, written ca. 105 AD by Ignatius of Antioch (ca. 35–110 AD) to the church in Smyrna in which he rails against heretics “because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ….” This became the doctrine of transubstantiation, a term first used by Hildebert de Lavardin (d. 1133). Echoing Aristotelian metaphysics, it holds that at the consecration of the Eucharist the perceptible qualities or “accidents” of bread and wine such as their color, texture, and shape remain unchanged while in their essense they become flesh and blood. In 1215 this doctrine was formalized by the Fourth Council of the Lateran. Generaly speaking, Protestant confessions believe that Jesus was speaking metaphorically and that the bread and wine were symbolically changed so that the spirit of Jesus resided in them, and likewise that he is spiritually present during communion. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is seen hovering over the ciborium, has long been associated with the Euchartist. All three of Marguerite-Marie Alacoque’s great Sacred Heart of Jesus appariations between December 27, 1673 and June 16, 1675 took place during the Eucharistic sacrament, the first two when the monstrance the vessel used to display the host was exposed on the altar and the third while Claude de la Colombiere (1641–1683) was offering Mass and Alacoque approached the grill to receive Holy Communion from his hands. For the faithful, like the Eucharistic bread and wine transubstantiated into flesh and blood, the Sacred Heart is evidence of Jesus’ continuing physical presence on Earth.
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