Sacred Objects & Ritual Items

Prosphora

Also Known As The offering loaf · Prosphoron

Ritual Foods

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Prosphora." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://divinity.interactivelion.com/sacred-objects-ritual-items/prosphora.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Prosphora. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://divinity.interactivelion.com/sacred-objects-ritual-items/prosphora

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-prosphora,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Prosphora},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://divinity.interactivelion.com/sacred-objects-ritual-items/prosphora},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The prosphora is the loaf brought for the Divine Liturgy, and the name means the offering. It is leavened wheat bread, made of four ingredients only, and it is usually baked by members of the parish rather than bought, with the names of the living and the dead they wish remembered handed in alongside it. The top is impressed before baking with a wooden seal, the central square of which carries the abbreviations for Jesus Christ and the Greek word for conquers. At the service of preparation before the liturgy begins, the priest cuts that stamped square out of the loaf with a small lance shaped knife. It is called the Lamb, and it alone is placed on the diskos and consecrated. Further particles are then cut from the same or other loaves in commemoration of the Mother of God, the ranks of the saints, the bishop, and the living and the dead by name, and arranged around the Lamb, so that the paten becomes a picture of the whole church gathered about Christ. Everything left of the loaves is cut up and becomes the antidoron given out at the end.

Facts

Disputed

Scholarly Note

Whether the eucharistic bread should be leavened or unleavened divided the Greek and Latin churches from the eleventh century 4

Prosphora, leavened bread used in the Byzantine and other Eastern liturgies for the eucharist, stands opposite the Latin Church's use of unleavened wafers, azyme bread, a difference that became a point of formal theological dispute between East and West. Norman Tanner's edited Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (1990) records the Greek position that risen, leavened bread is the proper sign of the risen Christ and that unleavened bread belongs to a Mosaic dispensation the New Covenant has superseded, against the Latin position that the Last Supper was itself eaten at Passover, when no leavened bread would have been present in a Jewish household, so unleavened bread is what Christ himself used. The four Gospels date the Last Supper relative to Passover differently between the Synoptics and John, so the gospel texts cannot settle the calendar question either argument depends on. The method is textual and historical-liturgical, comparing the Gospel chronologies and each rite's bread tradition. The Council of Florence in 1439 declared, doctrinally, that Christ's body is truly confected in either form, and each rite kept its own usage unchanged, leaving the historical question formally unresolved even as the doctrinal one was settled.

Attributions

Tradition

Eastern Orthodoxy and the Byzantine Catholic churches 1

Practice

Who Performs It

Baked by members of the parish and brought with the names of the living and the dead to be commemorated 1

Liturgical and Scriptural Role

Cut at the prothesis before the liturgy; the stamped square called the Lamb is the only part consecrated, and the remainder becomes antidoron 1

Physical Form

Material

Leavened wheat bread of flour, water, salt and yeast, and nothing else 1

Status

Status Within the Traditionthe subject's own account

Leavened bread is required; the Latin use of unleavened wafers is treated as a foreign custom rather than as an invalid one 2Eastern Orthodoxy

Status Within the Traditionthe subject's own account

Unleavened wheat bread is the Latin requirement, and the eastern Catholic churches keep leavened bread by their own rite 3Roman Catholicism

Use

Who May Handle It

Adherents of the tradition 1

Consecration

Consecrated in a rite before use 1

Observance

Observance Note

The number of loaves varies by local usage; five is a widespread Slavic custom 1

Learn More

The Loaf, the Seal and the Lamb

A prosphora is made of flour, water, salt and yeast, and of nothing else. It is shaped in two layers pressed together, which are commonly explained as the two natures of Christ, and the top is impressed before baking with a carved wooden seal. The central square of the seal carries four abbreviations arranged around a cross: the first and last letters of Jesus and of Christ in Greek, and the Greek word meaning conquers. Around that square the seal usually carries smaller devices for the Mother of God and for the saints.

The preparation happens before the liturgy proper begins, at a side table in the sanctuary, and it is a service in its own right with its own prayers. The priest cuts the stamped square out of the loaf with a small lance shaped knife, and that piece, called the Lamb, is the only bread that will be consecrated. He then cuts a triangular particle in honour of the Mother of God and places it to the right of the Lamb, nine particles for the ranks of the saints to the left, and further particles for the bishop, the clergy, the living and the departed, each name read from the lists the congregation has handed in with its loaves. The particles are arranged on the diskos around the Lamb, so that the paten carries a small picture of the entire church, in heaven and on earth, gathered about Christ. After the communion those particles are put into the chalice.

Everything left of the loaf is cut into pieces and set aside. It has been touched by the offering and blessed with it but it is not the sacrament, and it becomes the antidoron given out to everyone at the end.

Leavened Bread and the Quarrel Over Azymes

That the prosphora is leavened is not a detail of baking. In the middle of the eleventh century the use of unleavened bread by the Latin churches, the azymes, became one of the sharpest public grievances between Constantinople and Rome, argued alongside the papal claims and the addition to the creed in the exchanges of 1053 and 1054. It stayed in the polemical literature for centuries afterwards and it is still the most immediately visible difference between an eastern and a western altar.

The Greek argument was that risen bread is the proper sign of the risen and living Christ, that the church of the apostles used ordinary bread, and that a wafer without leaven imitates the Passover of the old covenant and so belongs to a dispensation that has passed. The Latin argument was that the supper was eaten at Passover, when no leavened bread was in a Jewish house, that unleavened bread is therefore what Christ himself used, and that the Latin churches had done the same from an early date. Each side could point at the gospels, which date the supper differently, and neither could settle the calendar question from the texts.

The Council of Florence addressed it directly in 1439 and declared that the body of Christ is truly confected in wheat bread whether leavened or unleavened, and that priests of each rite should follow the custom of their own church. That is where the doctrinal question rests, and it changed nothing about practice: the East still bakes leavened loaves and the Latin West still uses unleavened wafers, which is a reasonable illustration of how far a formal agreement and a living difference can coexist.

Cross-Tradition Connections