Pearls from the Pedalion: The Proper Use of Antidoron (Blessed Bread)

Read the two-part introduction to the "Pearls from the Pedalion" series here.

From The Orthodox Ethos: Canon 4 of the Regional Council of Antioch states that any bishop or priest who has been deposed by their synod and serves liturgy anyway should not be reinstated, and that laity who commune with deposed clergy should be excommunicated. In Footnote 7 to St. Nikodemos’ interpretation of this canon, he elaborates on the proper use of antidoron. St. Nikodemos further elaborates on the use of antidoron in his interpretation of Canon VIII of Archbishop Theophilos of Alexandria, which states that Catechumen (and by extension the Non-Orthodox) should not receive antidoron.

Saint Nikodemos of Mount Athos

From St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite:

7. PROPER USE OF THE ANTIDORON

The distribution of antidoron was introduced because everyone could not be present to receive the Holy Mysteries each Lord’s Day, and it was a means of providing means of sanctification to those not receiving. The antidoron is sanctified bread, since it has come from the loaf which has been offered to God and also because it is a type of the womb of the Theotokos. According to St. Germanos, “The Lamb which is to be mystically offered is taken from the offered bread, just as the Lamb of God came forth with a body from her womb.” Nicholas Kabasilas calls the antidoron pieces of the elevated bread offering. Concerning the antidoron Nicholas Kabasilas stated: “Then the offered bread, from which the sacred Lamb has been cut and offered to God, is broken in many portions and distributed to the faithful, who reverently receive it and kiss the Priest’s right hand which immediately before had touched the most Holy Body of the Savior Christ, thus receiving sanctification and imparting it to those who are able to touch it.” Consequently, Christians must remain at the Divine Liturgy until the very end in order to receive sanctification from the antidoron. St. Germanos states: “It is believed that a spiritual blessing is imparted to those who elevate the bread of the Theotokos at the table on the feasts of martyrs and saints, which practice the Church has received from the times of the Holy Apostles according to St. Symeon of Salonika.”¹

Canon VIII of Archbishop Theophilos of Alexandria

As to the things offered for the purpose of a sacrifice, whatever remains after the consumption of what is needed for the Mysteries, let the Clerics distribute it; and let no catechumen either eat or drink thereof, but rather the Clerics and the faithful brethren with them.

Interpretation of St. Nikodemos

The present Canon decrees that of what is offered by the laity for the liturgy whatever offerings are left over and above those needed for the Holy Mysteries are to be distributed to the clerics, and are to be eaten and drunk by them and the faithful laymen. No catechumen or other unbaptized person is to eat or drink of them; for, since they have been offered to the holy sacrificial altar, and portions of them have been employed in the divine Gifts, therefore and on this account whatever has been left over from them has been sanctified: hence none of it ought to be eaten or drunk by the unbaptized and the uninitiated.²

ENDNOTES:

1. Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Monk Agapios, translated by Denver Cummings, edited by Ralph Masterjohn. The Rudder, (Chicago, IL: The Orthodox Christian Educational Society, 1957), p. 1111

2. Ibid., p.1641-1642