Rev. Fr. Giuseppe Pace, S.D.B., has published an article, "S. Cirillo di Gerusalemme e la Comunione sulla mano" Chiesa Viva (January 1990) (Civiltà, Brescia.), arguing that the words attributed to St. Cyril of Jerusalem ("When thou goest to receive communion ... [place] thy left hand as a throne for thy right, ... to receive so great a King, and in the hollow of the palm receive the body of Christ, saying, Amen") are an historical deception promoted by a crypto-Arian.
The author, says the article, was "an anonymous Syrian, a devourer of books, an indefatigable writer who poured into his writings, indigested and contaminated figments of own his imagination" -- whose writings became part of the Mystagogical Catechesis through the work of a successor of St. Cyril, who most scholars identify as "Bishop John," a crypto-Arian, influenced by Origen and Pelagius and thus contested by Sts. Epiphanius, Jerome, and Augustine.
A translation by Rorate contributor Francesca Romana is available under the title of "The great Catholic horror story: the pseudo-historical deception of Communion in the hand" (Rorate Caeli, Octobwer 26, 2011).
It will be interesting to hear what the patristic scholars have to say about this.
1 comment:
Chrysostom says,How can you take the body in your hand and then raise your hand against your brother?; how can your lips be stained with the blood and then speak ill of your brother?
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