The Eucharist is the sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, when he gave His Body and Blood to his disciples under the species of bread and wine and ordered them to repeat this rite in his memory. From the beginning, Christians have faithfully obeyed this command. As Christianity spread and the community grew, the rite, place and manner of celebration changed over time according to the new circumstances. The Eucharist became independent from the meal and began to be celebrated in ceremonial hall churches. With the development of theology and the introduction of Christian Scripture, the Eucharist increasingly took on the character of sacrifice and a memorial of Christ's Passion. Bishop Cyprian, who was active in Carthage in the middle of the 3rd century, is the first person from whom we have an extant work that deals entirely with the Eucharist – Epistle 63. There Cyprian makes explicit the necessity to use wine and water in the celebration of the Eucharist, because it is key to imitate what Jesus did at the Last Supper. In addition, Cyprian makes a clear connection between the Eucharist and Christ's atoning death on the Cross and draws a parallel between Christ and the priest or the bishop. His understanding of Christ's presence in the Eucharist is very realistic. In his thought, the Eucharist realizes the union of the faithful with Christ and of the faithful with one another, that is, in the Church. The Eucharist is also a weapon and a shield which, in times of persecution, makes possible being faithful until martyrdom.
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