St. Leo the Great on Receiving Holy Communion

Edit: picked up a post by Taylor Marshall.   What he's saying needs to be repeated again and again. Now we have a great Pope witnessing to the venerable way of receiving Communion.

Today is the feast of Pope Saint Leo the Great (r. 440-461) who is one of the greatest Popes that the Catholic Church has ever enjoyed. He preserved stability during the collapse of the Roman Empire. He is perhaps most famous for his meeting with Attila the Hun.

He less well known for something very important to liturgical studies. He is one of the most ancient witnesses to the practrice of Communoin on the tongue. Notably, Saint Leo the Great read the sixth chapter of Saint John's Gospel as referring to the Eucharist (as all the Church Fathers did). In a preserved sermon on John 6 (Sermon 9), Saint Leo says:


"Hoc enim ore sumitur quod fide creditur" (Serm. 91.3).

What a Modern Bishop says about Communion in the hand is this.

The ancient faithful never took Communion with their fingers: "the gesture of hand Communion was completely unknown in the Church."

Here's what the Fathers said....