“Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do
according to God: for there is one Flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and one
cup in the union of His Blood; one altar, as there is one bishop with the
presbytery and my fellow servants, the deacons.”
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 4, 17, 5 (c. 180 AD)
“He took that created thing, bread, and gave thanks and said, This is My
Body. And the cup likewise, which is part of that creation to which we
belong, He confessed to be His Blood, and taught the new oblation of the
new covenant, which the Church, receiving from the Apostles, offers to
God throughout the world … concerning which Malachi, among the twelve
prophets thus spoke beforehand: From the rising of the sun to the going
down, My name is glorified among the gentiles, and in every place incense
is offered to My name and a pure sacrifice … indicating in the plainest
manner that in every place sacrifice shall be offered to Him, and at that a
pure one.”
St. Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 22 (220 AD)
“For when the Gospel is preached in every place, the times being then
accomplished … the abomination of desolation will be manifested, and
when he (the Antichrist) comes, the sacrifice and oblation will be removed,
which are now offered up to God in every place by the Gentiles.”
St. Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle to Caecilius on the Sacrament of the
Cup of the Lord 4 (253 AD)
“In the priest Melchizedek we see prefigured the sacrament of the sacrifice
of the Lord, according to what divine Scripture testifies, ‘And
Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine’ … For who is
more a priest of the most high God than Our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered
a sacrifice to God the Father, and offered that very same thing which
Melchizedek had offered, that is, bread and wine, to wit, His body and
blood? … In Genesis therefore, that the benediction … might be duly
celebrated, the figure of Christ’s sacrifice precedes as ordained in bread and
wine; which thing the Lord, completing and fulfilling, offered bread and
the cup mixed with wine, and so He who is the fullness of truth fulfilled the
truth of the image prefigured.”
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