Baking Communion Bread – recipe and reflection

Our guest blogger today is Marguerite with help from Karol and Button. Marg explores the legend of Saint Honoratus and the art and prayer of baking communion bread.

REFLECTION: Saint Honoratus, Patron of Bakers
by Marg

In the A Nun’s Life chat room, we’ve often discussed various vocations, not all of which relate directly to vowed religious life, but all of which seem somehow to relate to nourishing the spirit and sometimes the body—witness our many discussions about food!

As a home baker who is part of a team that makes the communion bread for our parish, I wondered who was the patron saint of bakers. It turns out to be Saint Honoratus, also known as Saint Honoré, a sixth-century French bishop so beloved that he is remembered today in the Parisian street name, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and is the namesake of the Saint Honoré Cake (which looks amazing!).

According to Wikipedia legend, Saint Honoratus was born in Port-le-Grand near Amiens to a noble family. He was taught by Saint Beatus and resisted being elected bishop of Amiens, believing himself unworthy of this honor. But it seemed God thought otherwise and, “when it was known in his hometown that he had been proclaimed bishop, his nursemaid, who was baking bread for the family, refused to believe that Honoratus had been elevated to such a position. She remarked that she would believe the news only if the peel [think pizza oven utensil] she had been using to bake bread put down roots and turned itself into a tree. When the peel was placed into the ground, it was transformed into a blackberry tree that gave flowers and fruit. This miraculous tree was still being shown in the sixteenth century.”

“In 1400, the bakers of Paris established their guild in the church of Saint Honoratus, celebrating his feast on May 16. He is the patron of a Carthusian monastery at Abbeville, founded in 1306.” (Read more on Saint Honoratus)

RECIPE: Communion Bread
by Marg

The recipe is simple: just flour, water, and a little salt for taste. I feel a kinship with ancient bakers who might have baked their bread on hot rocks instead of using a convection oven! There are various prayers that some of us say before baking the communion bread. Mostly, I recall the prayer in the Mass itself: “Through Your goodness, we have this bread to offer, which Earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the Bread of Life.” And also a heartfelt, “Dear God, please let it turn out all right and not burn!”

More important, though, is the feeling that it is a great privilege to be allowed to make this simple offering, and the feeling of humility and joy that I experience when I see this bread, in the hands of the priest, being transformed into the Body of Christ. It brings tears to my eyes.

VIDEO: Making Communion Bread
by Karol and Button

Karol recently made a video of me making the communion bread. Button supervised. Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QFVkbJb988

For prayer today, visit our Praying with the Sisters page for a recording of today’s readings and reflection.

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Tagged as: communion, communion bread, honoratus, marg, recipe, saints and feasts