Fractio Panis is the name given to a fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

 in the Greek Chapel (Capella Greca) in the Catacomb of Priscilla

Catacomb of Priscilla

The Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria in Rome, Italy, is situated in what was a quarry in Roman times. This quarry was used for Christian burials from the late 2nd century through the 4th century. Some of the walls and ceilings display fine decorations illustrating Biblical scenes...

, situated on the Via Salaria

Via Salaria

The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy.It eventually ran from Rome to Castrum Truentinum on the Adriatic coast - a distance of 242 km. The road also passed through Reate and Asculum...

 Nova in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. The fresco depicts seven persons at a table, six men and a woman. Like the whole of the decorations of the chapel, the fresco dates from the first half of the 2nd century. The painting is found upon the face of the arch immediately over the altar tomb, upon which the sacrament of the Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

 was performed.

Discovery

By chance this particular fresco, having been covered by a thick crust of stalactite

Stalactite

A stalactite , "to drip", and meaning "that which drips") is a type of speleothem that hangs from the ceiling of limestone caves. It is a type of dripstone...

s, escaped the notice of the early explorers of the catacombs. In 1893, Jesuit art historian Joseph Wilpert, one of a band of young scholars who looked upon De Rossi

Giovanni Battista de Rossi

Giovanni Battista de Rossi was an Italian archaeologist, famous outside his field for his rediscovery of early Christian catacombs.-Life and works:He was born in Rome...

 as their master, arrived at the conclusion that the roof and arches of this chapel were decorated with frescoes. Chemical reagents were used to remove the crust which covered the surface, and by the patient care of Wilpert this delicate operation was attended with complete success. De Rossi described it as "the pearl of Catacomb discoveries". Wilpert published a monograph in 1895 giving a full account of this discovery under the title Fractio Panis, die alteste Darstellung der eucharistischen Opfers (Freiburg in Breisgau). This was translated into French the next year. It contains a collection of very carefully executed photogravure

Photogravure

Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a...

s of the frescoes in the Capella Greca.

The scene represented is a picture of seven persons at a table, six men and a woman. It seems clear that six of these are reclining as the ancients reclined at their meals. But the seventh personage, a bearded and impressive figure, sits somewhat apart at the extremity of the table. His head is thrown back, he has a small loaf or cake in his hands, and his arms stretched out in front of him show that he is breaking it. Upon the table immediately before him is a two-handled cup. Further along the table there are two large plates, one containing two fishes, the other five loaves. At each extremity of the picture upon either side we notice baskets filled with loaves—four baskets at one end, three at the other.

Interpretation

The phrase "fractio panis" (Greek: klasis tou artou) recurs in early Christian literature; not only is the "blessing and breaking" of the bread mentioned in each of the four accounts of the Last Supper, but repeatedly also in the other Apostolic writings. For example in 1 Corinthians, 10:16, "The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?" So again in Acts

Acts of the Apostles

The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...

, 2:42, "And they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles and in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in prayers" (cf. Acts, 2:46). And particularly Acts, 2:7, "And on the first day of the week, when we were assembled to break bread", where this practice is closely associated with the observance of Sunday. (Cf. also the disciples at Emmaus

Emmaus

Emmaus was an ancient town located approximately northwest of present day Jerusalem...

 on Easter Day--Luke 24:30-35, and Acts, 27:35).

Similar prominence is given to this conception in other sub-Apostolic writings, notably in the Didache

Didache

The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the late first or early 2nd century...

 or "Teaching of the Apostles" (xiv, I), where it is associated with the observance of the Sunday as well as with the explicit mention of Sacrifice and with confession. "And on the Lord's day come together and break bread and give thanks, having first confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure." Further, in ch. xi of the same early treatise the consecrated Host is clearly designated by the term klasma, i.e. "broken bread". It seems natural than that, in the earliest form of the liturgy, the breaking of the bread should have been regarded as the climax of the ritual employed. This Eucharistic significance of the picture is borne out by all the accessories. The loaves and the fishes upon the table point directly to the Feeding the multitude

Feeding the multitude

Feeding the multitude is the combined term used to refer to two separate miracles of Jesus in the Gospels.The First Miracle, "The Feeding of the 5,000" is the only miracle which is present in all four canonical Gospels...

 twice performed by Jesus Christ. The association of this miracle with the Eucharist is familiar, not only in other archaeological monuments, but also in early Christian literature.

Regarding the symbolic significance of the fish and the anagram ichthys

Ichthys

Ichthys, from Koine Greek: , is the Greek word for "fish"....

, both the Inscription of Abercius

Inscription of Abercius

The inscription of Abercius is the Greek epitaph of Abercius, Bishop of Hieropolis, in Phrygia. It is an important example of early Christian epigraphy.-Archeology and context:...

 of the close of the 2nd century and that of Autun

Diocese of Autun

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Autun, is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The diocese comprises the entire Department of Saone et Loire, in the Region of Bourgogne....

 a little later, as well as the large number of allusions in early Christian literature, make it clear that Christ was indicated by this symbol. Moreover, the Abercius inscription clearly conveys that this "great fish" was to be the permanent food of the soul. We may also note that the one female fixture among the guests depicted in the Fractio Panis fresco is veiled, which is not the case with the female figures represented in those other banqueting scenes found in the catacombs and usually interpreted as symbolic of the joys of heaven.

The fresco is neither entirely realistic or entirely symbolical. That the president (proestos) of the Synaxis

Synaxis

In Eastern Christianity , a Synaxis is an assembly for liturgical purposes, generally through the celebration of Vespers, Matins, Little Hours, and the Divine Liturgy....

 (assembly) should break the bread seated, is probably not to be understood as implying that the bishops in the early Church were in fact seated when they offered the liturgy any more than the attitude of the guests implies that the early Christians reclined on couches when they assisted at Eucharist. On the other hand, the action of the breaking of the bread is clearly realistic. A further indication of the Eucharistic significance of the fresco is afforded by the fact that in the fresco next to it in the same chamber is depicted the Binding of Isaac

Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac Akedah or Akeidat Yitzchak in Hebrew and Dhabih in Arabic, is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah...

. On the other side is a representation of Daniel

Daniel

Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...

 in the lions' den, to which Wilpert also attaches a Eucharistic significance on account of the supernatural feeding of Daniel through the intervention of the prophet Habakkuk

Habakkuk

Habakkuk , also spelled Habacuc, was a prophet in the Hebrew Bible. The etymology of the name of Habakkuk is not clear. The name is possibly related to the Akkadian khabbaququ, the name of a fragrant plant, or the Hebrew root חבק, meaning "embrace"...

(Daniel, 14:36).

Some art historians, for instance Dorothy Irvin, have viewed the fresco as archaeological evidence that women presided over the Eucharist in the early Church.