Mold for a Eulogia (Blessing) Bread
Mold for a Eulogia (Blessing) Bread, Byzantium, 7th-8th century c. 600-700
1951.152
Gallery - SC 127
The images incised into this bread mold may represent the original church erected on Golgotha (the hill outside Jerusalem where Christ was crucified) to house Christ's tomb. The church was constructed under the emperor Constantine or his sons during the 300s ad. The mold must have been used to stamp special loaves of bread that were distributed to pilgrims at the holy sites. The loaves became eulogiae or blessings, used, much like the ampullae shown nearby, to provide portable sanctity for the pilgrim.
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