Vintage late 18th century EASTERN ORTHODOX STERLING SILVER Religious Altar knife

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Vintage late 18th century EASTERN ORTHODOX STERLING SILVER Religious Altar knife:
$500.00

RareVintage EasterN ORTHODOX STERLING SILVER Religious Altar knife
Used to cut the holy loaf of bread5 3/4 inches longstamped Sterling Silver, pointy end looks like brass?probably from the late 18th Century?great original conditiondetails of the use of this piece:
Prosphora (Greek for \"offering\")is the white wheat bread cooked with yeast and blessed water. The name isderived from the first Christian tradition to bring homemade bread for theEucharistic ceremony. Nowadays prosphoras are made in eparchial bakeries. Prosphoraconsists of 2 big layers signifying two natures of Christ. The Upper part isstamped with a four-pointed cross (the image of the Theotokos or of a saint issometimes imprinted on monastery prosphorons).

During the Divine Liturgy a square part is cutout in a special way from one of the prosphora (which is called the Lambprosphoron), it is called the Lamb and it is that part of the bread, whichlater in the Liturgy will transform into the Body of Christ. Other prosphorasthat are smaller are cut into parts that commemorate members of the Church inHeaven and Earth; those parts are immersed into the blood of Christ towards theend of the Divine Liturgy. Smaller prosphoras are to be taken by those whosubmitted the commemoration petitions.

The remaining pieces of the Lamb prosphoron arecalled antidoron (Greek \"instead of a reward\"). According to theChurch Canon, antidoron is to be distributed among the faithful who have nottaken the communion. Yet, usually that bread is taken by those serving at the altar.