Accessing the Texts & Translations
The texts and translations on this site can be freely copied and used in any manner the user desires. Nothing is copyrighted. We would appreciate, however, an acknowledgement of the source from which you have obtained the text. It would help spread the word to a wider audience. Our desire is for these texts to be used far and wide.
It is important to remember that no church father ever wrote a treatise specifically on the Eucharist in the centuries covered by this site (1-8). The first such treatise was written in the ninth century. The texts in centuries 1-8 are all the more important because they were embedded in other themes and texts. Taken together, they demonstrate the profound faith of the church in the Eucharist during these first eight centuries.
The texts can be accessed by author, text name, or date range. For example, if you wish to have all of Augustine’s eucharistic texts, you simply type his name in the search box (or click on his name in the list of Latin fathers). If you know the name of a specific texts like The Confessions or Commentary on John, you may type it into the search box. If more than one author wrote a work by that title, all of them will appear. If you wish to have all the works in a specific time frame, say 300-450, type in the dates and all the fathers in both languages (Greek and Latin) will appear.
All Results:
Letter 8: Section 4
1. First, let us consider the expression, “I live because of the Father.” (Jn 6:57). This is one of the darts they shoot in the sky for an ungodly use. I think this expression here refers to eternal life for deriving life from another means that one cannot have life...
Homily on Isaiah 6:3
1. And what a wonder it is if you stand with the Seraphim in that place where the Seraphim dare not touch. God gave you these things with freedom from fear. He says, “He sent one of the Seraphim to me and he had a ember of fire which he took from the altar with tongs....
On the Mysteries (De Mysteriis), 9: 53-58
53. But what arguments should we use? Let us construct the truth of this mystery from the case of the incarnation. Was nature used when the Lord Jesus was born of Mary? In the normal course of things, a woman customarily gives birth by union with a man, but in the...
On the Mysteries (De Mysteriis), 8: 47-49
47. It has been proved that the sacraments of the Church are more ancient. Now recognize that they are also superior. It was in fact a marvelous thing that God rained down manna for the fathers and they were fed daily on the food of heaven. This is why it says, “man...
Sermon 34: On the Woman Healed of the Hermorrhage
All the gospel readings, beloved brothers and sisters, give us great things that are suitable for the present and future life. But today’s reading both conveys all that hope can give and excludes all that despair carries. Our condition is a hard and lamentable one:...
Sermon 33: On the Woman Healed of the Hemorrhage
Two seas are not so turbulent with its waves as the mind of this woman thrown around by the cumulation of thoughts. After all the desperate attempts of the physicians, after expensive medicines, after ineffective and interminable treatments, when skill and expertise...
Augustine, City of God, Book 10, Chapter 6
Augustine, City of God, Book 10, Chapter 6 Thus the true sacrifice is every work which is carried out so that we may cling to God by a holy bond (societas) i.e. it is directed toward that good end (end of the good One) in which we can be truly blessed. From this mercy...
Homily 3, On the Incomprehensibility of God
But he [Paul] did not say “dwelling as incomprehensible light” but “inaccessible” which is something greater than incomprehensible. Incomprehensible is used when something sought and explored is not grasped by those who seek to know it. Inaccessible, on the other...
Confessions, Book 7, Chapter 10
1. And from there I was admonished to return within myself. I entered in my inmost being with you as my guide. I was able to do so because you became my helper. I entered in and saw an unchangeable light with a kind of eye of my soul there to see an unchangeable light...