HOST, or HOSTA SACRA (sacred host), in the liturgy of the Catholic Church, the body of Christ present in the sacrifice of the Mass under the appearance of bread (see EUCHA RIST; TRANSUBSTANTIATION). The Latin word hostia denotes that which is offered in sacrifice; hence in the Mass, where the victim is the same who offered himself on the cross, "the cup" is no less the hostia than is the bread"; but usage has sanctioned the appropriation of the word host to the latter. In the canon of the Mass, the priest, in offering the consecrated elements to God the Father, speaks of both the °bread° and the °cup° as hostia; and in the ancient Spanish missal (the Mozarabic) occurs the phrase this host of bread and wine.° But the word hostia is also employed to signify specially the bread before consecration; and this usage has its sanction in the Roman liturgy itself and in the rubrics of the Missale Romanum. In the rubric of the ordo missy, the altar-bread be fore consecration is called hostia, and after con secration it is called hostia consecrate. ((Host*
in the former sense, that is, the °altar-bread," is, in the Latin Church, a circular wafer made of fine wheaten flour mixed with water only, and it is unleavened. Usually the wafers are stamped either with an image of Christ cruci fied or with the letters I H S. They are of two sizes, a laroer one which the celebrant himself receives (a host of this size is also reserved for the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament) ; and a smaller size for administration to those who may communicate at the Mass, or to the sick in their houses. The hosts destined for this use are kept in the inside, (called also cibo rium), a silver vase gilt nside, and deposited in the tabernacle of the altar. As long as the host is thus reserved in the tabernacle the sanctuary lamp is kept alight before it. The Eastern churches in communion with the see of Rome, except the Maronite and Armenian churches, retain the use of leavened bread in the Eucharist.