The use of the communion plate at Mass (Latin: patina) is a traditional practice for the reception of the holy Eucharist which remains in use up to the present day. The patina is a small metal plate with a wooden handle, which is held usually by an altar server under the chin of the communicant as the host is received, assuming the case that person receives directly onto the tongue. The reason: a little more often that might be supposed, there is the possibility that as the host is being received a fragment detaches from the host and falls onto the communion plate – otherwise it would fall to the floor, which is to be avoided at all costs (“Christ whole and entire is under the species of bread, and under any part whatsoever of that species” – Council of Trent, 13thSession, Chapter 3). It also can occasionally happen that owing to some inadvertence or slip a host falls – then it should be caught by the plate.
Although the communion plate has in many places not been regularly used since Vatican II, it has remained normative in the liturgical books up to the present day (General Instruction of the Roman Missal 2002, 118c) and the instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum (2004) states specifically that “the Communion plate for the Communion of the faithful should be retained, so as to avoid the danger of the sacred host or some fragment of it falling.” (No. 93) In the case of one receiving holy communion on the hand, the plate is usually held under the hand of the communicant as the host is placed on it, in case of some accidental slip (cf. US Catholic Bishops CDW Newsletter April 2018). Use of the plate – however holy communion is received – does not require the communicant him or herself to act differently from usual. The patina is later purified by the priest as he cleanses the other vessels after holy communion. In the context of the Eucharistic devotion of our forthcoming Forty Hours at St Bernadette’s, circumstances will permit to introduce more general use of the communion plate.