Lamb (liturgy)
the square portion of bread cut from the prosphora in the Liturgy of Preparation at the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Church and in the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church
The Lamb (Greek: ἀμνός, romanized: amnos; Church Slavonic: Агнецъ, romanized: agnets) is the square portion of bread cut from the prosphora in the Liturgy of Preparation at the Divine Liturgy in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches. The Lamb is cut from a specially prepared loaf of leavened bread and placed in the center of the diskos. The loaf, called a prosphoron, has had stamped in the top of its dough the seal of the Greek letters IC, XC, and NIKA, "Jesus Christ conquers", divided by a Greek cross, and the portion by the seal is cutout as the Lamb. The loaf must be made only from the finest flour, yeast, salt and water. It is formed in two layers to symbolize the hypostatic union.
Liturgy of preparation
The priest cuts the Lamb from the prosphoron using a liturgical knife called a "spear", with a blade shaped like a spearpoint to recall the spear used at the crucifixion to pierce Jesus' side. Cutting along each edge, and removing the Lamb, he recites a phrase from Isaiah 53:7–8:
on the right side: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter."
on the left side: "And as a spotless lamb before His shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."
at the top: "In his humiliation his judgement was taken away."
at the bottom: "And who shall declare His generation?"
as he removes the Lamb from the prosphoron: "For His life is taken up from the earth."
In (Acts 8:32–33) St. Philip interprets these as referring to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
He then places the Lamb face down on the seal, and cuts it cross-wise almost all the way through, leaving it connected as one piece by the seal. This will facilitate the fraction after the anaphora.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Lamb (liturgy)” as the square portion of bread cut from the prosphora in the Liturgy of Preparation at the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Church and in the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as the square portion of bread cut from the prosphora in the Liturgy of Preparation at the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Church and in the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6481018. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lamb (liturgy)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.