Cleveland Museum of Art

Mold for a Eulogia (Blessing) Bread

Date

600s-900s

Medium

wood

Culture

Byzantium, Palestine, Byzantine period, 7th-10th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

It was a common early Christian practice to stamp images and inscriptions into loaves of bread using special molds. Representing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Mount Golgotha--the hill outside Jerusalem on which Christ was crucified and entombed--this wooden mold was probably used to stamp loaves of bread distributed to pilgrims visiting Jerusalem, in commemoration of their journey. Medieval Christian pilgrims often traveled months or years to religious sites in the Holy Land and returned home with blessed mementos of their journey, such as vials of holy water, relics from saints, and even special loaves of bread. This mold was used to mark bread with an image of the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem; the bread was then distributed to pilgrims.

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