Researched by the Ignaria Editorial Team · Published 2026-03-12
Medieval Eucharistic theology understood the Mass as a commemorative sacrifice and transmission of oblations from the faithful to God, mediated through the priest. Hugh of St. Victor (c. 1134) explained the very name "mass" as derived from this transmission — the priest as mediator carrying the prayers and vows of the faithful to God. Pseudo-Dionysius's liturgical theology shaped the mystical dimension: the Eucharist as a perpetual mystery celebrating Christ's death and resurrection and anticipating the second coming and vivification of mortality. Thomas à Kempis gave the Mass its most devotional expression in the Imitation of Christ, presenting the Eucharist as the living bread descended from heaven. Aquinas provided the philosophical synthesis, teaching that church, altar, and sacred things acquire spiritual virtue through consecration rendering them fit for divine worship.
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What the primary sources show
"The mass was said as if transmitted or as if a transmission, because the faithful people through the ministry of the priest who performs the duty of a mediator between God and man transmit prayers and vows and oblations to God" — Hugh's etymology of the Mass as priestly mediation of the congregation's offering.
"Celebrating a commemoration of Thy death and resurrection, through this sacrifice in perpetual mystery, we await also Thy second coming, the renovation of our race, and the vivification of our mortality" — the liturgical theology that shaped the medieval understanding of the Mass as eschatological memorial.