Origin of the Eucharist the "Didache", "1 Clement" and Ignatius of Antioch provide glimpses of what Christians were doing in their eucharists. Later sources, Tertullian and the "Apostolic Tradition", offer some details from around the year 200. Once the Church "went public" after the conversion of Constantine the Great in the second decade of the fourth century, it was clear that the Eucharist was established as a central part of Christian life. Contemporary scholars debate whether Jesus meant to institute a ritual at his Last Supper; whether the Last Supper was an actual historical event in any way related to the undisputed early "Lord's
Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a term used in Christian theology to express the doctrine that Jesus is "really" or "substantially" present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically. There are a number of different views in the understanding of the meaning of the term "reality" in this context among contemporary Christian confessions which accept it, including the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Church of the East, Lutheranism, Anglicanism and Methodism. These differences correspond to literal or figurative interpretations of Christ's Words of Institution,