Abstract

In the peculiar texts of Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday belonging to the Ambrosian liturgy, it can be recognized what remains of the ancient anaphoric structure common to Western liturgies before the imposition of the Roman Canon. The studies conducted by E. Mazza and Ł. Celinski offer the opportunity to reconsider the Post Confractorium of Holy Thurs­day as attested in the medieval Ambrosian sacramentaries and transmitted in printed Missals until the post-conciliar reform. Then the Post Confractorium received the function of anamnesis-epiclesis in Eu­charistic Prayer VI. Following the insights of the two authors it is pos­sible to hypothesize the existence of prayers ad panis fractionem after the institution narrative even in the ancient liturgy of the Church of Milan. These prayers, as the Gallican and Hispanic prayers ad fractio­nem, later have been connected to the institution narrative and enriched with the explicit request to the Father for the presence of the Son in the elements of bread and wine.