The Slava Bread

The slava bread, like prosphora, is a specially baked bread offered at the divine liturgy – a yeast bread, usually made with the sanctified water. Before the day of the festivity, a priest comes to the home of a family celebrating their patron saint’s day to sanctify the water used for making the bread.

The bread is usally baked a day before. It is made of flour. Nowadays it is the white flour. Also, the dough is used for decorating the bread: birds, bunches of grapes and so on, but the most important decoration is the seal with letters Is-Hs-Ni-Kа (shortened for Greek saying: Jesus Christ Wins). In some Serbian regions it is a daily bread with a candle on its top.

RELIGION AND TRADITION

The bread is a Christian substitute for a sacrifice in blood. As early as in the Old Testament people would made bread offerings, so Jesus Christ used bread at His Last Supper with his disciples. Hence, directly from the Holy Scripture, the bread is taken to be broken – cut, representing an important part of the celebration offering. In Church liturgy, bread is offered as a sacrifice, it is broken, sanctified and then, as the Body of Christ, it is given to the believers in the Holy Communion.