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{{Short description|Easter bread}}
{{other uses}}
{{Special characters}}
[[Image:Artos2.jpg|thumb|250px|Paschal Artos, between services during [[bright Week]], in front of opened [[royal doors]].]]
{{Eastern Orthodox sidebar|expanded=worship}}

An '''artos''' ({{langx|grc|ἄρτος}}, "leavened loaf", "bread") is a loaf of [[leavened bread]] that is blessed during services in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]]<ref name=CFVM>{{cite web|title=Άρτος|url=http://foodmuseum.cs.ucy.ac.cy/web/guest/trofima/civitem/1171#_bs_civitems_tabcyprus.tab1|website=foodmuseum.cs.ucy.ac.cy|publisher=Cyprus Food Virtual Museum|access-date=30 November 2015|language=el|archive-date=8 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208190020/http://foodmuseum.cs.ucy.ac.cy/web/guest/trofima/civitem/1171#_bs_civitems_tabcyprus.tab1|url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Byzantine rite|Byzantine]] [[Eastern Catholic Churches|rite catholic]] churches. A large Artos is baked with a seal depicting the resurrection for use at [[Easter|Pascha]] (Easter). Smaller loaves are blessed during [[Great Vespers#Eastern/Oriental Catholic & Orthodox|great vespers]] in a ritual called [[Artoklasia]] and in other occasions like [[Calendar of saints|feast days]], weddings, [[Memorial service (Orthodox)|memorial services]] etc.<ref name=CFVM/>

==Etymology==
'''Artos''' in [[Ancient Greek]] meant "cake", "loaf of wheat-bread", collectively "bread",<ref>{{LSJ|a)/rtos|ἄρτος|ref}}.</ref> but in [[Modern Greek]] it is now more commonly used in the context of [[communion bread]] used in church, having been replaced in the broader context by the word {{lang|el|ψωμί}}, ''psomi''.{{refn|group=n|Put in another way, ''artos'' in modern Greek is a high-register word, used more, apart from the aforementioned ecclesiastical settings, in [[Katharevousa]] or relevant contexts. On the other hand it is commonly found inside common compound words like {{lang|el|αρτοποιός}}, "baker", and {{lang|el|αρτοποιείο}}, "bakery".}} This word is thought to be first attested in [[Mycenaean Greek]] as the first [[Word stem|stem]] of the [[compound word]]  {{lang|gmy|𐀀𐀵𐀡𐀦}}, '''''a-to'''-po-qo'', "bakers", written in the [[Linear b]] [[syllabary]].{{refn|group=n|Identified as {{lang|grc|ἀρτοπόκοι}}, ''artopokoi'', plural of {{lang|grc|ἀρτοπόκος}}, ''artopokos''. Found on the [[Mycenae|MY]] Au 102, [[Pylos|PY]] An 39, PY Fn 50, PY An 427, tablets; MY Oe 117 reads ''a-to-po-qo-i'' (<small>[[dative|DAT]]</small> [[plural]]).<ref>{{cite web|title=MY Au 102 (52)|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5562}} {{cite web|title=PY 39 An (Ciii) (Ci)|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/4329}} {{cite web|title=PY 50 Fn + fr. (Ciii)|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/4609}} {{cite web|title=PY 427 An (3)|publisher=[[University of Oslo]]|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/4345}}, [http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/projects/damos/ DĀMOS Database of Mycenaean at Oslo]</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Raymoure|first=K.A.|url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/a/a-to-po-qo/|title=a-to-po-qo|work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B|publisher=Deaditerranean}}</ref> In later Greek only {{lang|grc|ἀρτοπόπος}}, ''artopopos'', and {{lang|grc|ἀρτοκόπος}} are attested, therefore there has been some criticism over this identification.<ref>{{LSJ|a)rtopo/pos|ἀρτοπόπος}}, {{LSJ|a)rtoko/pos|ἀρτοκόπος|shortref}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and Their World |editor1-first=Yves|editor1-last=Duhoux|editor2-first=Anna|editor2-last=Morpurgo Davies|volume=1|place=Louvain-la-Neuve |publisher=Peeters|year=2008|isbn=9789042918481}}
*{{cite journal |author=Michael F. Lane |date=March 2009 |title=A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and Their World, Volume 1. Bibliothèque des Cahiers de l'Institut de linguistique de Louvain. Antiquité 120 |type=Review |journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review |url=http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009-03-33.html}}</ref> Palaeolexicon cites {{lang|gmy|𐀀𐀵}}, ''a-to'' by itself (not as part of a compound word), as the attested form of the word.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Linear B word a-to|url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/default.aspx?static=12&wid=346595|website=Palaeolexicon. Word study tool of ancient languages|access-date=March 15, 2014}}</ref>}}{{refn|group=n|{{lang|gmy|𐀀𐀵}}, ''a-to'', is also found outside a compound word ([[Knossos|KN]] As 40 tablet), but in this case, it does not stand for {{lang|grc|ἄρτος}}-''bread''; it is instead read, by scholars, as an unrelated [[anthroponym]] ([[Cf.]] {{lang|grc|Ἄνθος}}).<ref>{{cite web|website=DĀMOS Database of Mycenaean at Oslo|publisher=[[University of Oslo]]|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/37|title=KN 40 As + 5093 (101)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Raymoure|first=K.A.|url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/a/a-to/|title=a-to|work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B|publisher=Deaditerranean|access-date=2014-04-01|archive-date=2013-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014092113/http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/a/a-to/|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

==Paschal Artos==<!-- [[Paschal artos]] and [[Paschal Artos]] redirect here -->

===Ritual===
Near the end of the [[Easter Vigil#Eastern Orthodoxy|Paschal Vigil]], after the Prayer Before the [[Ambon (liturgy)|Ambo]], a single large loaf of bread, the Artos, is brought to the priest. Depicted on the top of the Artos are either the symbol of Christ's victory over death—the Cross, surmounted by a crown of thorns—or the Resurrection of Christ. The Artos symbolizes the physical presence of the resurrected Christ among the disciples.
The priest blesses the Artos with a special prayer and sprinkles it with [[Holy Water]]. The Artos is then placed on a small table before the [[Iconostasis]] where it remains throughout [[Bright Week]]. It is customary, whenever the faithful enter the [[Temple]], for them to kiss the Artos as a way of greeting the Risen Christ. On every day of Bright Week, after the Paschal [[Divine Liturgy]] (or, alternatively, after Paschal [[Matins]]), the Artos is carried in a solemn [[Procession#Eastern Orthodox|procession]] around the outside of the church.

In monasteries, the Artos is carried to the [[Refectory|Trapeza]] every day of Bright Week, where at the end of the festive meal, it is lifted in a ceremony called the Lifting of the Artos.{{refn|group=n|Cf. Lifting of the [[Prosphora#Panagia|Panagia]].}} The one performing the ceremony will lift up the Artos (symbolizing Christ's Resurrection) and say, "Christ is Risen!" All will respond, "He is truly Risen!" The celebrant will then make the [[sign of the Cross]] with the Artos as he says, "We worship His Resurrection on the third day!" Then two Paschal hymns are sung and everyone comes forward to kiss the Artos and receive the Superior's blessing, as all sing the [[Paschal troparion]] many times.

On Bright Saturday, after the Divine Liturgy, the priest says another prayer over the Artos and it is then broken and distributed among the whole congregation along with the [[Antidoron]].{{refn|group=n|Alternatively, the Artos may be carried to the Trapeza, where the prayer is said and everyone partakes of it before the common meal. Sometimes, in parishes, the priest will wait until after the Liturgy on [[Thomas Sunday]] to break and distribute the Artos.}}

===Significance===
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2021}}

The significance of the artos is that it serves to remind all Christians of the events connected with the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. While still living on earth, the Lord called Himself the Bread of Life, saying: ''I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and He who believes in Me shall never thirst'' ({{bibleverse||John|6:35|KJV}}). After His Resurrection, more than once Jesus appeared to His disciples, ate before them and blessed their own food. For example, as evening fell on the first day of His Resurrection, He was recognized in Emmaus by two of His disciples as He blessed and broke bread ({{bibleverse||Luke|24:13-35|KJV}}).

On the 40th day after His Resurrection, the Lord ascended into heaven, and His disciples and followers found comfort in their memories of the Lord: they recalled His every word, His every step and His every action. When they met for common prayer, they would partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, remembering the [[Last Supper]]. When they sat down to an ordinary meal, they would leave a place at the head of the table empty for the invisibly present Lord and would lay bread on that place.

Remembering this custom of the Apostles, the Fathers of the Church made it their custom to put out the Artos at the Paschal Feast in memory of the appearances of the Risen Lord to His disciples, and also in memory of the fact that the Lord Who suffered and was resurrected for our justification has made Himself the true Bread of Life and is invisibly present in His church always, to the close of the age ({{bibleverse||Matthew|28:20|KJV}}).

The Artos may also be compared to the [[unleavened bread]] of the [[Old Testament]], which the people of ancient Israel, after being delivered from their captivity in the land of Egypt, ate during the week of the Passover (Ex. 12:15-20). As Cyril, Bishop of [[Turaŭ|Turov]], who lived during the 12th Century in [[Russia]], said in a sermon for the Sunday after Pascha:

<blockquote>Even as the Jews bore the unleavened bread upon their heads out of Egypt through the desert ({{bibleverse||Exodus|12:34|KJV}}) until they had crossed the [[Red Sea]], after which they dedicated the bread to God, divided it amongst all their host, and having all eaten thereof, became...terrible to their enemies, even so do we, saved by our Resurrected Lord from the captivity of that Pharaoh of the mind, the Devil, bear forth the blessed bread the Artos from the day of the Resurrection of Christ and, finally, having dedicated this bread to God, we eat of it and preserve it to the health of body and soul.</blockquote>

It is a custom among Russian Orthodox Christians to this day to keep a portion of the artos throughout the year and with due reverence and faith to eat of it in time of illness or distress. This is eaten, often together with a drink of Holy Water, which had been blessed at the Feast of the [[Epiphany (Christian)#Eastern Christian Churches|Theophany of Our Lord]].

==Artoklasia==
{{main|Artoklasia}}
[[Image:Litie5.jpg|thumb|Loaves prepared for Artoklasia.]]

On feast days towards the end of [[vespers]] there is a blessing of loaves,{{refn|group=n|Five loaves are a common custom, reminiscent of the miracle of the feeding of the multitude (Matthew 14:17, etc.).}} wheat, wine, and oil, whereafter the priest breaks one of the loaves from which action the rite receives its name: ''Artoklasia'', "breaking of bread".

The loaves for the Artoklasia may be sealed (before baking) with a stamp (as are the [[Prosphora]] for the [[Divine Liturgy]]); such a seal may have an [[Icon]] of a saint on it, or it may be a simple cross—perhaps inscribed with a prayer on it, such as "May the Blessing of the Lord be upon us. Amen."
{{refn|group=n|A similar Artoklasia is performed at the end of the Vesperal Divine Liturgy on [[Holy Saturday|Great Saturday]], except that oil and wheat are not blessed, but only the five loaves and a cup of wine. This Artoklasia is a remnant from the days when the faithful would not leave the church all day on Great Saturday, but wait in prayerful anticipation for the beginning of the Paschal Vigil. Each person would be given bread, [[dried fruit]], and a cup of wine as all listened to the reading of the [[Acts of the Apostles]].}}

==See also==
*[[Ancient_Greek_cuisine#Breads,_cakes_and_biscuits|Bread in Ancient Greek Cuisine]]
*[[Prosphora]]
*[[Artoklasia]]

==Notes and references==
;Notes
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;References
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==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927185303/http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/pictures/4nzxb_9.jpg Paschal Artos] (Photo)

{{Easter}}

[[Category:Byzantine Rite]]
[[Category:Easter bread]]
[[Category:Eastern Christian liturgical objects]]