The following is taken from Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 8.18 (c. 390). Gregory describes Gorgonia, his biological sister, who was gravely ill and applied to herself “a portion of the antitypes of the Precious Body and Blood.” This is the earliest explicit statement in Christian literature of a woman partaking of the Eucharist:
18. What then did this great
soul, worthy offspring of the greatest, and what was the medicine for her
disorder, for we have now come to the great secret? Despairing of all other
aid, she betook herself to the Physician of all, and awaiting the silent hours
of night, during a slight intermission of the disease, she approached the altar
with faith, and, calling upon Him Who is honoured thereon, with a mighty cry,
and every kind of invocation, calling to mind all His former works of power,
and well she knew those both of ancient and of later days, at last she ventured
on an act of pious and splendid effrontery: she imitated the woman whose
fountain of blood was dried up by the hem of Christ's garment. What did she do?
Resting her head with another cry upon the altar, and with a wealth of tears,
as she who once bedewed the feet of Christ, and declaring that she would not
loose her hold until she was made whole, she then applied her medicine to her
whole body, viz., such a portion of the antitypes of the Precious Body and
Blood as she treasured in her hand, mingling therewith her tears, and, O the
wonder, she went away feeling at once that she was saved, and with the
lightness of health in body, soul, and mind, having received, as the reward of
her hope, that which she hoped for, and having gained bodily by means of
spiritual strength. Great though these things be, they are not untrue. Believe
them all of you, whether sick or sound, that you may either keep or regain your
health. And that my story is no mere boastfulness is plain from the silence in
which she kept, while alive, what I have revealed. Nor should I now have
published it, be well assured, had I not feared that so great a marvel would
have been utterly hidden from the faithful and unbelieving of these and later
days.
