From left to right: (Click on a thumbnail to enlarge)
1. A 16th century French Bible in Latin, known as the Sutton Bible [371]
2. The opening page of the Sutton Bible with the ownership inscription to Richard Sutton, the Vicar of Cransley in the village of South Wingfield, United Kingdom [371]

Christianity

The vine and wine are central subjects of the Bible. Jesus Christ made frequent use of the imagery of the growing vine in his parables and called himself ‘The True Vine’. Wine was the subject of one of the most well-known miracles of the New Testament - the Lord’s changing of water into wine at the Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11).

From left to right: (Click on a thumbnail to enlarge)
1. The miracle in Tswana [66]
2. Keeping the best wine till last [66]

And wine, as the “Blood of Christ”, is the central theme at the Last Supper. Wine is one of the two elements of the Eucharist, the holiest sacrament of the Christian churches and is the central act of Christian worship practiced by almost all denominations of Christians.

The Eucharist, also known as Communion or the Lord’s Supper, has as its essential elements the breaking and sharing of bread and the pouring and sharing of wine among the worshippers, in commemoration of the actions of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper.

The gestures of consecration, fraction, co-mixture and communication from a 1614 Dominican Missal [61]

From left to right: (Click on a thumbnail to enlarge)
1. A depiction of the Last Supper in a Carthusian Lectionary copied in 1520 in Liege, Belgium [372]
2. An historiated letter depicting the Last Supper [372]

According to the synoptic Gospels Jesus gave wine to the disciples at the end of the Last Supper saying:
“… Drink of it all of you for this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins…” (Matthew 26:27-29).

The Eucharist is understood by Christians to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and to mediate communion with God and community among the worshippers.

Beyond this basic concept the theology of the Eucharist varies widely among the Christian denominations and has often been a cause of bitter inter-denominational dispute. For while the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians understand the presence of Christ concretely,

“this is my blood” [64]

the Eucharist theology of the Protestant churches (although they vary) are united in finding transubstantiation out of harmony with their interpretation of the Bible, and view the Eucharist in symbolic terms as a memorial.

The chalice is the vessel used in the celebration of the Christian Eucharist and from the beginning of Christianity special rites of consecration attended the use of the chalice. The most famous chalice, the Great Chalice of Antioch, is the earliest known example of Christian art with the earliest known portraits of Christ and his disciples.
The Great Chalice of Antioch is from the 4th-5th century AD and is named for the Syrian city amid which ruins it was found.

From left to right: (Click on a thumbnail to enlarge)
1. The Chalice of Antioch [69]
2. The youthful Christ [69]
3. St. Jude [69]
4. The link between the world of wine and holy orders [63]

Of note here is the very real and important link between Christian monks and wine: one of monasticism’s greatest historical contributions has been to viticulture and to developing techniques of distillation.

From left to right: (Click on a thumbnail to enlarge)
1. Christ in the wine press from a German miniature c1500 [63]
2. Benedictine nuns of the Abby of St. Hildegard near Rudesheim, in their wine cellar [63]

The monks’ most noted technical triumph, however, was to perfect champagne by the introduction of the bottle cork, and the monk responsible for this was Dom Perignon. The cork later enabled growers all over the world to age their wine properly in bottles.

The “father” of champagne [63]