Only the baptized received: the Didache and Justin say so plainly, and Justin adds right faith and a Christian life. 12
Justin Martyrc. 155 · Tertullianc. 211Weekly or daily
All present received every Sunday, and deacons took it to the absent. Tertullian says Christians received at dawn gatherings too. 34
Fourth Lateran Council1215Yearly minimum
As lay communion grew rare, the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) required at least once a year, at Easter. 6
The answers given:
ApostolicBefore NicaeaNicaea and afterMiddle AgesReformation to today
Scroll through the centuries, or tap a dot. JK move between witnesses.
Apostolic Fathers
30–150
100c. AD
The baptized
Didache c. 100 ADDidache 9.5
Let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist except those baptized in the name of the Lord. For about this too the Lord said: "Do not give what is holy to the dogs" (Matthew 7:6).
μηδεὶς δὲ φαγέτω μηδὲ πιέτω ἀπὸ τῆς εὐχαριστίας ὑμῶν, ἀλλ’ οἱ βαπτισθέντες εἰς ὄνομα κυρίου: καὶ γὰρ περὶ τούτου εἴρηκεν ὁ κύριος: Μὴ δῶτε τὸ ἄγιον τοῖς κυσί.Anonymus Kirsopp Lake The Apostolic Fathers William Heinemann The Macmillan Company London New York 1912 1 Hathi Trust (First1KGreek TEI, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg1311.tlg001) · English: translated for this page from the Greek
Before Nicaea
150–325
155c. AD
The baptized
Justin Martyr c. 100–c. 165 ADFirst Apology 66.1
This food is called among us Eucharist, of which no one may partake except one who believes that what we teach is true, and has been washed with the washing for forgiveness of sins and rebirth, and lives as Christ handed down.
Three conditions: right faith, baptism, a Christian life.
Full English of this work is being translated
Καὶ ἡ τροφὴ αὕτη καλεῖται παρ᾿ ἡ μῖν εὐχαριστία, ἧς οὐδενὶ ἄλλῳ μετασχεῖν ἐξόν ἐστιν ἢ τῷ πιστεύοντι ἀληθῆ εἶναι τὰ δεδιδαγμένα ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν, καὶ λουσαμένῳ τὸ ὑπὲρ ἀφέσεως ἁμαρτιῶν καὶ εἰς ἀναγέννησιν λουτρόν, καὶ οὕτως βιοῦντι ὡς ὁ Χριστὸς παρέδωκεν.S. Iustini Aplogiae Duae Justin Martyr Gerhard Rauschen Petri Hanstein Bonn 1911 Florilegium Patristicum 2 Internet Archive (First1KGreek TEI, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0645.tlg001) · English: translated for this page from the Greek
155c. AD
Weekly or daily
Justin Martyr c. 100–c. 165 ADFirst Apology 67.5
... and the distribution and sharing of the things over which thanks has been given is made to each, and to those not present it is sent through the deacons.
Every Sunday, everyone present received, and the absent were sent their share.
Full English of this work is being translated
καὶ ἡ διάδοσις καὶ ἡ μετάληψις ἀπὸ τῶν εὐχαριστηθέντων ἑκάστῳ γίνεται, καὶ τοῖς οὐ παροῦσι διὰ τῶν διακόνων πέμπεται.S. Iustini Aplogiae Duae Justin Martyr Gerhard Rauschen Petri Hanstein Bonn 1911 Florilegium Patristicum 2 Internet Archive (First1KGreek TEI, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0645.tlg001) · English: translated for this page from the Greek
211c. AD
Weekly or daily
Tertullian c. 155–c. 220 ADOn the Crown 3.2–3
The sacrament of the Eucharist, which the Lord commanded to be taken at mealtime and by all, we take even in gatherings before dawn, and from the hand of none but those who preside.
Tertullian elsewhere speaks of Christians taking the sacrament at home before other food (To His Wife 2.5).
Full English of this work is being translated
Eucharistiae sacramentum et in tempore victus et omnibus mandatum a domino, etiam antelucanis coetibus nec de aliorum manu quam praesidentium sumimus.Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Quae Supersunt Omnia Tertullian Franz Oehler T. O. Weigel Leipzig 1853 1 HathiTrust (Perseus canonical-latinLit TEI, urn:cts:latinLit:stoa0275.stoa013) · English: translated for this page from the Latin
Nicaea to Chalcedon
325–451
395c. AD
Yearly minimum
John Chrysostom c. 349–407 ADHomilies on Ephesians 3.4
I see many partaking of the body of Christ carelessly and as chance has it, and from habit and custom rather than from thought and consideration. If the season of holy Lent comes on, whoever one may be, he partakes of the mysteries; if the day of Epiphany comes on. ... In the other seasons, though often pure, you do not come; but at Pascha, though you have ventured something, you come. O the habit! O the presumption! In vain the daily sacrifice, in vain we have stood at the altar: no one partakes.
The passage is Homily 3, subdivision 4, on Ephesians; in the library's PG-chunked sections it is section 4.6 (PG 62.28 to 29), because the section numbers run one ahead of the homily numbers. Chrysostom's own rule, stated just before, is that purity of soul, not a feast day, makes a person fit to come. The answer tags the practice he is rebuking, festival-only communion, not his prescription.
Every believer of either sex, after reaching the age of discretion, shall faithfully confess all his sins alone to his own priest at least once a year, ... receiving reverently at least at Easter the sacrament of the Eucharist, unless by his own priest's counsel he abstains for a time for some reasonable cause.
By the Middle Ages most lay people received rarely, so the council set a minimum.
Full English of this work is being translated · Source text
Omnis utriusque sexus fidelis, postquam ad annos discretionis pervenerit, omnia sua solus peccata saltem semel in anno fideliter confiteatur proprio sacerdoti ... suscipiens reverenter ad minus in Pascha Eucharistiae sacramentum , nisi forte de consilio proprii sacerdotis ob aliquam rationabilem causam ad tempus ab eius perceptione duxerit abstinendumDenzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, 11th ed. (1911), no. 437 · English: translated for this page from the Latin
Witnesses not in the library yet
These writers also matter for this question. Their texts will join the timeline above once they are translated.
372
Basil of Caesarea, Letter 93
"We communicate four times a week."
400
Augustine of Hippo, Letter 54.2–3
Some receive daily, some on certain days; follow your church's custom.
How this page was made
Every early quote was read in its Greek or Latin and translated for this page by Claude (Opus 5.5) on 13 October 2026. Each line names the printed edition it was read from. A quote marked indirect does not state the answer outright; read its note. A writer's silence is never counted as an answer.