Antidoron

The blessed bread given at the end of the Liturgy, cut from the loaves offered at the preparation of the gifts after the Lamb has been taken out of them. Its name means instead of the gifts: it is given to those who did not receive communion as well as to those who did, and it is what a visitor who is not Orthodox may take from the priest’s hand. The faithful receive it as they come forward to kiss the cross, eat it in church or take it home to those who could not come, and it is not the Eucharist but a blessing, a share in the offering and in the fellowship of the one table. In some places it is eaten fasting, before anything else that day.