Cana, Miracle of

Cana, Miracle Of

Representations of this miracle frequently present themselves in early Christian art. It was supposed to be typical of the eucharist; indeed, I Theophilus of Antioch, so far back as the 2d century, looks on the change of the water as figurative of the grace communicated in baptism (Comment. in Evang. lib. iv). Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech. xxii, 1.1) says it represents the change of the wine into the blood of the Lord in the eucharist; and this idea has been applied with eager inconsequence to the support of the full dogma of transubstantiation. The miracle is represented on an ivory, published by Mamachi, Bottari, and Gori, which is supposed to have formed part of the covering of a throne belonging to the exarchs of Ravenna, and is referred to the 7th century. See Bandini, In Tabulamn Eburneam Observationes (Florentiae, 1746, 4to).