Like its partner in grace the chalice, the paten has enjoyed a colourful liturgical past.

The word itself (pronounced with a short a, despite the word's single consonant) hails from the Latin term patina, meaning “serving plate” or dish, and refers to the repository which cradles the bread of Christ's body that is offered in the Eucharist.

Like its sacramental sibling the chalice, the paten has undergone significant transformation.

As any informed church historian could tell you, the bread that Jesus broke with his disciples in the upper room certainly did not rest on the paten with which we are familiar.

In all likelihood, that first paten was nothing more than a simple ceramic dish or wooden basket.

However, as early Christian communities began to celebrate the Eucharist, it became obvious that a small dish or basket was not sufficient to hold the consecrated bread since, imitating Christ's example, real bread was used, rather than the wafers we enjoy today - although for those who have not become accustomed to the taste, "wafers we enjoy" is perhaps not the most appropriate turn of phrase.

In any event, in order to accommodate the quantities of bread that were needed to feed the faithful, a more capacious receptacle was required.

Some scholars suggest that the earliest patens were serving plates of generous proportions, glass, wood or copper plates that tipped the scales at a whopping 20-30 pounds.

Other pundits of paten lore insist that the paten was neither plate, nor dish, nor even bread box.

Rather, white linen bags, they insist, were used to distribute the consecrated bread.

Not surprisingly, the latter custom was quickly canned and the paten developed along its present plate-like lines.

However, by the ninth century, when the zeal of the faithful regarding the frequent reception of Holy Communion very much declined, it was no longer necessary to have patens of such considerable diameter.

The large loaf of bread gave way to the small priest's host that graces the paten to this day, making the paten similar in size, though not in make-up or material, to the one on which Jesus offered his body.

Today it retains the diminutive dimensions that it took in the mediaeval church, the contemporary paten being approximately 15-20cm in diameter, and, like its forebearer, crafted in silver or gold, relative to the precious metal of the chalice that accompanies it.

It is interesting to note, however, that in many churches, the practice of using "real bread" is gaining acceptance.

As a result, many patens are gathering dust in church sacristies while baskets or larger patens of various materials are replacing them as appropriate repositories for the bread of our tomorrow.

This return to ancient practices would seem to suggest that those who gainsay the old adage "everything old is new again," are, as far as the paten goes, patently mistaken.