Trinity Benedictine Large Fish
Facts from our Early Fathers
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Clement of Alexandria , born about 150, who recommends his readers (Paedagogus, III, xi) to have their seals engraved with a dove or a fish.
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Initial letters of five Greek words forming the word for fish ( Ichthys ), which words briefly but clearly described the character of Christ and His claim to the worship of believers: Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter , i.e. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.
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Tertullian (De baptismo, c. 1): "we, little fishes, after the image of our Ichthys , Jesus Christ, are born in the water".
- The association of the Ichthys with the Eucharist is strongly emphasized in the epitaph of Abercius, the second century Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia. Everywhere on the way or journey, he received as food "the Fish from the spring, the great, the pure", as well as "wine mixed with water, together with bread".
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The fish has plenty of other theological overtones as well, for Christ fed the 5,000 with 2 fishes and 5 loaves (a meal recapitulated in Christian love-feasts) and called his disciples "fishers of men."
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A perfect secret symbol for persecuted believers. It is often found in the Roman catacombs, a secret meeting place when the Christians were persecuted for their faith by the Romans.
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The early Christian fathers called the faithful pisculi (fish).
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The fish as a symbol reflected, on the one hand, the way in which early Christians viewed their identity, their community, and the center of their worship——Christ——and contributed in small part, on the other, to the organization of their cultural system.
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Early Christian texts clearly indicate that a single fish referred to Christ (e.g. Text # VI.2 of Tertullian).
