Story: Death and dying

Holy communion on the battlefield, 1917

A Catholic priest offers holy communion to soldiers near the firing line on the Messines ridge in Belgium, 1917. For these soldiers it was important to participate in communion before going into battle. The communion ritual or eucharist entails eating bread (or a wafer) and drinking wine that symbolise the body and blood of Jesus Christ. For Christians this sacrament is one of the key rituals that connects human beings and God, and therefore is appropriate when someone is dying or anticipating death, as these soldiers did on the battle field during the First World War.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association Collection

Reference: 1/2-012781-G

by Henry Armytage Sanders

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Ruth McManus and Rosemary Du Plessis, Death and dying – Dying and bereavement, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/30371/holy-communion-on-the-battlefield-1917 (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Ruth McManus and Rosemary Du Plessis, published 3 May 2011, updated 1 November 2023.

Comments

Russell holland
01 July 2024

The Eucharist is not a symbol of the body and blood of Christ. It is the actual body and blood of Christ as taught by the Holy Catholic Church and believed by faithful Catholics of the church.