The Eucharist: Body (wafer) and Vampires

Just as the cross and the blood represent (symbolize) something more than the physically touchable objects that you can hold in your hand, the Communion wafer also has baggage; it has to encapsulate some idea, or it is not a symbol, and it is merely a badly baked, dry piece of cracker The weight the wafer bears as symbol is made explicit in Dracula when Van Helsing touches the Communion wafer to Mina’s forehead and it burns its mark into her forehead. Mina interprets this reaction of wafer to her flesh as meaning that she is losing her soul and her Christian salvation. The more damaging its touch becomes, the less soul and salvation she has left, and the closer she moves towards becoming Dracula’s eternal “companion,” as he promised/threatened: “And you, my best beloved one, are now to me flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, kin of my kin; my bountiful wine press for a while; and shall be later on my companion and my helper” (Dr. Seward’s Diary ch XX1).

The Bible section that lays out the salvational aspect of the Communion bread can be found in Matthew 26.26: “ ²⁶And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body”(KJ version).

Mina intertwines the body and blood so firmly that although she doesn’t eat Dracula (she isn’t a Zombie or Ghoul), and only ingests his blood – repeatedly – she recognizes that the wafer burning her demonstrates her coming loss of soul, loss of entry through the Communion process into Heaven, and eternal condemnation to vampire-hood.

For centuries the idea of the Communion wafer – the consumption of the represented body of Christ – has been discussed. Is it cannibalism? Is the wafer transubstantiated (mystically changed) into an actual piece of Christ’s body when it enters the mouth of a believer? It is once saved always saved by accepting the body of Christ? Do you inherit the something through consumption of the wafer? All those questions are jumping off points, since they are clearly beyond the scope of this website.

It is enough to know that the Communion wafer represents, symbolized acceptance of salvation through consumption of an object which represents something more than itself. Does it represent and carry power to those who don’t accept the Christian walk? Don’t know. But in some of the literature, vampires don’t like them. Which is quite enough for me.