Eucharistic bread stamps, 16th-17th century

The bread stamps in this group, which date from an era in the Greek world was under Ottoman and Latin rule, are from Macedonia, Thrace, the Peloponnese, Crete, Asia Minor and Russia. We can observe an unbroken tradition in the inscribing of the symbols of divine incarnation, which indicates both that the enslaved Greeks rallied around Orthodoxy and that religion contributed to the creation and continuation of solidarity within the Christian community. A few of the stamps reveal differences, such as the particles of the Mother of God and the Saints being replaced by repetitions of the Lamb.