One of world’s earliest Christian charms found

03 Sep 2014 A 1,500 year-old papyrus fragment found in The University of Manchester's John Rylands Library has been identified as one the world's earliest surviving Christian charms. The remarkable document uniquely contains some of the earliest documented references to the Last Supper and 'manna from heaven'. It is the earliest surviving document to use the Christian Eucharist liturgy - which outlines the Last Supper - as a protective charm. Dr Roberta Mazza, a Research Fellow of the recently established John Rylands Research Institute came across the Greek 'amulet' while working on thousands of fragments of unpublished historical documents that are kept in the library's vaults. According to the researcher, the charm casts important new light on early Christianity - just 300 years after the Roman emperor Constantine converted to the religion. It shows how Christians adopted the ancient Egyptian practice of wearing amulets to protect the wearer against dangers. This practice of writing charms on pieces of papyrus was continued by the Christians who replaced the prayers to Egyptian and Greco-Roman gods with extracts from the Bible.