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Questions / The Mass and the Eucharist

What is transubstantiation?

Church teaching

Answered on video by The Thomistic Institute (Dominican friars)

Video: Transubstantiation (Aquinas 101), The Thomistic Institute, published Oct 5, 2020. Checked 10 October 2026. Loads from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) only when you press play. Watch on YouTube

In short: The big word for a big claim: the whole substance of bread and wine becomes Christ’s body and blood at the consecration. CCC 1376

The answer, in writing

Church teaching

The Council of Trent taught that by the consecration the whole substance of the bread becomes the substance of Christ’s body, and the whole substance of the wine the substance of His blood. CCC 1376

The Church calls this change “transubstantiation.” CCC 1376

Our words

Big word, simple point: what it is changes; what it looks like doesn’t.

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Sources on this page

How we know · 1 Catechism paragraph
  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1376 (official text on vatican.va).

Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words and cites every teaching claim. Our own wording is not an official Church text. Found a mistake? Report an errorCorrections.