I am asked to define the sense in which the Easterns employ the term Transubstantiation. One cannot be too explicit in dealing with a question of the Lord’s mysteries1.
The word Transubstantiation occurs in the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East, which was compiled and signed by the four (Eastern) Patriarchs of the Apostolic Sees, by eight Metropolitans, and by thirteen other persons, in 1645. This Confession has always been the criterion of Orthodox doctrine in Russia. The same has always been in use in all the Slavonic and other autocephalous Churches.
It is true that we do not find the word Transubstantiation earlier than this in the East. It is also true that there were no such conditions, no occasion requiring the bringing forth of the word. The teaching in the Gospels and in the Epistles concerning the Mystic Supper is clear and simple. Nothing may be added to or taken away from the explicit words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since in the Eucharist this is the Body which for us is broken, and this is the Blood, which for us is poured out, it follows that we have a perpetual and visible sacrifice, as well as a communion. The Eucharist from the beginning in all ages was held to be something more than a mere service of praise or thanks. It was always recognized as a mystery, hence the later emphatic confirmation of this doctrine in the Orthodox East, which found its expression in the word Transubstantiation. This word does not define the manner (or mode of operation) in which the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of the Lord; for this none can understand but God, but this much is signified by the word, that the bread truly, really, and substantially becomes the very true Body of the Lord, and the wine the very Blood of the Lord.
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Greek word for sacraments.