Is It Unusual When Communion Wafers Do not Dissolve?

A common theme in the claimed Eucharistic Miracles is that the observers were surprised when the wafers did not dissolve after being left in water for a few days. I found this odd when I first heard it, because of course bread doesn’t dissolve when you place it in water! Why would it? I bought a pack of unconsecrated wafers on Amazon and tried placing them in water, and sure enough, the majority of them stay completely intact for weeks.

I think the source of confusion is because in general the Church says that you should eat consecrated wafers whenever possible, and only dissolve the ones that are too dirty. This often means wafers that have been in someone’s mouth, particularly in churches where communion is received on the tongue. Saliva contains an enzyme called amylase, which converts starch into sugar, which does dissolve in water. Because it’s an enzyme, very little amylase needs to be present to dissolve a wafer. Even touching a wafer to a relatively dry tongue can cause it to dissolve within a few days. So perhaps most wafers placed in water in Catholic Churches do dissolve. But that’s not the behaviour you should expect for a an unlicked wafer.

Note that I said that the majority of wafers stay intact for weeks. Some microorganisms also produce amylase, so depending on what grows on the wafer, it may eventually dissolve. I haven’t kept track well enough to give precise numbers, and it’s obviously going to depend on what microbes are present in the environment. But in my home it’s definitely far less than half.