NAMES BY WHICH THE CANON WAS FORMERLY KNOWN

The Canon was known in early times by a variety of names. Pope Gregory the Great always called it the Prayer; by St. Cyprian it was styled the Oration; by St. Ambrose, the Ecclesiastical Rule; and by St. Basil, the Secret. To indicate its great excellence, many of the ancient Fathers called it the Action, and we see this word yet retained as the heading of the prayer “Communicantes.”