The Catholic and Liturgical Origin of Pizza

I am in Rome teaching a course to Seminarians: “The History and Theology of Rome” for the Rome Experience.

While enjoying some pizza near Piazza Navona, my son asked: “Dad, where does pizza come from?”

So I looked it up. The earliest reference to “pizza” is from AD 997 in a Latin text from the Italian town of Gaeta:

The text states that there were to be delivered to the bishop of Gaeta should receive duodecim pizze (twelve pizzas) every Christmas day and another duodecim pizze (twelve pizzas) every Easter Sunday. Here we have the earliest reference to “pizza” and it includes pizza delivery.

Since the town of Gaeta at that time belonged to the Byzantine Empire, the Latinized word “pizze” is likely a corruption of the Greek “pitta” or “πίττα” – a reference to “flatbread.”

So the first recorded pizza parties (12 pizzas!) goes back to the Bishop of Gaeta.

I came to Christ in a round about way from a Major League Baseball signature referencing Romans 10:9 on a Dominos Pizza gift from Thomas Monahan to my father (a long story), so I rather like this origin of pizza.

Godspeed,
Taylor