How to Handle Fallen Hosts

If a host or any particle should fall, it is to be picked up reverently. If any of the precious blood is spilled, the area where the spill occurred should be washed with water, and this water should then be poured into the sacrarium in the sacristy (General Instruction of the Roman Missal 280).

Communion hosts are fairly solid; unless broken, they usually will not flake or leave crumbs. If, after the spilled hosts have been reverently gathered, there does not appear to be any remnants, then there doesn’t appear that anything else needs to be done. It would certainly be acceptable to “corner off” that area until it can be reverently washed with water (and the water poured into the sacrarium), but it is not absolutely necessary unless there are pieces of the host still on the floor. If there is no appearance of bread, then there is no sacrament present.

Whether or not to distribute those hosts is a matter of opinion. Many individuals would not want to receive hosts that have been on the floor. The host(s) should then be consumed by the priest(s) and deacon(s) either after Communion or after Mass. If the hosts are in a condition that renders them unhealthy to consume, they may be dissolved in water and poured down the sacrarium.