(Eccl.) The place on which the consecrated bread is placed in the Eucharist, or on which the host is placed during the Mass. It is usually small, and formed as to fit the chalice, or cup, as a cover. (Written also patin, patine)
... the curious old chest at the base of the tower, which contains the remains of an old 16th cent. cope, which has been converted into an altar frontal; (6) the Jacobean pulpit (1618). The communion plate includes a paten of about 1500. Near the church is a noble cruciform barn, once belonging to the abbots of Glastonbury, with the emblems of the Evangelists ... — Somerset • G.W. Wade and J.H. Wade
... direction to which I pointed, and, getting up, went over to first one picture and then another, and studied them closely. A bit of bronze, a statuette or two, an altar-piece, a chalice, a flagon, a paten, a censer, and an ikon held his attention, one after the other, and again ... — People Like That • Kate Langley Bosher