Patristic A.D. 735
“The Apostles had only got but the five loaves of the Mosaic law, and the two fishes of each covenant, which were covered in the secret place of obscure mysteries, as in the waters of the deep. But because men have five external senses, the five thousand men who followed the Lord signify those who still live in worldly ways, knowing well how to use the external things they possess. For they who entirely renounce the world are raised aloft in the enjoyment of His Gospel feast. But the different divisions of the guests, indicate the different congregations of Churches throughout the world, which together compose the one Catholic.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Luke, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Luke 9:10-17
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1843) ↗