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THE HISTORY BEHIND THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI
Centuries Without Celebration
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, historically known by its Latin name, Corpus Christi, celebrates the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday following the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. The feast dates to the Middle-Ages and originated with a visionary nun and a Eucharistic miracle.
Many centuries had passed over the Church of Christ before there was any distinct feast of the Blessed Sacrament. And in the 13th century when Our Lord chose that it should be instituted, He had recourse to a simple nun in a vision to be the instrument of this devotion in His Church. St. Thomas Aquinas was living then, and so was King St. Louis, but God chose neither the learning of the one, nor the royal power of the other, to be the means of executing His desire.
The Providential Instrument
The instrument in the hand of Divine Providence was St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon (also known as St. Juliana of Liège), in Belgium. She was born in 1193, at Retinnes, near Liège. Orphaned at an early age, she was educated by the Augustinian nuns of Mont Cornillon. In time, she made her religious profession and later became Superior of the Augustinian nuns of Mont Cornillon.
St. Juliana was a nun and mystic. Juliana, from her early youth, had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and always longed for a special feast in Its honor. From the age of 16, she began to receive visions when she knelt in prayer. In this series of recurring visions, all of them the same she saw a brilliant moon before her with one small portion obscured and invisible. St. Juliana tried in vain to chase the vision away. Finally Our Lord Himself came to explain it to her. He said it was to show that the liturgical year of the Church would remain incomplete until the Blessed Sacrament had a feast of Its own, and He wished it to be instituted for the following reasons:
The Purpose and Point
(1) So that the Catholic doctrine would receive aid from the institution of this festival at a time when the Faith of the world was growing cold and heresies were rife; (2) that the faithful, who love and seek truth and piety, may be enabled to draw from this source of life new strength and vigor to walk continually in the way of virtue; (3) that irreverence and sacrilegious behavior towards the Divine Majesty in this adorable Sacrament may, by sincere and profound adoration, be extirpated and repaired; (4) to announce to the Christian world His will that the feast be observed.
Terrified Instrument
Fearful, the canoness beseeched Our Lord to be released from the charge. Our Lord answered her that the solemn devotion, which He ordered to be observed, was to be begun by her and to be propagated by the poor and lowly. For 20 years the secret lay hidden in Juliana’s heart; she dared not reveal it to anyone, and yet an interior impulse urged her on so that she could not forget it. So terrible was her repugnance, for the mission assigned to her, that she shed tears of blood over it.
Juliana prayed on the matter as civic unrest and religious controversies raged around her; the city where she lived was lost and won in the waging Guelph/Ghibbelline struggle, sacked by a lawless army, and retaken. Three successive convents were either burned or otherwise destroyed over her head. Twice Juliana, now superior of the Convent and enforcing the strict Augustinian Rule, was forced to flee her convent.
After the second time, she found refuge in a Cistercian convent, then another, and then among the poor Beguines. From there she took up residence in the Cistercian Abbey at Salzinners, and finally at Fosses-les-Villes, where she lived in seclusion until her death. Yet no earthly troubles could make her forget the task that Our Lord had assigned her.
Eventual Courage
At length she revealed the mission to her confessor, and, with her permission, he consulted others, especially Fr. Jacques Pantaléon de Threzis, Archdeacon at the Cathedral of Liège. Fr. Jacques Pantaléon de Threzis was afterwards elected Bishop of Verdun, he then was elected Patriarch of Jerusalem and, at last, the Pontiff of Rome, being called Pope Urban IV.
In 1246, Bishop Robert de Thorete of the Belgian diocese of Liège, was favorably impressed, and, since bishops as yet had the right of ordering feasts for their dioceses, at the suggestion of St. Juliana, convened a synod and instituted the celebration of the feast, to be held in the following year. He also appointed a monk, named John, to write the Office for the occasion. The decree is preserved in Binterim (Denkwürdigkeiten, V, 1, 276), together with parts of the Office. Bishop Robert did not live to see the execution of his order, for he died on October 16th, 1246. Nevertheless, the feast was still celebrated for the first time by the obedient canons of the Cathedral of St. Martin at Liège. From Liège in Belgium, the celebration of the feast began to slowly spread.
From the time it was divulged, it became a public question, and men were sorely divided upon it. Many canons and monks protested against the new devotion and argued that the Daily Sacrifice was sufficient to commemorate the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament ― without a special day being particularly assigned for that purpose.
Juliana's Death Mid-Mission
St. Juliana died, in 1252, before her mission was fully accomplished, yet she had done enough in her lifetime to provide for its execution. In her wanderings, she had met with a few men with devotion and learning to defend and promote the feast of the Blessed Sacrament and they helped to spread the devotion, especially among the simple people.
Meanwhile, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the former Fr. Jacques Pantaléon de Threzis, was elected as Pope Urban IV on August 29th, 1261. There was at that time in Liège a devout recluse, named Eve, in whom St. Juliana had inspired a fervent devotion to the Holy Eucharist, who spent her time in adoration of Our Divine Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She begged the then Bishop of Liège, Heinrich of Guelders, to request Pope Urban IV to extend this beautiful celebration to the entire Catholic world.
The Miracle of Orvieto
In the meantime, in 1263, a German priest, Fr. Peter of Prague, made a pilgrimage to Rome. He stopped in Bolsena, Italy, to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the Church of St. Christina. At that time this priest was suffering a crisis of Faith about the Blessed Sacrament, doubting that Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host. While celebrating Holy Mass above the tomb of St. Christina, he had barely finished saying the words of Consecration, when blood started to seep from the consecrated Host and trickle over his hands, onto the altar and the corporal.
At first the priest attempted to hide the blood, but then he interrupted the Mass and asked to be taken to the neighboring city of Orvieto, where he knew that Pope Urban IV was then residing. Fr. Peter reported this miracle to Pope Urban IV. The Pope listened to the priest’s account and dismissed him. He then sent delegates to conduct an immediate investigation. When all the facts were ascertained, he ordered the Bishop of the Diocese to bring the Host and the linen cloth bearing the stains of blood to Orvieto.
With Archbishops, Cardinals and other Church dignitaries in attendance, the Pope met the procession and, amid great pomp, had the relics placed in the Cathedral. This Eucharistic Miracle confirmed the visions given to St. Juliana. The relics were then placed in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they remain today. The linen corporal, bearing the spots of blood, is still reverently enshrined and exhibited in the Cathedral.
Pope Takes Action
Pope Urban IV, always an admirer of the feast, then published the Papal Bull Transiturus (on September 8th, 1264), which established the Feast of Corpus Christi as a universal feast of the Church. In this Papal Bull, Transituris, after having extolled the love of Our Savior as expressed in the Holy Eucharist, he ordered the annual celebration of Corpus Christi on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, at the same time granting many indulgences to the faithful for the attendance at Mass and at the Liturgical Divine Office.
At the request of Pope Urban IV, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure were asked to compose their own versions of the Office for the new feast (the official prayers of the Church’s Breviary and Missal). When St. Bonaventure saw the version of St. Thomas Aquinas, he was in such awe and admiration of Thomas’ work, that he tore-up his own version and threw it away―before anyone could look at it. This Office for Corpus Christi, by St. Thomas Aquinas, is widely considered one of the most beautiful in the traditional Roman Breviary (the official prayer book of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours), and it is the source of the famous Eucharistic hymns Pange Lingua Gloriosi and Tantum Ergo Sacramentum.
The Spread of the Feast
The death of Pope Urban IV on October 2nd, 1264, shortly after the publication of the decree, somewhat impeded the spread of the new feast. But Pope Clement V again took the matter in hand, and, at the General Council of Vienne (1311), he took the necessary measures to implement the feast of Corpus Christi. His new decree embodied the previous pronouncements of Pope Urban IV, and his successor, Pope John XXII (of Sabbatine Privilege fame), and urged its observance. The Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, which was already held in some places, was endowed with rich indulgences by Popes Martin V and Eugene IV. The bishops of the German Empire were the first to accomplish a uniform observance of the new feast (instituted at Cologne in 1306, at Worms in 1315, and in Strasbourg in 1316). In England it was introduced from continental Europe between 1320 and 1325.
The triumph of the Blessed Sacrament was complete, and the devotion spread throughout the length and breadth of Europe. From that time [until after Vatican II], every church in a Catholic country, from the cathedral of a royal city to the most modest village chapel, kept the festival on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. The procession with the Blessed Sacrament would flow out of the churches into the streets followed by the members of the local authorities and the faithful. Such a Eucharistic procession is the public recognition by the Catholic world of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
According to Canon Law (Can. 944 §1,2) “Wherever in the judgment of the diocesan Bishop it can be done, a procession through the streets is to be held, especially on the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, as a public witness of veneration of the Blessed Eucharist. It is for the diocesan Bishop to establish such regulations about processions as will provide participation in them and for their being carried out in a dignified manner.” Note that such processions can take place throughout the liturgical year but are “especially” encouraged on the feast of Corpus Christi. No other devotion has received such attention in the Code of Canon Law which shows the importance the Church attaches to this feast. It is one of the few feasts which is mentioned along with Holy Days of Obligation: “… the following holy days are to be observed: the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of Mary, the Mother of God, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the feast of St. Joseph, the feast of the Apostles Sts. Peter and Paul, and the feast of All Saints” (Can. 1246 §1).
The Feast of Corpus Christi was later elevated to the rank of a Holy Day of Obligation, one of the ten Holy Days of Obligation in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. In some countries, including the United States, the feast has been transferred to the following Sunday.
Why Not Maundy Thursday?
One would have thought that Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday of Holy Week) would be a fitting feast day. Maundy Thursday, which commemorates the institution of this great treasure—the Holy Eucharist—occurs during Holy Week, a season of sadness, during which the minds of the faithful are expected to be occupied with thoughts of the Lord’s Passion. Moreover, so many other functions took place on this day that the principal event was almost lost sight of. This is mentioned as the chief reason for the introduction of the new feast, in the Bull Transiturus.
Our Lord Foresees Our Need
Prophetically, Our Lord saw that in the future this very doctrine, concerning His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, would be attacked―both during the Protestant Reformation and in our days of Modernism—and that, consequently, the Faith would be placed in grave danger. During the peak years of the of the Church’s medieval splendor, He foresaw our times. Surely no command was ever better fulfilled than that which promised the Church good service by the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi.
In France it survived every civil revolution; its re-establishment has ever been due to the Church’s influence. She is the dove with the olive branch which symbolizes the passing away of the mighty deluge. John Bern Dalgairns, priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, tells us the long-lasting beneficial effects of the feast of Corpus Christi: “The memory of the procession in which, when a child, he scattered flowers before the Blessed Sacrament as it passed through the streets, is a hold on the libertine himself and the pledge of his final conversion. The civil and military pomp displayed is a proof that the country is still Catholic, and the infidel himself compelled to pass the Blessed Sacrament with his head uncovered or to remain within his house bears witness to the fact that the public sphere is Catholic, bearing witness to the triumph of the Blessed Sacrament.”
For a return to those days, should be the sigh and prayer of faithful Catholics in the 21st century.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, historically known by its Latin name, Corpus Christi, celebrates the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday following the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. The feast dates to the Middle-Ages and originated with a visionary nun and a Eucharistic miracle.
Many centuries had passed over the Church of Christ before there was any distinct feast of the Blessed Sacrament. And in the 13th century when Our Lord chose that it should be instituted, He had recourse to a simple nun in a vision to be the instrument of this devotion in His Church. St. Thomas Aquinas was living then, and so was King St. Louis, but God chose neither the learning of the one, nor the royal power of the other, to be the means of executing His desire.
The Providential Instrument
The instrument in the hand of Divine Providence was St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon (also known as St. Juliana of Liège), in Belgium. She was born in 1193, at Retinnes, near Liège. Orphaned at an early age, she was educated by the Augustinian nuns of Mont Cornillon. In time, she made her religious profession and later became Superior of the Augustinian nuns of Mont Cornillon.
St. Juliana was a nun and mystic. Juliana, from her early youth, had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and always longed for a special feast in Its honor. From the age of 16, she began to receive visions when she knelt in prayer. In this series of recurring visions, all of them the same she saw a brilliant moon before her with one small portion obscured and invisible. St. Juliana tried in vain to chase the vision away. Finally Our Lord Himself came to explain it to her. He said it was to show that the liturgical year of the Church would remain incomplete until the Blessed Sacrament had a feast of Its own, and He wished it to be instituted for the following reasons:
The Purpose and Point
(1) So that the Catholic doctrine would receive aid from the institution of this festival at a time when the Faith of the world was growing cold and heresies were rife; (2) that the faithful, who love and seek truth and piety, may be enabled to draw from this source of life new strength and vigor to walk continually in the way of virtue; (3) that irreverence and sacrilegious behavior towards the Divine Majesty in this adorable Sacrament may, by sincere and profound adoration, be extirpated and repaired; (4) to announce to the Christian world His will that the feast be observed.
Terrified Instrument
Fearful, the canoness beseeched Our Lord to be released from the charge. Our Lord answered her that the solemn devotion, which He ordered to be observed, was to be begun by her and to be propagated by the poor and lowly. For 20 years the secret lay hidden in Juliana’s heart; she dared not reveal it to anyone, and yet an interior impulse urged her on so that she could not forget it. So terrible was her repugnance, for the mission assigned to her, that she shed tears of blood over it.
Juliana prayed on the matter as civic unrest and religious controversies raged around her; the city where she lived was lost and won in the waging Guelph/Ghibbelline struggle, sacked by a lawless army, and retaken. Three successive convents were either burned or otherwise destroyed over her head. Twice Juliana, now superior of the Convent and enforcing the strict Augustinian Rule, was forced to flee her convent.
After the second time, she found refuge in a Cistercian convent, then another, and then among the poor Beguines. From there she took up residence in the Cistercian Abbey at Salzinners, and finally at Fosses-les-Villes, where she lived in seclusion until her death. Yet no earthly troubles could make her forget the task that Our Lord had assigned her.
Eventual Courage
At length she revealed the mission to her confessor, and, with her permission, he consulted others, especially Fr. Jacques Pantaléon de Threzis, Archdeacon at the Cathedral of Liège. Fr. Jacques Pantaléon de Threzis was afterwards elected Bishop of Verdun, he then was elected Patriarch of Jerusalem and, at last, the Pontiff of Rome, being called Pope Urban IV.
In 1246, Bishop Robert de Thorete of the Belgian diocese of Liège, was favorably impressed, and, since bishops as yet had the right of ordering feasts for their dioceses, at the suggestion of St. Juliana, convened a synod and instituted the celebration of the feast, to be held in the following year. He also appointed a monk, named John, to write the Office for the occasion. The decree is preserved in Binterim (Denkwürdigkeiten, V, 1, 276), together with parts of the Office. Bishop Robert did not live to see the execution of his order, for he died on October 16th, 1246. Nevertheless, the feast was still celebrated for the first time by the obedient canons of the Cathedral of St. Martin at Liège. From Liège in Belgium, the celebration of the feast began to slowly spread.
From the time it was divulged, it became a public question, and men were sorely divided upon it. Many canons and monks protested against the new devotion and argued that the Daily Sacrifice was sufficient to commemorate the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament ― without a special day being particularly assigned for that purpose.
Juliana's Death Mid-Mission
St. Juliana died, in 1252, before her mission was fully accomplished, yet she had done enough in her lifetime to provide for its execution. In her wanderings, she had met with a few men with devotion and learning to defend and promote the feast of the Blessed Sacrament and they helped to spread the devotion, especially among the simple people.
Meanwhile, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the former Fr. Jacques Pantaléon de Threzis, was elected as Pope Urban IV on August 29th, 1261. There was at that time in Liège a devout recluse, named Eve, in whom St. Juliana had inspired a fervent devotion to the Holy Eucharist, who spent her time in adoration of Our Divine Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She begged the then Bishop of Liège, Heinrich of Guelders, to request Pope Urban IV to extend this beautiful celebration to the entire Catholic world.
The Miracle of Orvieto
In the meantime, in 1263, a German priest, Fr. Peter of Prague, made a pilgrimage to Rome. He stopped in Bolsena, Italy, to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the Church of St. Christina. At that time this priest was suffering a crisis of Faith about the Blessed Sacrament, doubting that Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host. While celebrating Holy Mass above the tomb of St. Christina, he had barely finished saying the words of Consecration, when blood started to seep from the consecrated Host and trickle over his hands, onto the altar and the corporal.
At first the priest attempted to hide the blood, but then he interrupted the Mass and asked to be taken to the neighboring city of Orvieto, where he knew that Pope Urban IV was then residing. Fr. Peter reported this miracle to Pope Urban IV. The Pope listened to the priest’s account and dismissed him. He then sent delegates to conduct an immediate investigation. When all the facts were ascertained, he ordered the Bishop of the Diocese to bring the Host and the linen cloth bearing the stains of blood to Orvieto.
With Archbishops, Cardinals and other Church dignitaries in attendance, the Pope met the procession and, amid great pomp, had the relics placed in the Cathedral. This Eucharistic Miracle confirmed the visions given to St. Juliana. The relics were then placed in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they remain today. The linen corporal, bearing the spots of blood, is still reverently enshrined and exhibited in the Cathedral.
Pope Takes Action
Pope Urban IV, always an admirer of the feast, then published the Papal Bull Transiturus (on September 8th, 1264), which established the Feast of Corpus Christi as a universal feast of the Church. In this Papal Bull, Transituris, after having extolled the love of Our Savior as expressed in the Holy Eucharist, he ordered the annual celebration of Corpus Christi on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, at the same time granting many indulgences to the faithful for the attendance at Mass and at the Liturgical Divine Office.
At the request of Pope Urban IV, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure were asked to compose their own versions of the Office for the new feast (the official prayers of the Church’s Breviary and Missal). When St. Bonaventure saw the version of St. Thomas Aquinas, he was in such awe and admiration of Thomas’ work, that he tore-up his own version and threw it away―before anyone could look at it. This Office for Corpus Christi, by St. Thomas Aquinas, is widely considered one of the most beautiful in the traditional Roman Breviary (the official prayer book of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours), and it is the source of the famous Eucharistic hymns Pange Lingua Gloriosi and Tantum Ergo Sacramentum.
The Spread of the Feast
The death of Pope Urban IV on October 2nd, 1264, shortly after the publication of the decree, somewhat impeded the spread of the new feast. But Pope Clement V again took the matter in hand, and, at the General Council of Vienne (1311), he took the necessary measures to implement the feast of Corpus Christi. His new decree embodied the previous pronouncements of Pope Urban IV, and his successor, Pope John XXII (of Sabbatine Privilege fame), and urged its observance. The Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, which was already held in some places, was endowed with rich indulgences by Popes Martin V and Eugene IV. The bishops of the German Empire were the first to accomplish a uniform observance of the new feast (instituted at Cologne in 1306, at Worms in 1315, and in Strasbourg in 1316). In England it was introduced from continental Europe between 1320 and 1325.
The triumph of the Blessed Sacrament was complete, and the devotion spread throughout the length and breadth of Europe. From that time [until after Vatican II], every church in a Catholic country, from the cathedral of a royal city to the most modest village chapel, kept the festival on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. The procession with the Blessed Sacrament would flow out of the churches into the streets followed by the members of the local authorities and the faithful. Such a Eucharistic procession is the public recognition by the Catholic world of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
According to Canon Law (Can. 944 §1,2) “Wherever in the judgment of the diocesan Bishop it can be done, a procession through the streets is to be held, especially on the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, as a public witness of veneration of the Blessed Eucharist. It is for the diocesan Bishop to establish such regulations about processions as will provide participation in them and for their being carried out in a dignified manner.” Note that such processions can take place throughout the liturgical year but are “especially” encouraged on the feast of Corpus Christi. No other devotion has received such attention in the Code of Canon Law which shows the importance the Church attaches to this feast. It is one of the few feasts which is mentioned along with Holy Days of Obligation: “… the following holy days are to be observed: the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of Mary, the Mother of God, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the feast of St. Joseph, the feast of the Apostles Sts. Peter and Paul, and the feast of All Saints” (Can. 1246 §1).
The Feast of Corpus Christi was later elevated to the rank of a Holy Day of Obligation, one of the ten Holy Days of Obligation in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. In some countries, including the United States, the feast has been transferred to the following Sunday.
Why Not Maundy Thursday?
One would have thought that Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday of Holy Week) would be a fitting feast day. Maundy Thursday, which commemorates the institution of this great treasure—the Holy Eucharist—occurs during Holy Week, a season of sadness, during which the minds of the faithful are expected to be occupied with thoughts of the Lord’s Passion. Moreover, so many other functions took place on this day that the principal event was almost lost sight of. This is mentioned as the chief reason for the introduction of the new feast, in the Bull Transiturus.
Our Lord Foresees Our Need
Prophetically, Our Lord saw that in the future this very doctrine, concerning His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, would be attacked―both during the Protestant Reformation and in our days of Modernism—and that, consequently, the Faith would be placed in grave danger. During the peak years of the of the Church’s medieval splendor, He foresaw our times. Surely no command was ever better fulfilled than that which promised the Church good service by the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi.
In France it survived every civil revolution; its re-establishment has ever been due to the Church’s influence. She is the dove with the olive branch which symbolizes the passing away of the mighty deluge. John Bern Dalgairns, priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, tells us the long-lasting beneficial effects of the feast of Corpus Christi: “The memory of the procession in which, when a child, he scattered flowers before the Blessed Sacrament as it passed through the streets, is a hold on the libertine himself and the pledge of his final conversion. The civil and military pomp displayed is a proof that the country is still Catholic, and the infidel himself compelled to pass the Blessed Sacrament with his head uncovered or to remain within his house bears witness to the fact that the public sphere is Catholic, bearing witness to the triumph of the Blessed Sacrament.”
For a return to those days, should be the sigh and prayer of faithful Catholics in the 21st century.