Friday, March 29, AD 2024 2:08am

Corpus Cristi: A Saint, A Pope and a Miracle

 

(A guest post from Don the Kiwi on the backstory regarding the institution of the feast of Corpus Cristi.)

 

Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of Corpus Cristi, which literally means the body of Christ, in solemn commemoration of the Holy Eucharist.   As with many of the great feasts of the Church there is a fascinating history associated with the establishment of this holy day, which involves a saint and a miracle.

God’s instrument on this occasion was a woman known to history as Saint Juliana of Liege, or Julian of Mount Comillon where she was educated as a girl by the Augustinian nuns at the convent there, after the death of her parents when she was only five.  She was accepted into the order, made her religious profession, and became the mother superior of the convent.

Juliana had an ardent love of Our Lady, and also cultivated an extraordinary devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.  As she grew in her vocation, she increasingly longed for a special feast in honor of the Sacrament.  She had a vision of the Church as a full moon with one dark spot, symbolizing the lack of such a feast.  Juliana expressed her to desire to the Bishop of Liege and the Archdeacon of Liege, who received her request favorably.  In 1246 the Bishop at a synod of bishops from lands now in the country of Belgium, successfully proposed that a feast in honor of the Blessed Eucharist  be instituted in the dioceses respresented at the Synod.  The Archdeacon of Liege, Jacques Pantaleon, in time became the Bishop of Verdun, then Patriarch of Jerusalem, and, on August 29, 1261, was elected Pope under the name of Urban IV.

Shortly after this, in an example of that synchronicity that often reveals the Hand of God in history, one of the great Eucharistic miracles of the Church occurred.  In 1263 Peter of Prague, a German priest, stopped at a town called Bolsena while on pilgrimage to Rome.  He was a pious priest but had difficulty in believing that Christ was truly present in the consecrated host.  While celebrating Mass in the Church of Saint Cristina, he finished saying the words of consecration, when blood started to seep from the consecrated host and trickled over his hands and onto the altar cloth and corporal

Totally bewildered, he at first attempted to hide the blood, but then interrupted the Mass and asked to be taken to the neighboring city of Ovieto where Pope Urban IV was residing.  The Pope listened to the priest’s account and absolved him of the sin of doubt.  He then ordered that the Host and the linen cloths bearing the blood stains be taken to the Cathedral of Ovieto.  The assembled Bishops, Cardinals and other dignitaries formed a procession and with pomp and dignity the Host and altar cloth were installed in the Cathedral, where the linen corporal is on display to this day.

Pope Urban IV was prompted by this miracle to commission Saint Thomas Aquinas to compose a Proper for a Mass and an Office honoring the Holy Eucharist as the Body of Christ.  One year after the miracle, in August 1264, Pope Urban IV introduced the saint’s composition, and instituted, by papal bull, the feast of Corpus Cristi.

After visiting the cathedral of Ovieto, many pilgrims and tourists journey to Saint Christina’s Church in Bolsena to see for themselves the place where the miracle occurred.  From the north aisle of the church pilgrims enter the Chapel of the Miracle, where the stains on the paved floor are said to have been made by the blood from the bleeding Host.  The altar of the miracle, surmounted by a 9th century canopy, is now situated in the grotto of Saint Christina.  A reclining statue of the saint is nearby.  In Aust of 1964, on the 700th anniversary of the institution of the feast of Corpus Cristi, Pope Paul VI celebrated Holy Mass at the altar where the holy corporal is kept in its golden shrine in the Cathedral of Ovieto.

Twelve years later, the same pontiff visited Bolsena and spoke from there via television  to the 41st International Eucharistic Congress, then concluding in Philadelphia.  During his address the Pope spoke of the Eucharist as being “a mystery great and inexhaustible’.

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Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Sunday, June 17, AD 2012 6:59am

Originally, the feast was kept on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, to recall the institution of the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday.

I have been told that there was a fierce debate amongst the French hierarchy, when the government offered them either Ascension Day (Holy Thursday) or Corpus Christi (Le Fête-Dieu or Feast of God) as a public holiday, but not both – A public holiday on a Thursday inevitably means a long weekend, known as “faire le pont” (make the bridge). Ascension Day won and Corpus Christi was transferred to the following Sunday.

The old name does survive and I think it is a splendid one.

Valentin
Valentin
Sunday, June 17, AD 2012 7:08pm

That shows how direct The Holy Spirit is with convincing people of things.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Monday, June 18, AD 2012 10:30pm

St Michael’s near here had a week of Adoration followed by a Eucharistic Procession through several blocks of business and residential to celebrate Corpus Christi– many many participants all week and for the procession and benediction. Praise God.

Mary@42
Mary@42
Wednesday, June 20, AD 2012 1:49am

It is with nostalgia that I remember how we used to celebrate this Great Feast on Thursdays while in Consolata and Loreto Sisters’ Convent Secondary Schools. We were sent the day before the fields around the Schools to collect flowers which we would throw down on the Route where the Procession was taking place. Following Jesus raised on a huge Monstrance stirred such strong emotions in my heart that are unforgettable.

They still stir – even if not so strongly as when I was a teenager – each time I am sitting before the Blessed Sacrament in the Adoration Chapel, during Benediction. It was the same last Sunday, when we took Jesus around the Streets of Nairobi City Centre. Our Holy Family Minor Basilica, the Seat of the Head of the Catholic Church in Kenya, John Cardinal Njue, is smack in the middle of what we call “The City Square”.

Oh my Jesus, may You be adored, worshiped, honoured, praised and loved in all the Tabernacles and Adoration Chapels in all the Catholic Churches all over the world, now and until th end of Time

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Wednesday, June 20, AD 2012 2:57am

Mary@42

In Alsace, Corpus Christi is known as “Kranzeltag,” or “Day of Garlands” from the flowers lining the streets for the procession

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