Articles / Special

Procession during Corpus Christi Feast in Ottersweier, Germany
(Credit : Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, historically known as Corpus Christi, is a major feast day in the Roman Catholic Church that celebrates the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. It serves as a joyful and public honor to the Blessed Sacrament, distinguishing itself from the somber tone of Holy Thursday when the Eucharist was initially instituted. In 2026, the traditional date for the feast is Thursday, June 4, though many dioceses (including those in the United States) transfer the liturgical celebration to Sunday, June 7 to allow full community participation.

Origin

In 1207, a Belgian Augustinian nun, Giuliana di Cornillon, who had just turned fifteen, had a vision of a full moon with a dark spot sullying it. Contemporary experts interpreted it thus: the full moon symbolized the Church, the dark spot was the absence of a specific feast in honour of the Body of the Eucharistic Jesus. The following year, the same religious had an even clearer vision, but had to fight hard to get the feast instituted. She succeeded only at the diocesan level, when Robert de Thourette became bishop of Liège in 1247.

In 1261, the former archdeacon of Liège, Jacques Panteléon, became Pope Urban IV. In 1264, impressed by a Eucharistic miracle that had taken place in Bolsena, near Orvieto in Italy where he was residing, he promulgated the bull Transiturus through which he instituted a new solemnity to be celebrated the Thursday after the Octave of Pentecost in honour of the Blessed Sacrament. Thomas Aquinas was given the task of composing the liturgical office.

Since Pope Urban IV died two months after having instituted the feast, the bull was never implemented, but Pope Clement V, the first Avignon Pope (1312), confirmed it later.

The now traditional procession of Corpus Christi was introduced by Pope John XXII in 1316.

Reflection

This feast calls us to focus on two manifestations of the Body of Christ, the Holy Eucharist and the Church. The primary purpose of this feast is to focus our attention on the Eucharist. The opening prayer at Mass calls our attention to Jesus' suffering and death and our worship of Him, especially in the Eucharist.

At every Mass our attention is called to the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ in it. The secondary focus of this feast is upon the Body of Christ as it is present in the Church. The Church is called the Body of Christ because of the intimate communion which Jesus shares with his disciples. He expresses this in the gospels by using the metaphor of a body in which He is the head. This image helps keep in focus both the unity and the diversity of the Church.

- Article by Catholic Time Staff

Editor's Note : The article was first published on June 11, 2023 and has been updated.