TheFeast of Corpus Christi (Ecclesiastical Latin:Dies Sanctissimi Corporis et Sanguinis Domini Iesu Christi,lit. 'Day of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ the Lord'), also known as theSolemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ,[2] is a liturgicalsolemnity celebrating thereal presence of Christ in the Eucharist; the feast is observed by theCatholic Church, in addition to certainWestern Orthodox,Lutheran, andAnglican churches. Two months earlier, the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper is observed onMaundy Thursday in a sombre atmosphere leading toGood Friday. The liturgy on that day also commemorates Christ's washing of the disciples' feet, the institution of the priesthood, and the agony in the Garden ofGethsemane.
The feast of Corpus Christi was proposed byThomas Aquinas,Doctor of the Church, to PopeUrban IV, in order to create a feast focused solely on the Holy Eucharist, emphasizing the joy of the Eucharist being the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity ofJesus Christ. Having recognized in 1264 the authenticity of theEucharistic Miracle of Bolsena, on input of Aquinas,[3][unreliable source?] the pontiff, then living inOrvieto, established the feast of Corpus Christi as a Solemnity and extended it to the whole Catholic Church.[4][5]
The feast is liturgically celebrated on the Thursday afterTrinity Sunday or, "where the Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is not aholy day of obligation, it is assigned to the Sunday after the Most Holy Trinity as its proper day".[6]
The celebration of the feast was suppressed in manyProtestant churches (especially those of a Calvinist persuasion) during theReformation for theological reasons, because it celebrated the doctrine of thereal presence. Though Lutheranism maintained the confession of thecorporeal presence of Christ in the Eucharist via asacramental union, in contrast, theReformed affirmed aspiritual (pneumatic) presence. Today, most Protestant denominations do not recognize the feast day,[8] with exception of certain Lutheran churches and theChurch of England, the latter of which abolished it in 1548 as theEnglish Reformation progressed, but later reintroduced it.[9] Some Anglican churches now observe Corpus Christi, sometimes under the nameThanksgiving for Holy Communion.
The institution of Corpus Christi as a feast in theChristian calendar resulted from approximately forty years of work on the part ofJuliana of Liège, a 13th-centuryNorbertinecanoness, also known as Juliana de Cornillon, born in 1191 or 1192 inLiège, Belgium, a city where there were groups of women dedicated to Eucharistic worship. Guided by exemplary priests, they lived together, devoted to prayer and to charitable works. Orphaned at the age of five, she and her sister Agnes were entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns at the convent and leprosarium of Mont-Cornillon, where Juliana developed a special veneration for theBlessed Sacrament.[10]
She always longed for a feast day outside of Lent in its honour. Her vita reports that this desire was enhanced by a vision of the church under the appearance of the full moon having one dark spot, which signified the absence of such a solemnity.[11][12] In 1208, she reported her firstvision of Christ in which she was instructed to plead for the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi. The vision was repeated for the next 20 years but she kept it a secret. When she eventually relayed it to her confessor, he relayed it to the bishop.[13]
Juliana also petitioned the learned DominicanHugh of St-Cher, andRobert de Thorete,Bishop of Liège. At that timebishops could order feasts in theirdioceses, so Bishop Robert ordered in 1246 a celebration of Corpus Christi to be held in the diocese each year thereafter on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.[14][15][16] The first such celebration occurred atSt Martin's Church in the city that same year.
Hugh of St-Cher travelled to Liège as Cardinal-Legate in 1251 and, finding that the feast was not being observed, reinstated it. In the following year, he established the feast for his whole jurisdiction (Germany, Dacia, Bohemia, and Moravia), to be celebrated on the Thursday after the Octave of Trinity (one week later than had been indicated for Liège), but with a certain elasticity, for he granted an indulgence for all who confessed their sins and attended church "on a date and in a place where [the feast] was celebrated".[17]
Jacques Pantaléon of Troyes was also won over to the cause of the Feast of Corpus Christi during his ministry as Archdeacon in Liège under the diocesan bishopRobert of Thourotte. It was he who, having become Pope asUrban IV in 1264, instituted the Solemnity of Corpus Christi on the Thursday after Pentecost as a feast for the entireLatin Church, by thepapal bullTransiturus de hoc mundo.[10][17] The legend that this act was inspired by a procession to Orvieto in 1263, after a priest,Peter of Prague,[18] and his congregation witnessed aEucharistic miracle of a bleedingconsecrated hostat Bolsena,[16] has been called into question by scholars who note problems in the dating of the miracle, whose tradition begins in the 14th century, and the interests of Urban IV, a former Archdeacon in Liège.[citation needed]
Though this was the first papally imposed universal feast for the Latin Church,[19] it was not widely celebrated for half a century. It was adopted by a number of dioceses in Germany and by theCistercians, and in 1295 was celebrated inVenice.[20] It became a truly universal feast only after the bull of Urban IV was included in the collection of laws known as the Clementines, compiled underPope Clement V, but promulgated only by his successorPope John XXII in 1317.[20][21]
While the institution of the Eucharist is celebrated onHoly (Maundy) Thursday, the liturgy on that day also commemorates Christ'swashing of the disciples' feet, the institution of thepriesthood and theagony in the Garden ofGethsemane. So many other functions took place on this day that the principal event was almost lost sight of. This is mentioned in the BullTransiturus as the chief reason for the introduction of the new feast. Hence, the feast of Corpus Christi was established to create a feast focused solely on the Holy Eucharist.[11]
Three versions of the office for the feast of Corpus Christi in extant manuscripts provide evidence for the Liège origins and voice of Juliana in an original office, which was followed by two later versions of the office. A highly sophisticated and polished version can be found in BNF 1143, a musical manuscript devoted entirely to the feast, upon which there is wide scholarly agreement: the version in BNF 1143 is a revision of an earlier version found in Prague, Abbey of Strahov MS D.E.I. 7, and represents the work ofThomas Aquinas following or during his residency atOrvieto from 1259 to 1265. The office can also be found in the 1343 codexRegimen Animarum.[22]: 13 This liturgy may be used as a votive Mass of the Blessed Sacrament on weekdays in ordinary time.[23] The hymn Aquinas composed forVespers of Corpus Christi,Pange Lingua or another eucharistic hymn, is also used on Maundy Thursday during the procession of the Blessed Sacrament to thealtar of repose.[24]
From 1849 until 1969, a separateFeast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ was assigned originally to the first Sunday in July, later to the first day of the month. This feast was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969, "because the Most Precious Blood of Christ the Redeemer is already venerated in the solemnities of the Passion, of Corpus Christi and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and in the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. But the Mass of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ is placed among the votive Masses".[27]
The feast of Corpus Christi is one of five occasions in the year on which a diocesan bishop is not to be away from his diocese unless for a grave and urgent reason.[28]
In many countries, the day is aholy day of obligation to participate in the celebration ofMass and takes place on the Thursday afterTrinity Sunday. On that day or on the following Sunday, which is the feast day where it is not a holy day of obligation, it is traditional to hold in the streets of a town or in an individualparish a procession with prayers and singing to honor theBlessed Sacrament. During the procession, theconsecrated host is displayed in a monstrance held aloft by a member of the clergy. At the end of the procession,Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is imparted.[29]
A procession inManila, Philippines, where the monstrance is placed on a carriage (carroza), rather than being held by a cleric. TheArchbishop of Manila,CardinalJose Advincula, kneels before the Blessed Sacrament during the entire procession.
Martin Luther spoke out against processing with the consecrated elements, which he viewed as "only play-acting" and "just vain idolatry". In one of hispostils (homilies), he wrote
I am to no festival more hostile … than this one. Because it is the most shameful festival. At no festival are God and his Christ more blasphemed, than on this day, and particularly by the procession. For then people are treating the Blessed Sacrament with such ignominy that it becomes only play-acting and is just vain idolatry. With its cosmetics and false holiness it conflicts with Christ's order and establishment. Because He never commanded us to carry on like this. Therefore, beware of such worship![31]
Many personal opinions of Martin Luther were not adopted by theLutheran Churches, however, and because Lutheranism retained much of the pre-Reformation liturgical and devotional practices, the Lutheran Reformation is generally considered to be the most conservative among the Protestant traditions.[32][33] The Feast of Corpus Christi was retained in the calendars of theLutheran Church until about 1600.[34] Lutherans were recorded to have prominent celebrations of the Feast of Corpus Christi inDessau (1532),Brandenburg (1540), and Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (1548).[35] The Feast of Corpus Christi continues to be celebrated in certain Lutheran churches, particularly those ofEvangelical Catholic churchmanship.[9][36][37]
The celebration of Corpus Christi was abolished in England in 1548.[38][39] However, in theChurch of England, since the 2000 edition of "Common Worship", "the Thursday after Trinity Sunday may be observed as the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion (Corpus Christi)" as one of the church'sFestivals and with a specialliturgy.[40]
The feast is also celebrated by Anglican parishes ofAnglo-Catholic churchmanship, even in provinces of the Anglican Communion that do not officially include it in their calendars.McCausland's Order of Divine Service, the most commonly usedordo in theAnglican Church of Canada, provides lections for the day.[citation needed]
Eucharistic devotion inByzantine rite before introduction of the feast of Holy Eucharist was primarily expressed in the offices of preparation toHoly Communion, that borrow their structure from the liturgical hour ofOrthros (appropriate psalms followed by aCanon and a sequence of prayers). In the most developed form, practiced inold believer communities, the preparation for Communion includes also three minor hours adapted for the occasion.[42]
As both the devotion to the Eucharist and the texts that can be put to liturgical use existed by that time, the Byzantine rite Christians of South Italy who were in communion with the Pope at time ofTransitus de hoc mundo, were quick to arrange them into a new feast that was set on the same date as in the Roman Rite. From the beginning of the 14th century, manuscripts of Grottaferrata liturgical books include the feast of "Holy and Immaculate Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ", with liturgical texts taken from either preparation to Communion prayers, or the preexisting feasts, e.g. Holy Thursday. Over the following centuries, new texts were added to them.[43]
After theUnion of Brest, Ruthenian Greek Catholics gained access to educational institutions in Rome, and became familiar with Italo-Byzantine feast of the Holy and Immaculate Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This liturgical tradition became the foundation of adopting this feast inUkrainian Greek Catholic Church, having the Italo-Greek texts as its core, and adding some new proper compositions. In fact, before the standardization of the texts of the feast around the time of theSynod of Zamoisk, it existed in existed several versions, that shows its "bottom-to-top" origins, as opposed to the idea of it being introduced forcefully by a Latin-minded central authority.[43] The only properly Latin elements of the celebration were the Synaxarion that is adapted from a homily ofThomas Aquinas. In the current use of UGCC, this element is excluded.
Corpus Christi procession inSeville in the 19th century
On the eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, clergy bless Corpus Christi wreaths that are made of flowers.[7] Corpus Christi wreaths and bouquets are often "attached to flags and banners, to houses, and to the arches of green boughs that span the streets."[7] In Christian homes, these Corpus Christi wreaths are suspended on walls or displayed on doors and in windows.[7] Corpus Christi wreaths are also "put up in gardens, fields, and pastures, with a prayer for protection and blessing upon the growing harvest."[7]
Throughout Christendom, "the custom developed of carrying the Blessed Sacrament in a splendid procession through the town after the Mass on Corpus Christi Day."[7] Themonstrance which holds the host is surrounded by a Corpus Christi wreath of flowers.[7] During the procession,church bells are rung and "the faithful kneel in front of their homes to adore the Eucharistic Lord."[7] Along the route in which the procession occurs, Christian homes "are decorated with little birch trees and green boughs", with candles being lit in the windows.[7] Oftentimes, stops are made at various points called "stations" during the procession and "the Blessed Sacrament is put on an altar table" while a Gospel passage is read and hymns are sung, along with prayer being made.[7]
Street carpets for the Feast of Corpus Christi (Tapetes de Corpus Christi) are made of different materials such as coffee grounds, flowers, sand, and salt.[45]
Feast (officially known asTijelovo) is a national holiday and non-working day in Croatia since 2001.[46] Around churches and in the city centers processions are held, headed with priests carrying Blessed Altair Sacrament. They are usually followed by four men carrying a canopy above the Sacrament and children in white who throw flower petals (usually rose) along the way.[46]
In medieval times in many parts of Europe, Corpus Christi was a time for the performance ofmystery plays. Theplays in York, England, were performed on Corpus Christi Day for some 200 years until their suppression in the sixteenth century during the Protestant Reformation.[55]
In the southern highlands of theCusco Region ofPeru, the festival ofQuyllurit'i is held near Corpus Christi in the Sinaqara Valley. As many as 10,000 pilgrims come from neighboring areas. Culminating on Trinity Sunday, this festival marks the return in the sky of thePleiades constellation, known in theQuechua language asQullqa, or "storehouse", as it is associated with the upcoming harvest and New Year. The festival precedes the official feast of Corpus Christi, held the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, but it is closely associated with it.[56]
The official feast on Thursday is a baroque display of religious syncretism betweenCatholicism andIncan traditions. Ten days before the main event, the Virgin of Bethlehem and Saint Joseph are taken in procession to the Church of Santa Clara. On the main day, the Eucharist is celebrated with a special mass and aprocession around themain square, followed by a procession of saint images, including Saint Jerome, Saint Sebastian, Saint Anne, Saint Barbara, Saint James, Saint Blaise, Saint Anthony the Abbot, Saint Christopher, the Virgin of Remedies, the Virgin of the Nativity, the Purified Virgin, the Virgin of Bethlehem, and the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.[57]
The saints remain in theCusco Cathedral for eight days, where they are believed to "debate" the city's future and the behavior of the faithful. Afterward, they have a farewell procession around thePlaza de Armas and return to their respective temples over the following week. The festival also features the consumption of "chiriuchu," a traditional dish.
InSpycimierz in central Poland (Gmina Uniejów), parishioners arrange a carpet of live flowers about one kilometre long. A solemn procession passes over it at 5 pm.[58] Long carpets of flowers are also laid in four parishes in the Opole Voivodeship in southern Poland. Flower carpets tradition for Corpus Christi processions was inscribed on theUNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021.[59]
In Spain, Corpus Christi is celebrated in all dioceses. It has special relevance in Castilla-La Mancha, a community that marks this date as a holiday.[60]
The earliest possible Thursday celebration falls on May 21 (as in 1818 and 2285), the latest on June 24 (as in 1943 and 2038). The Sunday celebration of the feast, introduced in the second half of the 20th century, occurs three days later, between May 24 at earliest (for the first time in 2285) and June 27 at latest (for the first time in 2038). ForWestern Rite Orthodox Christians, since they use theJulian calendar,at least for all Feast Days dependent on the date of Pascha, their date of the celebration of Corpus Christi, translates to, in the Gregorian calendar, from June 3 at the earliest, to July 7, at the latest.
^Vie de Sainte Julienne de Cornillon, edited byJ.-P. Delville, Published by the Institute of Medieval Studies at the Catholic University at Louvain, pp. 120–123
^Phyllis Jestice,Holy people of the world Published by ABC-CLIO, 2004ISBN1-57607-355-6 p. 457
^The decree is preserved inAnton Joseph Binterim,Vorzüglichsten Denkwürdigkeiten der Christkatholischen Kirche (Mainz, 1825–41), together with parts of the firstliturgy written for the occasion.
^Luther Martin:Auslegung von Joh 6. 1530, Kirchenpostille 1521, Tischreden
^Brown, Christopher Boyd (30 June 2009).Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation. Harvard University Press. p. 59-60.ISBN978-0-674-02891-3.Luther's example and influence helped to ensure not only the place of vernacular hymns, but also the preservation of much traditional church music along with the new polyphony; wherever there were Latin schools, Luther desired that the traditional music should be maintained. Though Luther and his followers eliminated some elements of medieval liturgy for theological reasons—especially the canon of the Mass—Lutherans retained not only the structure and texts of the liturgy but also a great many of the associated hymns and music.
^Charles Augustus Briggs, Charles (1912).Protestantism—What It Is and What It is Not. The Homiletic Review. p. 184.Luther, like most great men, said and wrote at times many things that were his own peculiar personal opinions and were not adopted by the Lutheran churches. ... Luther may be regarded as the father of Protestantism. Strictly speaking, he was the most prominent of many fathers; but his personal opinions the Protestant churches do not now stand for, and have never stood for, except so far as they have been appropriated in the Augsburg Confession and other official statements of the three great churches of the Reformation.
^Herl, Joseph (2008).Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism: Choir, Congregation, and Three Centuries of Conflict. Oxford University Press. p. 254.ISBN978-0-19-536584-9.
^"Kristi Legems Fest 2013".YouTube (in Danish). 9 June 2013.Højtidelig fejring af Festen for Kristi Legem i Sankt Ansgar Fællesskabet i Kingos Kirke på Nørrebro i København.
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