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The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Christ

By Fr. Philip Sandstrom


Kraainem (06 June 2006).- 

Festivity Sunday, 18 June. 

This ‘glorious reflection’ on the events of Holy Thursday was celebrated for the first time at Liège in what is now Belgium in 1247. A nun, Saint Juliana of Mont-Cornillon, was insisting that there should be a special feast to honor the holy sacrament of the altar. 

She convinced the Bishop of Liège to allow it and she was aided in her efforts by James Pantaleon, the Archdeacon of Huy. This Archdeacon later became a Bishop in Spain, then a Cardinal, and eventually Pope Urban VI (1261). As Pope he had the authority and so he decided this Solemnity should be celebrated by the whole Western Church. The tradition has it that the texts for the liturgy of this day were prepared by St. Thomas Aquinas op. 

Juliana’s insistence on the necessity of this ‘new solemnity’ and the acceptance of it by the Western Church grows out of the spiritual context of the time – both the 4th Council of the Lateran (1215) which commanded the Easter Communion as a minimum requirement on all Catholic Christians; and the plain fact that our ancestors in the faith held the Eucharist is such awed reverence that they often they went to Communion very few times in their whole lifetime, though most wanted to take Viaticum, the Eucharist given to the dying. 

This Solemnity has been known by various names since its 13th century beginnings: the Feast of the Eucharist, Feast of God, Feast of the Most Precious Sacrament, the Body of Christ (Corpus Christi which was the most common name used by English-speakers), and the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. The outdoor procession, which is its most spectacular manifestation, began in the 14th and 15th centuries in various places. Even today, particularly in Catholic parts of Germany and Switzerland, the procession’s path is covered with a ‘flower carpet’ with often very intricate traditional designs, and has become an expression for faith, but also an attraction for tourists. 

Nowadays this Solemnity is usually held on a Sunday and is the last of the Sunday group of Solemnities which follow Pentecost.

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