Corpus Christi (feast)

Corpus Christi, Latin for Body of Christ is a Latin Rite solemnity. It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Liberal Catholic Churches. It does not commemorate a particular event in Jesus' life but celebrates the Body of Christ, consecrated in the Mass. It is held on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or, in some places, on the following Sunday. Its celebration on a Thursday is meant to associate it with the institution by Jesus of the Eucharist during the Last Supper, commemorated on Maundy Thursday, but because the primary focus of Maundy Thursday is the institution of the Eucharist and not a veneration of the Real Presence of Christ in the consecrated elements of bread and wine, Corpus Christi is observed after the fifty days of Easter are over. Therefore, when the feast of Corpus Christi was introduced it was placed on the first free Thursday after Eastertide. (With the abolition of the octave of Pentecost, it is now the second free Thursday after Eastertide.) In the Mass of Paul VI, the feast is officially known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

In many English-speaking countries, Corpus Christi is transferred to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday by both Roman Catholics and Anglicans. At the end of the Mass, it is customary to have a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Celebration

Corpus Christi is primarily celebrated by the Catholic Church, but it is also included in the calendar of a few Anglican churches, most notably the Church of England. The feast is also celebrated by some Anglo-Catholic parishes 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 used ordo in the Anglican Church of Canada, provides lections for the day. In English-speaking Roman Catholic parishes that use the Mass of Paul VI, the feast is known as "the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ". In the Church of England it is known as The Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion (Corpus Christi) and has the status of a Festival. Although its observance is optional, where kept it is typically celebrated as a major holy day. It is also celebrated by the Old Catholic Church and by some Western Rite Orthodox Christians, and is commemorated in the liturgical calendars of the more Latinized Eastern Catholic Churches. The feast was retained in the calendars of the Lutheran Church up until about 1600., but today, it continues to be celebrated by some Lutheran congregations.

In medieval times in many parts of Europe Corpus Christi was a time for the performance of mystery plays.

Date

Corpus Christi procession by ships on the Rhine called "Mülheimer Gottestracht" in Cologne, Germany, 2005

The Feast of Corpus Christi, which is a moveable feast, is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or, in countries where it is not a Holy Day of Obligation, on the Sunday after Holy Trinity.

The earliest possible Thursday celebration falls on 21 May (as in 1818 and 2285), the latest on 24 June (as in 1943 and 2038). The Sunday celebrations fall three days later.

The Thursday dates until 2022 are:

23 June 2011

7 June 2012

30 May 2013

19 June 2014

4 June 2015

26 May 2016

15 June 2017

31 May 2018

20 June 2019

11 June 2020

3 June 2021

16 June 2022

Corpus Christi is a public holiday in some traditionally Roman Catholic countries including amongst others Austria, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, East Timor, parts of Germany, Liechtenstein, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, parts of Spain and Switzerland, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

History

The appearance of Corpus Christi as a feast in the Christian calendar was primarily due to the petitions of the thirteenth-century Augustinian nun Juliana of Liège. From her early youth Juliana had a veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and always longed for a special feast in its honour. This desire is said to have been increased 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. In 1208 she reported her first vision 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.

Juliana also petitioned the learned Dominican Hugh of St-Cher, Jacques Pantaléon (Archdeacon of Liège who later became Pope Urban IV) and Robert de Thorete, Bishop of Liège. At that time bishops could order feasts in their dioceses, so in 1246 Bishop Robert convened a synod and ordered a celebration of Corpus Christi to be held each year thereafter.

The celebration of Corpus Christi became widespread only after both St. Juliana and Bishop Robert de Thorete had died. In 1263 Pope Urban IV investigated claims of a Eucharistic miracle at Bolsena, in which a consecrated host began to bleed. In 1264 he issued the papal bull Transiturus de hoc mundo in which Corpus Christi was made a feast throughout the entire Latin Rite. This was the very first papally sanctioned universal feast in the history of the Latin Rite.

While the institution of the Eucharist is celebrated on Holy (Maundy) Thursday, the liturgy on that day also commemorates Christ's New Commandment ("A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you." John 13:34), the washing of the disciples' feet, the institution of the priesthood and the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. For this reason, the Feast of Corpus Christi was established to create a feast focused solely on the Holy Eucharist.