Corpus Christi (feast)
| Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ | |
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Corpus Christi procession. Oil on canvas by Carl Emil Doepler
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| Also called | Corpus Domini |
| Observed by | as a public holiday in Austria, Brazil, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Haiti, East Timor, parts of Germany, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, parts of Spain and Switzerland, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago |
| Date | Thursday after Trinity Sunday; 60 days after Easter, or the Sunday immediately following this |
| 2017 date | June 15 |
| 2018 date | May 31 |
| 2019 date | June 20 |
| 2020 date | June 11 |
| Frequency | annual |
Rock of the Eucharistic Miracle in Bolsena 1263
The feast is liturgically celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or, "where the Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is not a holy day of obligation, it is assigned to the Sunday after the Most Holy Trinity as its proper day".[1]
At the end of Holy Mass, there is often a procession of the Blessed Sacrament, generally displayed in a monstrance. The procession is followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. A notable Eucharistic procession is that presided over by the Pope each year in Rome, where it begins at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran and passes to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where it concludes with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
The celebration of the feast was suppressed in Protestant churches during the Reformation, because they do not hold to the teachings of transubstantiation. Depending on the denomination, Protestant churches instead believe in differing views concerning the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, or that Christ is symbolically or metaphorically part of the eucharist. Today, most Protestant denominations do not recognize the feast.[2] The Church of England abolished it in 1548 as the English Reformation progressed, but later reintroduced it.
Contents
History
St. Juliana of Liège
Stained glass window in the Saint Mary Basilica in Tongeren
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.[4][5] 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.[6]
Juliana also petitioned the learned Dominican Hugh of St-Cher, and Robert de Thorete, Bishop of Liège. At that time bishops could order feasts in their dioceses, 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.[7][8][9]
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".[10]
Jacques Pantaléon of Troyes was also won over to the cause of the Feast of Corpus Christi during his ministry as Archdeacon in Liège. It was he who, having become Pope as Urban IV in 1264, instituted the Solemnity of Corpus Christi on the Thursday after Pentecost as a feast for the entire Latin Church, by the papal bull Transiturus de hoc mundo.[3][11] The legend that this act was inspired by a procession to Orvieto in 1263, after a village priest in Bolsena and his congregation witnessed a Eucharistic miracle of a bleeding consecrated host at Bolsena,[9] has been called into question by scholars who note problems in the dating of the alleged miracle, whose tradition begins in the 14th century, and the interests of Urban IV, a former Archdeacon in Liège. Though this was the first papally imposed universal feast for the Latin Church,[12] it was not in fact widely celebrated for half a century, although it was adopted by a number of dioceses in Germany and by the Cistercians, and in 1295 was celebrated in Venice.[13] 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 under Pope Clement V, but promulgated only by his successor Pope John XXII in 1317.[13][14]
While the institution of the Eucharist is celebrated on Holy (Maundy) Thursday, 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 of Gethsemane. So many other functions took place on this day that the principal event was almost lost sight of. This is mentioned in the Bull Transiturus 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.[4]
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 of St. Thomas Aquinas following or during his residency at Orvieto from 1259 to 1265. The office can also be found in the 1343 codex Regimen Animarum.[15]:13 This liturgy may be used as a votive Mass of the Blessed Sacrament on weekdays in ordinary time.[16] The hymn Aquinas composed for Vespers of Corpus Christi, Pange Lingua or another eucharistic hymn, is also used on Maundy Thursday during the procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the altar of repose.[17] The last two verses of Pange Lingua are also used as a separate hymn, Tantum Ergo, which is sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. O Salutaris Hostia, another hymn sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, comprises the last two verses of Verbum Supernum Prodiens, Aquinas' hymn for Lauds of Corpus Christi. Aquinas also composed the propers for the Mass of Corpus Christi, including the sequence Lauda Sion Salvatorem. The epistle reading for the Mass was taken from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11:23-29), and the Gospel reading was taken from the Gospel of John (John 6:56-59).
Silver-gilt Corpus Christi monstrance of Toledo, Spain
From 1849 until 1969, a separate Feast 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".[20]
Celebration
Roman Catholic Church
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.[21]
Procession in Ottersweier, Germany
Anglicanism
The celebration of Corpus Christi was abolished in England in 1548.[23][24] The Church of England always keeps the celebration, known also as The Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion (Corpus Christi). This is assigned the status of a Festival.[25] The feast is also celebrated by 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.Lutheranism
Martin Luther spoke out against transubstantiation as well as the elevation (ritual raising) of the consecrated elements. He was further mortified by Corpus Christi as he believed the festival was idolizing the sacramental bread. In one of his postils (homilies), he wroteI 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![26]The feast was retained in the calendars of the Lutheran Church until about 1600.[27]
Calvinism
Like Lutherans, followers of the Reformed tradition do not observe the feast.[28]Other churches
Corpus Christi is also celebrated by the Old Catholic Church, the Liberal Catholic Church and by some Western Rite Orthodox Christians. It is commemorated in the liturgical calendars of the more Latinized Eastern Catholic Churches.Folk celebrations
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In Catalonia, Corpus Cristi is celebrated with the tradition of the dancing egg. There is evidence this tradition dates from the 16th century.
In the village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos, the celebration includes the practice of El Colacho (baby jumping).
In the southern highlands of the Cusco Region of Peru, the festival of Quyllurit'i is held near Corpus Cristi 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 the Pleiades constellation, known in the Quechua language as Qullqa, or "storehouse", as it is associated with the upcoming harvest and New Year.
Date
Corpus Christi is a moveable feast, celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday[4] or, in countries where it is not a holy day of obligation, on the following Sunday.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 celebrations occur three days later.
Corpus Christi is a public holiday in some countries with a predominantly Catholic population including, amongst others, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Haiti, (Jerusalem) Israel, parts of Germany, Grenada, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, parts of Puerto Rico, San Marino, Spain, parts of Switzerland, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, parts of the United States, and Venezuela.[citation needed]
See also
- Adoro te devote
- Baby Jumping
- Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary
- Feast of the Sacred Heart
- Lauda Sion
- Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium
- Sacris solemniis
- Spello's Infiorate
- Verbum Supernum Prodiens
- Dancing devils of Corpus Christi
- List of festivals in Costa Rica
References
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Corpus Christi, Feast of". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 193.
