Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body of Christ)
Sanctissimi Corporis Christi
Corpus Christi is the great feast of the Most Holy Body of Christ, on which the Church solemnly adores the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, kept on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.
On the Thursday after Trinity Sunday the Church keeps the feast of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body of Christ, given to the faithful as a day set apart to honour and adore the gift of the Holy Eucharist. What was instituted by Our Lord at the Last Supper, on the night before he suffered, and is renewed at every Mass, the Church here lifts up in a feast of joy and thanksgiving: the abiding presence of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, under the appearances of bread and wine.
The gift of the Eucharist
At the Last Supper the Lord took bread and wine, and said, “This is my Body… this is my Blood,” and gave to his Apostles the command, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The Church believes, as she has always believed, that by these words the bread and wine are truly changed into the Body and Blood of Christ — a change the Church calls transubstantiation — so that under the sacramental veils the whole Christ is really, truly, and substantially present.
Holy Thursday, on which this gift was first bestowed, falls amid the sorrow of the Lord’s Passion, and the mind of the Church on that day is drawn toward Gethsemane and Calvary. The feast of Corpus Christi was therefore appointed so that the faithful might have one day in the year to honour the Blessed Sacrament with undivided gladness — with festal joy, solemn Mass, and the public adoration of the Sacred Host.
The feast and its procession
The feast arose in the thirteenth century. Moved by the desire of holy souls — among them Saint Juliana of Liège — and confirmed by the Eucharistic miracle of Bolsena, Pope Urban IV in the year 1264 extended the feast to the whole Latin Church. He entrusted the composition of its Mass and Office to Saint Thomas Aquinas, who gave the Church those incomparable hymns — the Pange Lingua with its Tantum Ergo, the Lauda Sion, the Verbum Supernum with its O Salutaris — in which sound doctrine and burning love are joined in song.
From of old the feast has been marked by the solemn procession of the Blessed Sacrament, in which the Sacred Host, raised in the monstrance, is carried through the streets that Christ the King may be publicly adored and that his blessing may rest upon the people, their homes, and their fields. The collect of the day, composed by Saint Thomas, prays that we who venerate the sacred mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood may so reverence them as ever to feel within us the fruit of his redemption.
The Collect
O God, who under a wonderful Sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of thy Passion: grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that we may ever feel within us the fruit of thy redemption. Who livest and reignest.
Deus, qui nobis sub Sacraménto mirábili passiónis tuæ memóriam reliquísti: tríbue, quæsumus; ita nos Córporis et Sánguinis tui sacra mystéria venérari, ut redemptiónis tuæ fructum in nobis júgiter sentiámus. Qui vivis et regnas.
Patronage
The feast is dedicated to the adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar this feast is titled the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ; it remains on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, though in many places it is transferred to the following Sunday.
Common Questions
When is Corpus Christi?
Corpus Christi is a movable feast kept on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday — that is, the Thursday following the first Sunday after Pentecost. Its date changes each year with the date of Easter.
What does Corpus Christi celebrate?
It celebrates the Most Holy Body of Christ — the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is a day set apart to adore and give thanks for the gift of the Eucharist, which Christ instituted at the Last Supper.
Why is the Blessed Sacrament carried in procession?
By ancient custom the feast is marked by a solemn procession in which the Sacred Host is carried in a monstrance through the streets, so that Christ the King may be publicly honoured and adored, and that his blessing may rest upon the people and their land. Pope Urban IV extended the feast to the whole Church in 1264, and entrusted its Mass and Office to Saint Thomas Aquinas.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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