Because Faith Matters
2023 Feast of Corpus Christi
The Story Behind the Feast of Corpus Christi
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, historically known by its Latin name, Corpus Christi, celebrates the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday following the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. The feast dates to the Middle Ages and originated with a visionary nun and a Eucharistic miracle.
In 1263 a German priest, Fr. Peter of Prague, made a pilgrimage to Rome. He stopped in Bolsena, Italy, to celebrate Mass at the Church of St. Christina. At the time he was having doubts about Jesus being truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. He was affected by the growing debate among certain theologians who, for the first time in the history of the Church, began introducing doubts about the Body and Blood of Christ being actually present in the consecrated bread and wine. In response to his doubt, when he recited the prayer of consecration as he celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, blood started seeping from the consecrated host and onto the altar and corporal.
Fr. Peter reported this miracle to Pope Urban IV, who at the time was nearby in Orvieto. The pope sent delegates to investigate and ordered that host and blood-stained corporal be brought to Orvieto. The relics were then placed in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they remain today (see photo below).
This Eucharistic Miracle confirmed the visions given to St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon in Belgium (1193-1258). St. Juliana was a nun and mystic who had a series of visions in which she was instructed by Our Lord to work to establish a liturgical feast for the Holy Eucharist, to which she had a great devotion.
After many years of trying, she finally convinced the bishop, the future Pope Urban IV, to create this special feast in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, where none had existed before. Soon after her death, Pope Urban instituted Corpus Christi for the Universal Church and celebrated it for the first time in Orvieto in 1264, a year after the Eucharistic Miracle in Bolsena (read Eucharistic Miracle in Poland Tested and Confirmed by Bishop below).
Inspired by the miracle, Pope Urban commissioned a Dominican friar, St. Thomas Aquinas, to compose the Mass and Office for the feast of Corpus Christi. Aquinas’ hymns in honor of the Holy Eucharist, Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, Panis Angelicus, and O Salutaris Hostia are the beloved hymns the Church sings on the feast of Corpus Christi as well as throughout the year during Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
Pope Francis' Eucharistic Miracle in Argentina
Apr 01, 2013 by Gretchen Filz
Easter is a beautiful time to deepen our devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The Pascal Mystery which we celebrate in a special way during the Easter Triduum—the Passion, death and bodily resurrection of Christ—is daily present to us in the Eucharist. The Church teaches that Jesus is really, truly, and actually there—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—in the Holy Eucharist.
Unfortunately it is all to easy, due to human weakness, to begin to lose our sense of awe, wonder, and adoration of Our Lord in the Eucharist.
A great way to reinvigorate our belief and to encourage devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is by reading accounts of Eucharistic miracles that have occurred throughout the ages of the Church, from the earliest years to modern times. In fact, Jesus gives us these miracles throughout the centuries so that our love for him in the Eucharist will not wane or grow cold.
If you haven’t had the chance to visit a Eucharistic Miracle exhibit, we highly recommend it. You can read many of the accounts online at the Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association website. Click on the “English” tab and scroll down until you see “Miracles by Country”. Each of those hyperlinks opens to a PDF document of various documented, Church-verified accounts of Eucharistic Miracles.
One recent account of a scientifically analyzed Eucharistic Miracle was witnessed by our own Pope Francis while he was Cardinal Bergoglio (see below).
Cardinal Bergoglio's Eucharistic Miracle: Buenos Aires, 1996
Fr. Alejandro Pezet, a priest of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, had finished distributing Communion and was cleaning up the church after Mass when he discovered a discarded host in the back of the church. Whether the individual who had received it during Mass wasn’t Catholic or had left it in the pews for another reason is uncertain, but Fr. Pezet carefully placed the host in a container full of water to allow it to dissolve. Two days later, as he was preparing to dispose of what was left of the host, he uncovered the container only to find that the host appeared to be covered with red blotches of blood.
Confused by what he found, and seeking guidance from the Church, Fr. Pezet reported the matter to the auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio. If this name sounds familiar, it’s because you know this man – he now goes by the name “Pope Francis!” Bishop Bergoglio, after examining the host, ordered that it be observed and photographed. Taken only a few weeks after the host was first discovered, the photographs showed that the host had grown in size, and now had the appearance of bloody flesh. After three years of observation, the host had not shown signs of decomposing, so Bishop Bergoglio asked that it be scientifically analyzed.
In 1999, Dr. Frederick Zugibe, a cardiologist and forensic pathologist, began performing tests on the miraculous host. What he discovered about the composition of the host is truly stunning:
-
The analyzed material appeared to be a fragment of heart muscle typically found in the wall of the left ventricle of the heart, close to the valves.
-
This type of muscle is responsible for the contraction of the heart, and the left ventricle connects nearly all the organ systems by pumping oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
-
The blood found on the sample was indeed human, and type AB, which also matches the blood found on the host of Lanciano and from samples extracted from the Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus.
-
The tissue appeared to be in an inflamed state, and contained a large number of white blood cells, indicating that the heart was alive at the time the sample was taken, since these white blood cells die outside of a living organism.
-
Furthermore, the white blood cells had penetrated the tissue, further indicating that the heart was under severe stress, as if the person themselves had been beaten severely near the chest area.
In an effort to keep the studies as objective as possible, Dr. Zugibe was not informed about the origin of the samples he had analyzed. But after completing the studies, he remarked, “You have to explain one thing to me: If this sample came from a dead person, how could it be that while I was examining it, the cells of the sample were moving and pulsating? If the heart came from someone who died in 1996, how could it still be alive?” When he was informed that the samples had been taken from the miraculous host, he stated, “This will remain an inexplicable mystery to science—a mystery totally beyond her competence.”
As we prepare to celebrate Corpus Christi, perhaps we can take a moment to remember how mysterious and powerful the doctrine of the Eucharist truly is!