Feast of Corpus Christi

File:Rock of the Eucharistic Miracle in Bolsena 1253.png (1263)]]

File:Tongeren Liebfrauenbasilika Fenster Herzenstausch 740.JPG in Tongeren]]

The institution of Corpus Christi as a feast in the Christian calendar resulted from approximately forty years of work on the part of Juliana of Liège, a 13th-century Norbertine canoness, also known as Juliana de Cornillon, born in 1191 or 1192 in Liège, Belgium, a city where there were groups of women dedicated to Eucharistic worship. Guided by exemplary priests, they lived together, devoted to prayer and to charitable works. Orphaned at the age of five, she and her sister Agnes were entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns at the convent and leprosarium of Mont-Cornillon, where Juliana developed a special veneration for the Blessed Sacrament.{{cite web|url=http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/st-juliana-the-nun-who-gave-us-the-feast-of-corpus-christi |title=Benedict XVI. "St. Juliana: the Nun Who Gave Us the Feast of Corpus Christi", general audience address of Nov. 17, 2010, which he dedicated to St. Juliana |date=30 May 2013 |publisher=Zenit.org |access-date=23 January 2014}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04390b.htm |title=Mershman, Francis. "Feast of Corpus Christi." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 17 Jun. 2013 |publisher=Newadvent.org |access-date=23 January 2014}}Vie de Sainte Julienne de Cornillon, edited by J.-P. Delville, Published by the Institute of Medieval Studies at the Catholic University at Louvain, pp. 120–123 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.Phyllis Jestice, Holy people of the world Published by ABC-CLIO, 2004 {{ISBN|1-57607-355-6}} p. 457

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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=jEPPw4C6eLAC&q=Walters+Corpus+Christi Barbara R. Walters, The Feast of Corpus Christi] (Penn State Press 2006 {{ISBN|978-0-271-04831-4}}), p. 9The decree is preserved in Anton Joseph Binterim, Vorzüglichsten Denkwürdigkeiten der Christkatholischen Kirche (Mainz, 1825–41), together with parts of the first liturgy written for the occasion.{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Corpus Christi, Feast of|volume=7|page=193}} The first such celebration occurred at St Martin's Church in the city that same year.

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".Walters (2006), p. 12

Jacques Pantaléon of Troyes was also won over to the cause of the Feast of Corpus Christi during his ministry as Archdeacon in Liège under the diocesan bishop Robert of Thourotte. 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. The legend that this act was inspired by a procession to Orvieto in 1263, after a priest Peter of Prague{{Cite web |last=Wright |first=Will |date=2020-06-09 |title=How One Priest's Doubt Led To The Feast Of Corpus Christi |url=https://catholic-link.org/how-one-priests-doubt-led-to-the-feast-of-corpus-christi/ |access-date=2023-04-04 |website=Catholic-Link |language=en-US}} and his congregation witnessed a Eucharistic miracle of a bleeding consecrated host at Bolsena, has been called into question by scholars who note problems in the dating of the miracle, whose tradition begins in the 14th century, and the interests of Urban IV, a former Archdeacon in Liège.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

Though this was the first papally imposed universal feast for the Latin Church,Oxford History of Christian Worship by Geoffrey Wainwright, Oxford University Press 2006 {{ISBN|0-19-513886-4}}, p. 248 it was not widely celebrated for half a century. It was adopted by a number of dioceses in Germany and by the Cistercians, and in 1295 was celebrated in Venice.[https://books.google.com/books?id=1omCADFf-NYC&pg=PA182 Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture] (Cambridge University Press 1991 {{ISBN|978-0-52143805-6}}), pp. 181–182 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.Walters (2006), p. 13

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.

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 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.{{cite journal|last1=Mathiesen|first1=Thomas J.|title="The Office of the New Feast of Corpus Christi" in the Regimen Animarum at Brigham Young University |journal=The Journal of Musicology|date=Winter 1983|volume=2|issue=1|pages=13–44|jstor=763576 |doi=10.2307/763576 |doi-access=free }}{{rp|13}} This liturgy may be used as a votive Mass of the Blessed Sacrament on weekdays in ordinary time.General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 375 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.Roman Missal, Mass of the Lord's Supper, 38

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 ({{Bibleverse|1|Corinthians|11:23–29|KJV}}), and the Gospel reading was taken from the Gospel of John ({{Bibleverse||John|6:56–59|KJV}}).

File:TOLEDO POR DRUIDA CATEDRAL CUSTODIAS EN ORO MAZIZO 2-1-2007.jpg of Toledo, Spain]]

When Pope Pius V revised the General Roman Calendar (see Tridentine calendar), Corpus Christi was one of only two "feasts of devotion" that he kept, the other being Trinity Sunday.Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 66 In that calendar, Corpus Christi was celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.Manlio Sodi, Achille Maria Triacca (editors), Missale Romanum: Editio Princeps (1570) (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1998 {{ISBN|978-88-209-2547-5}}), pp. 399–401 The feast had an octave until 1955, when Pope Pius XII suppressed all octaves, even in local calendars, except those of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost (see General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII).

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".Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 128

File:Ottersweier-Fronleichnam-30-Maria Linden-Prozession-gje.jpg, Germany]]

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.[https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann368-430_en.html#Art._2 Code of Canon Law, canon 395 §3]

In many countries, the day is a holy day of obligation to participate in the celebration of Mass and takes place on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. On that day or on the following Sunday, which is the feast day where it is not a holy day of obligation, it is traditional to hold in the streets of a town or in an individual parish a procession with prayers and singing to honor the Blessed Sacrament. During the procession, the consecrated host is displayed in a monstrance held aloft by a member of the clergy. At the end of the procession, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is imparted.{{cite web|url=http://brooklyneagle.com/articles/brooklyns-catholic-churches-celebrate-feast-corpus-christi-2013-06-03-173000 |title=Katinas, Paula. "Brooklyn's Catholic churches celebrate Feast of Corpus Christi"|publisher=Brooklyneagle.com |date=3 June 2013 |access-date=23 January 2014}}

File:Corpus Christi Procession (005) 2023-06-11.jpg, Philippines, where the monstrance is placed on a carriage (carroza), rather than being held by a cleric. The Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Jose Advincula, kneels before the Blessed Sacrament during the entire procession.]]

A notable procession in the Philippines is that of the Archdiocese of Manila. The archbishop celebrates a mid-afternoon Mass at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Santa Cruz before presiding over a procession to the Manila Cathedral.{{Cite news|title=IN PHOTOS: Celebrating Corpus Christi, the great Catholic feast of self-giving |url=https://www.rappler.com/nation/photos-feast-corpus-christi-archdiocese-manila-2023/ |work=Rappler |date=11 June 2023 |access-date=27 May 2024 |first=Paterno R., II |last=Esmaquel}}

Martin Luther spoke out against processing with the consecrated elements, which he viewed as "only play-acting" and "just vain idolatry". In one of his postils (homilies), he wrote

{{blockquote|I 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!Luther Martin: Auslegung von Joh 6. 1530, Kirchenpostille 1521, Tischreden}}

Many personal opinions of Martin Luther were not adopted by the Lutheran Churches, however, and because Lutheranism retained much of the pre-Reformation liturgical and devotional practices, the Lutheran Reformation is generally considered to be the most conservative among the Protestant traditions.{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Christopher Boyd |title=Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation |date=30 June 2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02891-3 |page=59-60 |language=en |quote=Luther's example and influence helped to ensure not only the place of vernacular hymns, but also the preservation of much traditional church music along with the new polyphony; wherever there were Latin schools, Luther desired that the traditional music should be maintained. Though Luther and his followers eliminated some elements of medieval liturgy for theological reasons—especially the canon of the Mass—Lutherans retained not only the structure and texts of the liturgy but also a great many of the associated hymns and music.}}{{cite book |first1=Charles |last1=Charles Augustus Briggs |title=Protestantism—What It Is and What It is Not |date=1912 |publisher=The Homiletic Review |page=184 |language=en |quote=Luther, like most great men, said and wrote at times many things that were his own peculiar personal opinions and were not adopted by the Lutheran churches. ... Luther may be regarded as the father of Protestantism. Strictly speaking, he was the most prominent of many fathers; but his personal opinions the Protestant churches do not now stand for, and have never stood for, except so far as they have been appropriated in the Augsburg Confession and other official statements of the three great churches of the Reformation. |author1-link=Charles Augustus Briggs }} The Feast of Corpus Christi was retained in the calendars of the Lutheran Church until about 1600.Frank Senn: Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical, Fortress Press, 1997. p. 344. {{ISBN|0-8006-2726-1}} Lutherans were recorded to have prominent celebrations of the Feast of Corpus Christi in Dessau (1532), Brandenburg (1540), and Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (1548).{{cite book |last1=Herl |first1=Joseph |title=Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism: Choir, Congregation, and Three Centuries of Conflict |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-536584-9 |page=254 |language=en}} The Feast of Corpus Christi continues to be celebrated in certain Lutheran churches, particularly those of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship.{{cite web |title=Kristi Legems Fest 2013 | website=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlLw73ptR7I |language=Danish |date=9 June 2013 |quote=Højtidelig fejring af Festen for Kristi Legem i Sankt Ansgar Fællesskabet i Kingos Kirke på Nørrebro i København.}}{{cite web |title=Feast of Corpus Christi at Trinity Lutheran Bedford |url=https://www.youtube.com/live/5mL6sadPslY |publisher=Trinity Lutheran Church |access-date=18 February 2025 |location=Bedford County, Pennsylvania |date=19 June 2022}}

The celebration of Corpus Christi was abolished in England in 1548.{{cite book|editor-last=King|editor-first=John N.|title= Voices of the English Reformation: A Sourcebook| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rUwsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA181 |page=181 |year=2004| publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-0080-5}}{{cite book| first=Margaret| last=Rogerson| title=The York Mystery Plays: Performance in the City| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=47YthRtCpCcC&pg=PA6 | year=2011| publisher= York Medieval Press| isbn=978-1-903153-35-2}} However, in the Church of England since the 2000 edition of "Common Worship," "the Thursday after Trinity Sunday may be observed as The Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion (Corpus Christi)" as one of the church's Festivals and with a special liturgy.[https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/festivals/day-thanksgiving-institution-holy-communion-corpus-christi#block-cofe-content The Church of England: Festivals]

The feast is also celebrated by Anglican parishes of Anglo-Catholic churchmanship, 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.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Corpus Christi is also celebrated by the Old Catholic Church, the Liberal Catholic Church and by some Western Rite Orthodox Christians.

Followers of the Reformed tradition (including the Continental Reformed, Presbyterian and Congregationalist denominations) do not observe the feast.{{Cite web|url=https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2017/04/protestant-sacred-space|title = Protestant Sacred Space|date = 4 April 2017}}

Eucharistic devotion in Byzantine rite before introduction of the feast of Holy Eucharist was primarily expressed in the offices of preparation to Holy communion, that borrow their structure from the liturgical hour of Orthos (appropriate psalms followed by a Canon and a sequence of prayers). In the most developed form, practiced in old believer communities, the preparation for Communion includes also three minor hours adapted for the occasion.{{Cite web |title=Святое Причастие (Holy Communion) |url=https://ruvera.ru/prichastie}}

As both the devotion to the Eucharist and the texts that can be put to liturgical use existed by that time, the Byzantine rite Christians of South Italy who were in communion with the Pope at time of Transitus de hoc mundo, were quick to arrange them into a new feast that was set on the same date as in the Latin rite. From the beginning of the 14th century, manuscripts of Grottaferrata liturgical books include the feast of "Holy and Immaculate Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ", with liturgical texts taken from either preparation to Communion prayers, or the preexisting feasts, e.g. Holy Thursday. Over the following centuries, new texts were added to them.{{Cite journal |last=Takala-Roszczenko |first=Maria |date=2013 |title=The 'Latin' within the 'Greek': The Feast of the Holy Eucharist in the Context of Ruthenian Eastern Rite Liturgical Evolution in the 16th-18th Centuries |url=https://www.academia.edu/7211890 |journal=Publications of the University of Eastern Finland |volume=Dissertations in Education, Humanities, and Theology |issue=50 |pages=123, 146–157}}

After the Union of Brest, Ruthenian Greek Catholics gained access to educational institutions in Rome, and became familiar with Italo-Byzantine feast of the Holy and Immaculate Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This liturgical tradition became the foundation of adopting this feast in Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, having the Italo-Greek texts as its core, and adding some new proper compositions. In fact, before the standardization of the texts of the feast around the time of the Synod of Zamoisk, it existed in existed several versions, that shows its "bottom-to-top" origins, as opposed to the idea of it being introduced forcefully by a Latin-minded central authority. The only properly Latin elements of the celebration were the Synaxarion that is adapted from a homily of Thomas Aquinas and the procession with the Holy Gifts. In the current use of UGCC, both of these elements are excluded.

File:La procesión del Corpus en Sevilla, de Manuel Cabral (Museo del Prado).jpg in the 19th century]]

On the eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, clergy bless Corpus Christi wreaths that are made of flowers. Corpus Christi wreaths and bouquets are often "attached to flags and banners, to houses, and to the arches of green boughs that span the streets." In Christian homes, these Corpus Christi wreaths are suspended on walls or displayed on doors and in windows. Corpus Christi wreaths are also "put up in gardens, fields, and pastures, with a prayer for protection and blessing upon the growing harvest."

Throughout Christendom, "the custom developed of carrying the Blessed Sacrament in a splendid procession through the town after the Mass on Corpus Christi Day."{{cite book |last1=Weiser |first1=Francis X. |title=The Holyday Book |date=1956 |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Company |page=57}} The monstrance which holds the host is surrounded by a Corpus Christi wreath of flowers. During the procession, church bells are rung and "the faithful kneel in front of their homes to adore the Eucharistic Lord." Along the route in which the procession occurs, Christian homes "are decorated with little birch trees and green boughs", with candles being lit in the windows. Oftentimes, stops are made at various points called "stations" during the procession and "the Blessed Sacrament is put on an altar table" while a Gospel passage is read and hymns are sung, along with prayer being made.

Corpus Christi is not only a high festival of the Catholic church year in Austria, but also a public holiday. This is always celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity, which means it can take place between May 21 and June 24.{{cite web |title=Fronleichnam |url=https://kalender12.at/fronleichnam-h0580 |website=www.kalender12.at |access-date=January 23, 2024}}

Street carpets for the Feast of Corpus Christi ({{lang|pt|Tapetes de Corpus Christi}}) are made of different materials such as coffee grounds, flowers, sand, and salt.[https://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Rio/0,,MUL532871-5606,00-FIEIS+MONTAM+KM+DE+TAPETE+EM+SAO+GONCALO.html Fiéis montam 4 km de tapete em São Gonçalo]

In Croatian language, there are various names for the Feast: Brašančevo (after hypocorism brašance of the noun brašno, meaning "flour"; dating from 18th century and used in Požega area,{{sfn|Dragić|2019|p=64}} Otok, Varoš,{{Cite journal|last=Lukić|first=Luka|title=Varoš. Narodni život i običaji|place=Zagreb|journal= Zbornik za narodni život i običaje|volume=XXV|page=298|language=hr}} Sikirevci{{Cite book|last=Marković|first=Josip|year=1986|page=77|place=Sikirevci|title=Običajnik župe Sikirevci|language=hr}} and southern Baranja,{{Cite journal|last=Sekereš|first=Stjepan|year=1977|title=Govor Hrvata u južnoj Baranji|journal=Hrvatski dijalektološki zbornik|volume=4|place=Zagreb|page=426|language=hr|issn=2459-4849|url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/clanak/300985}} Luč, as well among Croats of Vojvodina and Herzegovina{{Cite journal|last=Vulić|first=Sanja|title=Blagdani i spomendani u zapisima Josipa Lovretića (pučka imena, nazivlje, poslovice i uzrečice)|trans-title=Holidays and remembrance days in Josip Lovretić's writings (folk names, terminology, proverbs and sayings)|journal=Folia onomastica Croatica|volume=25|year=2016|page=186|doi=10.21857/mzvkptx7d9|doi-access=free}}) with variations (Brošančevo, Brešančevo), Korosante (from Latin Corpo Sancto; used in Dubrovnik area and Pelješac),{{sfn|Dragić|2019|p=65}}{{Cite web|url=https://dubrovackidnevnik.net.hr/vijesti/grad/danas-su-korosante-znate-li-zasto-su-za-dubrovnik-posebno-vazne|title=Danas su Korosante, znate li zašto su za Dubrovnik posebno važne?|publisher=Dubrovački dnevnik|date=8 June 2023|language=hr}} Božji dan (Božji don; literally "Lord's Day") and Božji blagdan (lit. "Lord's/God's Feast").{{Cite web|url=https://www.vecernji.ba/vijesti/danas-je-tijelovo-znate-li-sto-zapravo-obiljezavamo-ovim-blagdanom-1327193|work=Večernji list (Bosna i Hercegovina)|title=Danas je Tijelovo. Znate li što zapravo obilježavamo ovim blagdanom?|date=20 June 2019|language=hr}}

Feast (officially known as Tijelovo) is a national holiday and non-working day in Croatia since 2001.{{cite web|url=https://www.expatincroatia.com/corpus-christi-tijelovo/|title=Feast of Corpus Christi in Croatia – Tijelovo|last=Tkalec|first=Marija|website=expatincroatia.com|date=31 May 2021 }} Around churches and in the city centers processions are held, headed with priests carrying Blessed Altair Sacrament. They are usually followed by four men carrying a canopy above the Sacrament and children in white who throw flower petals (usually rose) along the way.

In medieval times in many parts of Europe, Corpus Christi was a time for the performance of mystery plays. The plays in York, England, were performed on Corpus Christi Day for some 200 years until their suppression in the sixteenth century during the Protestant Reformation.{{cite book| title= York Mystery Plays: A Selection in Modern Spelling| first1= Richard| last1= Beadle| first2=Pamela M| last2= King| year= 1999| publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-283710-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MBY-XnjWSA4C&q=beadle}}

In the southern highlands of the Cusco Region of Peru, the festival of Quyllurit'i is held near Corpus Christi 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. The festival precedes the official feast of Corpus Christi, held the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, but it is closely associated with it.[https://books.google.com/books?id=Erl4gR5Kw30C&dq=el+turno+de+las+Pleyades&pg=PA198 Antoinette Molinié Fioravanti, Celebrando el Cuerpo de Dios (Corpus Christi Festival)], Fondo Editorial PUCP, 1999, pp. 197–198{{in lang|es}}

File:9 SAN BLAS.jpg procession in the Plaza de Armas]]

The official feast on Thursday is a baroque display of religious syncretism between Catholicism and Incan traditions. Ten days before the main event, the Virgin of Bethlehem and Saint Joseph are taken in procession to the Church of Santa Clara. On the main day, the Eucharist is celebrated with a special mass and a procession around the main square, followed by a procession of saint images, including Saint Jerome, Saint Sebastian, Saint Anne, Saint Barbara, Saint James, Saint Blaise, Saint Anthony the Abbot, Saint Christopher, the Virgin of Remedies, the Virgin of the Nativity, the Purified Virgin, the Virgin of Bethlehem, and the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.{{Cite book |title=Gran enciclopedia del Perú |publisher=Lexus Editores |year=1998 |isbn=9972-625-13-3 |location=Lima |trans-title=Great encyclopedia of Peru}}

The saints remain in the Cusco Cathedral for eight days, where they are believed to "debate" the city's future and the behavior of the faithful. Afterward, they have a farewell procession around the Plaza de Armas and return to their respective temples over the following week. The festival also features the consumption of "chiriuchu," a traditional dish.

File:Kwiatowe_dywany_Spycimierz_Polska_OK.jpg

In Spycimierz in central Poland (Gmina Uniejów), parishioners arrange a carpet of live flowers about one kilometre long. A solemn procession passes over it at 5 pm.{{Cite web|url=https://spycimierskiebozecialo.pl/en/tradycje-en/history-of-tradition/|title = History of the tradition}} Long carpets of flowers are also laid in four parishes in the Opole Voivodeship in southern Poland. Flower carpets tradition for Corpus Christi processions was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021."Elements inscribed in 2021 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/flower-carpets-tradition-for-corpus-christi-processions-01743

In Spain, Corpus Christi is celebrated in all dioceses. It has special relevance in Castilla-La Mancha, a community that marks this date as a holiday.[https://calendario12.es/corpus-christi-h094 Corpus Christi]

The celebrations in Seville are depicted in a section of Iberia, the masterpiece of the composer Albéniz.

Corpus Christi is one of the main festivals in Toledo, Spain.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

In the village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos, the celebration includes the practice of El Colacho (baby jumping).{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7419655.stm|publisher=BBC News – Europe |title= Spanish village holds baby jump|work=bbc.co.uk|date=25 May 2008 }}

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In Catalonia, Corpus Christi is celebrated with the tradition of the dancing egg. There is evidence this tradition dates from the 16th century.[http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticia/2430714/20070607/noticia.html VilaWeb TV: L'Ou com Balla a Ca l'Ardiaca] {{in lang|ca}}

The Patum de Berga is a popular and traditional festival that is celebrated each year in the Catalan city of Berga (Barcelona) during Corpus Christi. It consists of a series of "dances" (balls) by townspeople dressed as mystical and symbolical figures. The balls are marked by their solemnity and their ample use of fire and pyrotechnics. It was declared a Traditional Festival of National Interest by the Generalitat de Catalunya in 1983, and as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005.[http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/patum-of-berga-00156?request_uri=%2Fculture%2Fich%2Ffr%2FRL%2Fla-patum-de-berga-00156&RL=00156 info at UNESCO.org]

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Corpus Christi is a moveable feast, celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, 60 days after Easter, or, in countries where it is not a holy day of obligation, on the following Sunday.{{cite web | url=https://www.youcat.org/credopedia/feast-of-corpus-christi/ | title=What is the Feast of Corpus Christi?|work=YOUCAT }}

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 celebration of the feast, introduced in the second half of the 20th century, occurs three days later, between May 24 at earliest (for the first time in 2285) and June 27 at latest (for the first time in 2038). For Western Rite Orthodox Christians, since they use the Julian calendar, at least for all Feast Days dependent on the date of Pascha, their date of the celebration of Corpus Christi, translates to, in the Gregorian calendar, from June 3 at the earliest, to July 7, at the latest.

Corpus Christi is a public holiday in some countries with a predominantly Catholic population including, among others, Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia,{{cite web|url=https://haw.nsk.hr/wayback/20201224002911/https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2019_11_110_2212.htm|title=Zakon o blagdanima, spomendanima i neradnim danima u Republici Hrvatskoj|work=Narodne novine|date=14 November 2019|language=hr}} Archived in Croatian Web Archive (HAW). Dominican Republic, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, parts of Germany, Grenada, Haiti, Jerusalem in Israel, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Saint Lucia, San Marino, Spain, parts of Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, parts of the United States (including parts of Puerto Rico), and Venezuela.{{citation needed|date= May 2017}}

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• Adoro te devote
• Dancing devils of Corpus Christi
• Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary
• Feast of the Sacred Heart
• Lauda Sion
• List of festivals in Costa Rica
• Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium
• Sacris solemniis
• Spello's Infiorate
• Transubstantiation
• Verbum Supernum Prodiens

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• {{Cite journal|last=Dragić|first=Marko|title=Tijelovo u hrvatskoj katoličkoj crkveno-pučkoj kulturnoj baštini|trans-title=The Feast of Corpus Christi in Croatian Catholic Church-Folk Cultural Heritage|journal=Crkva U Svijetu|volume=54|issue=1|pages=59–81|year=2019|doi=10.34075/cs.54.1.4|s2cid=189152720 |doi-access=free}}

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{{Commons category|Corpus Christi}}

• [http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/pea/cchristi.htm Corpus Christi, with order for procession] at www.therealpresence.org
• [http://www.faithclipart.com/guide/Christian-Holidays/feast_of_corpus_christi.html Feast of Corpus Christi: History]
• [http://cartusian.tripod.com/id23.html Carthusians and Corpus Christi]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071106141504/http://www.haverford.edu/engl/engl301/corpuschristi/corpus_christi.html Corpus Christi background], from www.haverford.edu
• [http://www.pieldetigre.com/search?updated-max=2009-06-17T10%3A01%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=4 Traditional Corpus Christi celebrations in Panama]
• Thomas M Landy, [https://www.catholicsandcultures.org/norway/feasts-processions-festivals "Feasts, Processions & Festivals"], Catholics & Cultures updated 12 June 2017

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Corpus Christi