How a Norbertine nun's visions led to the feast of Corpus Christi

(OSV News) -- In the early 13th century, the church faithful were abstaining from receiving holy Communion. It wasn't that they were not devoted to the Eucharist, but they believed they were unworthy to consume the body of Christ -- a belief that was not discouraged by many of the clergy.

A kind of distancing between the clergy and laity began that included a physical separation in many churches; rails and screens were placed between the congregation and the altar. People didn't receive Communion but wanted to worship the Eucharist by looking at the consecrated host during the elevation.

Sometimes they would go from church to church, arriving just when the host was being lifted up. Some priests were offered money to hold the consecrated host up for an extended time. The "gazing adoration" was a kind of substitute for consuming the Eucharist.

This lack of receiving Communion led the church to mandate that all Catholics had to receive holy Communion at least during the Easter season (Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council).

Beginning in 1208, Jesus would use a pious, holy and humble nun, St. Juliana of Cornillon, as his instrument to take advantage of the increasing visual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and, at the same time, return the People of God to regularly receiving holy Communion. Juliana would be Christ's source to establish the feast of Corpus Christi.

Pope Benedict XVI would say of Juliana, "She is little known, but the church is deeply indebted to her, not only because of the holiness of her life, but also because, with her great fervor, she contributed to the institution of one of the most important solemn liturgies of the year: Corpus Christi."

Born in 1192, near Liege, Belgium, Juliana was orphaned at age 5 and placed in the Augustinian monastery at Mount Cornillon, where she spent most of her life. Beginning when she was a teenager, and for several years after, she experienced a near-continuous vision of a bright moon with a dark line across it.

Eventually she had a dream where the Lord explained to her that the moon represented the church year with all its feasts, and the line depicted the lack of such a special day that honored the Eucharist. Jesus asked Juliana to establish a feast day during which the faithful would adore the Blessed Sacrament, when they would seek pardon for the times they had distanced themselves from Jesus in the sacrament.

She was uncertain that she could accomplish the task that Jesus commanded and, on several occasions, asked that the cause be given to someone else. Juliana prayed: "Lord release me, and give the task you have assigned to me to great scholars shining with light of knowledge, who would know how to promote such a great affair. For how could I do it? I am not worthy, Lord, to tell the world about something so noble and exalted. I could not understand it, nor could fulfill it." But Jesus had made his choice, and he would be with her, guide her and place others along the way to help.

Juliana waited nearly 20 years, when she had been selected as the superior of her Norbertine convent, to make her visions known. She delivered the secret to her confessor, Canon John of Lausanne, who, in turn, explained the visions to others outside the convent. The reception was mixed, but one who believed Juliana and recognized the value in a feast day to honor the Eucharist was Robert de Thorete, bishop of Liege. He ordered such a feast within the Liege diocese to begin around 1246. Unfortunately, Bishop Thorete died before the feast was implemented, and it was not added to the diocesan calendar.

The idea more or less was shelved. Some argued that Holy Thursday was already the feast of the Eucharist, as that day celebrated the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus. But Holy Thursday is part of the Triduum, a sad period focused on the passion of Christ. It did not celebrate Jesus in the Eucharist.

As God designed, at the time Juliana made known her visions, there was an archdeacon named Jacques Pantaleon in the Diocese of Liege who favored a feast day dedicated to Jesus. Jacques would become Pope Urban IV (r. 1261-1264), and in 1264 he issued a decree supporting the feast day and, at the same time, rejecting the argument about Holy Thursday already recognizing the Eucharist.

He issued a papal bull adding the feast to the universal church calendar, but as was the case with Bishop Thorete, Urban died before the feast was instituted. It would be left to Popes Clement V (r. 1305-1314) and John XXII (r. 1316-1334) to institute the Corpus Christi feast in the universal church.

In most of the world Corpus Christi is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and is a holy day of obligation; in the United States the solemnity is moved to Sunday.

Over the centuries, and stemming from Juliana, we have many rituals and devotions during which we eagerly and publicly honor the Eucharist -- for example, through processions such as those on the feast of Corpus Christi, and the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, including Forty Hours of adoration. These rituals and special events draw us closer to Jesus.

Of course, such activity is capped by receiving Jesus in holy Communion.