This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, which is historically known as Corpus Christi. This celebration focuses on the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It started in the Middle Ages when St. Juliana worked for its feast after she received vision from Our Lord and a Eucharistic miracle took place in Bolsena, Italy.

It was said that 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 that time, he was having doubts about the real presence of Christ 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 bleeding from the consecrated host and onto the altar and corporal.

Fr. Peter reported this miracle to Pope Urban IV, who at that time was nearby in Orvieto, Italy. 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.

This Eucharistic Miracle confirmed the visions given to St. Juliana of Leige 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. 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.

We may ask why we have this feast in our church? This feast helps us to be strengthened in our faith that indeed Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. And every time we attend the mass and receive Him in communion, we will appreciate Him with more reverence because what we receive is His Body and Blood that can nourish our body and soul. Every time we also come before the Blessed Sacrament, we will adore Him because we believe that He is also present there.