Corpus Christi

Sub divérsis speciébus, * Signis
tantum, et non rebus, * Latent
res exímiæ.

Here beneath these signs are hidden *
Priceless things, to sense forbidden *
Signs, not things, are all we see.

from the Alleluia sequence from the Proper of the Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.

ref: http://www.maternalheart.org/propers/Sundays%20after%20Pentecost/Pentecost%201%20-%20Thursday%20-%20Corpus%20Christi/corpuschristi.pdf

The feast of Corpus Christi, which is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, comes to be birthed in the Catholic Liturical calendar in a gorgeous way - in 1209, St Juliana of Mt Cornillon, a devout nun who was devoted to care for the sick at the Convent for Augustinian Sisters in Liege, had a vision.

She saw the moon hanging in mid air, in the sky. Although the moon was shining bright, there was a single black spot on it. St Juliana was not used to seeing things like this. She thought that the vision was just her imagination, so she tried to forget about it, and prayed, more fervently, that she might find salvation from these petty distractions.

But, through the inner dialogue that grew with her Christ, she came to understand that this vision of the moon was a symbol of the Church, so bright with all its Feasts. The black part of the moon was a hole, where there was no Feast to honour the Blessed Sacrament. She understands her Mission as a call to get many people interested in this new Feast Day. But St Juliana was very humble, and she was frightened at the thought of such a Mission. She believed that this vision was just her imagination, so she decided to keep the whole thing a secret.

In 1230, St Juliana became Mother Superior of the Augustinian Monastery. Soon after her election, she again had the vision of the moon with the black spot on it. Mother Juliana decided to share her secret. She decided to tell this Canon de Lausanne, a priest in Liege about her vision and also begged him to talk to other theologians, to try to make head or tail of it.

While the Feast was quickly incorporated into the Office of St Martin, St Juliana did not live to see the Feast accepted in all Churches in her local area - indeed, it was only through the work of her staunch friend St Eve, combined with the efforts of Pope Urban IV (I love that name) that the Feast become an institution in the Catholic Church.

ALLELUIA, alleluia. Caro mea
vere est cibus, et sanguis meus vere
est potus: qui mandúcat meam carnem,
et bibit meum sánguinem, in
me manet et ego is eo. Allelúia.

Alleluia, alleluia. My Flesh is meat indeed,
and My Blood is drink indeed: he
that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My
Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. Alleluia.


Ref: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04390b.htm
http://www.sspx.ca/EucharisticCrusade/2002January/St_Juliana_of_Mt_Cornillon.htm