The Feast of Corpus Christi is celebrated in the Catholic Church on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or, in some places, it is transferred to the Sunday. The feast was instituted to honour the Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Vision of St Juliana of Cornillon

St. Juliana had a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament from her youth and longed for a special feast to celebrate devotion to Our Lord’s Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. The saint had a vision of the Church under the appearance of a full moon which had one dark spot. During the vision, she heard a mysterious, heavenly voice explain that the moon represented the Church at that time, and the dark spot symbolized the fact that a great feast in honour of the Blessed Sacrament was missing from the liturgical calendar. St Juliana confessed the vision to Bishop Robert de Thorete, then Bishop of Liège, and Jacques Pantaléon, who later became Pope Urban IV. Bishop Robert was favorably impressed, and called a synod in 1246 which authorized the celebration of a feast dedicated to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament – Corpus Christi – to be held in the diocese in the following year.

There are several accounts of this little girl, later named Little Li. These accounts have various time frames and details surrounding her death. No matter how these narratives differ, this brave little girl showed a deep love and respect for Jesus Christ in the Eucharist that resulted in her paying the ultimate price, her life. Her story has touched the hearts of millions of Catholics throughout the world.

Thomas of Celano, the first biographer of St. Francis of Assisi, tells us that the saint often used to tell people: “If I should happen at the same time to come upon any saint coming from heaven and some little poor priest, I would first show honor to the priest, and hurry more quickly to kiss his hands. For I would say to the saint: ‘Hey, St. Lawrence, wait! His hands may handle the Word of Life and possess something more than human!'” Such was the love of St. Francis for the Eucharist.

John Eudes was born in Ri, a small farming village in the Normandy region of northwestern France. His parents were devout Catholics that made a pilgrimage to the Church of Notre-Dame de la Recouvrance following John’s birth to dedicate their son to God. Their devotion paid off, as John developed a strong Catholic faith from a young age.

St. Alphonsus was a former lawyer who was later ordained and became not only a bishop, but also a Doctor of the Church. He was a prolific writer, composer, musician, poet, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. He was the founder of the Redemptorist Order, a congregation of missionary priests and brothers who preach the Word and serve the poor and most abandoned.

The martyr of Auschwitz, St. Maximilian Kolbe had a tremendous devotion to the Eucharist. While a student at the Franciscan minor seminary, he often visited Jesus in the tabernacle before or after classes, and signed up as a perpetual adorer at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish. After his ordination, he celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with such profound reverence that those in attendance were drawn into a more personal encounter with Christ. He continued his frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament after his ordination and as his priestly ministry expanded.

Elizabeth Ann Seton’s story is at the heart of the Church in the United States, and the Eucharist is at the heart of her story. She was born in 1774 in New York where, 200 years later, Cardinal Francis Spellman summed her up this way: “When our great Republic was born, she became a charter American citizen.” He listed Alexander Hamilton and John Jay among her family’s friends and acquaintances. Born Elizabeth Bayley, she married William Seton in an Episcopalian church and gave birth to five children. In 1803 Elizabeth accompanied her husband to Italy, seeking relief for his tuberculosis. William died later that year. It was during their time in Italy that Elizabeth discovered the Catholic faith through the witness of her husband’s business partners, the Filicchis. Soon after she returned to the United States, the quintessential American citizen became a Catholic leader in the young Republic. She entered the Catholic Church in 1805, then moved her family to the United States’ primary see, Baltimore, in 1808, where she took a leading role in founding a Catholic education system. In 1809 she became a professed religious and, with help of Archbishop John Carroll—the cousin of a signer of the Declaration of Independence—she founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph.

Br. Andre Bessette called himself St. Joseph's little dog. He was born in Saint-Gregoire d'Iberville Quebec, Canada, August 9, 1845, and raised in a devout French Catholic family. By the time Br. Andre was twelve, both of his parents had died, and he was sent to live and work with relatives. Br. Andre's father was a carpenter like St. Joseph and his mother had a great devotion to St. Joseph which she passed on to little Andre, who was a sickly child. Br. Andre “had already often thought of Saint Joseph watching over the Child Jesus and he had made up his mind to imitate this saintly Workman, for he also was to watch over the Infant God Whom he carried at all times in his soul by divine grace and Whom he received with such deep piety in Holy Communion”.

Antonietta “Nennolina” Meo died of bone cancer at 6 years old in 1937 in Rome. In her few years on earth, however, she lived the Christian life with heroic virtue, as Pope Benedict XVI declared in 2007, when he proclaimed her “Venerable.” Three days later, he said in an audience that she had left all Christians, young and old, “a shining example” that “shows that holiness is for all ages: for children and for young people, for adults and for the elderly.” She “reached the peak of Christian perfection that we are all called to scale; she sped down the ‘highway’ that leads to Jesus.” The highway that leads to Jesus was a Eucharistic life, in which she sought to conform her whole existence to her Lord and God present on the altar.

On the night of July 18, 1830, St. Catherine Labouré was awakened by her Guardian Angel, who said, “Come to chapel; the Blessed Virgin is waiting for you.” The Blessed Virgin Mary told her, “My child, the good God wishes to entrust to you a mission.” The mission that God wanted to entrust to Catherine was made manifest to her on November 27, 1830. It was the mission of making and distributing the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, now known as the Miraculous Medal.