Dates and Origins of Corpus Christi

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Corpus Cristi Dates in 2024, 2025 and 2026

Corpus Cristi (or Christi) is celebrated at the following dates:

• Thursday, May 30, 2024
• Thursday, June 19, 2025
• Thursday, June 4, 2026

Corpus Cristi, latin for the body of Christ, celebrates the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic sacrement¹. It is celebrated either on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday¹. The purpose is to emphasize the joy of Eucharist, which is otherwise primarily observed on Maundy Thursday, which lends a more somber tone².

Origin

The origin of Corpus Christi can be traced back to the work of Juliana of Liège in the thirteenth century². She was orphaned at age five and raised by Augustinian Nuns². For a long time, she desired a celebration of the Blessed Sacrament and in 1208, an apparent vision of Christ told her to plea for Corpus Cristi to be institutionalized². For the next twenty years, this vision was repeated until she told her confessor, who relayed the message to the bishop². Because bishops could order feasts in their dioceses at this time, in 1246 Bishop Robert ordered the feast to be held each year on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday³.

Hugh of St-Cher traveled to Liège in 1251 and found that the feast was not being observed. Upon seeing this, he reinstated the feast, which he then established for his entire jurisdiction one week later on the Octave of Trinity⁴. Henceforth, this feast would take place in Germany, Dacia, Bohemia, and Moravia in addition to Liège. Later, Pope Urban IV instituted the Solemnity of Corpus Cristi on the Thursday after Pentecost³. This became the first papally imposed, universal feast for the latin rite. Despite this, it was not widely celebrated until at least a half-century later, and even then only became a universal feast under Pope Clement V². It was finally promulgated by Pope John XXII in 1317, nearly a century after its conception⁵.

Celebration

Today, most protestants do not celebrate Corpus Cristi. For Catholics, it is one of only five occasions where the bishop may not be away from his Diocese unless in a case of great urgency⁶. Parishioners sing and pray in the streets near the church on this day until the procession is over, at which point they return to the church for the Blessed Sacrament known as Eucharist⁷.