Feast of Corpus Christi

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Corpus Christi procession. Oil on canvas by Carl Emil Doepler.
Official name	Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Also called	Corpus Domini
Observed by	Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion Old Catholic Church Western Rite Orthodoxy[1] Public holiday in 25 countries (of which 3 only regionally) Austria Brazil Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Colombia Croatia Dominican Republic Haiti East Timor Equatorial Guinea Parts of Germany Grenada Liechtenstein Malta Mexico Monaco Panama Peru Poland Portugal Saint Lucia San Marino Parts of Spain Parts of Switzerland Trinidad and Tobago
Liturgical color	White
Significance	Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
Date	Thursday after Trinity Sunday; 60 days after Easter, or the Sunday immediately following this
2023 date	June 8
2024 date	May 30
2025 date	June 19
2026 date	June 4
Frequency	Annual
Related to	Maundy Thursday Trinity Sunday Feast of the Sacred Heart

The Feast of Corpus Christi (Ecclesiastical Latin: Dies Sanctissimi Corporis et Sanguinis Domini Iesu Christi, lit. 'Day of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ the Lord'), also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ,^[2] is a liturgical solemnity celebrating the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; the feast is observed by the Latin Church, in addition to certain Western Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican churches. Two months earlier, the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper is observed on Maundy Thursday in a sombre atmosphere leading to Good Friday. The liturgy on that day also commemorates Christ's washing of the disciples' feet, the institution of the priesthood, and the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The feast of Corpus Christi was proposed by Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, to Pope Urban IV, in order to create a feast focused solely on the Holy Eucharist, emphasizing the joy of the Eucharist being the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Having recognized in 1264 the authenticity of the Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena, on input of Aquinas,^{[3][unreliable source?]} the pontiff, then living in Orvieto, established the feast of Corpus Christi as a Solemnity and extended it to the whole Roman Catholic Church.^[4][5]

The feast is liturgically celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or, "where the Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is not a holy day of obligation, it is assigned to the Sunday after the Most Holy Trinity as its proper day".^[6]

At the end of Holy Mass, there is often a procession of the Blessed Sacrament, generally displayed in a monstrance. The procession is followed by the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.^[7] A notable Eucharistic procession is that presided over by the Pope each year in Rome, where it begins at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran and passes to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where it concludes with the aforementioned Benediction. Corpus Christi wreaths, which are made of flowers, are hung on the doors and windows of the Christian faithful, in addition to being erected in gardens and fields.^[7]

The celebration of the feast was suppressed in Protestant churches during the Reformation for theological reasons: outside Lutheranism, which maintained the confession of the Real Presence, many Protestants denied the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist other than as a merely symbolic or spiritual presence. Today, most Protestant denominations do not recognize the feast day,^[8] with exception of certain Lutheran churches and the Church of England, the latter of which abolished it in 1548 as the English Reformation progressed, but later reintroduced it.^[9] Some Anglican churches now observe Corpus Christi, sometimes under the name Thanksgiving for Holy Communion.