(Catech. 5), The office and mass of Corpus Christi
were composed by S. Thomas Aquinas. As holy-thursday is in great
part devoted to the sufferings of Christ, the festival of _Corpus
Christi_ with its procession was instituted about the middle of the
thirteenth century by Urban IV at the petition of B. Juliana of Mount
_Cornelione_, and in consequence of the miracle of Bolsena, well known
as the subject of one of Raffaello's frescoes in the Vatican. See
Bened. XIV, De Festis, and the authors cited by him. The miraculous
corporal stained with blood is still preserved at Orvieto, the
celebrated cathedral of which owes its foundation to the miracle. "No
one eats that flesh, says S. Augustine, unless he has first adored" in
ps. 98 "The flesh of Christ," says S. Ambrose "which we adore even now
in the mysteries, and which the apostles adored in the Lord Jesus" (de
Spir. S. lib. 34, c. 12) All the fathers and liturgies mention this
adoration, which was therefore derived from apostolic tradition. Sala
ad Bonae lib. 2, c. 13.]
[Footnote 68: In the Greek church communion is on this day reserved
for the sick of the ensuing year under the form of bread alone,
according to Leo Allatius. (De utriusque Ecclesiae consensione). Pope
Innocent I in the beginning of the 5th century directs, that the
eucharist be preserved on this day for the priest and the sick. This
reservation is mentioned also in the Gregorian sacramentary, without
any mention of the sacred blood, since it might be spilt.
Pages:
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100