Corpus Christi Processions

Devotion to the Eucharist
Solemnity of the Body & Blood of Christ

This feast to honor the Blessed Sacrament came from a movement that began in

twelfth-century Belgium. It was Pope Urban IV who first established it and, most notably, commissioned the great Dominican scholar St. Thomas Aquinas to compose liturgical texts for it. Holy Thursday, commemorating the Last Supper, is the Eucharistic feast. In its liturgical setting, however, it could not bear the devotional practices that piety required in its love for the Body of Christ, nor could it adequately allow for the joy that wanted expression, given the sorrowful events of Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

Eucharistic procession was an early element in Corpus Christi devotions, emphasizing Christ's real Eucharistic presence. The Blessed Sacrament was carried through the town after Mass on its feast day (beneath its festive ombrellino, or canopy).  These processions came to include a version of the Roman stations: stops points and, with Eucharist exposed on a simple altar, a sung Gospel hymn, harvest blessing, and benediction.

The infiorata, or carpet of flowers, is a monastic tradition hundreds of years old, honouring the Blessed Sacrament. There was a custom of strewing flowers in the path of the Eucharistic procession on the feast of Corpus Christi. From this practice evolved the art of designing flower panels depicting religious themes and for use on Corpus Christi.