Thursday, June 4, 2026

It is the 4th of June 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

It’s the Thursday after Trinity Sunday (that’s the Sunday after Pentecost for many) and so you know what that means! Or, maybe you don’t. That’s ok. If you’re Catholic, or a certain kind of Lutheran, Anglican, or Episcopalian, you might know that today has historically been one of the highest feast days of the year- it is the feast of Corpus Christi. That is, the feast of the Body of Christ. So, why is it so important to so many that if you have friends in Catholic countries, today might be a public holiday, but otherwise, it goes unnoticed?

 

The tradition goes back to the 13th century and a Nun in Liege, modern Belgium. Juliana of Lieges wanted a time to celebrate the institution of the Lord’s Supper- but without the solemnity of Maundy Thursday, itself being in Lent and thus not a proper Festival Day.

 

The story goes that she has a vision of a moon with a dark spot, the dark spot representing the missing feast to the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. She spends decades trying to get a local festival and is finally supported by the local Archbishop Jacques Pantaléon- in our house, we call him Jacky Pants. But others would, importantly, call him Pope Urban IV. Pope Urban would take this local festival and make it the first festival to be celebrated universally by means of a Papal Bull. This was 1264. A story is told that this was helped by a story from the previous year, in 1263 in Central Italy, a priest, who was doubting the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament, witnessed a miracle of the consecrated host bleeding onto the linen.

 

Pope Urban then commissioned the greatest theologian of the age, Thomas Aquinas, to help develop the liturgy. The popular text Pange Lingua was written by Aquinas along with the other elements of the special mass in which he took his teaching of the doctrine of Transubstantiation and put it to music- helping to cement it all the more in popular piety.

 

As you might imagine, this would become an issue at the Reformation. Some Lutherans were willing to accept it- they saw any recognition of the host and wine being “true body” as preferable to those who were teaching what they believed to be a kind of bare memorial view. The processions of the host down city streets, still popular today, were rejected by Luther and others. Luther wrote: “I am to no festival more hostile … than this one. Because it is the most shameful festival. At no festival are God and his Christ more blasphemed than on this day, and particularly by the procession. For then people are treating the Blessed Sacrament with such ignominy that it becomes only play-acting and is just vain idolatry.”

 

In England, the processions gave way to the performance of Mystery Plays. These were very popular dramatic showings of biblical events and at the root of Christian theatre in the West. The “Corpus Christi” guilds would be responsible for the presentation of these plays. The Guild in Cambridge would be the first local group to support a college at the university and so “Corpus Christi College” has its name. In the Church of England, the feast was suppressed during the Reformation, only to be reinstated in 2000 as an optional Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion.

 

As for the coastal town in Texas, it was believed that Alfonso Alvarez de Pineda discovered the bay in 1519 on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday- hence the name, Corpus Christi.

 

In many Latin American countries today the day has served as a day of both Catholic and indigenous belief- a kind of syncretism (blending of Christian and pagan elements) that ironically can make them even more popular, In Catalonia, Spain- famous on this show for their Christmas tradition of the Poop Log, today they will celebrate with the “dancing egg” or an egg held up on a vertical stream of water- wouldn’t we all celebrate more like the Catalonians.

 

So, the first Thursday, after Trinity Sunday, which is the Sunday after Pentecost (which is the 50th day after Easter)- it’s Corpus Christi Day- a college, a town, and a festival.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 33- let’s take it from the Scottish Metrical Psalter

¹ Ye righteous, in the Lord rejoice;

it comely is and right,

That upright men, with thankful voice,

should praise the Lord of might.

² Praise God with harp, and unto him

sing with the psaltery;

Upon a ten-stringed instrument

make ye sweet melody.

³ A new song to him sing, and play

with loud noise skillfully;

⁴ For right is God’s word, all his works

are done in verity.

⁵ To judgment and to righteousness

a love he beareth still;

The loving-kindness of the Lord

the earth throughout doth fill.

⁶ The heavens by the word of God

did their beginning take;

And by the breathing of his mouth

he all their hosts did make.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 4th of June 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man known for his elaborate Catalonian celebrations- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who thought the scene in Godfather 2 was a Corpus Christi Parade- it was the Feast of San Gennaro… that looked like a Corpus Christi Parade- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.