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of HOLY THURSDAY which sometimes falls on the 24th
March, or very near that date. But in the thirteenth
century, God made use of a humble religious, Blessed
Julianna of Mont-Cornillon, to ESTABLISH in His Church
a special FEAST IN HONOUR OF THE MOST HOLY SACRA
MENT. The Feast was first observed at Liege and,
in 1264, shortly after the Eucharistic miracle at Bolsena,
Urban IV. ordained that throughout the universal Church,
on the Thursday after the Feast of the Blessed Trinity,
the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament should be celebrated.
The particular ceremony on this Feast is the proces
sion in which is borne the Sacred Host consecrated in the
preceding solemn High Mass. This procession was
introduced towards the beginning of the fourteenth
century, some years after the institution of the Feast
and was adopted successively in all dioceses. The
indulgences with which Pope John XXII. (1316-1324)
enriched this practice, already approved by the Council
of Vienna (1311), contributed to its adoption by all the
Churches of the Catholic world.
The Church, BY THIS FEAST, would first of all PROCLAIM
HER BELIEF in the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar ; by it she made a
SOLEMN PROTESTATION against the error of Berengarius
and later against the heresies of Luther and the Protes
tants. In the next place, the Church wishes to MAKE
REPARATION to our Lord for all the outrages and insults
offered to Him in the Blessed Sacrament. Finally she
would make the faithful understand that our divine
Saviour comes forth from His tabernacle to bless the
cities, the fields, and the dwellings of men, that He
loves to appear amongst the multitudes as in the days
when He journeyed through the towns and villages of
Palestine.