Reflection From

Fr. Davis

June 7, 2026

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi or the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. We celebrate this feast following the tradition established by Pope Urban IV in 1264, who dedicated this Solemnity to honor the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist.

Pope Urban IV established this feast in response to a private revelation to St. Juliana of Liège, who was a Belgian nun during the 13th century. She experienced recurring visions of the Church, where the Church was symbolized as a moon with a single dark spot. It was revealed to her that the dark spot signified the absence of a feast dedicated to the Holy Eucharist within the liturgical calendar of the Church.

In addition to this private revelation, God provided a miracle which prompted Pope Urban IV to institute the Feast of Corpus Christi for the universal Church. The Eucharistic Miracle occurred in Bolsena, Italy. It was prompted by a German priest, Peter of Prague, who had serious doubts regarding the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. To confront his doubt, he traveled on a pilgrimage to Rome to pray at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. Upon his return trip from Rome, he stopped in the small town of Bolsena. It was in Bolsena, while celebrating Mass at the Basilica dedicated to St. Catherine, that something extraordinary occurred. At the moment of the consecration, the Host began to bleed. Blood flowed out of the Host and onto the corporeal or cloth underneath the Host during the Mass In awe, the priest quickly brought the corporeal to Pope Urban who happened to be in a town nearby. After verification and an investigation into the miracle, Pope Urban IV moved to institute the Feast of Corpus Christi. Today, the same corporeal, with the blood stains from the bleeding Host, is held in the Cathedral in Orvieto, Italy. It is held in a reliquary above the main altar and is carried in procession each year through the ancient medieval town of Orvieto on the Feast Day of Corpus Christi. During the procession, thousands line the streets to witness the reliquary carrying the Most Precious Blood.

In 2015, the Bishop of Orvieto permitted a team of scientists to study the corporeal containing the stains appearing as blood. Using modern scientific methods, a team of scientists determined that the cloth was truly of the appropriate time period of the miracle and that the stains were indeed human blood.

Such Eucharistic miracles are signs that strengthen our faith. They point to the realness and closeness of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. In addition to the miracle at Bolsena, similar miracles have occurred and been verified throughout history. St. Carlo Acutis created a website documenting over 140 Eucharistic miracles throughout history. One of the most recent Eucharistic miracles occurred in 2013 in Legnica, Poland on Christmas Day at St. Hyacinth Parish. A consecrated Host accidentally fell to the floor and was placed in water to dissolve. Instead, a red stain appeared and independent forensic pathology analysis concluded that the red substance is human heart tissue which shows signs of agony. Such results are not explainable to modern science and cannot be replicated. May we never doubt the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, but ask the Lord to increase within us knowledge and faith in His Real Presence and grant us gratefulness for His Most Precious of gifts.

Father John

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