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   ST. JULIANA OF CORNILLON HELPED TO INSTITUTE CORPUS CHRISTI   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 17 NOV 2010 (VIS) - In today's general audience, celebrated in   
   St. Peter's Square, the Pope focused his attention on St. Juliana of Cornillon   
   who contributed to instituting the Feast of Corpus Christi.   
      
   Born in the Belgian city of Liege towards the end of the twelfth century,   
   Juliana was orphaned at the age of five "and entrusted to the care of the   
   Augustinian nuns of the convent-lazaretto of Mont-Cornillon". Later she also   
   took the Augustinian habit and went on to became prioress of the convent.   
      
   The Pope explained how the Belgian saint "possessed great culture, ... and a   
   profound sense of the presence of Christ, which she experienced particularly   
   intensely in the Sacrament of the Eucharist".   
      
   At the age of sixteen she had a vision which convinced her of the need to   
   establish a liturgical feast for Corpus Christi "in which believers would be   
   able to adore the Eucharist so as to augment their faith, increase the practice   
   of virtue and mend the wrongs done to the Blessed Sacrament", said the Holy   
   Father.   
      
   Juliana "confided [her revelation] to two other fervent adorers of the   
   Eucharist " and the three together "formed a kind of 'spiritual alliance' with   
   the intention of glorifying the Blessed Sacrament".   
      
   "It was", Pope Benedict continued his catechesis, "Bishop Robert Thourotte of   
   Liege who, following some initial hesitation, accepted the proposal made by   
   Juliana and her two companions and instituted, for the first time, the   
   Solemnity of Corpus Domini in his diocese. Other bishops later imitated him and   
   established the same feast in the areas under their pastoral care".   
      
   Juliana, said the Pope, "had to suffer the harsh opposition of certain members   
   of the clergy, including the superior upon whom her convent depended. She   
   therefore chose to leave Mont-Cornillon with a number of companions and for ten   
   years, between 1248 and 1258, was accommodated in various houses of Cistercian   
   nuns". At the same time "she zealously continued to spread Eucharistic   
   devotion. She died at Fosses-La-Ville in Belgium in 1258".   
      
   The Holy Father recalled how "in 1264 Urban IV chose to institute the Solemnity   
   of Corpus Domini as a feast for the Universal Church on the Thursday following   
   Pentecost" and, by way of personal example, "himself celebrated the Solemnity   
   of Corpus Domini in Orvieto, the city in which he was then residing". And the   
   cathedral of Orvieto still houses "the famous corporal with traces of the   
   Eucharistic miracle which had befallen at Bolsena the preceding year, 1263".   
      
   "Urban IV asked one of the greats theologians in history, St. Thomas Aquinas   
   who was with the Pope at that time in Orvieto, to write the texts for the   
   liturgical office of this great feast, ... as an expression of praise and   
   gratitude to the Blessed Sacrament".   
      
   "Although following the death of Urban IV the celebration of Corpus Domini was   
   restricted to certain regions of France, Germany, Hungary and northern Italy,   
   in 1317 Pope John XXII reintroduced it for the whole Church".   
      
   "Joyfully I wish to affirm that there is a 'Eucharistic springtime' in the   
   Church today", said the Holy Father. "How many people remain in silence before   
   the Tabernacle sustaining a dialogue of love with Jesus! It is consoling to   
   know that many groups of young people have rediscovered the beauty of prayer   
   and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. I pray that this 'Eucharistic   
   springtime' may become increasingly widespread in parishes, and especially in   
   Belgium, homeland of St, Juliana".   
      
   "Recalling St. Juliana of Cornillon, let us too renew our faith in the real   
   presence of Christ in the Eucharist. ... Faithfully encountering the   
   Eucharistic Christ at Sunday Mass is essential for our journey of faith, but   
   let us also seek to visit the Lord frequently, before His presence in the   
   Tabernacle. ... By gazing at Him in adoration the Lord draws us to Him, to His   
   mystery, in order to transform us as He transforms the bread and wine".   
   AG/VIS 20101117 (660)   
      
   SUMMARY   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS =Meridian, MS= bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)