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Orvieto Corpus Christi
REV. MR. RICHARD SOFATZIS ’23, ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
When I saw the notice on our bulletin board, “Archbishop of Orvieto invites all NAC seminarians to participate in the city’s Eucharistic Procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi,” I was at once excited, but then faced with an important decision to make. After a three-year break during COVID, finally it was my chance to participate in this centuries-old tradition, but the date of the procession, Sunday June 19th 2022, fell on the very day before my final and comprehensive examination to graduate with the Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology. I decided to follow my heart and to participate in the procession—it was one of the great blessings and opportunities I have had while studying in Rome.
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As a young child I was captivated by the story of the Eucharistic miracle that occurred in Bolsena in 1263. A priest, plagued by doubt in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, was on pilgrimage to Rome. As he celebrated Mass, after the consecration, the Host began to bleed, staining the linen corporal, the altar cloth, and even the altar stone with the Blood of Christ. After an investigation, Pope Urban IV, instituted a new feast in the liturgical calendar: Corpus Christi Thomas Aquinas composed the great hymns for the feast which I loved to sing as a child during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The of fer to participate in the procession where this great feast was instituted brought me back to these early memories of faith I received as a child.
After Mass in Orvieto’s Cathedral, the procession began in full medieval style: men and women in traditional costume, flags, banners, and instruments—twenty minutes worth of people proceeding forth from the great cathedral, all proclaiming and preparing the path through the city’s narrow streets. Our turn to process came with a great honor—four men at a time were asked to carry on our shoulders the monstrance housing the corporal of the Eucharistic miracle together with a consecrated Host of Our Lord above it.
