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How Many Days Until Corpus Christi?
Thursday, May 27, 2027
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About Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi is a Catholic feast that honors the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, the consecrated bread and wine at the heart of Christian worship. Its name comes from Latin and means Body of Christ, and the day is marked with special church services, Eucharistic adoration, and, in many towns, a public procession in which the consecrated host is carried through decorated streets. Altars draped in flowers line the route, and households sometimes scatter petals from balconies and windows.
Unlike most feasts in the church calendar, Corpus Christi is tied to the date of Easter rather than to a fixed day. It falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, which works out to sixty days after Easter, though many countries move the main celebration to the following Sunday so that more people can attend.
The feast is most visible in Catholic regions of Europe and Latin America, where processions can be genuine civic events with brass bands, traditional dress, and carpets of flower petals patterned across cobblestones. Even where it is celebrated quietly, the day offers believers a moment to focus on what they understand as the center of their faith.
History of Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi owes its existence to Juliana of Cornillon, an Augustinian nun in Liège who reported visions that she interpreted as a call for a feast honoring the Eucharist. The local bishop approved such a celebration in 1246, and one of his successors, who became Pope Urban IV, extended the feast to the whole Latin church with the bull Transiturus in 1264. Tradition credits Thomas Aquinas with composing the liturgy and hymns still sung today, including the Pange Lingua. The feast spread slowly at first and widely after the Council of Trent reinforced Eucharistic devotion in the sixteenth century. Public processions became grand affairs in medieval towns, and in Spain and Latin America they absorbed local music, dance, and costume. Several countries later moved the observance to the nearest Sunday, but the sixty-day link to Easter remains the feast's defining feature.
2027 vs 2028 dates
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is Corpus Christi?
- Corpus Christi is a movable feast, so the date changes each year: it is counted from Easter and falls sixty days after Easter Sunday, on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. In 2026, for example, it lands on June 4, and some countries transfer the main celebration to the following Sunday.
- Is Corpus Christi a public holiday?
- It depends on where you live. Corpus Christi is a public holiday in many majority-Catholic countries such as Austria, Poland, Brazil, and Colombia, while in the United States and most of the United Kingdom it is a religious observance rather than a day off.
- How do people celebrate Corpus Christi?
- Catholics celebrate with Mass, Eucharistic adoration, and outdoor processions in which the consecrated host is carried under a canopy, often over streets strewn with flower petals. Communities add music, traditional dress, and festive meals to the day.
- Why is Corpus Christi tied to Easter?
- Because the Eucharist was instituted at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, the feast is placed in the Easter season, sixty days after Easter Sunday, instead of on a fixed calendar date.