PRECIOUS BLOOD, III (DEVOTION TO)

Devotion to the Blood of Christ is the Christian's response of love and gratitude to Jesus who offered His Blood for man in atoning sacrifice. Christ Himself spoke of it as the Blood of the new covenant shed for many unto the forgiveness of sins (Mt 26.28). With it He purchased the Church (Acts 20.28). It is precious (1 Pt 1.19). By it we are justified (Rom. 5.9), cleansed (Heb 9.14; 1 Jn 1.7), washed from sin (Rv 7.14, 22.14), and redeemed for God (Rv 5.9). Jesus called it "my blood" (Mk 14.24) and invited His followers to drink it that they might have everlasting life (Mt 26.28; Jn 6.54–57).

The Fathers re-echo these statements of Scripture in both the East (see Pollack) and the West (see Rohling) and not infrequently add some devotional sentiment in their commentaries and sermons, especially when speaking of the redemption or the Eucharist. Of the Fathers, St. John Chrysostom is the most eloquent. The liturgical devotion has its deepest roots in the celebration of Christ's triumph at Easter and in the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice together with the reception of the Holy Eucharist under the species of both bread and wine.

The devotion became more explicit as the minds of the faithful gradually emphasized the sufferings of Christ preceding the triumph of His Resurrection. Relics of the Precious Blood (not hypostatically united) were venerated at Mantua as early as 553, at Weingarten since 1090, and at Bruges since 1158. The many (supposed) relics that the crusaders returning from the Holy Land brought back to Europe tended to focus the attention of the faithful on the humanity of Christ, particularly on His sufferings and bloodsheddings.

While artists produced graphic representations of the effectiveness of the Precious Blood, medieval theologians and mystics, such as St. Albert the Great, St. Bonaventure, St. Mechtilde, St. Gertrude, and St. Catherine of Siena, found in the Blood the inspiration for the most profound mystical love. There is evidence of confraternities honoring it in Spain in the 17th century. Benedict XIV approved a Mass and Office in its honor in 1747.

The greatest epoch in the history of the special devotion began early in the 19th century, which witnessed the remarkable missionary activity of St. Gaspar del bufalo in the Papal States and the founding of the Society of the precious blood (CPPS, 1815), the establishment of the Archconfraternity of the Precious Blood in Rome (1815), and the founding of several sisterhoods. The feast (previously celebrated only in the Society and in certain localities in Lent), at the suggestion of Don Merlini, third moderator of the Society of the Precious Blood, was extended (1849) by Pius IX to the whole Church, to be celebrated on the first Sunday of July. In 1917 the date of the feast was changed to July 1. The 1969 reforms of the liturgical calendar combined the Feast of the Precious Blood with the Feast of the Body of Christ (Corpus Christi), under the title "Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ" (corpus et sanguinis christi).

The devotion also received official papal approval from John XXIII in 1960. He not only approved the Litany of the Precious Blood for private and public recitation throughout the world and ordered the ejaculation "Blessed be His Most Precious Blood" inserted in the Divine Praises, but even wrote an apostolic letter, Inde a primis, to the bishops of the world (June 30, 1960), urging them to foster the devotion to the Precious Blood.

Bibliography: john xxiii, "Inde a primis," (Apostolic Letter, June 30, 1960) Acta Apostolicae Sedis 52 (1960) 545–550. Precious Blood Study Week, Proceedings of the First and Second (Carthagena, Ohio 1957 and 1960). f. w. faber, The Precious Blood (new ed. Philadelphia 1959). j. h. rohling, The Blood of Christ in Christian Latin Literature Before the Year 1000 (Washington 1932). a. j. pollack, The Blood of Christ in Christian Greek Literature till the Year 444 (Carthagena, Ohio 1956). g. lefebvre, Redemption through the Blood of Jesus, tr. e. a. maziarz (Westminster, Md. 1960). c. griessner, Das kostbare Blut Christi, Gedanken und Gebete (Mindelheim 1957). r. myers, Jesus Is Here: Devotions to the Sacred Heart and Precious Blood (Huntington, Ind. 1986).

[j. h. rohling/eds.]