06/07/2026
Reflections on Art from 100 Years Ago - Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
By Fr. Peter Fennessy, SJ
In 1861 Alphonse Legros produced an etching of Communion being distributed at Saint Médard Church in Paris. It showed a priest lifting the Host before one of only three women communicants. She holds a cloth draped from the altar rail under her chin in case the Host were dropped. An acolyte carries a candle nearby. In 1861 Catholics didn’t receive Communion frequently, often only once a year. But Legros lived to see Pope Pius X issue in 1905 a decree recommending frequent and even daily communion. So, by 1926 when the engraving was reproduced by photogravure the image had acquired a different meaning: what once was rare had now become common.
The institution of the Eucharist is celebrated on Holy Thursday, but so are the Washing of Feet, the Priesthood, the Chrism Mass and the Agony in the Garden. In 1246 individual dioceses began to celebrate Corpus Christi to give the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist Its own feast. At the recommendation of Thomas Aquinas Pope Urban IV extended the celebration to the entire Catholic Church. It is now celebrated on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday as the Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
Alphonse Legros, Communion in the Church of Saint-Médard (1926), photogravure, with selvage 8.25 x 11 inches
