Blessed Juliana Of Mont Cornillon

Blessed Juliana of Mont Cornillon was orphaned at the age of five. She and her sister Agnes were raised by the nuns at the convent of Mount Cornillon, where Juliana devoured the works of Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard from a very young age. She became an Augustinian nun at Liege, Belgium in 1206 and worked with the sick in the convent hospital. She later served as prioress. Juliana received mystical visions urging the establishment of a feast dedicated to the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. She worked tirelessly to promote this devotion, and her efforts bore historic fruit when Pope Urban IV, who had known of her visions, instituted the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264 for the universal Church. She is thus honored as the visionary whose prayer and persistence gave the Church one of its most beloved liturgical celebrations.