The Feast of Corpus Christi part 1

The Feast of Corpus Christi (Body of Christ) is marked with a procession by the parish of Saint Stanislaus. The Procession goes around the block to St. Marks Place (where I caught up with it) and returns to the Church of Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr on E 7th St. (East Village)

Though a Catholic myself, there are aspects of the service I'm not totally clear on. The focus of this video is a stop to pray at a temporary shrine on St. Mark's Place, which I believe is directly behind Saint Stanislaus Church. The service most resembles a Benediction but there's clearly a special role for the young woman in blue near the shrine. My camera coverage is not so hot, I ran home got my camera and caught up with the procession and did what I could minus a zoom lens. I kept this edit video going even when the coverage was weak for the sake of the singing. In a wonderful way this procession evokes the Catholic pageantry (that I remember) common before Vatican II. I really like Catholic ceremonies out on NYC streets such as the Epiphany (aka 3 Magi) procession.

from web description of the Feast as celebrated in Poland.

The Feast of Corpus Christi (Body of Christ) or is observed on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday in villages, towns and cities all over Poland. In smaller locations virtually the whole village or town becomes involved in an organized procession through the streets. Householders decorate their windows with religious icons. The traffic is stopped and at midday the procession leaves the Church and the people walk around the streets together stopping on route at various temporary shrines to pray. The shrines are decorated with branches from Birch trees, and members of the procession tear off twigs from these shrines for luck and happiness as they go around the circuit. Young girls dressed in their first communion dresses (which look like white wedding dresses) scatter rose and other flower petals on the streets. These petals are for Christ, who is believed by Catholics to walk the streets with the people during these Corpus Christi processions. Throughout the festival the Priest walks around under some sort of umbrella held up by four or more men from the village or town, while boys swirl burning incense around him.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Polish
• Catholic
• Church
• Lower
• East
• Side