Corpus Christi
Preserved but no longer current.
A festival of the Church, kept on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, in honour of the Blessed Sacrament. It was instituted by Urban IV in 1264, and was the regular time for the performance of religious dramas by the trade guilds. In England many of the Corpus Christi plays of York, Coventry, and Chester are extant.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Corpus Christi” mean?
A festival of the Church, kept on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, in honour of the Blessed Sacrament. It was instituted by Urban IV in 1264, and was the regular time for the performance of religious dramas by the trade guilds. In England many of the Corpus Christi plays of York, Coventry, and Chester are extant.
Is “Corpus Christi” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.