JULIANA OF LIÈGE, BL.

Also known as Juliana of Mont–Cornillon; promoter of the Feast of Corpus Christi; b. Rétinne, near Liège, c. 1191–92; d. Fosses, near Namur, April 5, 1258. She joined the Canonesses Regular at Mont-Cornillon, where she became prioress in 1222. As a result of a vision in 1209, she had become one of the earliest protagonists for a feast of the Blessed Sacrament. Her local bishop, Robert of Torote (1240–46), ordered the celebration of this feast on the Thursday following the octave of Trinity Sunday. She persuaded John of Cornillon to compose a preliminary Office for the feast [cf. C. Lambot and I. Franson, L'Office de la Fête Dieu primitive (Maredsous 1946)]. Then cardinal legate hugh of st. cher extended its celebration to Germany, Bohemia, and Poland (1252). But her zeal earned her enemies and she was forced to leave Cornillon, seeking shelter among the beguines of Namur. Six years after Juliana died at Saint–Fevillen in Fosses, urban iv, a former archdeacon at Liège, urged by Eve of Liège, extended the celebration of corpus christi to the whole Church. Juliana's cult as a beata was confirmed in 1869.

Feast: April 5.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum, April, 1:442–475. e. denis, La Vraie histoire de sainte Julienne de L. (Tournai 1935). g. simenon, J. de Cornillon (Brussels 1946). e. w. mcdonnell, Beguines and Beghards in Medieval Culture (New Brunswick, N.J.1954). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4 v. (New York 1956) 2:37–38.

[j. j. smith]