Saint Juliana of Liège

Juliana of Liège (also called Juliana of Mount-Cornillon), (c. 1192 or 1193 – 5 April 1258) was a medieval Norbertine canoness regular and mystic in what is now Belgium. Traditional scholarly sources have long recognized her as the promoter of the Feast of Corpus Christi, first celebrated in Liège in 1246, and later adopted for the Catholic Church in 1264. More recent scholarship includes manuscript analysis of the initial version of the Office, as found in The Hague, National Library of the Netherlands (KB 70.E.4) and a close reading of her Latin vita, a critical edition of which was published in French by the Belgian scholar and current (2023) bishop of Liège, Jean-Pierre Delville. Newer scholarly work notes the many references to her musical and liturgical performances. Modern women scholars recognize Juliana as the "author" of the initial version of the Latin Office, Animarum cibus Archived 2023-04-08 at the Wayback Machine, which takes its title from the beginning of its first antiphon. Juliana and her twin sister Agnes were born in the village of Retinnes in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. They were orphaned at age five and placed in a newly founded hospice at Mont-Cornillon, right outside of Liège. The canonry seems to have been established on the model of a double monastery, with both canons and canonesses, each living in their own wing of the monastery. The two girls were initially placed on a small farm next to the canonry. Juliana, after entering the Order at the age of 13, worked for many years in its leprosarium. Agnes seems to have died young, as there is no further mention of her in the archives. From her early youth, Juliana had great veneration for the Eucharist (as did many of the women of Liège) and longed for a special feast day in its honor. When Juliana was 16 she had her first vision which recurred subsequently several times. Her vision presented the moon in its full splendour, crossed diametrically by a dark stripe.