In the Catholic tradition, each month of the year is associated with a particular devotion: May and October with the Blessed Virgin Mary, June with the Sacred Heart, and November with the faithful departed. For centuries, July has been dedicated to the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is less widely known than other devotions, yet it has deep roots in Scripture and a clearly defined institutional history, shaped by papal acts and an Apostolic Letter.
A scriptural foundation, not a sentimental one
This is not a devotion born of emotion, but a central biblical theme. In the Old Testament, blood is the seat and sign of life, and is therefore sacred: the Book of Deuteronomy reaffirms its inviolability. The blood of the Passover lamb, spread on the doorposts, saves the people of Israel and becomes the figure taken up and fulfilled in the New Testament: Christ, the true Lamb, sheds his own blood “for the forgiveness of sins”.
Christian tradition recalls the shedding of blood throughout the life of Jesus - from the Circumcision to Gethsemane, from the scourging to the crown of thorns, and finally through the nails and the lance thrust - seeing in them one single act of redeeming love. This theological core, rather than a devotion centred on relics, lies at the heart of the practice: the saving Blood is made present in every Eucharist, in the “cup of blessing” which the Church offers to the faithful.
Relics, confraternities and medieval traditions
Over the centuries, local devotions developed around alleged relics of the Blood. The best known is that of Mantua, preserved in the Basilica of Sant’Andrea. According to a pious tradition, the soldier Longinus, converted after piercing Christ’s side, collected the blood and brought it to Italy. Similar relics have been venerated, among other places, in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and at Weingarten Abbey.
These are signs of the spread of the devotion rather than historically verifiable foundations. As tradition itself recalls, the devotion “arose on Calvary” and spread from there.
The nineteenth-century revival: Albertini, Gaspare del Bufalo and De Mattias
The devotion experienced a period of major renewal in Rome during the first half of the nineteenth century, centred on a relic kept in the Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere. Its driving force was Fr Francesco Albertini, later a bishop, who promoted a Confraternity of the Precious Blood.
From his circle emerged the figures who would turn it into a far-reaching spiritual movement: St Gaspare del Bufalo, founder of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, an indefatigable preacher who spread the practice of dedicating the month to the Blood of Christ despite misunderstanding and persecution; and St Maria De Mattias, founder of the Sisters Adorers of the Blood of Christ. From these roots, numerous congregations dedicated to the Blood of the Redeemer were established in Italy and throughout the world.
The establishment of the feast: Pius IX in exile
The decisive step from a widespread devotion to a universal liturgical feast bears the signature of Pius IX and is linked to a politically charged moment. During the Roman Republic, the Pope was in exile in Gaeta. There, according to the traditional account, Fr Giovanni Merlini - the third Superior General of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, now Blessed - suggested that he establish a universal feast of the Blood of Christ in order to invoke an end to the conflict.
On 30 June 1849, Pius IX announced his intention to establish it. With the decree Redempti sumus, dated 10 August 1849, he set the feast for the first Sunday of July.
His successors later refined the arrangement. Pius X moved the celebration to a fixed date, 1 July. Pius XI raised its liturgical rank in 1934, during the Jubilee of the Redemption, marking the nineteenth centenary of Christ’s death. By that stage, the feast had secured an established place in the Universal Calendar.
John XXIII, “the Pope of the Precious Blood”
The other major chapter is connected with St John XXIII, who had been devoted to this practice since childhood. Every day in July, he recited the Litany of the Blood, which he had learned at home. As Pope, he made it a central element of his public devotion. At the beginning of 1960, he approved the Litany of the Precious Blood for the universal Church; on 31 January 1960, when closing the Roman Synod, he praised St Gaspare del Bufalo as the greatest apostle of this devotion; later, he wished to add the words “Blessed be his Most Precious Blood” to the acclamations of “Blessed be God”, usually recited at the end of Eucharistic Adoration.
The most solemn act remains the Apostolic Letter Inde a primis, dated 30 June 1960, in which the Pope explained the meaning of the devotion, linked it to devotion to the Name and Heart of Jesus, and recommended its wider spread. It remains the principal magisterial reference point for devotion to the Blood of Christ.
The reform of St Paul VI and the present situation
With the reform of the liturgical calendar that followed the Second Vatican Council, St Paul VI did not suppress the devotion but incorporated it into the wider liturgical framework. The separate feast of the Precious Blood was joined to that of Corpus Christi, giving rise to the single Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, celebrated throughout the Church.
The commemoration of 1 July remains in the calendar of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, while in the Holy Land the celebration retains particular importance. Every 1 July, at the Basilica of the Agony in Jerusalem, the Franciscans commemorate it by scattering rose petals over the rock of Gethsemane.
In the ordinary rite, alongside the solemnity, there remains a votive Mass of the Precious Blood, which may be celebrated in July and at other times of the year. This is also why, even without a feast of its own occupying a prominent place in the calendar, the whole month of July continues by tradition to be dedicated to the Blood of Christ.
What the Church says today
The meaning of this devotion is set out in the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (nos. 175–179), which places remembrance of the saving Blood at the very heart of Eucharistic worship: in the assembly that raises to the Father the “cup of blessing” and offers it to the faithful as real communion with the blood of Christ.
This is not, therefore, a parallel devotion, but a way of contemplating the Paschal Mystery through its price. As Benedict XVI recalled, drawing precisely on the tradition of July, the blood of Christ is “the pledge of God’s faithful love for humanity”: before the wounds of the Crucified, every person can recognise that they have not been abandoned.
Ultimately, it is the synthesis of a devotion that has endured for twenty centuries and has changed in its liturgical expression without ever losing its vitality.
fr.V.B.
Silere non possum