In 1263 a priest from Bohemia, Peter of Prague, was on his way to Rome and stopped in Bolsena to celebrate Mass in the Basilica of St. Christina. It is said that Peter doubted that the consecrated host actually became the body of Christ and that as he reached the rite of the consecration during the Mass, blood flowed out of the host onto the corporal cloth and the altar stone. When Pope Urban IV, who was resident at that time in the Papal Palace of Orvieto, heard of this event he sent the Bishop of Orvieto to authenticate the miracle and bring the corporal to Orvieto, where it was housed in the cathedral.

In 1264 the Pope published the Bull 'Transitus' proclaiming the institution of the Feast of 'Corpus Christi', which affirmed the Church's teaching regarding the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the consecrated bread and wine.

Urban IV also enlisted the help of the great Dominican divine, Thomas Aquinas, who was teaching in the Dominican community in Orvieto, to write the office for the feast of Corpus Christi. The desk at which he wrote this work is preserved in the Church of San Domenico in Orvieto, as is the crucifix from which he heard Christ tell him that he had done well in his writing concerning the Sacrament. 

Assisi is situated in the heart of Italy in the province of Umbria, a region celebrated for being verdant and an ever changing landscape of mountains, wooded hillsides and wide open valleys. It was in this area sometimes also called ‘The Land of Saints’ that St Francis and St Clare were born at the end of the 12th century. Both of them were reluctant leaders but their stubborn devotion to following the gospel ideals proved to be a beacon, which attracted many people and has meant that the Franciscan and Poor Clare orders have had a profound effect on the Church.

Time will be spent in Assisi and its surrounds seeing the places where the saints lived out their mission, whilst also being able to appreciate as Francis did the glory of the natural world in this special place.