The celebration dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ goes back to the annual celebration of the relics stored in the Church of San Nicola in Carcere in Rome, which, according to tradition, are a scrap of the centurion’s cloak that he pierced with the spear of the Crucified to make sure of his death. This piece was reverently cut off because it was sprinkled with “blood and water” (Jn 19:34) that flowed from Jesus’ pierced side.

The Roman princes of Savelli, who considered themselves descendants of a centurion, in 1708, being close to death, gave the church of San Nicola in Carcere, this priceless reliquary. The relic was placed under the cross, which spoke to the mystic, Saint Bridget. A huge cult has developed around this precious relic. Every year, on the first Sunday of July, the Feast of the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ was solemnly celebrated.

St. Kasper de Buffalo, founder of a separate religious family dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus (+ 1837).

Young Maria De Mattias, during the missions proclaimed by St. Gaspar in 1822 at Vallecorsa, was deeply moved by his sermons. And this is how the idea of ​​establishing a congregation of sisters began to mature in her, which she finally founded in Acuto in 1834, under the name of the Adorers of the Precious Blood of Christ.

In 1849, Pope Pius IX, in exile in Gaeta, received a visit from Father John Merlini, Missionary of the Blood of Christ, who foretold him the end of his exile if he extended the feast of the Precious Blood of Christ to the whole Church. The Pope replied: “I do not vow, but I promise”, and so it happened. Pius IX returned to Rome, remembering the promise, by decree Redempti Sumus of August 10, 1849. He extended to the whole Church the Feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was still celebrated on the first Sunday of July.

Pope St. Pius X in 1914 set the date of the liturgical celebrations for July 1.

In the Jubilee Year of April 15, 1934, Pius XI raised this celebration to the level of a First Class Double Rite.

In the Catholic Church of the Latin (Roman) rite, on July 1, the Most Precious Blood of Christ is celebrated.

As a result of the liturgical revolution after Vatican II in the modernist, post-conciliar neo-Church, the feast was abolished (by the pseudo-Pope Paul VI), and the celebration was combined with the feast of the Most Holy Body of Christ (popularly known as Corpus Christi). In this way, the cult of the Precious Blood was degraded in the novus ordo sect, as was the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in favor of the (falsely understood) “divine mercy”.

The service in honor of the Blood of the Lord is justified in Sacred Scripture, where the blood of martyrs is praised, and above all the blood of Jesus Christ. It was the first time that the Lord Jesus shed it in circumcision. In the Garden of Olives he was sweating with bloody sweat (Luke 22:44). It flowed abundantly during the scourging and crowning with thorns, and also during the crucifixion. When the soldier pierced his side, “blood and water flowed out immediately” (Jn 19:34).

Medieval saints had a cordial devotion to the Blood of Jesus. It was connected with the devotion to the Wounds of Jesus, and especially to the Wounds of His side. They were distinguished by this devotion: St. Bernard (+ 1153), St. Anselm (+ 1109), Bl. Gueryk d’Igny (+ 1160) and St. Bonaventure (+ 1270). On Friday, after the octave of Corpus Christi, the Dominicans, although no one had expected that the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus would be established on that day, recited the office of the wound of the side.