On a day like today the practice of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament began

This September 11 marks a new anniversary since Perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament began in Avignon (France), a practice that has now spread throughout the world.

As indicated the Catholic Encyclopediaperpetual adoration is an expression used to designate the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament without interruption or with pauses of short periods of time.

The term is used “in a moral sense, when it is interrupted only for a short period of time, or for imperative reasons, or for circumstances beyond control, to be resumed, however, as soon as possible,” he adds.

The encyclopedia indicates that many experts attribute the beginning of the adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist to the moment in which the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1246, by the then Bishop of Liège (Belgium), Mons. Robert de Thourotte, and at the suggestion of Saint Juliana of Mont Cornillon.

However, the first recorded time of perpetual adoration was in Avignon, in 1226.

On September 11 of that year, French King Louis VII asked to expose the Blessed Sacrament as a way to celebrate the victory over the albigensiansa sect that flourished in the south of France in the 12th and 13th centuries.

“In thanksgiving, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, covered with a veil, in the Chapel of the Holy Cross” in Orleans, the encyclopedia highlights.

Faced with the large number of people who came to worship Jesus in the Eucharist, Bishop Pierre de Corbie “considered it appropriate to continue adoration at night, as well as during the day.”

The Holy See later ratified this perpetual adoration, which was maintained uninterrupted until 1792, when it was stopped by the chaos of the French Revolution, and was resumed in 1829, thanks to the efforts of the “Confraternity of Gray Penitents.” .

Perpetual adoration spread throughout Europe, and it was not until the Forty Hours devotion was created, officially established in 1592, that this practice of Catholic faith really “developed in general.”

The devotion of the Forty Hours spread Perpetual Adoration in “several churches of Rome until it gradually spread throughout the world, so that it may truly be said that, during every hour of the year, the Blessed Sacrament, solemnly exposed, is adored.” by multitudes of faithful,” adds the encyclopedia.