Juliana of Liège (also called Juliana of Mount-Cornillon), ( 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, which takes its title from the beginning of its first antiphon.
Biography
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. In time she came to understand that the moon symbolized the life of the church on earth, the opaque line, on the other hand, represented the absence of a liturgical feast in honor of Christ's Body and Blood. Not having any way to bring about such a feast, she kept her thoughts to herself, except for sharing them with an anchoress, Eve of Liège, who lived in a cell adjacent to the Basilica of St. Martin, and a few other trusted sisters in her monastery. Her vision is illustrated on the historiated initial letter of her vita as it appears in Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (MS 945, fol. 2).
Around 1225, she was elected prioress of the double canonry and told her visions to her confessor, Canon John of Lausanne (a secular canon of the collegiate chapter at Saint Martin Basilica). Canon John had many contacts among the distinguished French theologians and Dominican professors who had gathered in Liège. These included Robert de Thorete, the Bishop of Liège, Hugh of Saint-Cher, the Dominican Prior Provincial for France, and Jacques Pantaleon of Troyes, Archdeacon of Liège, who later became bishop of the Diocese of Verdun, then Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and finally pope, ruling under the name Pope Urban IV. Canon John reportedly relayed Juliana's vision to these distinguished religious leaders. These theologians agreed unanimously that there was nothing in the devotion of the feast contrary to the Catholic faith and endorsed instituting it.
Upon receiving approbation from local religious authorities, Juliana set to work with Canon John, who was still a young man, and together they composed the initial version of the office, Animarum cibus. This early office can be found in the composite manuscript, The Hague, National Library of the Netherlands (KB 70.E.4). In 1246, Bishop Robert instituted the first feast of Christ's Body and Blood for his own diocese. He died later that same year, however, and never saw it completed, though the feast was celebrated by the canons of St. Martin.