Bolsena is the town of the miracle of the Eucharist from which the feast of Corpus Christi originated, so this is a particularly special day for the enchanting village on the lake.
It all began in 1263 in the Basilica of Santa Cristina when a Bohemian priest who was a little skeptical about the significance of the Eucharist saw the host bleed.
The priest was traveling from Prague to the tomb of Peter in Rome just to seek comfort on his doubts and when he arrived in Bolsena he asked to celebrate mass.
During the mass the host turned into meat and began to bleed profusely enough to stain all the linen covering used on the altar.
The priest tried to hide the incident but some blood fell on the floor and all the faithful realized what had happened.
Recall that at that time the priest celebrated mass turning his back on the faithful who could then not notice the miracle.
At that time Pope Urban IV was in Orvieto and sent experts such as Thomas d'Aquino and Bonaventura da Bagnoregio to verify the incident and bring him the relics.
When the Pope was convinced of what had happened in 1264 he issued the "Bull Transiturus" with which he established the Feast of Corpus Domini.
But the procession of Bolsena is distinguished from that in all the other parts of the world because the relics and stones stained with blood are also carried in procession.
The history of this procession is unique and was created in 1811 when the Papal State was in the hands of Napoleon's French who were desecrating churches to sell them to private individuals.
In the programme of the French there was the dismissal of all the churches that did not contain particular relics, or that were the subject of celebrations of recognized importance, and among these was the Basilica of Santa Cristina of Bolsena.
It was Father Francesco Cozza who decided to save the basilica by creating a grandiose feast in honour of the relics of the blood-stained marbles on which the miracle of the Eucharist had taken place.
He removed one of the marbles from the floor and in a very short time he made a case with the host to put on the stones and on 16 June 1811 he made a solemn procession with all the exultant people who in the night had created a mantle of flower petals over the path where the procession would take place.
The French were convinced of the importance of the ceremony and the basilica and decided not to proceed with the suppression of this church.
When in 1815 the bishop was able to return to Bolsena he continued and officially instituted the feast of Corpus Domini with a flower carpet (infiorata)
The infiorata consists of a series of drawings made on streets with coloured flower petals along a journey of about 3 km.
The process takes several months in which the sketches are drawn and the colours of the petals of the flowers to be researched are studied. The colours are mostly yellow, red and green.
The week before the procession the populace starts to look for flowers that are placed in cool places to not ruin their petals: that include brooms, cornflowers, acacia, poppies, roses, vetch, hydrangeas, marigolds, carnations and daisies.
Then everything happens in one night thanks to well organized groups of citizens some of whom take care of the design, some do the edges with a mixture of sawdust or coffee grounds, some place the petals and others spray them continuously with water.
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