Please join us June 2, 2024 for our 178th Corpus Christi Procession following the 10am Mass.

Corpus Christi, also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, celebrates the transubstantiation of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. We celebrate the Sunday after Pentecost every year. We invite any and all to join Holy Family Parish following our 10am Mass with our time honored solemn procession.

A Brief History of Holy Family’s Corpus Christi Procession

Since 1846, Holy Family Parish celebrates Corpus Christi with a solemn procession to various outdoor chapels and shrines set up and decorated by parishioners. As the procession makes its way through the streets and countryside, it stops at each shrine for Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament. Benediction is a special blessing given when the Sign of the Cross is made with the consecrated Host in the monstrance. At each Benediction, a salvo of shots is fired as a salute to the Eucharistic King.

The procession is led by the Cross, flags, altar servers, and young children who strew flower petals along the path, immediately followed by the canopy under which the Blessed Sacrament is carried. The Knights of St. John International follow and serve as Honor Guard. Members of the parish and community complete the procession reciting the rosary as they walk.

The route of the procession has varied only slightly over the years with the outdoor portion rarely abandoned due to weather. The current route goes north from Holy Family Church on Perlen Strasse to the cemetery chapel, through the woods to the chapel near State Road 229, winds its way past the Mortuary Chapel in the Sisters of St. Francis Cemetery to the Oldenburg Academy of the Immaculate Conception, continues down Washington Strasse to the Knights of St. John Hall on Wasser Strasse, turns the corner to the Oldenburg Town Hall on Perlen Strasse, and concludes at Holy Family Church.