Precious Blood
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Christ's Precious Blood is the Eucharist under the species of wine.
[edit] History
In the Early Church Christ's Faithful received the Eucharist both as consecrated bread and wine. Saint Maximus explains that in the Old Law the flesh of the sacrificial victim was shared with the people, but the blood of the sacrifice was merely poured out on the altar. Under the New Law, however, Jesus' blood was the drink shared by all of Christ's Faithful.
The tradition continued in the Eastern Church to comingle the species of bread and wine, whereas in the Western Church the practice of communion under the species of bread and wine separately was the custom, with only a small fraction of bread placed in the chalice. In the Western Church, the communion at the chalice was made less and less efficient, as the dangers of the spread of disease and danger of spillage were considered enough of a reason to remove the chalice from common communion altogether (or on only special occasions). The Protestant controversy turned this into one of its main issues. As a consequence, the Catholic Church first wanted to eliminate ambiguity, declaring that Christ was present both as body and as blood equally under both species of bread and wine. As time went on, the chalice was made more available to the laity. After the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church gave a full permission for all to receive communion from the chalice at every Mass involving a congregation.
[edit] Theology
The Catholic Church teaches that the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus are contained in both consecrated bread and wine. But they remain as distinct Mysteries, mystically united.
The devotion to the Precious Blood that was an especial phenomenon of Flemish piety in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, gave rise to the iconic image of Grace as the "Fountain of Life", filled with blood, puring from the wounded Lamb of God or the Holy Wounds of Christ. The image, which was the subject of numerous Flemish paintings was in part spurred by the renowned relic of the Precious Blood, which had been noted in Bruges since the twelfth century[1] and which gave rise, from the late thirteenth century, to the observances, particular to Bruges, of the procession of the Saint Sang from its chapel.[2]
