EUCHARISTIC CONGRESSES. — Eucharistic Congresses are gatherings of the clergy and Christian people, with the aim of publicly glorifying the Most Holy Sacrament, recalling the faithful to their Eucharistic duties, and effectively cooperating in the spread of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Eucharistic Congresses may be: international, national, regional, inter-diocesan, diocesan, inter-parochial, parochial, etc., according to the more or less extensive scope of their celebration. They consist of a cultural part devoted to the study of the theme of the Congress, and of liturgical ceremonies and prayer gatherings.
The idea of promoting Eucharistic Congresses is due to Marie Martha Emilia Tamisier, born in Tours, France, on 10 November 1844 and there piously died on 20 June 1910. Formed in the school of Bl. Peter Julian Eymard, she set herself the goal of striving with all her strength to promote the salvation of society through the Eucharist. Following the example of pilgrimages to Marian shrines, Tamisier thought that pilgrimages should be organised to shrines sacred to the memory of miracles of the Most Holy Sacrament. The idea was supported by priests and laity of great virtue. The destination of the first pilgrimage, in 1874, was the chapel known as that of the Grey Penitents in Avignon. The success of this pilgrimage led to the organisation of others, often accompanied by a procession called the “Procession of the Most Holy Sacrament,” in which Eucharistic works were discussed.
The pilgrimage to Faverney in 1878, concluded by a small study congress of notable practical interest, heralded an even broader and more intense Eucharistic action. The dawn of true and proper Eucharistic Congresses was now breaking.
On 17 January 1881, in Paris, at a meeting presided over by Monsignor de Ségur, the foundation of the Work of International Eucharistic Congresses was decided: Lille was chosen as the site of the first Congress. The principal organiser was Philibert Vrau, the animator of Catholic Works in northern France. He went to Rome to obtain the approval of Pope Leo XIII, who granted it with a laudatory brief on 16 May 1881 and wished to send his blessing to the assembly in Lille.
To date, 34 International Eucharistic Congresses have been held: 1st Lille (1881), 2nd Avignon (1882), 3rd Liège (1883), 4th Fribourg (1885), 5th Toulouse (1886), 6th Paris (1888), 7th Antwerp (1890), 8th Jerusalem (1893), 9th Reims (1894), 10th Paray-le-Monial (1897), 11th Brussels (1898), 12th Lourdes (1899), 13th Angers (1901), 14th Namur (1902), 15th Angoulême (1905), 16th Rome (1905), 17th Tournai (1906), 18th Metz (1907), 19th Lourdes (1908), 20th Cologne (1909), 21st Montreal (1910), 22nd Madrid (1911), 23rd Vienna (1912), 24th Malta (1913), 25th Lourdes (1914). The series was interrupted by the Great War and resumed with the 26th Congress in Rome (1922), 27th Amsterdam (1924), 28th Chicago (1926), 29th Sydney (1928), 30th Carthage (1930), 31st Dublin (1932), 32nd Buenos Aires (1934), 33rd Manila (1937), 34th Budapest (1938). The celebration of the 35th Congress, planned for Nice, was suspended due to the Second World War.
For many years, the scientific congresses held in conjunction with the Eucharistic Congresses served to keep theologians informed of the current state of experimental sciences and historical criticism.
Of the numerous meetings of the organising and animating committee of the Congresses until his death (1896), Monsignor Maurice d’Hulst, Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, was in charge. After a journey to Rome (January 1887), he obtained a flattering brief from His Holiness Leo XIII (20 May 1887) for the future Congress, which was postponed from Easter 1887 to 1–5 April 1888.
The Congress took place in Paris under the presidency of Monsignor d’Hulst himself, with 1,605 participants, a third of whom were foreigners. In principle, strictly theological questions were omitted; 87 papers were admitted for public reading in the general assemblies or in the sections (religious sciences, philosophy, law, history, mathematics, physics and natural sciences, anthropology); 79 of these, together with the speeches and discussions, were published, at least in summary, in the Compte rendu of 1891 (1,401 pages).
If this first Congress was a success in view of the difficulties to be overcome, the following ones were even more successful and took on a different character from one another, also in terms of the number and qualifications of the sections. The second Congress (Paris, 1–6 April 1891, presided over by Monsignor Freppel, Bishop of Angers) had 2,494 participants, including 1,056 French; the third (Brussels, 3–8 September 1894, presided over by Dr L. Febvre of the University of Louvain) 2,528; the fourth (Fribourg, 16–20 August 1897, presided over by Baron Georg von Hertling of the University of Munich) 3,007; the fifth (Munich, 24–28 September 1900, presided over by Albert de Lapparent of the Catholic Institute of Paris) 3,367. The speeches and papers reproduced or summarised in the respective Comptes rendus (Akten for Munich) numbered 131 for the second Congress, 137 for the third, 200 for the fourth, and 260 for the fifth; the authors were mostly French in the Paris Congresses, German in that of Munich. In addition to French (and rarely Latin), German, English, Italian, and Spanish were used in the works of Fribourg and Munich. A sixth international scientific congress was not held in 1903 in Rome as planned.
By refuting in practice the alleged opposition between Catholic faith and science, the five Congresses brought Catholic scientists together, even from different nations, fostered a more just appreciation of their scientific work both among non-Catholics and among Catholics—who were sometimes ignorant and distrustful—and contributed to scientific progress with new research and results in their respective disciplines.