Corpus Christi in Cusco

Fifteen saints come to the square

Corpus Christi, the Catholic feast of the Eucharist, arrived in Peru with the Spanish conquerors in the sixteenth century. Over the years Cusco gave it customs of its own, and in 2004 Peru’s National Institute of Culture declared the celebration part of the nation’s cultural heritage. In the late seventeenth century, under Bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo, the processions included Inca nobles in ceremonial dress.

The day before the feast, in the Subida de Corpus, parishioners carry the images of their patron saints in procession from their own churches to the church of Santa Clara. The fifteen images include Saint Anthony the Abbot, Saint Jerome, Saint Christopher, Saint Sebastian, Saint Barbara, Saint Anne, Saint James, Saint Blaise, Saint Peter and Saint Joseph, together with the Virgin of Bethlehem, the Virgin of the Almudena, the Virgin of the Remedies, the Purified Virgin and the Immaculate Conception.

The procession and the Octava

On Thursday the images process along the streets of Santa Clara, Marqués and Mantas to the Plaza de Armas, where they join the cathedral’s monstrance, a piece of gold and silver that holds the consecrated host. After the archbishop celebrates mass at the entrance of the cathedral, the Corpus Christi sets out at midday on a silver carriage, followed in line by the other images in a slow circuit of the square. In the afternoon a blessing is given, and the images enter the cathedral, where they stay for a week until the Octava. Then they return to their parishes.

The procession is competitive as well as devout. Each parish comes with its own bands and groups of musicians, who play for their dances against those of the others.