ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how the Eucharist also played an important role “outside the Mass,” shaping the time and space of daily life and emancipating itself from the liturgical rite. Four examples in particular are examined. The first is the great success of the Corpus Christi processions and of the Forty Hours’ Devotion: both forms of devotion modelled urban spaces and related to what was happening in the world (the Forty Hours, for instance, were often organised as an “alternative” to carnival). The second example is offered by the viaticum, which was widespread in the late 17th and early 18th centuries: the Eucharist was the bread that accompanied the soul to eternal salvation and meditation on death therefore had to be constantly associated with “hunger” for the body of God. The third case relates to the eucharistic confraternities which, from the Council of Trent onwards, characterised the life of parishes, especially of the laity. Finally, this chapter illustrates how the Eucharist interacted with a society troubled by violence and war, acting as a rite of peace or, in other cases, as a means of exhorting Christian armies to victory against the infidels (particularly the Turks).
