Corpus Christi in Augsburg
Walking through the city yesterday afternoon, we noticed a group of workers placing large branches into buckets of water and placing them along the wall adjacent to the pavement.
“It’s Corpus Christi tomorrow”, they said “and there will be a procession from the Cathedral”. Well, they called it Fronleichtlam because the conversation was all in German. I looked it up later, not being familiar with this particular church holiday.
Later that afternoon, we were sitting outside the hotel in Maximilianstrasse when another team of city workers drove up in a small pickup filled with branches, just like those we’d seen earlier in the day.
These were being tied to each lamppost and as the chap came over to tie one to the lamppost immediately behind me, I asked him about it all. He explained that the procession will come this way after morning Mass in the Cathedral and it was traditional to line the streets with leafy branches like this. Tomorrow, he and his colleagues would be along to cut them all down again, but for now, it looked lovely.
The Private Bank next door to the hotel had lined their walls with branches already.
This morning, the 4th June, we went out in search of breakfast, noting as we did that the Maximilianstrasse was closed and an altar had been created in front of the Hercules Fountain a little further up the street. We went for a look, chatting to the police officers as we did. They thought the procession would be here quite soon.
It all looked lovely and with all of that church silverware taking pride of place, it came as no surprise to find a group of security officers standing behind the fountain too. I carefully composed my picture to hide their hi-vis jackets!
As we enjoyed our breakfast outside the bakers just along the way, we watched a group of priests and church members hurry past us on their way to the cathedral. All were smartly dressed, some wearing traditional Trachten and I especially admired a small family with a little girl, Father in lederhosen, Mother in a pink dirndl and their little girl wearing the tiniest version of her Mummy’s outfit. Meanwhile, another chap came out and arranged an altar by the roadside, taking great care with the placement of the candles in glass vases.
We had barely finished breakfast when we heard the sound of voices and spotted the blue lights coming towards us. It would be around 9.15 by now and we quickly took our seats outside the hotel to watch the procession go past. We had no idea what to expect
or how many people were going to be involved here! First came the priests, followed by the cathedral choirs and a band (of course, this is Germany!) There were groups of dignitaries dressed in robes and groups of young men wearing distinctive uniforms. The Bishop was transported beneath a canopy surrounded by other religious groups, nuns and chuch officials.
Behind the Cathedral groups, there followed the congregations from other local churches, each one following their clergy, carrying their banner, singing hymns and chanting responses to prayers as they went. How did they all keep up and keep in tune with it all?
We spotted a couple of the people we’d seen earlier, including the little family wearing their Trachten. Daddy was pushing an empty buggy for the little girl was intent on walking, holding Mummy’s hand as she went.
The procession finally came to a stop when the leading people reached the altar by the fountain. A short service followed and a young man came and handed round a leaflet with the words and music for us to join in (or rather, to follow along!)
Ten minutes later, we heard the music begin again and watched the whole procession in reverse as they returned to the Cathedral. The clergymen leading were struggling to hold those banners up for a brisk wind had blown up in the meantime.
I managed to capture a snap of those young men in rather fancy uniforms as they passed by
and I was glad to get a photo of the marvellous band!
I smiled as I watched the Cathedral Choir school pupils with their teacher alongside. Most of them walked perfectly in step but, you know how there’s always one?!
By the time the small boys were passing by, there was quite a bit of pushing and shoving in the ranks!
The older choir members were more controlled, needless to say!
Of course, the Bishop appeared serene and calm amidst it all.
And there, amongst the smoke coming from the incense, I got a photo of the answer to my earlier question: how does such a long procession keep in time with the music and stay together? The answer is in the wifi speakers carried by young men at regular intervals along the whole procession, which we estimated to have been more than a thousand people in total.
We didn’t wait for all the local congregations to pass by, for we were heading off today to our next stop and needed to sort out luggage and get the car loaded.
However, as we drove through a village later in the day we passed by a small altar in the centre of the main street. For once, we knew exactly why and what had happened there earlier in the day - probably exactly the same as had taken place in countless other communities throughout this part of Germany on this, the 60th day after Easter: Corpus Christi or Fronleichnam as they say here.
