Cult of Precious Blood
The Precious Blood, or the Holy Blood as it’s often called, represents any blood that Jesus Christ spilled throughout his life. The Cult of the Precious Blood would have consisted of people who devoted themselves to the praise of relics from Jesus’s life and death; like for instance collected blood from Jesus’ crucifixion by Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Mary Magdalen or Longinus, or even blood considered to be from a miraculous event. As a matter of fact, one widely treasured relic related to the Precious Blood is a piece of cloth said to have been splashed with Jesus’s blood after having been pierced with the holy lance.
Within the devoted walls of the Basilica of Holy Blood, a Roman Catholic Church built in the 12th century in Belgium, this blood-soaked piece of cloth is kept on display within a large glass phial wound in golden thread.
To worship relics such as these is also to pay respects to The Passion; the idea that Jesus sacrificed his blood and his life for the sins of humankind.
Of course this isn’t the only way modern-day devotees can show respect for Jesus’s Precious Blood. Over time the devotion to physical items in honor of symbolic concepts of this nature has changed. For instance, a common practice among Catholics of today is to attend a mass and take part in communion. For communion, devotees are given consecrated bread and wine or grape juice in observance of the Eucharist, a method of taking into themselves the blood and body of Christ.
There are also very specific prayers and hymns used for the worship of the Precious Blood, typically done while holding a rosary.
