“This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that
the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and
who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink;
but as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God's Word took flesh and blood for our salvation,
so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from him, from which
our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus.”

- St. Justin, Martyr, 2nd Century
 (100 - 165 A.D.)

During the Middle Ages it was sung at the elevation of the host during the consecration. It was also used frequently during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The poem is a meditation on the Catholic belief in Jesus's Real Presence in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and ties it to the Catholic conception of the redemptive meaning of suffering in the life of all believers.

Musical settings include Mozart's motet Ave verum corpus (K. 618),^[6] as well as settings by William Byrd and Sir Edward Elgar. Not all composers set the whole text. For example, Mozart's setting finishes with "in mortis examine", Elgar's with "fili Mariae". There is a version by Franz Liszt [Searle 44], and also ones by Camille Saint-Saëns, Orlande de Lassus, Imant Raminsh,^[7] Alexandre Guilmant, Colin Mawby,^[8] Malcolm Archer^[9] and Jack Gibbons.^[10] Liszt also composed a fantasy on Mozart's work, preceded by a version of Allegri's celebrated Miserere, under the title À la Chapelle Sixtine [Searle 461 – two versions]. Versions of this fantasy for orchestra [Searle 360] and piano four-hands [Searle 633] follow closely the second version for piano. The is also a version for organ [Searle 658] with the title Evocation à la Chapelle Sixtine. The text is even used in an opera, Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites (there is also "Ave verum corpus", a separate work by Poulenc dated 1952). Mozart's version, with instruments only, was adapted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as one of the sections of his Mozartiana, a tribute to Mozart. The Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben) made some notable recordings of Mozart's "Ave verum corpus" in the 20th century. From the 21st century there is a setting by the Swedish composer Fredrik Sixten.

May 26, 1940 - The Siege of Calais ended with the surrender of the British and French garrison.

May 26, 1942 - The Battle of Bir Hakeim (also known as the Battle of Gazala) began.

May 26, 1952 - The borders between East and West Germany and between East Germany and West Berlin were closed. The border between East and West Berlin remained open.