Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
There is nothing in the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is not already contained in a nutshell in the Gospel of St. John, the privileged one who could truly physically rest his head on the Master's chest during his earthly life and who always remained close to him, he deserved the honor of guarding his Mother.
That this experience should coincide with a special treatment is implicit not only in the Gospels, but in the whole proto-Christian tradition, taking as its basis the famous episode in which Jesus invested Peter's papal dignity, leaving John separate (Jn 21, 1923)
From this fact and from his exceptional longevity (he died ultra centenary) the conviction was born that the love and confidence nurtured towards the Master constituted a kind of privileged channel to reach God directly, regardless of the observation of the other precepts. In reality, nothing justifies this conviction in the Apostle's writings and especially in his Gospel, which comes late, at the explicit and insistent request of the disciples and is intended to be a deepening, not a modification of what has already been stated by the synoptics. If anything, love for Christ represents an incentive to observe the laws more scrupulously, in order to become precisely the living temple of that Word which represents the only light in the world, as the unforgettable Prologue explains.
For fifteen hundred years devotion to the Heart as an idealization of Divine Love therefore remained an implicit reality in the mystical life, which no one felt the need to promote as a practice in its own right. There are countless references in San Bernardo di Chiaravalle (9901153), which among other things introduces the symbolism of the red rose as a transfiguration of blood, while St.Ildegarde of Bingen (10981180) "sees" the Master and has the consoling promise of the forthcoming birth of the Franciscan and Dominican orders, aimed at hindering the spread of heresies.
In the twelfth century. the center of this devotion is undoubtedly the Benedictine monastery of Helfta, in Saxony (Germany) with Saint Lutgarda, Saint Matilda of Hackeborn, who leaves her sisters a small diary of her mystical experiences, in which prayers to the Sacred Heart appear. Dante is almost certainly referring to her when he speaks of "Matelda". In 1261 a five-year-old girl arrives in the same monastery of Helfta who already shows a precocious inclination for religious life: Geltrude. He will die at the beginning of the new century, after having received the sacred stigmata. With all the prudence that the Church advises in the face of private revelations, it should be noted that the saint engaged in sacred conversations with the Evangelist John, to whom she asked why the Sacred Heart of Jesus was not revealed to men as a safe haven. against the snares of sin ... she was told that this devotion was reserved for the last times.
This does not prevent a theological maturation of devotion itself, which through the preaching of the Franciscan and Dominican mendicant orders also spreads a radical spirituality among the laity. A turning point is thus realized: if up to then Christianity had been triumphant, with its gaze fixed on the glory of the Risen Christ, now there is a growing attention to the humanity of the Redeemer, to his vulnerability, from childhood to passion. This is how the pious practices of the Crib and the Via Crucis were born, first of all as collective representations aimed at reviving the great moments in the life of Christ, then as domestic devotions, increasing the use of sacred pictures and images of various kinds. Unfortunately sacred art and its costs will give a scandal to Luther, who will rise up against the "trivialization" of faith and will insist on a more rigorous return to the Bible. The Catholic Church while defending tradition will therefore be forced to discipline it, establishing the canons of sacred representations and domestic devotions.
Apparently therefore the free confidence that had inspired so much secular faith in the last two centuries was curbed, if not even guilty.
But an unexpected reaction was in the air: in the face of the fear of the devil, as it explodes with the Lutheran heresy and the relative wars of religion, that "devotion to the Sacred Heart" which was to console souls in recent times finally becomes a universal heritage.
The theorist was Saint John Eudes, who lived between 1601 and 1680, who focuses on the identification with the Humanity of the Incarnate Word, to the point of imitating his intentions, wishes and feelings and of course his affection for Mary. The saint feels no need to separate the contemplative life from social commitment, which was a bit the banner of the reformed churches. On the contrary, it invites us to seek precisely in trust in the Sacred Hearts the strength to work better in the world. In 1648 he succeeded in obtaining the approval of a Liturgical Office and a Mass written in honor of the Sacred Heart of the Virgin, in 1672 those of the Heart of Jesus. Princess Frances of Lorraine, abbess of the Benedictines of St. Peter in Montmartre, managed to involve in devotion various members of the royal family.
On the evening of December 27, 1673, the feast of St. John the Evangelist, Jesus in flesh and blood appears to Margaret Mary, aka Alacoque, a young nun of the order of the Visitandines of Paray, who at that time was exercising the functions of assistant nurse . The Master invites her to take the place of St. John during the Last Supper "My Divine Heart" says "he is so passionate about love for men ... that being unable to contain the flames of his ardent charity any longer, he must who spreads them ... I have chosen you as an abyss of unworthiness and ignorance to fulfill this great plan, so that everything may be done by me. "
A few days later the vision is repeated again, much more impressive: Jesus is seated on a throne of flames, more radiant than the sun and transparent as crystal, his heart is surrounded by a crown of thorns symbolizing the wounds inflicted by sins and surmounted from a cross. Margherita contemplates upset and dares not speak to anyone with what happens to her.
Finally, on the first Friday after the feast of Corpus Domini, during adoration, Jesus reveals his plan of salvation: he asks for reparative communion on the first Friday of each month and an hour of meditation on the agony in the garden of the Gezemani, every Thursday evening, between 23pm and midnight. Sunday, June 16, 1675, a special feast was requested to honor His heart, the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Domini, on this occasion reparative prayers will be offered for all the outrages received in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.
Margherita alternates states of confident abandonment with moments of cruel depression. Frequent communions and free personal meditation do not fall within the spirit of her rule, in which the hours are marked by community commitments and as if that were not enough, her delicate constitution makes the superior, Mother Saumaise, very stingy with permissions. When the latter asks the ecclesiastical authorities of Paray for an initial opinion, the response is disheartening: "feed better sister Alacoque" she is answered "and her anxieties will disappear!" What if he really was a victim of demonic illusions? And even admitting the truth of the apparitions, how to reconcile the duty of humility and cloistered recollection with the project of spreading the new devotion in the world? The echo of the wars of religion has not yet died out and Burgundy is so much closer to Geneva than to Paris! In March 1675, Blessed Father Claudio de la Colombière, superior of the Jesuit religious community, arrived as confessor of the convent and fully reassured the sisters on the truth of the revelations he had received. From this moment on, devotion is also prudently proposed to the outside world, especially by the Jesuits, since the saint was in seclusion and her health will remain unsteady throughout her life. Everything we know about her is taken from the autobiography created between 1685 and 1686 on the advice of Father Ignazio Rolin, the Jesuit who was her spiritual director at that time and from the numerous letters that the saint sent to Father Claudio de la Colombière once. that he was transferred, as well as to the other nuns of the order.
The so-called "twelve promises" of the Sacred Heart with which the message was synthesized from the beginning, are all taken from the correspondence of the saint, because in the Autobiography there are no practical advice:
to the devotees of my Sacred Heart I will give all the graces and help necessary for their condition (lett. 141)
I will establish and maintain peace in their families (lett. 35)
I will console them in all their afflictions (lett. 141)
I will be a safe refuge for them in life and especially in the hour of death (lett. 141)
I will spread abundant blessings on all their labors and endeavors (lit. 141)
sinners will find in my Heart an inexhaustible source of mercy (lett. 132)
lukewarm souls will become fervent with the practice of this devotion (lett. 132)
fervent souls will quickly rise to a high perfection (lett. 132)
my blessing will remain in the places where the image of the Sacred Heart will be exhibited and venerated (lett.35)
to all those who work for the salvation of souls, I will give graces for being able to convert the hardest hearts (lit. 141)
the people who spread this devotion will have their names written forever in my Heart (lett. 141)
to all those who communicate on the first Friday of nine consecutive months, I will give the grace of final perseverance and eternal salvation (lett. 86)
In particular in the correspondence with Mother Saumaise, her first superior and confidant, we owe the most interesting details. In fact, the "letter 86" in which she speaks of the final perseverance, a hot topic in the fervor of the confrontation with the Protestants, and what is even more remarkable from the end of February to August 28 of 1689, is elaborated precisely on the text of that which might seem a real message from Jesus to the Sun King: "what consoles me" he says "is that I hope that in exchange for the bitterness that this Divine Heart has suffered in the palaces of the great with the ignominies of his Passion, this devotion he will make you receive it with magnificence ... and when I present my small requests, relating to all the details that seem so difficult to realize, I seem to hear these words: Do you think I can't do it? If you believe you will see the power of my Heart in the magnificence of my love! "
So far it could be more of a desire of the saint, than of a precise revelation of Christ ... however in another letter the discourse becomes more precise:
"... here are the words I have understood about our king: Let the firstborn son of my Sacred Heart know, that just as his temporal birth was obtained through devotion to my Holy Childhood, he will likewise obtain birth to grace and to eternal glory through the consecration that he will make of himself to my adorable heart, which wants to triumph over his own, and through his mediation reach those of the great of the earth. He wants to reign over his palace, to be painted on his banners, printed on the insignia, to make him victorious over all enemies, knocking down proud and proud heads at his feet, to make him triumph over all enemies of the Holy Church You will have reason to laugh, my good Mother, of the simplicity with which I write all this, but I follow the impulse that was given to me at the same moment "
This second letter therefore suggests a specific revelation, which the saint hastens to write in order to preserve the memory of what she has heard as much as possible and later, on August 28, it will be even more precise:
"The Eternal Father, wishing to make amends for the bitterness and anguish that the Adorable Heart of His divine Son suffered in the houses of the princes of the earth through the humiliations and outrages of his passion, wants to establish his empire in the court of our great monarch , which he wants to use for the execution of his own design, which must be accomplished in this way: to have a building built where a picture of the Sacred Heart will be placed in order to receive the consecration and homages of the king and of the whole court. And moreover, wanting the Divine Heart to become the protector and defender of his sacred person against all his visible and invisible friends, from whom he wants to defend him, and put his health in safety through this means ... he chose him as his faithful friend to have the Mass in his honor authorized by the Apostolic See and to obtain all the other privileges that must accompany this devotion to the Sacred Heart, through which he wants to distribute the treasures of his graces of sanctification and health, abundantly spreading his blessings on all his exploits, which he will succeed in his greatest glory, guaranteeing a happy victory to his armies, to make them triumph over the malice of his enemies. He will therefore be happy if he takes pleasure in this devotion, which will establish for him an eternal reign of honor and glory in the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who will take care of elevating him and making him great in Heaven before God his Father. , to the extent that this great monarch will want to raise him up before men from the opprobrium and annihilation that this Divine Heart has suffered, procuring him the honors, love and glory he expects ... "
As executors of the plan, Sister Margherita indicates Father La Chaise and the superior of Chaillot, contacted precisely by Saumaise.
Later, on September 15, 1689, the plan returns in a letter addressed instead to Father Croiset, the Jesuit who will publish the essential work on devotion to the Sacred Heart:
“… There is still another thing that concerns me… that this devotion should run in the palaces of the kings and princes of the earth… it would serve as a protection to the person of our king and could lead his weapons to glory, procuring him great victories. But it is not up to me to say it, we must let the power of this adorable Heart act "
So the message was there, but by Margaret's express will it was never presented in these terms. It was not a matter of a pact between God and the king, which guaranteed victory in exchange for consecration, but rather the certainty, on the part of the saint, that every kind of grace would come to the king in exchange for a free and disinterested devotion. , aimed only at compensating the Heart of Jesus for the offenses suffered by sinners.
Needless to say, the king never adhered to the proposal, everything suggests rather that no one illustrated it to him, although Father La Chaise, indicated by Margherita in his letter, was actually his confessor from 1675 to 1709 and knew Father La Colombière well, which he himself had sent to Paray le Monial.
On the other hand, his personal and family events were at that moment at a very delicate point. Absolute ruler and arbiter of Europe until 1684, the king had gathered the nobility in the famous palace of Versailles, making the once turbulent aristocracy a disciplined court: a coexistence of ten thousand people who followed a rigorous etiquette, entirely dominated by the king. In this small world, however, apart from the misunderstandings of the royal couple, the cohabitation of the king with a favorite who had given him seven children and the "poison scandal", a dark affair that had seen the highest dignitaries of the court guilty, had opened large chasms.
The queen's death in 1683 allowed the king to secretly marry the devoted Madame Maintenon and since then he has led an austere and withdrawn life, dedicating himself to numerous pious works. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and the support of the Catholic King James II of England, welcomed in France in 1688, followed by the unfortunate attempt to restore Catholicism on island. They are always and in any case serious, official gestures, far from the mystical abandonment to the Sacred Heart suggested by Margaret. Madame Maintenon herself, who at fourteen had left her adopted Protestantism to convert to the Catholic religion, professed a strict, cultured, text-sensitive faith which left little room for a new form of devotion and actually approached more to Jansenism than to actual Catholicism.
With fine intuition Margherita, who even knew nothing of court life, had grasped the immense human potential represented by Versailles; if the arid cult of the Sun King had been replaced by that of the Sacred Heart, the ten thousand people who lived in idleness would have truly transformed into citizens of the Celestial Jerusalem, but no one could impose such a change from the outside, he had to mature alone.
Unfortunately the gigantic machine that the king had built around himself to defend his power ended up suffocating him and the exceptional proposal that had been made to him never reached his ear!
At this point, since we have spoken of images and banners, it is necessary to open a parenthesis, because we are used to identifying the Sacred Heart with the nineteenth-century image of Jesus half-length, with the heart in his hand or painted on the chest. At the time of the apparitions, such a proposal would have bordered on heresy. Faced with the intense Lutheran criticism, sacred images had become very orthodox and above all devoid of any concession to the senses. Margaret thinks of concentrating devotion on a stylized image of the heart itself, apt to concentrate the thought on divine love and on the sacrifice of the cross.
See picture
The first image at our disposal represents the Heart of the Savior in front of which the first collective tributes were made, on 20 July 1685, on the initiative of the Novices on the day of their teacher's name day. In fact, the girls wanted to have a small earthly party, but Margherita said that the only one who really deserved it was the Sacred Heart. The older nuns were a little troubled by the impromptu devotion, which seemed a little too bold. In any case, the image is preserved: a small pen drawing on paper probably traced by the saint herself with a "copying pencil".
It represents precisely the image of the Heart surmounted by a cross, from the top of which flames seem to spring: three nails surround the central wound, which lets drops of blood and water escape; in the middle of the wound is written the word “Charitas”. A large crown of thorns surrounds the Heart, and the names of the Holy Family are written all around: above on the left Jesus, in the middle Mary, on the right Joseph, below on the left Anna and on the right Joachim.
The original is currently kept in the convent of the visitation in Turin, to which the monastery of Paray ceded it on 2 October 1738. It has been reproduced several times and is today one of the most widespread.
On 11 January 1686, about six months later, the mother Greyfié, superior of the Semur visitation, sent an illuminated reproduction of the painting of the Sacred Heart venerated in her own monastery to margherita Maria (an oil painting probably painted by a local painter ) accompanied by twelve small pen images: "... I am sending this note by post to Charolles' dear mother, so that you do not worry, waiting for me to get rid of the heap of documents I have to do for the beginning of the year, after which, my dear child, I will write to you as far and wide as I can remember the tenor of your letters. In the meantime you will see from what I wrote to the Community on New Year's Eve how we solemnized the feast at the oratory where there is the picture of the Sacred Heart of Our Divine Savior, of which I am sending you a miniature drawing. I had a dozen pictures made only with the divine Heart, the wound, the cross and the three nails, surrounded by the crown of thorns, to make a present for our dear sisters "letter of 11 January 1686 taken from Life and Works, Paris, Poussielgue, 1867, vol. THE
Margherita Maria will answer her full of joy:
"... when I saw the representation of the only object of our love that you sent me, it seemed to me that I was beginning a new life [...] I cannot say the consolation you gave me, so much by sending me the representation of this lovable Heart, how much by helping us to honor him with your whole community. This gives me a thousand times greater joy than if you gave me possession of all the treasures of the earth ”letter XXXIV to the mother Greyfié of Semur (January 1686) in Life and Works, vol. II
A second letter from Mother Greyfié, dated January 31, will soon follow:
“Here is the letter promised through the note that the dear mother of Charolles had sent to you, where I revealed to you what I feel for you: friendship, union and fidelity, in view of the union of our hearts with that of our adorable Master. I have sent some pictures for your novices and I imagined that you would not mind having one of your own, to keep on your heart. You will find her here, with the assurance that I will do my best so that on my part, as well as on your part, there is a commitment to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of our Savior, so that he may feel loved and honored by our friends ... ”Letter dated January 31, 1686 to Semur's mother Greyfié in Life and works, vol. THE.
The reproduction of the miniature sent by Mother Greyfié was exhibited by Sister Maria Maddalena des Escures on 21 June 1686 on a small improvised altar in the choir, inviting the sisters to pay homage to the Sacred Heart. This time the sensitivity towards the new devotion had grown and the whole community responded to the call, so much so that from the end of that year the image was placed in a small niche in the gallery of the convent, in the staircase leading to the Novitiate tower. . This small oratory will be decorated and embellished by the novices in a few months, but the most important thing was its opening to the public, which took place on 7 September 1688 and solemnized by a small popular procession, organized by the priests of Paray le Monial. Unfortunately the miniature was lost during the French Revolution.
In September 1686 a new image was created, which was sent by Margherita Maria to Mother Soudeilles of Moulins: "I am very pleased" he wrote "O dear Mother, to make a small renunciation in your favor, sending you, with the approval of our Most honorable Mother, the book of the retreat of Father De La Colombière and two images of the sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ that they gave us. The largest is to be placed at the foot of your Crucifix, the smallest you can hold on you. " Letter n. 47 of 15 September 1686.
Only the largest of the images has been preserved: painted on the tissue paper, it forms a round 13 cm in diameter, with cut-out margins, in the center of which we see the Sacred Heart surrounded by eight small flames, pierced by three nails and surmounted by a cross, the wound of the Divine Heart lets drop drops of blood and water that form, on the left, a bleeding cloud. In the middle of the plague the word "charity" is written in gold letters. Around the Heart a small crown with intertwined knots, then a crown of thorns. The intertwining of the two crowns forms hearts.
See picture
The original is now in the Nevers monastery. On the initiative of Father Hamon, a small chromolithograph was made in 1864, accompanied by the facsimile of the “small consecration” edited by the publisher M. BouasseLebel in Paris. Together with the image preserved in Turin, it is perhaps the best known.
Since March 1686 Margaret Mary has invited her mother Saumaise, then superior of the monastery of Dijon, to reproduce in large numbers the images of the Sacred Heart: "... as you were the first to whom he wanted me to transmit his ardent desire to 'to be known, loved and glorified by his creatures ... I feel compelled to tell you on His part that He wishes you to make a table of the image of this Sacred Heart so that all those who want to pay homage to him may have images of it in their homes and little ones to wear on… ”letter XXXVI to M. Saumaise sent to Dijon on 2 March 1686.
All. Margherita Maria was aware of the fact that devotion had left the sphere of the convent to spread throughout the world… even if perhaps she was unaware of the aspect of concrete, almost magical protection it had assumed for ordinary people.
Upon her death, which occurred on October 16, 1690, the convent on su was almost invaded by throngs of devotees who asked for some of her personal objects in memory ... and no one could be satisfied because she lived in absolute poverty, completely forgetting earthly needs. However, they all participated in the wake and the funeral, weeping as if for a public calamity and at the trial of 1715 many miracles that the Saint had obtained for these simple people with her intercession were told.
The nun of the order of the Visitandines of Paray who had seen the Sacred Heart was now a famous person and the devotion she proposed was at the center of public attention. On 17 March 1744 the superior of the Visitation of Paray, mother MarieHélène Coing, who nevertheless had never known the saint personally having entered the convent in 1691, wrote to the bishop of Sens: "... of a prediction from our Venerable Sister Alacoque, who he assured victory if His Majesty had ordered the representation of the divine Heart of Jesus to be placed on their flags… ”completely forgetting that will of reparation which is instead the soul of the message.
We owe therefore to posterity, perhaps to the bishop of Sens himself, who among other things was a discreet biographer of the Saint, for the diffusion of a substantially inaccurate version, which has favored an interpretation in a nationalist key. On the other hand, even outside France, devotion was spreading with a clear magic-sentimental connotation, also due to the clear opposition it encountered in the sphere of educated Christians.
Particularly important therefore becomes the elaboration of the cult developed in Marseille by a very young religious of the Visitation order, Sister Anna Maddalena Remuzat, (16961730) who was gratified by heavenly visions and received from Jesus the task of continuing the mission of Saint Margaret Maria Alacoque. In 1720 the nun, who was 24 years old, foresaw that a disastrous epidemic of plague would hit Marseille and when the fact came true she told her superior: “Mother, you asked me to pray to Our Lord so that he would deign to let us know the reasons. He wants us to honor His Sacred Heart to bring about an end to the plague that has ravaged the city. I begged him, before Communion, to bring out from his adorable heart a virtue that would not only heal the sins of my soul, but would inform me of the request I forced him to make. He indicated to me that he wanted to purify the church of Marseille of the errors of Jansenism, which had infected it. His adorable heart will be discovered in him, the source of all truth; he asks for a solemn feast on the day that he himself has chosen to honor his Sacred Heart and that while he waits for this honor to be given to him, it is necessary that each faithful devote a prayer to honor the Sacred Heart of the Son of God. who will be devoted to the Sacred Heart will never lack divine help, because he will never fail to feed our hearts with his own love "The superior, convinced, obtained the attention of Bishop Belzunce, who in 1720 consecrated the city to the Sacred Heart, establishing the feast on November 1st. The plague stopped immediately, but the problem returned two years later and Remuzat said that the consecration had to be extended to the entire diocese; the example was followed by many other bishops and the plague ceased, as promised.
On this occasion the Shield of the Sacred Heart as we know it today was reproduced and disseminated:
our image
In 1726, in the wake of these events, a new request for approval of the cult of the Sacred Heart was made. The bishops of Marseille and Krakow, but also the kings of Poland and Spain, sponsored it at the Holy See. The soul of the movement was the Jesuit Giuseppe de Gallifet (16631749) disciple and successor of St. Claudius de la Colombière, who had founded the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart.
Unfortunately, the Holy See preferred to postpone any decision for fear of hurting the sentiments of educated Catholics, well represented by Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, who saw in this devotional form a return to that sentimental irrationality which had given way to so much criticism. Even the process of canonization of the saint, which began in 1715 in the presence of a real crowd of direct witnesses, was suspended and filed. Later the cardinal was elected pope with the name of Benedict XIV and remained substantially faithful to this line, despite the fact that both the queen of France, the pious Maria Leczinska (of Polish origin), who the patriarch of Lisbon urged him on several occasions to institute the party. By way of condescension, however, a precious image of the Divine Heart was given to the queen. Queen Maria Leczinska persuaded the Dauphin (her son) to erect a chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart in Versailles, but the heir died before ascending the throne and the consecration itself had to wait until 1773. Subsequently, Princess Maria Giuseppa of Saxony transmitted this devotion to his son, the future Louis XVI, but he hesitated uncertainly, without making an official decision. In 1789, exactly one century after the famous message to the Sun King, the French Revolution broke out. Only in 1792, a prisoner of the revolutionaries, did the deposed Louis XVI remember his famous promise and personally consecrated himself to the Sacred Heart, promising, in a letter still preserved, the famous consecration of the kingdom and the construction of a basilica if he was saved ... how Jesus himself said to Sister Lucy of Fatima it was too late, France was devastated by the Revolution and all the religious had to retire to private life.
Here a painful break opens between what could have matured a century earlier and the reality of a prisoner king. God always and in any case remains close to his devotees and does not deny personal Grace to anyone, but it is quite evident that a public consecration presupposes an absolute authority that does not exist. The cult therefore spreads more and more, but as a personal and private devotion also because, in the absence of an official capacity, the piety of the numerous brotherhoods of the Sacred Heart, although articulated in the themes proposed by Margherita Maria (adoration, now holy on Thursday evening and reparative communion on the first Fridays of the month) was actually nourished by medieval texts, albeit re-proposed by the Jesuits, which having been conceived in the cloister lacked a social dimension, even if now the reparative aspect was accentuated. The servant of God Pierre Picot de Clorivière (1736 1820) refounded the Society of Jesus and took care of the spiritual formation of the "victims of the Sacred Heart" dedicated to expiate the crimes of the revolution.
In fact, in this era, after the horrors of the French Revolution, devotion is proposed as a synonym for a return to Christian values, which are often colored with conservative political values. Needless to say, these claims have no doctrinal foundation ... even if they are perhaps part of a larger plan to bring Christian ideals to everyone's lips, even those who know nothing about religion. What is certain is that a social dimension finally appears, albeit a little populist, as the detractors will immediately point out. Now devotion to the Sacred Heart is definitely a characteristic of the laity, so much so that it is linked to the consecration of families and places of work. In 1870, when France was severely defeated by Germany and the Second Empire collapsed, it was two lay people: Legentil and Rohaul de Fleury who suggested the construction of a large basilica dedicated to the cult of the Sacred Heart which represented a "national vote" by manifesting the desire of the French people to pay that homage that their leaders had refused to pay to the Redeemer. In January 1872 the archbishop of Paris, Monsignor Hippolite Guibert, authorized the collection of funds for the construction of the restorative basilica, establishing the place of construction on the hill of Montmatre, just outside Paris, where the French Christian martyrs were killed ... but also the seat of the Benedictine convent which had spread the devotion of the Sacred Heart in the capital. The adhesion was rapid and enthusiastic: the National Assembly was not yet dominated by the openly anti-Christian majority that will be formed soon after, so much so that a small group of deputies consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart on the tomb of Margherita Maria Alacoque (at the time it was not still holy) committed to promoting the construction of the basilica. On 5 June 1891, the imposing basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmatre was finally inaugurated; in it the perpetual adoration of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus was established. This significant inscription was engraved on its front: “Sacratissimo Cordi Christi Jesu, Gallia poenitens et devota” (to the Most Holy Heart of Jesus Christ, dedicated by penitent and devout France).
In the nineteenth century a new image also matured: no longer the heart alone, but Jesus represented half-length, with the heart in his hand or visible in the center of the chest, as well as statues of Christ standing on the world definitively conquered by His Love.
In fact, his cult is proposed above all to sinners and represents a valid instrument of salvation, even for those who do not have the means or the health to make great gestures: Mother Mary of Jesus DeluilMartiny has a very important part in spreading devotion among lay people.
She was born on May 28, 1841 on Friday afternoon at three and is the great-granddaughter of Sister Anna Maddalena Remuzat. She bore another surname because she was descended from her mother's ava and was the first daughter of a well-known lawyer. For her first communion she was taken to the monastery of her ancestor, where the heart of the Venerable was still preserved with devotion of medieval flavor, her health did not allow her to participate in the group retreat with her companions and on December 22, 1853, finally healed , she made her first communion all alone.
The following January 29, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop Mazenod, a friend of the family, gave her the sacrament of confirmation and enthusiastically prophesied to the nuns: You will see that we will soon have a Saint Mary of Marseille!
The city in the meantime had changed profoundly: the most heated anticlericalism was in force, the Jesuits were barely tolerated and the feast of the Sacred Heart was almost no longer celebrated. the hope of the bishop to restore ancient devotion is evident, but it was not a simple path! At seventeen, the young woman was admitted with her sister Amelia to the Ferrandière school. She made a retreat with the famous Jesuit Bouchaud and began to think of becoming a religious, she even managed to meet the famous curate of Ars ... but to her great amazement the saint told her that she would still have to recite many "Veni sancte" before knowing her own vocation! What was going on? What had the saint seen?
As soon as her daughters left, Madame DeluilMartiny was seized by a severe nervous breakdown; the doctors said that the last pregnancy had prostrated her, moreover the paternal grandmother soon lost her sight and began to have serious hearing defects: Maria was called home to assist the sick. It was the beginning of a long ordeal: if the mother next to her regained her health, the relatives died one after the other. The first was his sister Clementina, suffering from an incurable heart disease, then both grandmothers and unexpectedly his brother Giulio became so seriously ill that he could hardly finish his studies; all that remained was to send little Margherita to the convent, so that she would remain away from so much sadness, while Maria was left alone to manage the house and to take care of her desolate parents.
There was no longer any talk of retiring! Maria turned her devotion towards more secular goals: she became a zealot of the Honorary Guards of the Sacred Heart. The association, revolutionary for the time, was born from an idea of Sr. Maria del S. Cuore (now Blessed) nun in Bourg: it was a matter of creating a chain of adoring souls who, choosing an hour of adoration a day, would constitute a kind of "permanent service" around the Altar of the Most Holy. The more people joined the group, the more guaranteed the worship was of truly uninterrupted. But how could a cloistered nun collect the accessions needed to carry out such an enterprise in an increasingly secular and anticlerical France? And here comes Maria, who became the First Zelatrice. Maria knocked on the doors of all the religious houses, spoke to all the parish priests of Marseille and from there the spark spread everywhere. He introduced the Work to Bishops and Cardinals until it reached its official foundation in 1863. The work would never have managed to overcome the obstacles that threatened it without his active and intelligent assistance and also careful organization: in the first three years of life it counted 78 bishops members, more than 98.000 faithful and canonical erection in 25 dioceses.
He also organized pilgrimages to Paray le Monial, La Salette and Our Lady of the Guard, just above Marseille, an activity that he could easily conduct with his mother and finally defended the cause of the Jesuits as much as he could, assisted by his father a lawyer. However, when her parents organized a wedding for her, she explained that she was not interested in the project: her stay at home was temporary. Basically he still dreamed of the convent. But which? The years passed and the simple project of retreating among the visitandines, who venerated their great-aunt, seemed less and less feasible, also because it would have separated her from a perhaps even more urgent activity in a world armed against the Church!
Difficult choice. On the last Friday of 1866 he met Father Calège, a Jesuit who would become his spiritual director. To complete her training, she directed her to the writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis de Sales, which Mary could read in her own home, without depriving her family of their support… and there was a need! On March 31, 1867, his sister Margherita also died.
After the defeat of Napoleon III in 1870 Marseille fell into the hands of the anarchists. On 25 September the Jesuits were arrested and on 10 October, after a summary trial, they were banned from France. It took all the authority and professional skill of the lawyer DeluilMartiny to transform the ban into a simple dissolution of the order. Father Calège was hosted for eight long months, partly in Marseilles, partly in their holiday home, in the Servianne. Speaking of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was becoming increasingly difficult!
In September 1872, Maria and her parents were invited to Brussels, Belgium, where Monsignor Van den Berghe put her in contact with some young devotees like her. Only with the new year does Father Calège illustrate the real project to the family: Maria will found a new order of nuns, with a rule inspired by the activities carried out and the studies completed; to do this he must settle in Berchem Les Anvers, where there is no opposition to the Jesuits and the new rule can be worked out in peace.
Naturally he will return home every year and will remain available at all times for any emergencies ... the ascendant of the good father is such that after an initial resistance the parents grant their blessing. For the feast of the Sacred Heart on June 20, 1873, Sr. Maria di Gesù, who received the veil the day before, is already in her new house, with four postulants and as many religious, dressed in the habit she herself designed: a simple dressed in white wool, with a veil that falls just over the shoulders and a large scapular, always white, where two red hearts surrounded by thorns are embroidered. Why two?
it is the first major variation introduced by Maria.
Times are too hard and we are too weak to be able to initiate a true devotion to the Heart of Jesus regardless of Mary's help! Fifty years later the Apparitions of Fatima will also confirm this intuition. For the actual rule we have to wait another two years. But it is truly a small masterpiece: first of all the obedience "ab cadaver" to the Pope and to the Church, as Ignatius of Loyola wanted. The renunciation of one's personal will replaces much of the traditional monastic austerities, which according to Mary are too harsh for the fragile health of contemporaries. Then all the revelations of Santa Margherita Maria Alacoque and her program of love and reparation are an integral part of the rule. Display and worship of the image of Jesus, holy hour, reparative communion, perpetual adoration, devotion of the first Friday of the month, the feast of the Sacred Heart are common activities, so not only young consecrated women can easily practice the rule, but also the laity they find in their convents a sure point of support for their personal devotion. Finally, a careful imitation of the life of Mary, perennially associated with the Sacrifice.
The consensus that the new rule finds, not only among the religious, but also among the laity themselves who join the most important devotions, is immense.
Finally, the bishop of Marseille also reads and approves the rule and on 25 February 1880 the foundations of the new house are laid, which will be built on land owned by the DeluilMartiny: the Servianne, a corner of paradise overlooking the sea, from which you can contemplate the famous sanctuary of Our Lady of the Guard!
A small but significant devotion also finds a special place within the new religious family: the use of the Scapular of the agonizing Heart of Jesus and the compassionate Heart of Mary directly suggested by Jesus in 1848 to a holy person, spiritual daughter of the Father. Calage and later of Father Roothan, General of the Society of Jesus. The Divine Master had revealed to her that he would embellish him with the merits of the inner sufferings of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and his Precious Blood, making him a sure antidote against schism and the heresies of recent times, would be a defense against hell; it would attract great graces on those who will carry it with faith and piety.
As Superior of the Daughters of the Heart of Jesus it was easy for her to talk about it to the bishop of Marseille, Monsignor Robert and together they sent it to Cardinal Mazella SJ, protector of the Society, who obtained its approval with the Decree of April 4, 1900.
We read from the same decree: “… the Scapular is formed, as usual, of two parts of white wool, held together by a ribbon or cord. One of these parts represents two Hearts, that of Jesus with its own insignia and that of Mary Immaculate, pierced by a sword. Under the two Hearts are the instruments of the Passion. The other part of the Scapular bears the image of the Holy Cross in red cloth. "
Indeed, it should be noted that while the approval had been requested for the Daughters of the Heart of Jesus and for the persons aggregated to their Institute, the pope wanted to extend it to all the faithful of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
A small triumph… but Sister Maria was not supposed to enjoy it. In September 1883 he left Berchem to return to Marseille. He has no illusions. He knows that the provisional municipalities succeed each other, without being able to restore peace. In a letter dated January 10, she confided to her sisters that she willingly offered herself as a victim to save her city. His generous offer was immediately accepted. On February 27 a young anarchist shot her and if the work could continue it was thanks to the parent company founded in Belgium! In 1903 all religious families were expelled from France and Pope Leo XIII assigned them a seat near Porta Pia. Today the daughters of the Sacred Heart operate throughout Europe.
Almost contemporary to Mary is the most famous Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, born on January 2, 1873, who apparently follows a more conventional path and manages to obtain permission from Pope Leo XIII to enter the monastery on April 9, 1888, shortly after turning fifteen! He died there on 30 September 1897, two years later the documentation on the first miracles was already being collected, so much so that in 1925 his canonization was already proceeding, in front of a crowd of 500.000 pilgrims who came in his honor.
His writings propose the simplest way of all: a full, complete, absolute confidence in Jesus and of course in the maternal support of Mary. The offering of one's whole life must be renewed day by day and, according to the saint, does not require any particular formation. On the contrary, she declares herself convinced that culture, no matter how hard one tries, is always a great temptation. The evil one is always on the alert and hides even in the most innocent affections, in the most humanitarian activities. But we must not get caught up in discouragement or an excess of scruple ... even the pretense of being good can be under temptation.
On the contrary, salvation consists precisely in the awareness of one's own absolute inability to do good and therefore in abandonment to Jesus, precisely with the attitude of a small child. But precisely because we are so small and fragile it is completely unthinkable to be able to establish such a contact alone.
The same humble trust must therefore be given to earthly authorities, knowing full well that God cannot help but respond to those who call him and that the surest way to perceive his face is to see it reflected in those around us. This attitude should not be confused with an empty sentimentality: Teresa, on the contrary, is well aware that human sympathies and attractions are an obstacle to perfection. This is why he advises us to always focus on difficulties: if a person is unpleasant to us, a job is bad, a task is heavy, we must be sure that this is our cross.
But the actual modalities of behavior must be asked with humility to the earthly authority: the father, the confessor, the mother abbess ... a serious sin of pride would in fact be pretending to "resolve" the question alone, to face the difficulty with a active defiance. There are no external difficulties. Only our objective lack of adaptation. We must therefore strive to notice in the person who is unpleasant to us, in the task that is badly done, in the work that weighs, the reflection of our defects and try to overcome them with small and joyful sacrifices.
As far as a creature can do, it is always very little compared to the power of God.
However much a person may suffer, it is nothing before the passion of Christ.
The awareness of our smallness must help us progress with confidence.
He candidly confesses that he desired everything: heavenly visions, missionary successes, the gift of the word, a glorious martyrdom ... and admits that he is unable to do almost anything with his own strength! The solution? Only one: to entrust oneself to Love!
The heart is the center of all affections, the engine of all actions.
To love Jesus is already, in fact, to rest on His Heart.
Be in the center of the action.
The public and ecumenical character of these thoughts was immediately understood by the Church, which appointed Saint Teresa Doctor of the Church and attributed her the protection of the missions. But this nineteenth-century Catholicism, finally at peace with itself after the bitter protests of the Enlightenment, soon had to undergo a new difficult test: the Great War.
On November 26, 1916, a young French woman, Claire Ferchaud (18961972) sees the Heart of Christ crushed by France and hears a message of salvation: ”… I command you to write in my name to those in government. The image of my heart must save France. You will send it to them. If they respect it, it will be salvation, if they stamp it under their feet the curses of Heaven will crush the people ... "the authorities, needless to say, hesitate, but numerous devotees decide to help the seer to spread their message: thirteen million images del Sacro Cuore and one hundred thousand flags reach the front and spread among the trenches as a kind of contagion.
On March 26, 1917 in Paray le Monial the solemn blessing of the national flags of France, England, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Serbia, Romania is provided, all with the shield of the Sacred Heart; the ceremony is held in the Chapel of the Visitation, above the relics of Margherita Maria. Cardinal Amette pronounces the consecration of Catholic soldiers.
Since May of the same year, the spreading of the news of the apparitions of Fatima has given impetus to Catholicism and even in the United States days of prayer are organized.
But to everyone's astonishment, France clearly opposes this line: in Lyons the police searched the Catholic bookshop of the widow Paquet, requisitioned all the insignia of the Sacred Heart and forbade the procurement of others. On 1 June the prefects prohibit the application of the emblem of the Sacred Heart to flags, on the 7 the Minister of War, Painlevé prohibits the consecration of soldiers through a circular. The reason given is religious neutrality through which collaboration with countries of different faiths is possible.
But Catholics are not intimidated. At the front, real leagues are founded for the illegal circulation of pennants in special packages for linen and preserves, which the soldiers avidly request, while families consecrate themselves at home.
The Montmartre basilica collects all the testimonies of miracles that occur at the front. After the victory from 16 to 19 October 1919, a second consecration is made in which all the religious authorities are present, even if there are no civil ones. On May 13, 1920, Pope Benedict XV finally canonizes, on the same day, Margherita Maria Alacoque and Giovanna d'Arco. His successor, Pius XI, dedicates the encyclical “Miserentissimus Redemptor” to devotion to the Sacred Heart, which by now spreads its knowledge throughout the Catholic world.
Finally, on February 22, 1931, Jesus appears again to Sister Faustina Kowalska, in the convent of Plok, Poland, expressly asking to have her image painted exactly as it appeared and to institute the feast of Divine Mercy, on the first Sunday after Easter.
With this devotion of the Risen Christ, in a white robe, we return more than ever to a Catholicism of the heart rather than of the mind; an image of Who loved us first, in which to trust completely, is placed next to the bedside of the sick, while the chaplet of Mercy, very repetitive and mnemonic, proposes a simple prayer, devoid of any intellectual ambition. The new date, however, discreetly suggests a "return" to liturgical times, emphasizing as much as possible the value of the main Christian feast and therefore is an offer of dialogue even to those who prefer to base their faith on the texts.