Question: Some time ago you wrote about the origin of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Could you say something about the origin of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which is celebrated on the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart?
By Fr John Flader
While devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary certainly received an impulse in more recent times, its roots go back to the Bible.
We recall Simeon’s prophecy, during the presentation of Jesus in the temple, that a sword would pierce Mary’s heart, so that the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed (cf. Lk 2:35). This has led to numerous artworks depicting Mary’s heart pierced by a sword.
Luke also says twice that Mary “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19, 51), first when the shepherds revealed what the angel had told them after the birth of Jesus, and again after Jesus had been lost and found in the temple. Here we consider Mary deep in prayer, pondering in her heart the meaning of what has just been revealed.
Devotion to the Heart of Mary would come later. In the twelth century there are suggestions of it in St Anselm (d. 1109) and St Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), and in the following century the French theologian Richard de Saint Laurent (d. 1250) alluded to the devotion in his long work De laudibus B. Mariae Virginis.
St Mechtilde (d. 1298) and St Gertrude (d. 1302) had devotion to the Heart of Mary, as did St Thomas Becket. In the 15th century St Bernardine of Siena (d. 1444) gained the title “Doctor of the Heart of Mary” for his writings on the heart of Mary.
In the 17th century St John Eudes (d. 1681) wrote a long treatise on the Admirable Heart (Coeur Admirable), first published in 1681, and he established several societies which fostered devotion to the Heart of Mary. He was largely responsible for the establishment of a feast in honour of the Heart of Mary, celebrated first in 1648.
In 1799 Pope Pius VI, then in captivity, granted the Bishop of Palermo permission to celebrate a feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary in his diocese, and in 1805 Pope Pius VII extended the feast to any diocese which requested it.
Two events fostered the devotion further in the 19th century: the revelation of the Miraculous Medal to St Catherine Labouré in Paris in 1830 (cf. J. Flader, Question Time, Connor Court 2008, n. 135) and the establishment in 1836 at Our Lady of Victories in Paris of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners.
Another great boost to the devotion came in the apparitions at Fatima in 1917. On 13 July, after showing the three children a vision of hell, Our Lady said, “You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I ask is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. There are so many souls whom the justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation.”
On December 10, 1925 Our Lady and the Child Jesus appeared to Sr Lucy of Fatima and revealed a heart encircled by thorns. Jesus said: “Have compassion on the heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation.”
Our Lady then promised special graces to those who would live the devotion of the Five First Saturdays (cf. J. Flader, Question Time, n. 134).
On October 31, 1942, 25 years after the apparitions at Fatima, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, praying for peace at a crucial time in World War II. Pope John Paul II repeated the consecration in 1982 and again in 1984.
Pope Pius XII extended the feast of the Immaculate Heart to the universal Church in 1944. The feast is now celebrated as a Memorial on the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so that the hearts of Jesus and Mary are seen to be closely united liturgically, as they are in reality. We do well to live this devotion in a spirit of love and reparation.
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