Preface
In connection with the extension of the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the universal Church, our Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, pointed out that beyond serving as a memorial and reminder of his solemn consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart in the Basilica of Saint Peter, 3 December 1942, the feast might, with the assistance of her in whose honor we celebrate it, be instrumental also in preserving peace among all nations and liberty for the Church of Christ; and further, with the repentance of sinners, it might be a strengthening of the faithful in the love of purity and the practice of virtue.
Without question the observance of the Feast of the Immaculate Heart is today a highly significant celebration in the liturgical year. In view of the dogmatic implications of the feast, the various statements of the Holy See, and the response everywhere on the part of the faithful to the devotion to Mary’s Heart, the significance of both the feast and consecration of the world, and the importance of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart itself are readily recognized.
It was the devotion to the Sacred Heart which in previous decades guided a cold and erring world back toward the love of Christ and the acknowledgment of the Kingdom that is rightfully His. It would seem that again the grace of God is poured forth abundantly on a war-torn and pagan world, and men, through a devotion to the Mother of God, the “Hope of the World,” are once more offered an opportunity for eternal salvation in the love and service of Mary and her divine Son.
In the devotion to the Immaculate Heart which prompts men to imitate the virtues of the Blessed Mother we see a true blending of love and sacrifice, the very core and spirit of the Christian life. Through a devotion to her Immaculate Heart Mary will certainly form in us the likeness and virtues of her Son, and seeing more perfectly His image in us, she will love Him anew in us; and we, resembling our blessed Lord the more, will profit greatly from this closer union with Him.
Our nearness to Mary is a measure of our union with Christ and an indication of the supernatural value of our lives. In uniting ourselves to Mary we necessarily draw near to our blessed Lord.
“Nam quid est maius hodie, Domina, quam habere cor iunctum cordi tuo . . . nonne cor tuum plenum est gratiae Illius? Et si apertum est, gratia illanon decurrit in cor sibi iunctum?” (Stimulus AmortSj inter opera S. Bonaventurae editum.)
Introduction
As in her mortal life, so also in the science of Sacred Theology the Mother of God is associated always with Christ. She forms with Him the foundation and cornerstone as well as the capstone of the economy of salvation. She not only brought the Incarnate Word into the world, she intimately shared in the work He came to accomplish, the redemption of men. Because of the full implications of her relationship with God and men she occupies a unique and exalted place in the dogma and liturgy of the Church and in the entire divine plan of Creation.
Down through the centuries the best minds of Christianity have sung the praises and excellencies of Mary, “. . . all generations shall call her blessed, the Mother of God, the Mistress of the world, the Queen of Heaven . . . who has given life and glory to all generations. For in her the angels find joy, the just grace, and the sinners forgiveness. Deservedly the eyes of all creatures are turned toward her, because in her, by her, and from her the benign hand of the Almighty re-created that which He had already created.”
To Mary, indeed, men have turned for their greatest inspiration. It is she who has occasioned our greatest art and much of our best literature. But immeasurably greater than all these things, it is she who has inspired our greatest saints and who as Mother of all men and Refuge of sinners has led countless souls to Christ. Without question, after the example of Christ she is the greatest external grace the human soul encounters throughout life. But more than this, she is the Mediatrix of all graces.
To us Mary is our Mother and our Queen. Christ has given her to us as among His greatest gifts and it is His wish that we honor her as He honors her and love her even as He loves her. As Mary among all creatures held and will hold forever the first place in the Sacred Heart of Christ, so also Christ wishes that next to our love for Him and our worship of the triune God His Blessed Mother should be the principal object of our devotion. To honor Mary is not simply to do Christ’s will, for because of the union of Mother and Son, to honor Mary is to honor our Lord Himself. To know, love, and serve Mary is to know, love, and serve Christ.
The human will, however, is not moved to sincere acts of veneration unless the intellect first presents reasons for respect, esteem, and love. In the veneration of Mary’s Immaculate Heart then, before we can render our Lady the full honor and love our Lord wishes, we must understand the excellencies and significance of her Heart.
Some of the external and more obvious reasons why this devotion is today of great significance are readily understood. The Christian world turns instinctively to Mary in time of tribulation. Further, the will of God in the spreading of the devotion is clearly manifest in the teaching authority of the Church.
The innumerable reasons for a new particular veneration of Mary’s Immaculate Heart will unfold themselves as we consider this devotion in the body of the ensuing study. However it will be well to mention two things preliminary to our discussion first, what justifies our present treatise and, secondly, how we shall develop it.
Truly, in cases of sound devotional or theological writings the adage “de Maria nunquam satis” will be challenged by none of her children; however, beyond this, one of the principal reasons for our present emphasis is the fact that God in His providential goodness has instilled in the souls of many of the faithful the desire to venerate His Blessed Mother in the devotion to her Immaculate Heart. Especially in English-speaking countries, where this veneration is seen as one of the great forces counteracting secularism, there is need for further explanation of the doctrinal basis of the growing devotion. It would be most unjust to say Mary’s Heart is less honored by Catholics in these countries than elsewhere, yet it must be admitted that we find in the English tongue no excess of devotional, and a definitely limited amount of doctrinal explanations and treatises on the Immaculate Heart.
Therefore in partial answer to a very evident need we shall endeavor to supply an explanation of the doctrinal and dogmatic foundations of this great devotion.
In making our work a scientific study we shall logically proceed to consider the devotion in its fundamental causes. De facto the devotion exists and is flourishing; we will examine its nature therefore by a consideration of its causes.
The principal efficient cause of the devotion is of course the providence of God. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in whose wisdom and under whose guidance this particular veneration has been brought about, we find a devotion both supernaturally efficacious and humanly appealing. As a secondary efficient cause, however, we acknowledge the fostering of the devotion through the efforts of men. Therefore in the first part of our discussion we shall make a brief but relatively complete survey of the origins and development of the devotion as effected through the instrumentality of various saints, theological writers, and Church authorities. Thus we shall investigate the history of this devotion.
In the second part of our study we shall consider the devotion in itself, examining its intrinsic nature. We shall investigate the meaning of cult, devotion, and hyperdulia, and in the light of the papal instruction on how in this devotion we honor Mary’s Heart, we shall see what distinguishes this particular Marian veneration from all others namely, the recognition of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the symbol of our Lady’s extraordinary sanctity and especially her love. We shall investigate also, in connection with the heart, the nature of symbolism and how in our devotion the symbol of the heart is to be understood.
In the next section of our work we shall investigate the devotion in its final cause, which ultimately is of course to glorify God, but more proximately to unite us to Him through Mary’s Heart. We honor Mary as the image of her Creator, reflecting in her Heart the glory of Christ’s own Sacred Heart. The meaning and purpose of our devotion to Mary and imitation of her in this particular veneration is best realized in the Acts of Consecration and Reparation which we shall consider in the last part of this section of our treatise.
That our procedure is logical is perhaps better shown from the fact that devotion is, as we shall see, an act, an attitude, of will. Nothing however is willed unless it be known. Hence, in explaining devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we must know not only the object of this devotion and its end, but we must also consider the existence of this object. Hence we will treat of the history of the devotion (an sit), and of its object and end (quid sit). In concluding our work we shall point out the excellence of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart as the synthesis of Marian doctrine and the crown of Marian devotions (quomodo sit).
In view of such a consideration we hope that the place of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart in Marian veneration and in the entire Christian pattern will be made more evident, and that with a fuller understanding and deeper love men might say: “Queen of the Most Holy Rosary … we … consecrate ourselves forever … to Thee and to Thy Immaculate Heart, our Mother, Queen of the World, that thy love and patronage may hasten the triumph of the Kingdom of God, and that all nations, at peace with one another and with God, may proclaim thee blessed and with thee may raise their voices to resound from pole to pole, in the chant of the everlasting Magnificat of glory, love, and gratitude to the Heart of Jesus, where alone they can find truth and life and peace.”
Chapter 1 – Historial Conspectus of the Devotion to the Immaculate Heart
In the history of the Church we find that God in His wisdom and goodness has inspired and directed the minds of men to the clarification of various points of revelation. One after another in a pattern fully understood only by God these treasures have been brought to the fore by saint and scholar, considered profoundly, and submitted to the infallible magisterium of the Church. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit the Church has investigated and explained century after century the many secrets of the Godhead hidden in the depths of Christian revelation. Through this unfolding of the ineffable truths of revelation souls are drawn to God, the source of every good.
Especially in our own time we see souls drawn to their Maker through the flowering of a devotion which has its roots in the distant past. Partly because we find so little on the history of this devotion in the English tongue, and partly because an understanding of the development of this great devotion through the centuries will better lead us to a realization of its precise theological meaning, we have attempted to offer a brief but complete survey of the growth of the devotion down through the years.
The cycles or periods in the history of the devotion as outlined by Father Giovanni Postius, C.M.F., and adopted by several other contemporary authors are, first, the Cycle of Tradition, of private devotion or germination, divided into the biblical, patristic, and transitional age; and the Legal Cycle, or that of public and liturgical devotion, subdivided into the age of preparation, age of privilege, and age of triumph, which last subdivision brings us up to the present day.
Our outline will be for the most part a purely chronological one, and therefore not entirely different from the very satisfactory division outlined above. However, because the progress of the devotion was not a balanced and regular process down through the centuries, but rather a somewhat spontaneous development according to God’s plan and coming out of a deeper understanding of the prerogatives of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it will perhaps depict the growth of the devotion in truer perspective to consider it primarily under purely chronological divisions. Unlike many other aspects of Mariology, we find here no beginning with the Council of Ephesus and gradual unfolding of the theological implications with each age making its contribution. We see rather how truths contained in the original deposit of faith are brought to the attention of the world, not in early decades, but years later, at a time when they seem most needed in our own day.
The Heart of Mary in Sacred Scripture
The Fathers on the Old Testament
Our Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, has pointed out that the remote vestiges of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of our Blessed Mother are to be found in the commentaries of the Fathers on the Sponsa of the Canticle of Canticles. Indeed, on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as well as on the other feasts in honor of our Blessed Mother we find the Church in the liturgy employing the words of the Canticle in her prayers of praise, for the bride of the Canticle, adorned with the beauty of spotless purity and deep affection for her spouse, is a figure most appropriate to the Mother of God. Among the typical interpretations to which the Canticle of Canticles lends itself, this interpretation of the most beloved spouse as the Blessed Virgin Mary is one which has been employed from antiquity, and which, according to the Doctors of the Church and students of Sacred Scripture, is most fitting.
Prior to the twelfth century, however, we find no systematic or complete treatment of the Canticle from a purely Mariological point of view, though many Fathers, among whom we find Saints Hippolytus, Ephraem, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter Chrysologus, John Damascene, and especially Ambrose, associate certain phrases of the Canticle with the Blessed Virgin. Saint Epiphanius, in one of his homilies, refers to the Blessed Mother in connection with the phrase a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up (Cant. 4:12). And Saint Theodotus of Ancyra associates the Blessed Virgin with the preceding verse (Cant. 4: II).
There are innumerable passages in the Canticle of Canticles which the Fathers apply to the Singula Anima Fidelis} or adoring soul. It would hardly be rash to assume that this application by the Fathers of certain texts to the Singula Anima Fidelis in any way excludes their being applied also in many cases to our Blessed Lady who, in fact, is the most perfect of all souls and the most worthy to be called the spouse of the Bridegroom.
The Holy Father implies, however, that the Fathers in commenting on the Canticle of Canticles have found in the inspired book cause for observations which have served as the remote foundation for the devotion to the Immaculate Heart itself, and upon investigation we find in the Canticle two special texts which are particularly associated with the Heart of the Beloved: “I sleep, and my heart watcheth: the voice of my beloved knocking: Open to me my sister, my love, my undefiled (5:2); and Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon the arm . . . (8:6).
The Fathers and early ecclesiastical writers in their commentaries on the above verses sometimes give us an insight into the qualities of the heart of the Beloved Bride. Commenting on the words of the Canticle (5:2), Saint Isidore of Seville says, “Open to me, that is, reveal to me thy heart, my sister, my undented, because you alone are worthy of my sight.” Alanus de Insulis uses the verse (Cant. 5:2) as referring to the words of the Blessed Virgin before the Incarnation. I sleep refers to the Holy Virgin’s freedom from worldly anxieties; and my heart watcheth has reference to her contemplation of divine things.
Commenting on the Canticle (8:6), he says that the Virgin Mary so carried Christ as a seal on her heart that through imitation of Him she came more and more to resemble Him, and on the words . . . he set in order charity in me (Cant. 2:4), “In whom was charity formed, if not in the Virgin Mary; who loved Christ from the depths of her heart. . . .”
It is the Blessed Virgin again who above all others most perfectly fills the requirements implied, according to the Fathers, in the words, Put me as a seal upon thy heart (Cant. 8:6), for it is she who bears Christ as a seal that she might forever love Him, that she might excel in the power of contemplation, and while devoting herself ardently to meditation, might never cease to imitate Him in her external actions. Origen says that the last-mentioned verse of the Canticle (Cant. 8:6) refers to the exhortation of the Bridegroom, that every thought and action of His Beloved be fashioned according to His example. This assimilation to Christ is of course attained by no soul to the extent realized in the person of the Blessed Virgin. It is she who could say my heart watcheth, for most ardently did she strive to imitate the Heart of her divine Son and thereby live in perfect obedience to God’s holy will. It is she who more than all others has placed Christ as a seal upon her heart. As Christ is the perfect image of the Father, so Mary is humanity’s best image of the Son, and since internally and externally no created soul has so perfectly resembled the Source of all Grace, we are not surprised to see in the commentaries of the Fathers on the sublime Canticle, the vestiges of the devotion to that Heart which pre-eminently loved Christ, and which in charity resembled His divine Heart most closely.
Besides the Canticle of Canticles wherein Mary is understood as “the Bride,” we find numerous other texts in the Old Testament which the Church and theologians and Scripture scholars have applied to the Blessed Mother. Many texts in their reference to Mary are controversial; many others are without question applicable to her. She appears as “the Sanctuary” in the Psalms, as the “first-born daughter of God” and “heavenly Queen of the World” in the Book of Wisdom.
The liturgy of the Church applies the “Wisdom personified” in the Sapiential books to Mary, which application has been traditional in the Church since the time of the Fathers. Over and above these more explicit applications of Old Testament texts to the Blessed Mother we have the numerous prototypes of Mary and the many texts in connection with them.
In the Psalms also we find innumerable references, some of which are applied to Mary in an accommodated, others in a typical sense. The liturgy of the new Mass Adeamus for the Universal Feast of the Immaculate Heart employs in the Introit the second verse of Psalm 44: eructamt cor meum verbum bonum: dico ego opera mea regi.
Thus the inspired writings of the Old Testament are rich in Mariological application, and it is not surprising that even these sections of Sacred Scripture have been employed in the honor and praise of Mary’s Heart.
The New Testament
Apart from the history of the infancy and boyhood of Christ we find in the books of the New Testament comparatively little concerning the Mother of God. It is in the recording of the events of these very days, however, that Saint Luke twice mentions the Heart of our Blessed Mother. First, on occasion of the arrival of the shepherds at Bethlehem, we read where all who heard marveled at the things told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept in mind all these words, pondering them in her heart (Luke 2:18-19). And again, upon finding our blessed Lord in the Temple, after which the Holy Family returned to Nazareth, Saint Luke writes that our Blessed Mother, reflecting on what had come to pass and on the words of her Son, kept all these things carefully in her heart (Luke 2:51). It is because of these two instances wherein Saint Luke mentions the Heart of Mary that Saint John Eudes can say that the devotion to the virginal Heart of the Mother of God has its origin and foundation in the Holy Gospel itself. The Holy Ghost, he says, through the inspiration of the Evangelist Saint Luke, willed that the Heart of Mary be depicted as the sacred repository and faithful custodian of the ineffable mysteries and treasures contained in the life of our Lord; and explicit mention of the Heart of Mary must have been made, he continues, that men might forever honor her august Heart.18
We know, however, that though we have in these texts the seeds of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the full and correct concept of what is dogmatically contained in the devotion to the Immaculate Heart is scarcely conveyed by the two afore-mentioned verses of Saint Luke and, in fact, some would trace the origin of the devotion to the words of Simeon (Luke 2:35) which we shall investigate shortly.
It is difficult to ascertain the full import as well as the limitations of Saint Luke’s two verses, namely Luke 2:19 and 51; but without a doubt, to interpret as do some authors the use of the word “heart” in these texts as referring simply to the memory of the Blessed Mother is certainly to underestimate the content of the Evangelist’s words. The entire Patristic tradition of comment on these verses militates against any such limited understanding of the texts. The Fathers depict Mary’s Heart as the receptacle or tabernacle for the divine mysteries and arguments of faith. Today, exegetes interpret Saint Luke’s words as expressive of the complexity of the Blessed Mother’s interior life, with particular reference to the operation of the intellectual faculties. She retained these words in her Heart, meditating upon them, weighing them, and keeping them that later she might reveal to the Evangelists many things that she alone knew about her divine Son.24 At all events, in view of the comments of the Fathers and exegetes on these important verses of Saint Luke, we cannot fail to recognize that herein is contained a scriptural foundation for that devotion which, along with Tradition, the Liturgy, and all Marian Theology, has brought a special veneration to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God.
It is in Saint Luke’s Gospel again that we find recorded another text which centers our attention on Mary’s Heart namely, the text containing the words of the aged Simeon to our Blessed Mother: And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:35). It is certainly from this text that one of the most popular representations of the Heart of Mary has been adapted; that of the heart pierced by a sword. Even in Patristic times the sword is understood as piercing the Heart of Mary. The exact nature of this sword of sorrow in the commentaries of the Fathers is a much-mooted question, but seems universally accepted today as Mary’s sorrow in the realization of the division among men concerning her divine Son, and for her this sword is greatest when it pierces her Heart beneath the cross. Here she sought not whatever encouragements and consolations she might have received, but by her deep suffering and compassion she shared more fully in the Passion of her Son. Paradoxically, it was here beneath the Cross that Mary’s love for all mankind was, through the will of Christ, augmented in her maternal Heart. She saw beyond the immediate surroundings of Calvary and willingly made the sacrifice of her divine Son that all souls of all ages might through the love of her maternal Heart be born to a new life in God.
Thus we see how the references in Sacred Scripture to Mary’s Heart along with the words of Simeon will serve as a basis and foundation for the development of the devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.
It remains now for us to investigate, in the writings of the Fathers and in the literature left by other early saints and ecclesiastics, the use of the term “Heart of Mary” and the associations connected therewith.
The Heart of Mary in Tradition
The Fathers
We have seen how references to the Heart of Mary in Sacred Scripture could well serve as a foundation for a consequent development of a devotion to the Immaculate Heart. It is to be noted, however, in connection with the Immaculate Heart, that as in the case of the doctrine of the Assumption with which the Feast of the Immaculate Heart is connected not only liturgically, being celebrated on the Octave Day of that Solemnity, but also dogmatically, as we shall later explain, we do not look to Sacred Writ for explicit texts depicting the full dogmatic content of this devotion. The seeds of the devotion are certainly contained therein, but to see the germination of what the Scriptures have implanted we must now examine the writings of the Fathers, who with their knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures begin to give us a clarification of what is implicitly contained in the recordings of the Evangelists concerning the Heart of the Blessed Mother. With their clarifications and insights into the texts, they lay an even further foundation for the development of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart.
In the writings of most of the Fathers we find innumerable allusions to the Blessed Virgin; many passages in fact relate especially to her; and yet none of the Fathers treat of the Blessed Virgin ex professo. Had not the Fathers of the first four centuries been so occupied with the defense of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the clarification of Christological concepts, we might have received more from them on the various prerogatives of the Blessed Mother. They have, nonetheless, left us sufficient texts for a clarification of her exalted position among men and her close relationship with God. We find in their writings many texts which present a further foundation for those doctrines which logically and naturally led to the special devotion to the Immaculate Heart, and a few texts which pertain to the Immaculate Heart itself.
There are innumerable references to the mind and interior life of the Blessed Virgin, and to her sanctity; and though often many of these texts have a direct relationship to the object of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart, at present we will concern ourselves with only the passages wherein the Fathers actually use the word cor.
We cannot expect to find in Patristic times the use of the word in the full and exact sense or understanding with which it is employed today; yet many of the texts have a direct bearing on the present-day devotion in that they have greatly influenced the saints and theologians of later centuries through whom the clarification and promulgation of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart has been effected.
A goodly number of the Fathers make some mention of the Heart of Mary; most of them mention it in connection with the references to her Heart in Sacred Scripture, some of which texts we have already seen. A few Fathers refer to it in relation to her person or her prerogatives.
The majority of the Patristic texts can perhaps best be divided, for the main part, into those referring to Mary at the time of the Annunciation, and to Mary standing at the foot of the cross.
In connection with the Annunciation and Incarnation of our Lord, Saint Augustine speaks of the Heart of Mary as playing a definite role in the conception of the Word Incarnate. He regards the Blessed Mother as having formed and carried Christ in her heart prior to her conceiving Him in her womb.35 It is these very words of Saint Augustine which Saint Thomas later uses to show the congruity of the Annunciation to Mary prior to her consent and the Incarnation.
The conception of Christ in the Heart of Mary is of course used figuratively, not literally (proprie); but figuratively with a foundation in the sense that, prior to receiving the Incarnate Word in her womb, Mary had first to conceive Him in faith and spirit, which mental and spiritual orientation is symbolized by her Heart. It is with this understanding that the liturgy on the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord uses the phrase Confirmatum est cor Virginis, in quo dimna mysteria, angelo nuntiante, concepit.
This figurative usage of the word “heart” employed by Saint Augustine and the liturgy emphasizes, among other things, the psychological preparation of Mary for the conception of the Word Incarnate. The fact that the Incarnation was brought about in a marvelously miraculous manner ought not to obscure the role of Divine Providence in fittingly preparing Mary for the conception of Christ. Hence it is not unusual that the word “heart” should be employed by the Fathers in a nonliteral sense to refer to this psychological preparation, and it occurs therefore in texts referring to the Annunciation.
In connection with the Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross, the Fathers again make mention of her Immaculate Heart. In their comments on Simeon’s prophecy of the sword of sorrow (Luke 2:35) we have already seen some of these references. In considering the Blessed Mother as actually beneath the cross on Calvary, it is her Heart which the Fathers have singled out as the most significant and symbolical indication, firstly, of Mary’s sorrow and, ultimately and basically, of her interior sanctity and love.
We shall see shortly how this tradition of associating the Heart of the Blessed Mother with the evidences of her suffering and her love for God and man on Calvary is carried on in the writings of the saints and theologians of succeeding centuries. Apart from these instances of the Annunciation and Calvary the Fathers occasionally make allusions to the Heart of Mary in various figurative ways, and in connection with one or the other of her prerogatives. Nowhere, however, do the Fathers give us any elaborate or detailed insight into what we regard today as the theology of the Immaculate Heart. Nor do they explicitly indicate any particular devotion directed toward the Heart of the Blessed Mother. It is evident, nonetheless, in the above excerpts from their writings that even in the earliest centuries of doctrinal development Patristic literature has laid the foundation for what centuries later, especially through the zeal and instrumentality of Saint John Eudes, has become the great devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Early Ecclesiastical Writers
In the centuries following the Patristic era up to the time of the great Saint Bernard in whose writings, according to some, we see the first traces of a devotion directed especially toward the Heart of Mary, we find but few allusions to the Heart of the Blessed Mother. Saint Ildephonse mentions the Heart of Mary in a sermon on the Assumption. But it seems it is not until just prior to Saint Bernard that we have writings which again mention the Heart of Mary in any way repeatedly. There is reference to her heart in connection with her joys and sorrows and in a work often attributed to Saint Anselm but quite certainly written by his disciple Eadmer, there is one instance where the author seems to associate the Immaculate Heart with Mary’s role as Coredemptrix. For the most part, however, in these centuries we have but little reference to the Heart of the Mother of God. Certainly we have still no traces of a special devotion to her Heart, but we do have carried on in tradition the seeds of the devotion which were present in the Scriptures, and which soon through the instrumentality of Saint Bernard, and later through Saint Bernardine of Siena, and then especially through Saint John Eudes, grew into the marvelous devotion of the Immaculate Heart.
The Heart of Mary in Subsequent Pre-Public Cult
As we advance in our observations down through the centuries we see that ascetical writers and theologians come more and more to associate the perfections of the Blessed Mother with her Immaculate Heart. The various references and allusions come to a quick crescendo in the writings of Saint Bernard, and with his advent there is noticeable a widespread awareness of the particular importance of the Heart of the Blessed Mother, as well as the more definite beginnings of a devotion to the Immaculate Heart itself. In the years following Saint Bernard we see the inception of the theological determination of the place of the Immaculate Heart in the schema of hyperdulia.
Not at all in the literary testimony of the saints and ecclesiastical writers of the middle centuries do we find any express treatise on the Heart of Mary, but we do find authors carrying on the earlier tradition of associating the Heart of the Blessed Mother with her consent at the time of the Annunciation, and also the tradition of associating the Heart of Mary with her sufferings and compassion with Christ, the roots of which tradition lie, as we have seen, in the prophecy of Simeon. But along with these associations we find in Saint Bernard and after him a further development and elaboration, namely, the associating of the Heart of Mary with the virtues, first of faith, then of charity. It is at this time that we see the first and early formation of the concepts which have resulted in the true and precise understanding of the object of the veneration of the Immaculate Heart.
It will perhaps be clearest, and not out of keeping with our chronological procedure, to consider then the testimonies from these centuries grouped under the above headings: the Immaculate Heart in relation to the consent at the Annunciation, and the Immaculate Heart in Mary’s sufferings, especially on Calvary. The outgrowth of this first relationship is the association of the Heart of Mary with the virtue of faith; and the outgrowth of the second consideration is the association of the charity and sanctity of Mary’s Heart with her love for God and man.
Especially in these centuries preceding Saint John Eudes we find an abundance of material connecting the Heart of Mary with her consent at the Annunciation. Just prior to Saint Bernard this early tradition of Saint Augustine is carried on by Saint Bruno de Segni and Pope Innocent III, who speak of the Word Incarnate as being received in the Heart of the Blessed Mother. Contemporaneous with Saint Bernard, Guerric, abbot of Igny, very beautifully reiterates this identical notion, and in the ensuing four centuries we have many further elaborations on the Heart of the Virgin at the Annunciation. The great Saint Albert, who wrote extensively on the consent of the Blessed Mother, also mentions her most holy Heart in connection with the Word Incarnate. In a similar manner, Saint Thomas in his Catena Aurea remarks that from the time of the Incarnation Mary conceived and fostered in her Heart the meaning of her association with her divine Son.
Saint Bernard himself, Richard of Saint Lawrence, and Saint Bonaventure associate the consent of the virginal Heart of Mary with the virtue of faith. From the faith which adorned her Heart there proceeded the Fiat of consent.
We find also in this period numerous references to the Heart of Mary in connection with the sufferings of the Blessed Mother, especially on Calvary. The Heart of the Blessed Virgin is depicted as the mirror of the Passion of Christ, suffering with Him. In his sermons on the Assumption, Saint Thomas of Villanova frequently makes references to the virginal Heart of Mary as united with her suffering Son.
It is with Saint Bernard, however, that we see the first direct association of the Immaculate Heart with the virtue of charity, and it is in his writings also, that according to some, we find the first real evidence of a particular devotion to the Immaculate Heart itself. Saint Bernard writes in connection with the charity of the Heart of Mary, that an arrow of love pierced her Heart, that with all her powers of heart and soul she might love God and man and become the mother of charity. And again: as Christ died in body, so she died in heart, thereby alone among all creatures possessing a charity approaching that of her divine Son. We find expressed an ardent love and a special devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart in the following words of a sermon sometimes attributed to the great saint: “Open, oh Mother of Mercy, the portals of thy most generous Heart to the longing prayers of the sons of Adam. . . . It is no wonder, Oh Lady, that the abundant mercy of thy Heart is a place of solace, since the ineffable work of mercy which God predestined for our redemption was first formed by the architect of the world in you.” Contemporaneous with Saint Bernard, Hugh of Saint Victor also writes explaining the love of the Blessed Virgin and its role in the Incarnation.
We have a clear indication, following Saint Bernard, of a special devotion to the Heart of Mary in Richard of Saint Lawrence, penitentiary of Rouen, in the beautiful tribute to our Lady, De Laudibus B. Mariae Virg., if this tract can be attributed to him. In this work the Heart of Mary is depicted as the source of salvation, the first of all hearts united with Christ in His sufferings, and the abode of the Holy Trinity. The author particularly associates Mary’s love of God with her virginal Heart.
In the years following these men, through the first decades of the thirteenth century, mention must be made of other early apostles who did much to promulgate the growing devotion. One of the earliest devotees of the veneration of our Blessed Mother’s Heart was the Blessed Herman of Friesach, one of St. Dominic’s early followers who daily saluted the Heart of Mary; another was the Venerable Herman Joseph of the Praemonstratensian Order, who had formulated a kind of consecration to Mary’s Heart.
A special mention must also be made of Saint Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor, whose influence and spirituality confirmed and gave impetus in later years to the growing devotion. It is he who carries on and develops Saint Bernard’s early and correct notion of associating Mary’s Heart with her sanctity and her extraordinary charity. In the work Stimulus Amoris, for many centuries attributed to Saint Bonaventure, we find reference to the sorrowful Heart of Mary and scattered indications of a devotion to her virginal Heart.
Contemporaneous with Saint Bonaventure in the middle and late thirteenth century, another who figures in the history of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart is Conrad of Saxony, whose work, Speculum beatae Mariae Virginis, was for many centuries attributed to Saint Bonaventure. At this time there lived also the great women, Saints Mechtilde and Gertrude, followed later by Saint Brigid of Sweden, whose private revelations concerning the Immaculate Heart we will mention shortly under a separate heading.
In the following ages we must note Saint Antoninus, Saint Lawrence Justinian, John Gerson, Ernest Pragensis, and Nicholas of Salicetus, in whose Antidotarium one finds evidences of devotional practices to the Heart of Mary. In these years also it was Saint Bernardine of Siena who in an exceptional manner discovered and understood the significance and nature of Mary’s Immaculate Heart. Because of his writings he has often been called the “Doctor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” and it is from him that we receive the three lessons of the second nocturn of the Office for the Feast of the Immaculate Heart. Especially in his sermons do we find traces of the great saint’s devotion to Mary’s virginal Heart. In them he exalts the perfection of the corporeal heart of Mary as the symbol of her love for God and mankind, but further as the symbol of her purity, humility, and ‘sanctity. He writes that the dignity of becoming the Mother of God was the greatest destiny possible for any creature, and “therefore, in a most sublime fashion, the foreordaining love of God penetrated and moved the Heart of the Virgin to this work” this work which “participated most deeply in the perfection, influence, and divine-likeness of the foreordaining love of God from which it sprang.” And again: “Who among pure creatures can be imagined better than she who merited to become the Mother of God, and who carried God Himself as her guest in her Heart and in her womb? . . . What better treasure is there than that of Divine love itself of which the Heart of the Virgin was the fiery furnace?” And further: “Therefore, from this heart as from a furnace of Divine Love the Blessed Virgin brought forth good words, that is, words of burning charity.” Thus Saint Bernardine associates the Heart of the Blessed Mother with her deep charity and great love for God and man.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century we have evidence of further devotional practices in regard to the Immaculate Heart. Julius II, the great Renaissance Pope, promulgated certain invocations to the Immaculate Heart to be recited at the sound of the Angelus. In the same century mention ought to be made of the Carthusian, Lanspergus, in whose Pharetra one also finds traces of a devotion to the Heart of Mary. Other writers of this period worthy of note are Cornelius a Lapide, Saint Peter Canisius, Louis de Blois, Saint Philip Neri, and the Spanish Dominican Luis de Granada.
Special mention must be made of Saint Francis de Sales who was a connecting link between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and one of the greater lights, the immediate predecessor of Saint John Eudes. In his writings we find a synthesis of what had developed up to his day. He speaks of the perfections of the Heart of Mary, the model of love for God, and dedicated to it his Theotimus. In the crest of the Visitation order which he founded, he placed the Hearts of Jesus and Mary together. And it was he who played a principal role in influencing the work of Saint John Elides an acknowledgment which the great Apostle of the Immaculate Heart makes often in his writings.
Others, just prior to Saint John Eudes, who ought to be mentioned for their writings or devotion to the Immaculate Heart, are: Suarez; Saint Robert Bellarmine; P. Poire; Cardinal De Berulle; J. De La Cerda; Bartholomew de Los Rios; J. Olier, the founder of the Sulpicians; P. Barry; and V. Contenson. Saint John Eudes mentions, as other apostles of Mary’s incomparable Heart, Orsius, Sebastian, Baradius, John Eusebius of Nieremberg, John Baptist Saint Jure, Stephen Binet, Christopher de Vega, and Honorat Nicquet.
However, neither in the writings of the afore-mentioned authors nor in other Mariological literature prior to Saint John Eudes, do we find any treatise directly and expressly dealing with the devotion to the Immaculate Heart. We do see, however, a constant growth of associated references and an awareness of the distinctive role the virginal Heart of Mary had been predestined to play in the salvation of souls and in the whole divine economy. The fixed terms in regard to the devotion were still to be determined, and the devotion was still private in nature; but an increase in references and testimony concerning Mary’s Immaculate Heart is definitely observed.
Before we investigate the writings of the great Saint John Eudes in whom the devotion to the Immaculate Heart found its most ardent advocate, and who was the first to institute and propagate the liturgical worship of the Heart of Mary, we shall note briefly, as we indicated earlier, some of the private revelations to various saints concerning the Immaculate Heart, revelations with which Saint John Eudes was himself acquainted.
The Heart of Mary in Private Revelation
The entire Christian world is cognizant of the role played by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in promoting the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and although the Feast of the Sacred Heart was approved for reasons quite apart from the saint’s private revelations, yet without a doubt her great influence in this matter was largely due to the revelations our Lord deigned to grant her. There is not a perfect parallel in regard to the development of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but in the earliest centuries of the devotion, and even in our own day, we learn of private revelations concerning the most pure Heart of Mary given to certain chosen souls.
Private revelations, as extraordinary mystical phenomena, belong to the intellectual order of extraordinary divine phenomena, and are made to private individuals for their own welfare or that of others. Indirectly, under certain circumstances, they can, like public revelations, pertain to the welfare of the whole Church. Under no circumstances, however, can these revelations form a part of Catholic faith, and hence the faithful are not obliged to accept them on divine faith. Even when the Church approves them they do not become part of the object of Catholic faith, but are promulgated simply for the instruction and edification of the faithful. The assent they are accorded, therefore, is not an act of Catholic faith, but of human faith only, based on the fact that the revelations are credible and published with ecclesiastical approval. Even in these cases the faithful are cautioned to be prudent, for it is quite possible that a private revelation true in the main part may contain incidental errors, such as historical and scientific inaccuracies. The Church approves private revelations only after long and careful investigation and even then the faithful are not commanded to accept them. The matter itself, with its ramifications in dogma and matters liturgical, is thoroughly investigated long before any ecclesiastical pronouncement is made. Ecclesiastical approbation in its turn guarantees only that the revelations are plausible and not to be condemned, and the Church declares simply that approved revelations contain nothing against faith and morals and can prudently, piously, and without superstition be believed on human faith.
Thus, without overemphasizing the importance of private revelation, we look briefly at the revelations granted certain saints. True, these revelations cannot be considered to have played any role in the clarification of the dogmatic implications connected with the Immaculate Heart, but inasmuch as they have helped further the devotion to the Heart of the Mother of God, we will consider the more important of them briefly.
Saint Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (ob. 1170), had a special devotion to the joys of the Heart of Mary, and our Lady is said to have appeared to him and revealed her desire to help others who practiced this devotion, especially at the hour of death.
We note also in passing the apparition of the Blessed Virgin (15 August 1233) to the seven founders of the Servite Order which led to the veneration of our Blessed Lady as the Mother of Sorrows. In connection with this devotion and stemming from the image naturally conveyed by the words of Simeon recorded in Holy Scripture, an impetus was given to the veneration of the Blessed Mother with a special view to her charity as symbolized by her Heart.
Among the earliest and most famous private revelations are those granted the Benedictine nun, Saint Mechtilde (ob. 1298). It is especially in the first two parts of her Book of Special Grace that we find, more than in any saint or writer before her, tangible and evident expressions of a devotion to the Heart of Mary. Our Lord is understood to have revealed to her several reasons why it was granted that she honor the Heart of the Blessed Virgin in a special way: on account of the desire of the Heart of Mary for the coming of Christ; on account of her Heart’s humility and its love for the Infant Jesus; on account of the care with which it treasured the words of Christ, the prayers it offered and the zeal and interest it had for the Church; and because of its role in heaven, that of a Heart replete with heavenly grace, inflamed with love for God and man.
In the same convent with Saint Mechtilde, and doubtlessly inspired by her in many ways, another saint given special graces by God and the extraordinary privilege of private revelations was Saint Gertrude the Great (ob. 1302 ). Throughout her writings we find indications of her great devotion to Mary’s most holy Heart, for like Saint Mechtilde, she speaks of it with some frequency.
In the following century God again raised up a saint similar to Saints Mechtilde and Gertrude: Saint Brigid of Sweden (ob. 1373). She too was destined to receive private revelations concerning the virginal Heart of the Mother of God and to play a role in furthering the devotion. We read in her Revelations the words of Mary: “When He suffered, I felt as though my Heart endured the sufferings also . . . when my Son was scourged and torn with whips, my Heart was scourged and whipped with him . . . His Heart was my Heart … so that my beloved Son and myself redeemed the world as with one Heart.”
The above are the most celebrated instances of early private revelation in connection with the Heart of Mary and are those which have been an influence in the early spread of the devotion. However, we read of other similar incidents in the middle ages and in modern times, some of which are not without great significance.
If for no other reason, the early private revelations noted above merit mention because of their influence on Saint John Eudes, who in the seventeenth century initiated the devotion to Mary’s Heart as a public one? and figured strongly in bringing liturgical worship to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
By our observations to this point concerning the scriptural texts mentioned, the writings of the Fathers and later Ecclesiastics, and private revelations, we have seen that recourse to Mary under the symbol of her Heart was not an exceptional thing before Saint John Eudes, but it was always an isolated and private manifestation of devotion. There was as yet in regard to the devotion no authoritative voice, no pontifical declaration, no liturgical celebration; and although the devotion already knew certain developments, it was not until the seventeenth century with Saint John Eudes that the first clarifications of the object of the devotion and a discussion of its foundations were brought to light.
The Heart of Mary in Public Cult
We have considered the vestiges, early traces, and later real evidences of private devotion to the Immaculate Heart. We now turn to the later era of public veneration, first in a restricted manner, and then in the full universally approved worship of the Church. Indeed, with Saint John Eudes (1601- 1680) the devotion was made public and received ecclesiastical approbation, but it was for a time limited to specific locales and was only in later decades to be accepted and popularized throughout the universal Church. With Saint John’s efforts came the liturgical veneration of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, and since his day the science of the liturgy has played an outstanding role in connection with the devotion.
Hence, since the seventeenth century there can be added, beyond the authority of the Fathers and theologians of the Church, the arguments of the liturgy proving the place in Marian veneration of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart for “legem credendi supplicandi lex statuat.”88 With the intimate connection between sacred liturgy and dogma it is to be expected that, as the devotion to Mary’s Heart grew, so too do we find a clarification of the nature and dogmatic foundations of the devotion. The liturgy does not become a proving ground for the devotion in the sense that the Church is later obligated to declare a devotion acceptable and with true dogmatic basis when it is adjudged to have produced evidences of sanctity among the faithful through its liturgical aspects. Rather the liturgy of the Church has the Catholic faith for its content and bears public witness to the faith of the Church. It is in this sense that the Sovereign Pontiff and Councils of the Church have called upon the sacred liturgy along with other theological sources to clarify divine revelation. In the case of the Immaculate Heart then, the liturgy does not determine independently and in its own right the status and foundations for this devotion; but inasmuch as it is a profession of eternal truths and always subject to the teaching authority of the Church it can contribute, and de facto has contributed, toward determining the precise scope and nature of this particular phase of Marian veneration; and it has greatly enriched an already humanly appealing devotion.
Liturgical Cult
It is most appropriate to note that the Church in the course of the process of beatification and canonization of Saint John Eudes has emphasized his role in establishing the liturgical devotion to Mary’s Heart. In the brief of beatification we read that he, not without divine guidance, rendered Mary’s Heart liturgical veneration, and should be regarded as the Father, Doctor, and Apostle of this devotion.90 In considering especially the growth of the devotion, Saint John Eudes is without question the outstanding personality in its history and the great precursor of public veneration.91 It was he who as a theologian first explained the reasons for the devotion, and later had the feast established both in his own Congregations and with episcopal approval in certain French dioceses. In 1641 he composed his special Office and Mass. In the year 1680 he completed his famous work, Le Coeur Admirable, consisting of 12 books, characterized by sound theology and deep piety, the first complete work to be published on the devotion.
With all deference to the received opinion, we note in passing that prior to Saint John Eudes we have evidences of public cult being offered to a certain extent to the Heart of Mary by the Dominican Fathers Ignatius de Nente (1642) and Anthony Barbieux (1661) and by Father Vincent Guinigi of the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God. Their work, however, was limited in scope and Saint John Eudes has always been considered, even prior to the statement of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII, the precursor of the devotion, making this apostolate a goal of his entire life. He labored to give the devotion real stability, worked for ecclesiastical approbation, and instilled in his followers the desire to see the devotion come into its own.
He based his theological opinions in this matter on Sacred Scripture and began to clarify terms by distinguishing between what he called the corporeal, the spiritual, and the Divine Heart of Mary. In the saint’s mind, the corporeal heart was the physical heart of Mary’s body; the spiritual heart, her soul; sanctified not as Christ’s Heart through the hypostatic union, but through her eminent participation in the divine perfections; and the Divine Heart was the term he used to express the union between Mother and Son, a union of such intimate nature that the Mother and Son might be spoken of as having but one Heart. This last concept was a favorite idea of the saint’s, and rightly understood can indeed be included on the immediate object of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart, albeit the devotion concerns Mary herself, and cannot have as its object anything other than what belongs properly to her person.
Beyond the ordinary saint who might say, “It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20), from the very inception of Mary’s existence she lived always in the unitive way, most intimately associated with the Godhead. The nature of this transforming union could very well prompt Saint John Eudes to say, “Jesus lives in her (Mary’s) soul and body. . . . His Heart abides in her Heart, His soul in her soul. . . . His virtues, mysteries, and divine attributes are living in her Heart. . . ,”
Certainly after the hypostatic union there is no other union closer than that of the Heart of Jesus with the Heart of His Mother, but this close association and the full import of the “Divine Heart of Mary” is best seen and understood by saints and theologians such as Saint John Eudes. Without perfectly understanding the full content of the “Divine Heart,” however, we can safely include some of the ideas associated with it in the immediate object of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart, always realizing that they belong properly to the person of Mary. Insofar, however, as Saint John Eudes by the “Divine Heart” meant the Heart of Jesus living in Mary, it cannot be included in the immediate object of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart.
Regardless of a limitation in the complete acceptance of Saint John’s ideas on the Divine Heart and much of his purely devotional writings in connection with the Heart of Mary, we still recognize in his efforts the major single influence in the theological history of the devotion. It was certainly from this great saint that two other outstanding early apostles of the devotion, Father Gallifet, S.J., and Father Pinamonti, S.J., received their inspiration.
As early as 1644 Saint John Eudes wished to observe the Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary as the patronal feast of his congregations of priests and nuns; he celebrated it on the twentieth of October. The first public feast in honor of the Heart of Mary was celebrated in Autun in 1648, the result of the saint’s efforts and with episcopal approval. The Holy See, when petitioned in 1669, refused approbation of this Office and Mass. However, by this time many French bishops, according to custom and what was then considered within episcopal rights, were allowing the feast to be celebrated in their dioceses on February 8.
By 1672 the feast was celebrated more or less throughout all France. In 1729 the Holy See when petitioned again refused official approbation of the proposed Office and Mass, although the Papal Legate to France had approved an office as early as 1668. Somewhat later, in 1773, a proper office for the first time received papal approval; this by Pope Clement XIV. The feast received further papal approbation when Pope Pius VI, in 1787, permitted the nuns of Notre Dame de Corbeil to celebrate the Feast of the “Most Holy Heart of Mary” as a double of the first class on the twentysecond of August. In 1799 the same Pontiff conceded the feast to some churches of the diocese of Palermo.
It was not until 1805 that a general papal approbation was granted. Pope Pius VII gave the faculty for the celebration of the Feast of the “Most Pure Heart of Mary” on the Sunday after the Octave of the Assumption to all dioceses and religious institutes which asked for it. In 1855 under Pope Pius IX a complete proper Office and Mass for this feast was approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. The Office of Saint John Eudes universally used in France for over a hundred years was finally approved for the Eudists in 1861.” The Office which we find in the Appendix of the old Roman Breviary was granted in the year 1857.
In the ensuing years we see the liturgical cult gaining popularity, due partially to the success of the cause with which it was in earlier decades united that of the Sacred Heart. But it was a number of years later and due to various influences that the Office and Feast of the Immaculate Heart received full acknowledgment, for finally Pope Pius XII in 1944; to commemorate the special solemn consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on 8 December 1942, extended the feast to the whole world, to be celebrated with a special Office and Mass on the twenty-second of August as a double of the second class. It was decided that the Office and Mass approved by Pius IX would not be suitable for a feast of this rite extended to the universal Church since there were already some secondary feasts of the Blessed Virgin, e.g., the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and the Feast of the Seven Dolors, which had fully proper Offices and Masses. Hence from the Office of the Most Pure Heart of Mary the only parts retained were the antiphon to the Magnificat, the oration with the word Immaculati replacing the word Purissimi, and the Fourth and Fifth Lessons of the Second Nocturn taken from a sermon by Saint Bernardine of Siena. In the Missal an almost completely new text was prepared. The new Office and Mass therefore give a new orientation to the cult of the Immaculate Heart. It is of interest to note that the Gospel, in emphasizing the love of the Immaculate Heart for mankind, stresses a point on which in earlier years there had been some difference of opinion.
Where by special indult the Feast of the Most Pure Heart was already celebrated, the new Mass should now be used. Even where the Mass of the Most Pure Heart was already granted by special indult as a votive Mass, the new Mass replaces it.
Nonliturgical Cult
With the incorporation of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart into the liturgy there followed quite naturally many instances of religious confraternities, congregations, and societies dedicating themselves to the service of God and the honor of Mary under the title of the Most Pure or Immaculate Heart. In 1648 Saint John Eudes himself founded several confraternities in honor of Mary’s Heart. In 1654 the House of Refuge at Dijon was dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Mary. In 1666 Alexander VII approved the Confraternity of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary erected in the city of Morlaix. The first church dedicated to the Heart of Jesus, that of the Seminary of Coutances in Normandy (1672), was at the same time jointly dedicated to the Heart of Mary.
In the years 1674 and 1675 Saint John Eudes, in favor of his confraternities, obtained six bulls from Pope Clement X solemnly authorizing devotion to the admirable Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. During the years 1668 to 1805 there sprang up everywhere confraternities of the Heart of Mary and of the Sacred Hearts, approved and indulgenced by the Sovereign Pontiffs.
The scapular of the Immaculate Heart was approved in 1877, and that of the Sacred Hearts in 1900. The first Saturday devotion was indulgenced by Pope Pius X in 1912.
From 1703 to 1924 we have evidence of at least 8 religious congregations of men and 30 of women under some title of the Heart of Mary. These include, after the Eudists, the congregation founded by the Venerable Libermann in 1843, four years later amalgamated with the Holy Ghost Fathers; and the Picpus Fathers, the Congregation of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, founded in the year 1805. In 1849 Saint Antonio Maria Claret founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This Congregation, approved definitively by Pope Pius IX in 1870, has done much to foster devotion to Mary’s Heart.
In the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth century we have instances of local and limited consecration of individuals, families, and dioceses to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but these consecrations were in no way universal. Hence in 1942 the devotion received a great impetus in the action of the Holy Father, Pius XII, who on October 31 of that year consecrated the entire world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This consecration was solemnly renewed at Saint Peter’s on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the following December, not as a spontaneous act, but as the consequence of historical developments of high moral significance. The Holy Father’s action was the crowning of a vast movement of souls springing from a heritage of no few years and showing the highest of tributes to our Lady on the part of the Church.
As we mentioned, it was in order to keep alive and meaningful in the minds of the faithful the import of this solemn consecration, that Pope Pius XII extended the feast of the Immaculate Heart to the whole Church to be celebrated on the Octave Day of th