Early Christianity was already pondering and talking about the love of God for humanity as they received the Gospel. Knowing that the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, came down to be with humanity, to be one of humanity, and to die and rise for humanity as the ultimate and only pleasing sacrifice to God in atonement for the sins of humanity and the purification of their being, so that humanity may be with Him eternally.
Since the 11th century, Christians with deep meditation on the Passion of Christ and deep devotion to the Sacred Wounds of Christ were led to appreciate the wounded and pierced Heart of Christ, especially focusing on the Sacred Wound in the Side of Christ, which was stabbed by a lance that pierced and reached through the Sacred Heart of Christ, where the blood and water gushed forth and healed the blind eye of the soldier Longinus (who pierced the side of Christ to check if He was dead instead of breaking His bones). This appreciation and honoring of the Sacred Wounds of Christ pointed to only one reason, which is all about the love of God that is coming from the pierced Sacred Heart of Christ.
This appreciation and honor to the Heart of Christ remained highlighted in the following centuries. Saints such as Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Francis de Assisi, St. Anthony de Padua, St. Francis de Sales, St. Albert the Great, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Lutgard of Awieres, St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde, and the congregations of Dominicans, Carthusians, and Franciscans became propagators of the devotion to the Pierced Heart of Christ. To specially mention it, Christ appeared in visions to St. Gertrude the Great and St. Mechtilde of Helfta with the intent for them to focus on appreciating and honoring His Sacred Heart in the Blessed Sacrament. During this time, the devotion was limited to private worship.
17th Century
When the 17th century came, the devotion to the Pierced Heart of Christ was slowly fading out. Amidst this crisis, Fr. Jean Eudes celebrated the first feast of the Sacred Heart on October 20, 1672. The following year, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ started to officially and clearly unfold.
On December 27, 1673, the day of the feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, Christ appeared in a vision to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque while she was praying before the Blessed Sacrament in the Visitation Chapel at Paray-le-Monial. He let her head rest on His chest like St. Gertrude’s vision and how St. John rested on His chest during the Last Supper. Jesus Christ told her, “My Divine Heart is so passionately in love with humanity that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its ardent Love. It must pour them out… It must spread them abroad by your means, and manifest Itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition. I have chosen you as an abyss of unworthiness and ignorance for the accomplishment of this great design, in order that everything may be done by Me.” After this, Christ asked her for her heart. With her begging permission, Christ took it and placed it in His Sacred Heart. Her heart was consumed by the flame of Christ’s Sacred Heart. Christ restored and put back the heart of St. Margaret as a burning flame in the form of a heart that would consume her for the rest of her life. Christ appointed and called her the beloved disciple of His Sacred Heart, the chosen one to officially promote and establish the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ.
In 1674, on the feast of the Visitation, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received the second vision, which she described: “The Divine Heart was presented to me on a throne of flames, more resplendent than the sun, transparent as crystal, with this adorable wound. And it was surrounded with a crown of thorns, signifying the punctures made in it by our sins, and a cross above signifying that from the first instant of His Incarnation…” Jesus Christ revealed to her the symbols that we always see in the image of the Sacred Heart of Christ — the image that shows and reminds us of His great Love for humanity. The Lord Jesus Christ told her that He wanted this holy image to be exposed and that He would pour forth His graces and blessings on those who honor Him as His promises state. He revealed to her that it was His ardent desire to be known, loved, and honored by humanity, and His eager desire to draw them back from the road to perdition.
In the same year, 1674, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received the third vision, wherein the Lord told her to establish and practice the Friday devotion by honoring His Sacred Heart and taking communion every first Friday of the month. He also told her to honor Him in the Blessed Sacrament between eleven and twelve o’clock in the evening, which is today known as the Holy Hour. In these ways, humanity may repent of the coldness and ingratitude of their hearts toward God. As Christ told her, “you are to receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of each month, and every night between Thursday and Friday I will make you partaker of that sorrow unto death which it was My will to suffer in the Garden of Olives… To join with Me in the humble prayer which I then offered to My heavenly Father in agony you are to arise between eleven and twelve o’clock, and remain with Me upon your knees for an hour, with your face to the ground, to appease the anger of My Eternal Father, and to ask of Him pardon for sinners.”
On June 16, 1675, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received the fourth vision during the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi. The Lord Jesus Christ was grieved at the coldness and ingratitude of humanity, even among those consecrated to Him. He told her to establish the feast in honor of the solemnity of His Sacred Heart on the first Friday after Corpus Christi, so that the faithful everywhere and the next generations may celebrate this occasion and receive Holy Communion in reparation. Jesus Christ told her, “I ask of you that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be dedicated as a feast in honor of My Heart, and amends made to It in an Act of Reparation offered to It and by the reception of Holy Communion on that day, to atone for the outrages It has received during the time It has been exposed on the Altars.”
The mission given to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque went through many struggles, pains, doubts, and responses. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was helped by her sisters in her congregation, who once doubted her, to propagate the devotion. Her spiritual director, Fr. Claude de la Colombière, assured her that her visions were authentic and pledged himself to propagate the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.
Some say that the devotion to the Sacred Heart is the Lord’s response to Jansenism, the heretical ideology that denies human participation or the exercise of free will in salvation, claiming that God chooses only some people to receive His grace in order to be saved and others do not, thus destined to damnation. In contrast, the Sacred Heart shows Christ’s love for humanity is given to everyone, and all are invited to freely participate in this love between God and humanity. As the saying goes, “it takes two to tango.”
19th Century to Present
After years had passed, in 1856 the devotion was officially added to the Church calendar by Pope Pius IX, as Christ Jesus had told St. Margaret to establish this devotion to the Sacred Heart. The Pope also explained that the devotion to the Sacred Heart is connected to our worship of Christ as God incarnate and related to Christ’s love for the human race.
In the following eras, several popes have written about the importance of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, such as Pope Leo XIII’s “Annum Sacrum” (Holy Year), Pope Pius XI’s “Miserentissimus Redemptor” (Most Merciful Redeemer), Pope Pius XII’s “Haurietis Aquas” (You Will Draw Water), and Pope Francis’ “Delixit Nos” (He Loved Us), just to name a few encyclicals.
References / For Further Reading:
- Sacred Heart Basilica - History and Devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Welcome His Heart - A Brief Overview of the Sacred Heart Devotion
- National Catholic Register - Where Did Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Come From?
- Sacred Heart Alliance - Foundations of the Devotion
- Britannica - Sacred Heart (Roman Catholicism)
- Vatican News - Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
- ChurchPOP - 4 Mystical Messages of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
- CTS Books - St. Margaret Mary Alacoque's Visions of Jesus
- National Shrine - What is the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
- Catholic Answers - Jansenism