The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
History is rather unclear as to the origin of devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  While some religious historians have traced this devotion back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries and attributed it to either St. Anselm, St. Bernard or St. Bonaventure, it is known that August 31, 1670 marked the first recorded Feast of the Sacred Heart, celebrated at the Grand Seminary in Rennes, France – and eventually spread to other dioceses.
St, Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a devout and deeply spiritual Visitandine nun, was the recipient of a series of four apparitions of Jesus, Who revealed to her His desire that a special devotion be created to honor His Sacred Heart. These apparitions, which began in 1673, paved the way for such devotions to be propagated by both the Visitandine and Jesuit Orders. While devotion to the Sacred Heart first took root in religious communities, it spread into the secular world as a result of the 1720 plague in Marseilles, and eventually was institutionalized within the universal Church by Pope Pius IX in 1856. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated all humanity to the Sacred Heart in what he described as the “great act” of his pontificate.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is today commemorated each First Friday of the month as well through the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrated annually on the First Friday after the octave of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus (Corpus Christi).
 Intertwined with devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is similar devotion to the Sacred Heart of Mary. This latter devotion also seems to take its roots in the eleventh or twelfth century in the writings and practices of Saints Anselm, Bernard, Mechtilde, Gertrude, Bernardine and Thomas Becket. However, the person most responsible for the propagation of this devotion is St. John Eudes, who first celebrated a Feast honoring the Sacred Heart of Mary in Autun, France in 1648. Later, he established several religious societies committed to the continuation of this devotion, and published his text Coeur Admirable (Admirable Heart) to shed further light on this devotion. Papal decrees by Popes Pius VI and Pius VII in 1799 and 1805 further enabled this devotion to spread. Today, there are several different feasts commemorating the Sacred Heart of Mary in different Catholic circles: on the Sunday after the Octave of the Assumption, on the Third Sunday after Pentecost, and on February 8th. However, no such feast day is celebrated by the universal Church. |