CHEVALIER, JULES. - Priest of the diocese of Bourges, b. at Richelieu on 15 March 1824, d. at Issoudun on 21 Oct. 1907. To a holy life he united great zeal in propagating devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Blessed Virgin, in whose honor, as early as 1859, he introduced and promoted in the Church the title of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Five years earlier he had laid the foundations of the Congregation of the Missionaries Sacred Heart of Jesus (v.), to which he later added the work of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, founded in 1874 together with Mother Luisa Hartser. His zeal was likewise responsible for the first initiative for the consecration of the Church to the Sacred Heart, for which he presented Pius IX in 1875 with a petition bearing 3 million signatures, collected in six months.
Among his works (about 20), the following should be noted: Le S. Cœur de Jésus dans ses rapports avec Marie (Paris 1883) and Notre-Dame du S. Cœur d'après l'Écriture Sainte, les Saints Pères et la Théologie (4th ed., ibid. 1895).