CUORE DI GESÙ - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. IV, p. 626

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

HEART OF JESUS. –

I. CULT OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

I. *History.*

The constitutive elements of the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are substantially contained in Revelation. The Holy Fathers insistently exhorted the faithful to respond to the Saviour’s love for mankind; nor are considerations lacking on the pierced side of Christ. Yet in the tradition of the first ten centuries there are no references to the cult of the heart of flesh as a symbol of love.

From the 11th century onwards, the elements of this devotion began to develop in the writings and piety of the faithful, elaborated within the Church under the influence of the Holy Spirit through the collaboration of chosen souls. Much was contributed by the atmosphere of intense spirituality that arose around St Bernard.

Through the gaping side wound, one arrives at the heart, and a connection begins to be established between the heart and the love of Jesus. In passages attributed to St Anselm and St Bernard, reference is made to the symbolism of the heart pierced for love, but it is uncertain whether the heart of flesh is intended. The doubts cease from the mid-12th century onwards, with texts becoming more frequent and clearer; yet, apart from a few passages by William of St-Thierry (d. 1150) and Guerric of Igny (d. 1160), no true traces of devotion appear. It is affirmed, distinct in its object, purpose, spirit, and acts, in the *Vitis mystica* attributed to St Bonaventure. In the works of St Mechtilde (d. 1298) and St Gertrude (d. 1302), the devotion is enriched with exercises and practices, but remains the preserve of mystical souls.

In the following centuries, it spread without developing further. A significant advance occurred in the 16th century with the Venerable Lanspergius (d. 1539; cf.), a Carthusian of Cologne, and Louis de Blois (d. 1566), a Benedictine abbot of Liessies. Through prayers, exercises, and practices, they gave concrete form and facilitated the devotion, making it popular. Their influence was decisive in spreading the devotion, which entered Christian asceticism and permeated the schools of spirituality, so much so that it commonly appears in the ascetical works of the 17th century.

St Francis de Sales, who was greatly devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,

Article illustration — (photo courtesy of the Università Cattolica)
Heart of Jesus – Painting by L. Pagliaghe – Milan, Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, chapel.

imparted his sentiments to the Visitandines and bound his Congregation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (cf. the letter of 10 June 1611 to St Jane Frances de Chantal). Thus, in the Visitation, up to St Margaret Mary Alacoque, there flourished a continuous stream of fervent devotees, favoured with special graces. In the Society of Jesus, the indefatigable Fathers L. Lallemant (d. 1635) and V. Huby (d. 1693) distinguished themselves. Despite this spread, the devotion remained purely private. St John Eudes (d. 1680) was the initiator and apostle of the liturgical cult of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (cf. the decree on the heroism of his virtues, 6 Jan. 1903; *Acta Sanctae Sedis*, 35 [1902-1903], pp. 378 ff.). In the brief of beatification (11 Apr. 1909; AAS, 1 [1908], pp. 477-82), he is called “father, doctor, and apostle of this devotion.” He consecrated his Congregation of priests to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and had their feast celebrated. He prescribed special exercises and composed the Office and Mass, which were approved by some French bishops. Confraternities arose, approved by Alexander VII and Clement X.
In St John Eudes, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was at first morally united with that of the Heart of Mary, but later it separated from II. He indeed composed a special Office and Mass for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Probably on 20 Oct. 1672, the first feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was celebrated in various places in France. The Office and Mass greatly promoted this cult, and St John Eudes was the direct precursor of St Margaret Mary Alacoque (d. 1690). Besides the visions concerning her private devotion, the Saint received important revelations for the spread of public cult. In the first great apparition (27 Dec. 1673), Jesus made known to her the love of His Heart and chose her as an instrument for carrying out His design of saving men through His Heart. Subsequently, she was instructed about the object, practices, and spirit of the devotion, which thus received its final arrangement. The heart of flesh, surrounded by a crown of thorns and surmounted by a cross, is the symbol of the love of Jesus: a love scorned, which seeks love and reparation. In the apparition of 1675, Jesus asked for public cult, with the institution of a feast of reparation, and indicated Fr. Claude de la Colombière (d. 1682) as His collaborator. He inspired around him, within the Society of Jesus, fervent apostles such as Frs. J. de Gallifet and J. Croiset, who continued his work. The cult spread widely, immediately encountering opposition from the Jansenists and some ill-informed Catholics.

In 1726, the King of Poland, several bishops, and the Visitandines sent a petition to Benedict XIII for the institution of the feast, through the postulature of Fr. Gallifet. To avoid a refusal, the response was deferred, since, as the Promoter of the Faith, Prospero Lambertini, noted, reference was made to the heart as “comprehensive and sensitive to all virtues and affections and the centre of all interior joys and sorrows.” However, as the petitioners insisted, on 30 July 1729 the Congregation of Rites gave a negative response.

Clement XIII, following countless petitions, among which was a memorial from the Polish episcopate expressed in clear and precise terms, had the cause re-examined. On 25 Jan. 1765, the Sacred Congregation of Rites issued the decree of approval. It was expressly determined that the object of the cult was the heart, symbol of love. The Jansenists, for this clarification, concluded that it concerned the metaphorical, not the real, heart. The contrary, however, is evident from the postulature and the decree that approves and extends the cult without altering II. The cult of the heart of flesh was therefore accused of idolatry. Pius VI, however, rejected the error, noting that the heart is adored “inseparably united with the Person of the Word” (cf. the bull *Autorem fidei* 1794; Denz.-U., nn. 1562-63).

Pius IX extended the feast to the universal Church with the rite of a major double, later raised to a double of the first class by Leo XIII, who also approved the litanies. In the encyclical *Annum Sacrum* (25 May 1899), he ordered the consecration of the human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on 1 June of the same year. Shortly afterwards, he urged bishops to develop the cult through the practice of the First Friday and the month of the Sacred Heart. Pius X ordered that the act of consecration be renewed annually. Benedict XV approved the cult of the Eucharistic Sacred Heart by granting the Mass and Office proper to Ordinaries who requested them (decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 9 Nov. 1921). Pius XI, in the encyclical *Miserentissimus* (8 May 1928), developed the doctrine of devotion to the Sacred Heart, dwelling in particular on consecration and reparation for offences, and raised the feast to a double of the first class with a privileged octave of the third order.

2. Doctrine

The revelations to St Margaret Mary Alacoque, however, constitute only the occasional cause of approval, since the Church, setting aside their truth, has relied on doctrinal reasons. The cult is justified in itself and has its theological foundation in the Catholic doctrine of the adoration of the humanity of Jesus.

In Christ there is one person, that divine of the Word, and two natures, the divine and the humanity. The single and same adoration, due to the divine person, must be attributed to what subsists in Him and through Him. Honour indeed refers to the whole, that is, to the person, even when it is attributed to a part (St Thomas, Summa Theol., 3a, q. 25, a. 1-2). Therefore the humanity of Christ, not in itself nor considered separately, but insofar as it is united to the Word, is worthy of true adoration. This is direct and absolute, since the human nature of Christ is adored not for the dignity of a different and distinct person, but for the excellence of the person in whom it subsists and with whom it constitutes a single whole.

This holds for each part of the humanity of Christ. His heart, therefore, considered as united to the divine person, is worthy of adoration, which terminates in the person of Jesus Himself. Every act of worship has as its ultimate and complete object the whole of Jesus Christ, but the various devotions have a proximate, proper and specific object. In the case of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, this is the physical heart of Jesus, that is, the heart of flesh, living and animated, not merely as the noblest part of the body of Christ, but especially as a symbol of His love.

The proper object of this worship is therefore not only the physical heart, nor only love, but the physical heart as a symbol of love, that is, the Sacred Heart of Jesus burning with love (cf. the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 1765, and the letter of Pius VI to Scipione Ricci, 29 June 1781). This is the reason for the special cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The heart has always been taken as a symbol of love, and it is not a mere conventional sign, but a natural sign, due to the real relationship between the heart and love, since love and the other affections rooted in it are reflected in the heart. The cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus disregards the physical-psychological question of whether the organ of the sensitive affections is the heart (the opinion of the ancients) or the brain (as moderns believe). Certainly, an echo of the affections is experienced in the movements of the heart, which, although not the eliciting organ of these affections, nevertheless manifests them. The physical heart and the love it symbolises must not be considered distinct and separate: they are one and the same object of worship. These two elements constitute a single reality, as the soul and the body do, and just as the soul has supremacy over the body, so love has supremacy over the physical heart.

Theologians call the heart the proximate material object and love—the divine and human love of Jesus—the formal object. Similarly, they agree that the object of this worship is the heart as a symbol not only of love, but of the entire inner life of Jesus, that is, of all His affections, sorrows, sacrifices, joys, sufferings, virtues and sensitive feelings. All this is indeed reflected in the heart. Hence it is commonly held that by the expression Sacred Heart is usually meant the whole person of Jesus, considered in His inner, affective and moral life. From this arises the pre-eminence of this devotion over others, for it synthesises the entire life of Christ in love, the cause of the wonders of the Redemption, and facilitates for man an intimate knowledge and, consequently, love of the Redeemer.

Rationalism has classified this devotion as a form of soft and superficial piety. Upon closer examination, however, it proves to be solid and manly, engaging man in the exercise of virtue.

The purpose of this cult is to kindle in the faithful the love that corresponds to that of Jesus. For this reason it is highly recommended in papal documents (cf. the encyclicals Annum Sacrum and Miserentissimus Redemptor) and in the writings of St Margaret Mary Alacoque the practice of personal and collective consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And since the love of Jesus is an ignored and neglected love, reparation must follow consecration.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has exercised a beneficial influence on the life of the Church. Deism and Jansenism had sought to distance God from man by denying or substantially altering Christian Revelation; the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus thus unites the souls of the elect to God through love and grace, revealing to man the intimate and true aspect of Christianity. Amid the shadows of rationalistic criticism, the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been a powerful irradiation of light. Souls that have understood this devotion have felt the need for union with Jesus, and thus the beginning of a religious awakening has been marked, to which the development of Eucharistic piety is connected.

Bibl.: J. Croiset, La dévotion au S. Coeur de Jésus-Christ, Lyon 1691 (placed on the Index in 1704, removed in 1887); J. de Gallifet, De cultu SS. Cordis Dei et Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, Rome 1726; N. Nilles, De rationibus festorum SS. Cordis Jesu et purissimi Cordis Mariae, Innsbruck 1885; J. B. Terrien, La dévotion au S. Coeur de Jésus, d'après les documents catholiques et la théologie, Paris 1893; Monastery of Paray-le-Monial, Vie et oeuvres de Ste Marguerite M. Alacoque, 1900; V. VERMEERSCH, ARTHUR, Pratica e dottrina della devozione al S. C., 2 vols., Turin 1923; K. Richtsätter, Die Herzen-Jesu-Verehrung des deutschen M.A., 2nd ed., Regensburg 1924; A. Levesque, L'origine du culte du S. Coeur de Jésus, Avignon 1930; A. Hamon, Histoire de la dévotion au S. Coeur, 5 vols., Paris 1930-40; F. Alcañiz, La devozione al C. di G., Milan 1939; J. V. BAINVEL, VINCENT, La devozione al S. C. di G., 3rd ed., 1941; Dédat de Baaliv, Le Coeur selon le b. Jean Duns Scot, Paris 1946; A. Rubino, S. C. nella teologia e nella storia, Turin 1948. Vincenzo Carbone.

II. CULT OF THE EUCHARISTIC HEART OF JESUS

A devotion whose purpose is to honour the act of love by which Jesus instituted the Eucharist. It is a natural development of the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose origin is not tied to any revelation. Through the Church, in the second half of the 19th century, it immediately found support in Monsignor de Ségur, Blessed Peter Julian Eymard and St John Bosco. By 1890 it was already widespread in more than 35 nations, where numerous confraternities and associations existed. In honour of the Eucharistic Heart, representations were not lacking that depicted the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the midst of the Host. The Holy See, while disapproving of these exaggerations (27 May 1891: in L'ami du clergé, 36 [1914], pp. 675-76; 15 July 1914: AAS, 6 [1914], p. 382), declared in subsequent decrees that it did not intend to prohibit the new cult, now “positively recognised” (3 Apr. 1915: AAS, 7 [1915], p. 205). In an apostolic brief of 16 Feb. 1903 (Acta Leonis XIII Pont. Max., XXII, Rome 1903, pp. 307-10), by which Leo XIII raised to archconfraternity the association already existing in Rome, the object of the new cult was clearly specified. On 9 Nov. 1921, Benedict XV crowned the numerous petitions that had reached Rome from all parts of the world with a solemn decree granting a feast and proper Office in honour of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, to be celebrated on the Thursday after the octave of Corpus Christi (AAS, 13 [1921], p. 545).

Revelation and theology, in their constant affirmation of the causal relationship between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist, show the suitability and appropriateness of the new cult. Many prophecies of the Old Testament announce that from the Messiah streams of grace must flow, rivers of living water (Is 12:3; 55:1; 48:21; Zech 12:10). St Paul presents the Messiah as the rock that miraculously gave forth water to refresh the Israelites in the desert (1 Cor 10:4). St John emphasises that the rivers of living water must spring from the inmost depths of the humanity of Jesus (Jn 7:37), and points to the fulfilment of the prophecies in the wound opened in the Saviour’s side (Jn 19:34).

The vigilant and devout thought of the Fathers discovers and expounds this reality: the side is likened to the rock of the desert, Longinus’ lance to the rod of Moses, the wound to the cleft of the rock, and the gushing water to the Eucharistic mystery. According to St. John Chrysostom, who received the thought of tradition, the Christian must attend the Eucharistic banquet and bring his lips to the chalice as though drawing the Precious Blood from Christ’s side: “Hinc initium mysteria sumunt, ut cum ad tremendum poculum accesseris sic venias ac si ex hoc latere potaturus esses” (Hom. 85 in Io. 9; 59, 49). In the mystical vision of the Fathers, the Eucharist issues forth from the real heart of Jesus as the most precious gift of His love. Already in the Old Testament the psalmist, reflecting on the gift of manna, exclaims: “Cogitationes cordis eius in generationem et generationem... ut alat eos in fame” (Ps. 32, 11, 19). In the New Testament the Eucharist, as the fruit of a loving reflection, is present in that trembling desire: “Desiderio desideravi hoc Pascha manducare vobiscum” (Lk. 22, 15), and the mysterious Johannine expression “in finem dilexit” (Jn. 13, 1) resounds in the Fathers’ moved thought: “Cum esset omnipotens plus dare non potuit, cum esset sapientissimus plus dare nescivit, cum esset divitissimus plus dare non habuit” (a celebrated text attributed to St. Augustine).

Cause and effect, intimated in Scripture and illustrated in Tradition, are comprehended in the theological synthesis of St. Thomas. The humanity of Christ, the instrument of the Word, is traversed by the all-powerful virtue and all the supernatural life of man (cf. Sum. Theol., 3, 9, 62, a. 5): this instrumental activity and divine energy pour forth from the Sacred Heart of Jesus together with the Blood that flowed as the price of Redemption. The wound of the side and of the heart was divinely ordained so that the torrents of grace hidden in the humanity of the Word might gush forth: “Ut apertum cor, divinae largitatis sacrarum, torrentes nobis funderet misericordes et gratiae” (Preface of the feast of the Sacred Heart). The first and most sublime grace is the Eucharist, as the actualization and compendium of the theandric love of Jesus for man; a love that expresses itself in the living desire to remain always with the beloved and to be united with her in a mysterious unity: “This most divine gift has issued from the inmost heart of that Redeemer who ardently yearned to establish this wondrous union with mankind” (encycl. Mirae caritatis [28 May 1902], in Leonis XIII Pont. Max. Acta, XXII, Rome 1903, pp. 115-36).

V. tav. LXVIII.

Bibl.: E. Fabozzi, Le glorie del Cuore Eucaristico, Napoli 1911; J. V. BAINVEL, VINCENT, La devozione al S. C. di Gesù, trad. it., Milano 1922, pp. 434-38; A. Lepidi, Explication dogmatique sur le culte du Coeur Eucharistique de Jésus, 2a ed., a cura di E. Hugon, Parigi 1926; D. Castelain, De cultu Eucharistici Cordis Jesus, Historia doctrina, documenta, ivi 1928 (l'opera più completa); S. Tronin, De nativitate Ecclesiae ex latere Christi, in Gregorianum, 13 (1932), pp. 489-527; F. Ogara, Bibebant de spirituali consequente eos petra, in Verbum Domini, 16 (1936), pp. 33-41; A. Vaccari, Exivit sanguis et aqua, ibid., 17 (1937), pp. 193-99; A. Hamon, Histoire de la devozion au Sacré Coeur, V. Parigi 1940, pp. 247-253; H. Rahner, Flumina de ventre Christi, Die patriarische Auslegung von Io. 7, 37, in Biblica, 22 (1941), pp. 269-306, 368-404; M. Zedda, Flumina de ventre eius fluent aquae vivae, in Verbum Domini, 21 (1941), pp. 327-37; A. Vaccari, Cogitationes cordis eius in generationem et generationem (Ps. 32, 11), ibid., 24 (1944), pp. 193-202.