GUARD OF HONOR OF THE SACRED HEART. - An association of the faithful who set out to render a particular cult of glory, love and reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by means of the "hour of guard," chosen at will by each one, in which they offer for this purpose their ordinary occupations, ejaculations and prayers, keeping themselves, either really or at least in spirit, united with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
This pious practice, which answers the desire manifested by the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary, perpetuates from hour to hour throughout the world, day and night, the homage and reparation offered to the Redeemer on Calvary by Mary most holy, by St. John and by St. Mary Magdalene, who become the spiritual models for the pious devotion. In their school the associates are distinguished into three degrees: the constrained souls, the reparatory souls and the victim souls. The first imitate Mary Magdalene; St. John the second, Mary most holy the third.
The G. d'o. del S. C. had its beginning in the monastery of the Visitation Sisters of Bourg-en-Bresse through the work of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, born Costance Bernaud, on 13 March 1863, assisted by the first promoter of the work, the servant of God Marie Deluil-Martiny, later foundress of the Daughters of the Heart of Jesus, killed on 27 Feb. 1884 at Marseilles by an anarchist. Approved and erected as a confraternity by the diocesan bishop, the association was enriched by Pius IX with indulgences and privileges. Leo XIII raised it to the dignity of archconfraternity (26 Nov. 1878). In Italy the first center was established by Fr. Giovanni Bacchichetti of the Ministers of the Sick, in the church of Sts. Vincent and Anastasius in Rome (1871). From 1879 the G. d'o. del S. C. in Italy has been governed by the Order of St. Camillus. Pius X, as the preceding popes had already done, wished to name himself first guard of honor and declared himself "perpetual protector" of the Roman archconfraternity. The Association, which under the pontificate of Leo XIII had spread to 18 nations, continued to spread throughout the world, especially in the first decade of the 20th century.
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Arnaldo M. Lanz