HOYOS, BERNARDO FRANCISCO de. — Spanish mystic, servant of God, apostle of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Born at Torrelobatón (Castile) on 21 August 1711, he died at Valladolid on 29 November 1735, a few months after his priestly ordination, during the third year of probation, with a reputation for holiness. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of fifteen (1726), pursued his philosophical studies at Medina del Campo and his theological studies at the College of S. Ambrogio in Valladolid, rapidly attaining the highest degrees of perfection. His body was buried in the church of S. Ignazio, but the suppression of the Order caused its location to be lost.
H. is one of the most representative figures of mysticism in Spain, and through a series of trials and visions of profound significance he was prepared by God to become the herald of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in his homeland, a mission that the young man undertook after learning of the GALLIFET, JOSEPH (v.) De culto Sacrosancti Cordis Dei ac Domini N. I. Christi, winning to the same ideal his spiritual director, Fr. Juan de Loyola, and two confreres, Agostino Cardaveras and Pedro de Calatayud. From this understanding arose Tesoro escondido en el S. Corazón de Jesús descubierto a nuestra España (1734) by Loyola and Incendios de amor sacrado (Murcia 1733) by Calatayud, which rapidly spread,
awakening a current of fervor toward the Sacred Heart. For this reason Spain has erected a special statue to H. in the monumental group raised to the Divine Heart on the Cerro de los Angeles near Madrid and in the retablo of the national Sanctuary of Valladolid. His cause of beatification has been introduced before the S. Congregation of Rites.
Arnaldo M. Lanz