HOLY HOUR. — A pious practice of reparation (v.) to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, originating from the revelations at Paray-le-Monial, when Jesus asked St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to rise every Thursday between eleven and midnight, and spend an hour in prayer, uniting herself with His agony in the Garden of Olives, prostrate with her face to the ground, to placate divine wrath and implore forgiveness for sinners (*Vie et oeuvre*, II, 72).
The saint remained faithful to this practice until her death. The Holy Hour soon spread, especially within religious institutes. In 1829, Fr. Debrosse, a Jesuit, founded the Confraternity of the Holy Hour at Paray, which was approved and granted indulgences by Pius VIII. Gregory XVI extended the plenary indulgence to the faithful worldwide, on the condition that they be enrolled in the register of confraternity members. Leo XIII then elevated the association to the status of an archconfraternity (6 Apr. 1886), to which Pius X granted the privilege of affiliating all confraternities of the same name throughout the world, while the pious practice was PRAYER BOOK (v.). Since the purpose of the devotion to the Sacred Heart is to establish the triumph of His kingdom of love in the world, the Holy Hour has spread not only in private and domestic forms but also in public and solemn observances before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in churches.
It consists of an hour of meditative prayer, focused on the Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, preferably between eleven and twelve at night; however, to facilitate this pious exercise, the Church has authorized the faithful to anticipate it to the hour when the recitation of Matins in the Divine Office may begin.