Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

As in the article on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, this subject will be

considered under two heads:

the nature, and

the history of the devotion.

The Nature of the Devotion

Just as devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is only a form of devotion to the

adorable Person of Jesus, so also is devotion to the Holy Heart of Mary but a

special form of devotion to Mary. In order that, properly speaking, there may be

devotion to the Heart of Mary, the attention and the homage of the faithful must

be directed to the physical heart itself. However, this in itself is not sufficient; the

faithful must read therein all that the human heart of Mary suggests, all of which

it is the expressive symbol and the living reminder: Mary's interior life, her joys

and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love

for her God, her maternal love for her Divine Son, and her motherly and

compassionate love for her sinful and miserable children here below. The

consideration of Mary's interior life and the beauties of her soul, without any

thought of her physical heart, does not constitute our devotion; still less does it

consist in the consideration of the Heart of Mary merely as a part of her virginal

body. The two elements are essential to the devotion, just as soul and body are

necessary to the constitution of man.

All this is made sufficiently clear in the explanations given elsewhere (see

DEVOTION TO THE HEART OF JESUS), and, if our devotion to Mary must not

be confounded with our devotion to Jesus, on the other hand, it is equally true

that our veneration of the Heart of Mary is, as such, analogous to our worship of

the Heart of Jesus. It is, however, necessary to indicate a few differences in this

analogy, the better to explain the character of Catholic devotion to the Heart of

Mary. Some of these differences are very marked, whereas others are barely

perceptible. Devotion to the Heart of Jesus is especially directed to the Divine

Heart as overflowing with love for men, and it presents this love to us as despised

and outraged. In the devotion to the Heart of Mary, on the other hand, what

seems to attract us above all else is the love of this Heart for Jesus and for God.

Its love for men is not overlooked, but it is not so much in evidence nor so

dominant. With this difference is linked another. The first, act of the devotion to

the Heart of Jesus is the love eager to respond to love, in devotion to the Heart of

Mary there is no first act so clearly indicated: in this devotion, perhaps, study

and imitation hold as important a place as love. For, although this study and

imitation are impregnated with filial affection, the devotion presents itself with no

object sufficiently conspicuous to call forth our love, which is, on the contrary,

naturally awakened and increased by the study and imitation. Hence, accurately

speaking, love is more the result than the object of the devotion, the object being

rather to love God, and Jesus better by uniting ourselves to Mary for this purpose

and by imitating her virtues. It would also seem that, although in the devotion to

the Heart of Mary the heart has an essential part as symbol and sensible object,

it does not stand out as prominently as in the devotion to the Heart of Jesus; we

think rather of the thing symbolized, of love, virtues, and sentiments, of Mary's

interior life.

The History of the Devotion

The history of the devotion to the Heart of Mary is connected on many points with

that to the Heart of Jesus; nevertheless, it has its own history which, although

very simple, is not devoid of interest. The attention of Christians was early

attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary. The Gospel itself invited

this attention with exquisite discretion and delicacy. What was first excited was

compassion for the Virgin Mother. It was, so to speak, at the foot of the Cross

that the Christian heart first made the acquaintance of the Heart of Mary.

Simeon's prophecy paved the way and furnished the devotion with one of its

favourite formulae and most popular representations: the heart pierced with a

sword. But Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the Cross; "she

cooperated through charity", as St. Augustine says, "in the work of our

redemption".

Another Scriptural passage to help in bringing out the devotion was the

twice-repeated saying of St. Luke, that Mary kept all the sayings and doings of

Jesus in her heart, that there she might ponder over them and live by them. A few

of the Virgin's sayings, also recorded in the Gospel, particularly the Magnificat,

disclose new features in Marian psychology. Some of the Fathers also throw

light upon the psychology of the Virgin, for instance, St. Ambrose, when in his

commentary on St. Luke he holds Mary up as the ideal of virginity, and St.

Ephrem, when he so poetically sings of the coming of the Magi and the welcome

accorded them by the humble Mother. Little by little, in consequence of the

application of the Canticle of the loving relations between God and the Blessed

Virgin, the Heart of Mary came to be for the Christian Church the Heart of the

Spouse of the Canticles as well as the Heart of the Virgin Mother. Some

passages from other Sapiential Books, likewise understood as referring to Mary,

in whom they personify wisdom and her gentle charms, strengthened this

impression. Such are the texts in which wisdom is presented as the mother lofty

love, of fear, of knowledge, and of holy hope. In the New Testament Elizabeth

proclaims Mary blessed because she has believed the words of the angel; the

Magnificat is an expression of her humility; and in answering the woman of the

people, who in order to exalt the Son proclaimed the Mother blessed, did not

Jesus himself say: "Blessed rather are they that hear the word of God and keep

it", thus in a manner inviting us to seek in Mary that which had so endeared her

to God and caused her to be selected as the Mother of Jesus? The Fathers

understood His meaning, and found in these words a new reason for praising

Mary. St. Leo says that through faith and love she conceived her Son spiritually,

even before receiving Him into her womb, and St. Augustine tells us that she was

more blessed in having borne Christ in her heart than in having conceived Him in

the flesh.

It is only in the twelfth, or towards the end of the eleventh century, that slight

indications of a regular devotion are perceived in a sermon by St. Bernard (De

duodecim stellis), from which an extract has been taken by the Church and used

in the Offices of the Compassion and of the Seven Dolours. Stronger evidences

are discernible in the pious meditations on the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina,

usually attributed either to St. Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or St. Bernard; and

also in the large book "De laudibus B. Mariae Virginis" (Douai, 1625) by Richard

de Saint-Laurent. Penitentiary of Rouen in the thirteenth century. In St. Mechtilde

(d. 1298) and St. Gertrude (d. 1302) the devotion had two earnest adherents. A

little earlier it had been included by St. Thomas Becket in the devotion to the

joys and sorrows of Mary, by Blessed Hermann (d.1245), one of the first spiritual

children of St. Dominic, in his other devotions to Mary, and somewhat later it

appeared in St. Bridget's "Book of Revelations". Tauler (d. 1361) beholds in Mary

the model of a mystical, just as St. Ambrose perceived in her the model of a

virginal soul. St. Bernardine of Siena (d.1444) was more absorbed in the

contemplation of the virginal heart, and it is from him that the Church has

borrowed the lessons of the Second Nocturn for the feast of the Heart of Mary.

St. Francis de Sales speaks of the perfections of this heart, the model of love for

God, and dedicated to it his "Theotimus".

During this same period one finds occasional mention of devotional practices to

the Heart of Mary, e.g. in the "Antidotarium" of Nicolas du Saussay (d.1488), in

Julius II, and in the "Pharetra" of Lanspergius. In the second half of the sixteenth

century and the first half of the seventeenth, ascetic authors dwelt upon this

devotion at greater length. It was, however, reserved to St. Jean Eudes (d. 1681)

to propagate the devotion, to make it public, and to have a feast celebrated in

honor of the Heart of Mary, first at Autun in 1648 and afterwards in a number of

French dioceses. He established several religious societies interested in

upholding and promoting the devotion, of which his large book on the Coeur

Admirable (Admirable Heart), published in 1681, resembles a summary. Pere

Eudes' efforts to secure the approval of an Office and feast failed at Rome, but,

notwithstanding, this disappointment, the devotion to the Heart of Mary

progressed. In 1699 Father Pinamonti (d. 1703) published in Italian his beautiful

little work on the Holy Heart of Mary, and in 1725 Pere de Gallifet combined the

cause of the Heart of Mary with that of the Heart of Jesus in order to obtain

Rome's approbation of the two devotions and the institution of the two feasts. In

1729 his project was defeated, and in 1765 the two causes were separated, to

assure the success of the principal one.

In 1799 Pius VI, then in captivity at Florence, granted the Bishop of Palermo the

feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary for some of the churches in his diocese. In

1805 Pius VII made a new concession, thanks to which the feast was soon

widely observed. Such was the existing condition when a twofold movement,

started in Paris, gave fresh impetus to the devotion. The two factors of this

movement were first of all the revelation of the "miraculous medal" in 1830 and all

the prodigies that followed, and then the establishment at

Notre-Dame-des-Victoires of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of

Mary, Refuge of Sinners, which spread rapidly throughout the world and was the

source of numberless graces. On 21 July, 1855, the Congregation of Rites finally

approved the Office and Mass of the Most Pure Heart of Mary without, however,

imposing them upon the Universal Church.

Now there are at least three feasts of the Heart of Mary, all with different Offices:

that of Rome, observed in many places on the Sunday after the Octave of

the Assumption and in others on the third Sunday after Pentecost or in

the beginning of July;

that of Pere Eudes celebrated among the Eudists and in a number of

communities on 8 February; and

that of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, solemnized a little before Lent.

However, no feast has as yet been granted to the entire Church.

JEAN BAINVEL

Transcribed by William G. Bilton, Ph.D.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII

Nihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org