He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known.
She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since His.
-St. Bernard of Clairvaux
What is the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY is a symbol which expresses the interior life of Mary and her role in Salvation history. Her purity along with her great sorrow is illustrated in the crown of roses and the sword which are traditionally included in depictions of her Heart. Like the Sacred Heart, it is also consumed with flames, to represent her perfect charity and desire to fulfill the will of God. St. Augustine declared that, through charity, the heart of Mary participated in the Redemptive work of her Son Jesus. To this day, Mary’s motherly heart continues to go out to us “poor banished children of Eve” as she guides souls to receive the mercy of God.
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is very closely tied to veneration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is why in the Enthronement Scroll the consecration to the Immaculate Heart directly follows the Enthronement prayer.
History of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
ST. BERNARD CLAIRVAUX was an early promoter for devotion toward the Heart of Mary. He writes in one of his sermons on the Assumption of Mary “Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the passion of Mary’s Son? For if He could die in body, could she not die with Him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since His.”
Until the seventeenth century, the Heart of Mary had been the subject of private meditation but had not become propagated officially by the Church. St. John Eudes was the first to do so when he spread the devotion in several dioceses and petitioned for a feast day to be held for the Heart of Mary.
The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception
EVEN THOUGH THE VENERATION of the Heart of Mary grew and spread alongside the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus promoted by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, it was not until 1805 that it was given its own formal feast day.
In 1854, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was established as dogma, thus solidifying what had already been believed traditionally, that Mary’s interior life was free of all sin. The immaculate state of her Heart allows her to respond to her vocation as Mother of all which Jesus entrusted her at the point of His Death.
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He said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then He said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”
-John 19:26
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Marian Apparitions and Modern Developments
IN 1830, ST. CATHERINE LABOURE received an apparition of the Blessed Virgin which was to help develop widespread devotion towards the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Mary declares herself “The Immaculate Conception” and requests that medals be stamped bearing her image along with the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts. This devotion spread quickly and helped spread love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Roman Catholic Church.
Another Marian apparition which helped to further this devotion took place in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children. Her message was one of conversion and she requested for the Five First Saturdays devotion be made in reparation for the blasphemies and offenses made against her Heart. Mary spoke to Lucia, one of the children saying, “God wishes to use you to make me known and loved, to establish throughout the world, devotion to my Immaculate Heart. To all those who embrace it, I promise salvation, and their souls will be loved by God as flowers placed by me before His throne.”
Many recent popes have made the effort to promote the veneration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary including Pius XII, St. Paul VI, St. John Paul II, and Francis.