The present article lays no claim to giving a full explanation of the Church's teaching on the Sacred Heart. Rather, it is a study of how our Founder lived his devotion to the Sacred Heart; what this devotion meant to him and what significance it had for the Oblates. Pope Paul VI noted that Eugene de Mazenod was "an individual passionately devoted to Jesus Christ". Consequently, we should consider his devotion to the Sacred Heart as one aspect of his devotion to the person of Jesus. For the rest we should refer to the basic article on Jesus Christ in this Dictionary.

Eugene de Mazenod's devotion to the Sacred Heart

There is no document extant from Eugene's childhood to tell us how he was introduced to devotion to the Sacred Heart. On the other hand, we know that this devotion found an important place in his life under the influence of Don Bartolo Zinelli in Venice. With regard to the spiritual exercises suggested by his spiritual mentor, we read the following: "I will unite my insignificant acts of adoration with those of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, of the Angels and the Saints... I will respectfully kiss my crucifix in the area of the Wounded Heart" (we will return to the theme of this intimate gesture later on). Father Magy, who became his confidant when he was discerning his vocation, was involved in leading a group of pious individuals in Marseilles which was a center for devotion to and apostolate of the Sacred Heart. [1]

At the Seminary of Saint Sulpice, under the influence of the French School of spirituality, his devotion to the Sacred Heart deepened. Pierre de Bérulle stressed what he called the "interior" Jesus, that is, the most profound attitudes and sentiments of Christ. As a result, Eugene de Mazenod learned to enter into the depth of the mysteries of Jesus to find in the heart of Jesus the intimate life of the man-God in its entirety.

From the beginning of his ministry he revived devotion to the Sacred Heart, a devotion that was very much alive in Aix in pre-Revolutionary days. Indeed, in 1721, in the wake of the plague that had ravaged Marseilles, the Archbishop of Aix, following the example of Bishop de Belzunce, decreed that the feast of the Sacred Heart would be celebrated in the diocese the first Friday following the Octave of the Blessed Sacrament. Before this, Father Timothée de Raynier, a member of the Congregation of the Minimes of Aix, had published in 1662, L'homme intérieur ou l'idée du parfait chrétien, in which he wrote: "What happiness to be united to Jesus Christ in his Sacred Heart which was ever united to God, not only by the hypostatic union, but also by the union of the acts of his love". [2] Consequently, it was a long-standing tradition in Eugene de Mazenod's native city, a tradition to which Eugene had an affinity and into which he infused new life.

In 1819, the Pious Union of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was set up in Aix in the Oblate church known as "of the Mission". [3] In 1822, Father de Mazenod published a pamphlet under the title Exercice à l'honneur du Sacré-Coeur qui se fait par les agrégés tous les premiers vendredis de chaque mois dans l'église du Sacré-Coeur, dite de la Mission, à Aix. It is in the Oblate chapel as well that the annual feast of the Sacred Heart is celebrated each year. The celebrations consisted of a solemn High Mass and a procession through the Cours to the mission cross. After Father de Mazenod's departure for Marseilles, the Oblates maintained this tradition - as we can see from reports given in the Codex of the house and in the local press. For example, there was a long article published in the June 9, 1853 issue of La Provence, describing the solemn Mass celebrated by the Archbishop, the procession following the traditional route with participation by the civil authorities and the military. Meanwhile in Marseilles, Father de Mazenod remained spiritually united to the ceremonies celebrated at Aix in honor of the Sacred Heart. So it was that in a letter to Father Hippolyte Courtès he expressed his regret at not having received a detailed report about the feast of the Sacred Heart: "On that day, I was with you in spirit, and twenty times, I would even say a hundred times, I uttered some pious exclamation in your direction [...]" [4]

A perusal of the letters he wrote after his departure from Aix in 1823 yields only a few references to the Sacred Heart, but they are significant. For example, in a letter to Father Henry Tempier he spoke approvingly of an initiative seeking favors through the intercession of Marguerite Mary Alacoque, the servant of God: "The Jesuits [...] are bringing to the tomb of the Lord's servant two of their desperately ill members in the hope they will be cured. I would wish this with all my heart for the sake of the most holy devotion to the Sacred Heart". [5] Writing to Father Tempier, who was in Rome at the time, he described the ceremonies in honor of the Sacred Heart at Marseilles: "You know how things went here but you could never get any idea from the papers of the beauty, emotion and divine quality of our celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart [...] It was a magnificent evening". [6] Even if he hardly mentions it in his letters, Father de Mazenod left his Oblates the example of a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart as these few words from Father Joseph Gérard bear witness: "I have just learnt that your Lordship has fallen seriously ill [...] We remember with edification your great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and we are going to appeal to this Sacred Heart with the most ardent confidence". [7]

[1] See BERNAD, Marcel, "Mgr de Mazenod - sa dévotion au Sacré Coeur", in Missions, 62 (1928), p. 13-23.
[2] Quoted by BREMOND, Henry, in Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France, vol. III, "La conquête mystique, l'Ecole française", Paris, Bloud and Gay, 1921, p. 661.
[3] Codex historique de la maison d'Aix, p. 25.
[4] Letter to Father Hippolyte Courtès, June 24, 1825 in Oblate Writings I, vol. 6, no. 187, p. 177.
[5] Letter to Father Tempier, July 26, 1830 in Oblate Writings I, vol. 7, no. 349, p. 201.
[6] Letter to Father Tempier, July 9, 1832 in Oblate Writings I, vol. 8, no. 427, p. 65.
[7] Letter from Father Joseph Gerard to Bishop de Mazenod, April 12, 1861 in Blessed Joseph Gerard, O.M.I., Apostle to the Basotho (1831-1914) Letters to the Superiors General and other Oblates, Oblate Writings II, vol. 4, no. 5, p. 39.