The Sacred
Heart of Jesus is today one of the most recognizable symbols of the
Catholic faith. The image originated in France near the end of the seventeenth
century when a nun named Marguerite Marie Alacoque (Often anglicized to Mary-Margaret)
began to publicize her mystical visions of Jesus, who admonished her to devote
herself and the country to the veneration of his heart, which she described
the heart as the center of communication between humans and the Divine. St.
Mary-Margaret's vision, of a heart entwined with thorns and flames, sprouting
a cross from the top, was drawn from the visions of earlier mystics, and possibly
from alchemical imagery common at the time.
A few decades after
the Saint's death, the the bishop of Marseille, Monseigneur de Belsunce, consecrated
his diocese to the Sacred Heart in an effort to spare the region from plague.
The plague passed over Marseille, and the symbol became very popular, associated
with acts of charity and piety and used as a charm against plague. Today, to
devote oneself to veneration of the Sacred Heart is to in effect make the heart
of Christ one's own- to create within oneself the love and compassion of Christ-
in essence, to be Christ-like.
The
Sacred Heart as originally envisioned by Sister Mary-Margaret
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