Sacred heart In the Writings of the Saints

In the Writings of the Saints

     Chief among the saints of the Catholic Church who fostered
     devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are St.
     Bonaventure and St. John Eudes.

     St. Bonaventure, a Cardinal and Doctor of the Roman Catholic
     Church, was a learned theologian and bishop of the Franciscan
     Order in the 13th Century. He wrote extensive theological works and
     is considered by the Papal Magisterium to be one of the two
     primary Doctors of the Catholic Church since the patristic era.
     St. Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican priest and contemporary of St.
     Bonaventure, is the other.

     St. Bonaventure's writings on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the
     Immaculate Heart of Mary are scatter throughout all his works,
     but a passage on the Sacred Heart that is particularly poignant
     is found in his devotional work The Mystical Vine, a description
     of the Passion of Jesus Christ. This passage is found in the
     Liturgy of the Hours for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart in
     June.

     St. John Eudes (1601-1680), however, is the founder of the modern
     public devotion to the Two Hearts. It was his mission to organize
     the scriptural, theological, patristic, and liturgical sources
     relating to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and to popularize
     them with the approbation of the Church. His chief writings on
     this topic were: The Admirable Childhood of the Most Holy Mother
     of God, The Admirable Heart of the Mother of God, the Life and
     Kingdom of Jesus, The Sacred Heart of Jesus, The Admirable Heart
     of Mary. Included among his works was a mass and office for the
     Sacred Heart of Jesus, and one for the Admirable Heart of Mary.
     He was the first to dedicate churches in the world to the Sacred
     Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

     St. Albert the Great, St. Gertrude, St. Catherine of Siena, Bl.
     Henry of Suso, St. Peter Canisius, and St. Francis of Sales also
     did much to propagate and promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of
     Jesus; and Eckbert of Schonau, who wrote the first extant prayer
     to the Heart of Mary, St. Mechtild of Hackeborn, St. Gertrude the
     Great, St. Bernard, St. Herman Joseph, St. Bridget of Sweden, St.
     Bernadine of Siena and St. Francis de Sales also did much to
     promote devotion to the Heart of Mary.

     In the Nineteenth Century the Abbe Desgenettes consecrated his
     parish church, the Notre Dame des Victoires, in Paris, to the
     Immaculate Heart of Mary and founded the Archconfraternity in Her
     honor. Later Father William Chaminade, founder of the Society of
     Mary, as well as St. Anthony Mary Claret, the founder of the
     Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, did much to promote
     devotion to Mary's Heart.