Sacred Heart
Formal references to this devotion began to first appear in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. However, the most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the form it is known today was Visitandine Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690), who claimed to have received visions of Jesus and Mary and that Jesus had permitted her to rest her head on his Heart. There is nothing to indicate that she had known the devotion prior to then, or at least that she had paid any attention to it.
After the requesting letters of Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart (1863–1899), on 11 June 1899, Pope Leo XIII solemnly consecrated all mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Feast of the Sacred Heart is now a holy day in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Sacred Heart has been closely associated with Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ. In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor Pope Pius XI stated: "the spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus".
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholic Devotions To Jesus Christ
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