From the Desk of The Tarheel Disciple June 23, 2025
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On the day after the celebration of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, this year, next Saturday, June 28, the Church gives us the (optional) memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Though explicit reference to the Immaculate Heart of Mary can be seen as early as the seventh century in the writings of St. Ildefonso of Toledo (607-670), it was only in 1805 that Pope Pius VII allowed a liturgical feast day under this title.
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart grew immensely in the wake of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Catherine Labouré and the propagation of the Miraculous Medal in 1830. A Mass and Office (Liturgy of the Hours) were finally approved by the Holy See in 1855, under the title of the Most Pure Heart of Mary. But it was only in 1944 that Pope Pius XII extended the feast to the whole church, placing it on August 22, the octave day of the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15). Pope St. Paul VI subsequently moved the feast of the Immaculate Heart to the Saturday immediately following the Sacred Heart of Jesus and replaced it with a memorial of the Queenship of Mary, which had previously been observed on May 31.
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Devotion to the Heart of Mary was advanced by several saints, including Saints Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux, Gertrude, Bernardine of Siena, Francis de Sales, and John Eudes, and by several religious orders, such as the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (Eudists), Sulpicians, and the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Claretians), who, beginning in 1877, promoted the use of the "Scapular of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
The reported Marian apparitions at Fatima in 1917 also did much to encourage the devotion, on a world-wide scale. One of the three “shepherd children” of Fatima, Sister Lucia dos Santos, also reported subsequent apparitions of the Virgin to her in 1925 and 1926, which gave rise to the practice of the “Five First Saturdays,” during which days, in each successive month, the faithful would go to confession, receive Holy Communion, pray the rosary and spend time in meditation on the mysteries of the rosary in reparation for sins committed against her Immaculate Heart.
Beginning with Pope Pius XII, the whole world had been consecrated several times, notably in 1944 (Pius XII), 1964 (Pope St. Paul VI), 1982 and 2000 (Pope St. John Paul II), and in 2013 (Pope Francis). (We leave aside for the purposes of this little column the controverted question regarding the consecration of Russia, as called for in the original Fatima messages). Many nations have also been consecrated individually to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, including the United States, in 1959 (and renewed by the US bishops in 2006).
Unfortunately, since the commemoration of the Immaculate Heart in the current liturgical calendar only has the rank of an optional memorial and is moveable (because of the changing date of Easter), its liturgical observance can sometimes be impeded by a feast of higher rank on the calendar (e.g., the Nativity of St. John the Baptist [June 24], the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul [June 29], and others).
However, this magnificent Marian devotion can be renewed daily in the heart of any believer! Mary’s Immaculate Heart will always be united to her Son and His Sacred Heart for those who ask for her intercession.
