The Saints Speak on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary


By Jean M. Heimann

Today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which takes place on the Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost. We love our Blessed Mother deeply, but devotion to her Immaculate Heart represents a very special form of devotion to her. Our attention is drawn to the physical heart itself. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains this devotion in the following way: "The human heart of Mary suggests, all of which it is the expressive symbol and the living reminder: Mary's interior life, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for her God, her maternal love for her Divine Son, and her motherly and compassionate love for her sinful and miserable children here below."


The History

Historically, regular devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary can be traced back to the twelfth century in the writings of St. Anselm and St. Bernard of Claivaux. St. Bernardine of Siena also promoted this devotion in the fifteenth century. St. John Eudes and his followers began celebrating the feast of the Pure Heart of Mary on February 8, 1643 -- two decades before the liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was celebrated. In the nineteenth century, Popes Pius VII and Pius IX permitted several churches to celebrate the feast of the Pure Heart of Mary. The apparitions at Fatima in 1917 emphasized the devotion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as Refuge of Sinners. Mary requested that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. In response to this request, Pope Pius XII, consecrated the world to our Blessed Mother (1942) and established the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the whole Church, so as to obtain by her intercession "peace among nations, freedom for the Church, the conversion of sinners, the love of purity and the practice of virtue" (Decree of May 4, 1944).


The Saints Speak about Mary's Immaculate Heart:


Blessed Teresa of Calcutta :

"The feast of the Immaculate heart of Mary, cause of our joy, is drawing near. Our preparation for the great day should be that of deep, humble gratitude to God. Let us ask two special graces from Our Lady: The grace of perseverance in our beautiful vocation, and delicate love for God’s poor. The greatness of Our Lady was in her humility. No wonder Jesus wanted to live so close to her. We learn from him and from her one lesson: To be meek and humble of heart."

“Mary my Mother, give me your heart so beautiful, so pure, so Immaculate, so full of love and humility, that I may be able to receive Jesus.”

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque:

"The most efficacious way to have devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is through the Immaculate Heart of Mary."


St. Claude de la Colombiere:

"I turn to Mary and ask her to obtain for me the grace to imitate Our Lord’s Heart. I saw how perfectly her Heart copied His."

St. Louis de Montfort:

"If you put all the love of all the mothers into one heart it still would not equal the love of the Heart of Mary for her children."


St. Anthony Mary Claret:

“A son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a man who is consumed with love and who sets on fire everything in his path. He is a man who unceasingly expends himself to light the fire of divine love in the world. Nothing stops him; he places his joy in privations, he undertakes all works for the glory of God; he embraces willingly every sacrifice, he is happy in the midst of calumnies; he exults in torments. He can think of but one thing — working, suffering, and seeking at all times the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls, to imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Venerable Father Francis Liberman :

"You do not know what a treasure the Holy Heart of Mary is. Jesus Christ has placed in it so great a fullness of grace and favors that they would be sufficient to satisfy not merely the whole world but a hundred thousand worlds and much more."

St. John Eudes:

"Jesus lives in her (Mary) soul and body...His Heart abides in Her heart, His Soul in Her soul ... His virtues, mysteries, and divine attributes are loving in Her heart..."

"Although the heart of Jesus is distinct from that of Mary, and infinitely surpasses it in excellence and holiness, nevertheless, God has so closely united these two hearts, that we may say with truth, that they are but one heart."
St. Francis of Assisi:

“Immaculate Heart of Mary, cause of our joy, pray for us.”

Related: Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
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