The Admirable Heart of Mary, Saint John Eudes and devotion to the Heart of Mary
Saint John Eudes: the apostle of the Sacred Hearts
Saint John Eudes (1601-1680), a priest of the Oratory and founder of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (Eudists), is the principal promoter of the liturgical devotion to the Heart of Mary and to the Heart of Jesus. His fundamental work, “The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God” (Le Cœur admirable de la Très Sacrée Mère de Dieu, 1680-1681), in twelve volumes, is the most complete theological systematization of devotion to the Heart of Mary published up to the nineteenth century. John Eudes was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1925 by Pius XI.
The “Heart of Mary” in the Scriptures
The biblical foundation of devotion to the Heart of Mary is found especially in Luke 2:19 and 2:51: “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19, 51). The Greek verb synterein, “to keep together, to preserve,” indicates an active process of meditation and integration. The biblical “heart” (kardia) is not only the organ of the emotions, but the center of the person: intelligence, will, memory, and affection. Mary keeps the mysteries of the Son in her heart because she is, par excellence, the disciple who listens to and meditates on the Word.
The theological structure of “The Admirable Heart”
In his work John Eudes develops a theology of the Marian heart in four dimensions: (1) the carnal heart of Mary, the first heart that loved Jesus in the flesh. (2) The spiritual heart, Mary’s will and love directed toward God. (3) The divine heart, a participation in divine love through the gift of the fullness of grace. (4) The glorious heart, the heart transfigured in the Assumption. This fourfold structure influenced the whole spirituality of the Heart of Mary, including the Secrets of Fatima, where Our Lady asks for consecration to her Immaculate Heart (1917).
The Immaculate Heart of Mary, from John Eudes to Fatima
John Eudes was the first to celebrate the feast of the Heart of Mary liturgically (1648). The devotion received renewed impetus when Pius VII (1799) authorized the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for certain dioceses, and Pius XII extended it to the universal Church in 1944, fixing it on August 22. At Fatima (1917), Our Lady asked: “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” The consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was carried out by John Paul II in 1984.
The Heart of Mary and the Heart of Jesus
John Eudes always understood the Heart of Mary in intimate relation to the Heart of Jesus: “One love, one heart, one spirit, one soul of Jesus and Mary” (The Admirable Heart, Book XII). The Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 2679 confirms: “Mary is the most perfect and direct way to Christ.” The joint devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary is one of the characteristic traits of Catholic spirituality from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, with roots in John Eudes and ramifications in Fatima, among the Eudists, the Jesuits, and the Salesians.
Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Our Lady of Fatima, consecration to Our Lady and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.
Postgraduate Program in Mariology
Would you like to deepen your formation in Mariology? Discover the Postgraduate Program in Mariology of Locus Mariologicus: an academic formation that unites theological rigor, spiritual life, and the living tradition of the Church.
Would you like to study Mariology seriously?
This article grows out of the works in the Locus Mariologicus library. The Postgraduate Program in Mariology takes you to the same source, with academic guidance: Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, and the Magisterium, from the first dogma to contemporary questions.
Responses