The apparitions of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus are a continuation and development of :
- the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to Saint Gertrude: Jesus shows his Heart full of love, and full of joy
- the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to Saint Marguerite-Marie at Paray-le-Monial: here, Jesus shows his Heart, and expresses his sadness that so few love him in return: « Here is this Heart that has so loved mankind … And, in gratitude, I receive from most of them nothing but ingratitude for their irreverence and sacrileges, and for the contempt and coldness they have for me in this Sacrament of Love. And what is even more sensitive to me is that it is hearts consecrated to me that use them in this way… ».
These apparitions of the Sacred Heart were themselves preceded, accompanied and followed by the work of preparing souls through the writings of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and so many other authors who have written down the centuries about the Savior’s Heart…
They mark a new stage, a new degree of intimacy offered to those who hear this call. The following chronology is set against this background:
1854: Apparitions of the Eucharistic Heart to Sophie Prouvier (1817 – 1891), in the chapel of the Besançon hospital:
- « It’s not that I lost consciousness, no, I could hear what was happening around me, and in spite of this I was immersed in the contemplation of Our Lord, whom I saw distressed by the lack of love shown to him by souls favored by his gifts and admitted to frequent communion. « They surround me and do not console me! « This divine Heart poured out its complaints, with an expression of kindness and deep sorrow, something ineffably sweet in its infinite desolation: « My Heart asks for love as a poor man asks for bread ». « Is your heart right with my Heart as mine is with yours?
However, Sophie hesitated: « Only one thing bothered me, and that was the name Eucharistic Heart. I would have liked it to be Sacred Heart. It seemed to me to be a peculiarity, and I didn’t dare speak of it because of that« . On September 1, 1854, Christ told him more clearly: « This is my Eucharistic Heart, make it known, make it loved« .
Thanks to the support of St. Pierre-Julien Eymard (1811 – 1868) and Father Hermann Cohen (18121, 1871), parish priest of Notre-Dame des Victoires, the devotion to the Eucharistic Heart spread rapidly.
1879: on November 13, Cardinal Guibert, Archbishop of Paris, erects the first diocesan Confraternity of the Eucharistic Heart: « Devotion to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus contains and unites within itself devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Sacred Heart, with the intention of honoring by special worship the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the act of love with which he gave the Eucharist and perpetuated through it his adorable presence among us. »[1]
1879: on December 28th, Pope Leo XIII approved the devotion to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
1891: decree of the Holy Office: « The devotion to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus is no more perfect than devotion to the Eucharist itself, and no different from devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus »[2].
1903: Leo XIII established the Pontifical Church of St. Joachim in Rome (San Gioacchino ai Prati di Castello) as the general center of the Archconfraternity of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
1916: On February 16, the feast of St. Joachim, Pope Benedict XV addressed representatives of the Association of Priests of the Eucharistic Heart, declaring: « This devotion, the most excellent, should be especially that of priests.«
1921: Pope Benedict XV instituted the feast of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus on November 9. It is fixed for the Thursday following the feast of the Sacred Heart.
[1] Cardinal Guibert, November 13, 1879, in Le Cœur du Christ pour un monde nouveau – Actes du congrès de Paray-le-Monial 13 au 15 octobre 1995, Paris, Ed. de l’Emmanuel, 1998.
[2] Decree of the Holy Office, extract, June 3, 1891.