Missionaries of the Sacred

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. The history of the title “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart” is intimately connected with our MSC history. When our founder, Fr. Jules Chevalier was serving as a curate to a parish in Issoudun, France, he began planning to found a society whose mission it would be to address the evils of the time by bringing God’s compassionate and merciful love to all people. On November 30, 1854, he and a fellow priest at the parish, Fr. Maugenest, began a novena to ask for Our Lady’s light and help, and Fr. Chevalier promised Our Lady that he would venerate her in a special way. On December 8, 1854, the last day of the Novena and the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Fr. Chevalier received a gift from an anonymous benefactor and the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart was founded.  Fr. Chevalier fulfilled his promise to Mary, honoring her with the title: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

We hope you will celebrate this feast with us and join us in this special devotion to Our Lady. You might like to start by saying the Prayer to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. We also have two documents available for download: the booklet 150 Years of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, which looks at nine aspects of Mary’s life, and the paper “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and Mary on Screen”, which looks at different representations of Mary in films and movies. We also invite you to visit the online Shrine to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart to share your prayer intentions and to spend a few minutes in prayer for the intentions of others.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, pray for us!