126th Anniversary of the Consecration of the World to the Sacred Heart

Background to the 1899 Consecration

Following the “Great Apparition” at Paray-le-Monial on June 21, 1675, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and Blessed Claude de la Colombière consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. They were soon imitated by many, both individuals and members of various confraternities. As early as 1683, St. Margaret Mary sought the consecration of France to the Sacred Heart by King Louis XIV, though her request went unfulfilled. However, in 1792, while imprisoned, Louis XVI composed the famous Vow of Consecration to the Sacred Heart, which would go on to inspire a renewal of this devotion in 19th-century France.

In 1796, the people of Tyrol formed a kind of alliance with the Heart of Jesus, placing themselves under His protection to resist the ideological currents then sweeping through Europe. Poland and Hungary soon followed. These were still the humble beginnings of what would grow into a universal affirmation of the Savior’s reign of love over humanity.

In 1844, the Apostolate of Prayer was founded in France, uniting its members with the Sacred Heart of Jesus under the motto Adveniat Regnum Tuum ("Thy Kingdom Come"). Its director, Fr. Henri Ramière, S.J., a noted theologian, began in 1863 to promote, through articles in Messenger of the Heart of Jesus, the idea of the Sacred Heart’s social kingship over families, parishes, dioceses, and states. In 1868, the bishops of Belgium consecrated their nation to the Sacred Heart.

During the First Vatican Council in 1870, many bishops urged Pope Pius IX to consecrate the Church to the Sacred Heart. Their appeal was directed toward the Church, not yet the whole of humanity. The Council's interruption by war paused this initiative. Nevertheless, in 1873, the Irish episcopate consecrated Ireland, and Ecuador—under the leadership of President Gabriel García Moreno—became the first nation officially declared a “Republic of the Sacred Heart.”

In 1874, at Fr. Ramière’s urging, Bishop Deprez of Toulouse appealed to bishops worldwide to renew the 1870 petitions. In April 1875, Fr. Ramière presented a petition signed by 525 bishops to Pope Pius IX. While the Pope did not implement the proposal in its original form, he authorized bishops worldwide to carry it out, as decreed by the Sacred Congregation of Rites on April 22, 1875. An official Act of Consecration was approved and scheduled for June 16, 1875, the bicentennial of the Great Apparition. The Pope himself would perform the act in Rome—though not in the grandeur of the Vatican Basilica, due to ongoing political difficulties.

As Fr. Ramière noted, since the consecration text originated from the Pope and was meant to be joined with the offerings of the faithful, it became no longer merely a personal act but an expression of the universal Church. This first act of consecration bore the character of an amende honorable, typical of Sacred Heart devotion: it named the offenses to be repaired, stated the purposes of the act, and emphasized the sanctification of holy days.

In 1880, the Society of the Social Reign of Jesus Christ was founded in Paray-le-Monial. It later spread to Italy, Spain, and Portugal under the name Society of Eucharistic Feasts, with the goal of offering social reparation to the Eucharistic Savior. On April 10, 1888, Pope Leo XIII formally approved the society’s activities. On June 28, 1889, he elevated the feast of the Sacred Heart to the rank of a first-class feast.

Immediate Preparation and Realization by Leo XIII (1899)

The role of Mother Marie of the Divine Heart, born Droste zu Vischering (1863–1899), Superior of the Good Shepherd Convent in Porto, was pivotal in hastening the consecration of the human race—originally planned by Leo XIII for the Holy Year 1900. The Sacred Heart's communications to this heroic, bedridden nun in 1897 and 1898, though not the decisive factor in the papal act—as the Pope clarified to Cardinal Mazzella, prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites—did influence its earlier execution, particularly as a gesture of thanksgiving following a grave illness.

On April 2, 1899, a decree Urbi et Orbi from the Sacred Congregation of Rites authorized the public use of the Litany of the Sacred Heart. Among the reasons cited was the Pope’s intention to consecrate the entire world to the Sacred Heart. The decree also prescribed the recitation of these litanies during a preparatory triduum.

On May 25, 1899, the encyclical Annum Sacrum officially announced and mandated the consecration for June 11—moved to that Sunday for the celebration of the feast of the Sacred Heart. The encyclical defended the legitimacy of the act based on three principles: the innate rights of the Incarnate Word as heir of all things; His acquired rights through the Redemption; and the voluntary offering of humanity.

Why consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart? Pope Leo XIII answered: “Because it is the symbol and visible image of the infinite charity of Jesus Christ, which itself calls for our love in return.” To consecrate oneself to the Sacred Heart is to give and bind oneself to Jesus Christ—for all devotion to the Divine Heart ultimately pertains to Christ Himself.

For the first time, the consecration extended not only to the Church but to the entire human race. The Pope anticipated abundant spiritual fruits for individuals, nations, and the Church. Just as the Cross once appeared to Constantine to herald the Church’s victory, so now, the Pope wrote, a new divine sign is offered in our time: the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, crowned with a cross and shining amid flames. In this Heart, Leo XIII declared, “must all our hopes be placed. From Him we must seek and expect the salvation of humanity.”