The Sacred Heart of Jesus: The Visual Evolution of a Devotion by David Morgan ISBN 9789048503391, 9048503396 instant download

The Sacred Heart of Jesus: The Visual Evolution of a Devotion by David Morgan ISBN 9789048503391, 9048503396 instant download

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been controversial from its beginning in the life of the French Visitationist nun Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), who established the devotion after a series of mystical visions of Christ. 
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Jesuit spiritual directors during her lifetime and devoted Jesuit fathers thereafter made the Sacred Heart a focus of theological interest and dedication. The Jesuits understood the devotion to endorse ultramontanism while Royalists in France saw the devotion’s relevance to the Restoration and to underscoring the unique mission of the French nation. Under the leadership of Sister Sophie Barat, founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1800, the devotion was taken around the world in the course of the nineteenth century. 
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Wherever it went, the devotion took the shape of an evolving visual culture. Even during Alacoque’s lifetime, imagery was a fundamental part of practicing the devotion. The visual record of iconography and visual practice thereafter registers the development of the devotion. This essay traces the unfolding visual biography of the Sacred Heart, showing how imagery and visual practice document the history of the devotion and the remarkable range of its evolution.