JESUIT APOSTLE OF THE SACRED HEART

This week we celebrate the great feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Here is a saint, new to me,  who dedicated his life to fostering this devotion.

BL. BERNARDO FRANCISCO de HOYOS was born in Torrelobatón, in the province of Valladolid in Spain in 1711. He studied in the Jesuit school in Medina del Campo and entered the Jesuits in 1726. He studied theology in Valladolid at the Jesuit College of Saint Ambrose. This was a decisive turning point in his life.

On August 10, 1729, the Savior, covered with His Precious Blood, appeared to Bernardo, and showing him the wound in His Side, said, “Rejected by humanity, I come to find my consolation with chosen souls.” Bernardo’s experience closely resembles that of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque fifty-three years earlier in the Visitation Monastery of Paray-le-Monial in France.

Jesus told him on May 4th, 1733: "I wish for you to spread the devotion to My Sacred Heart throughout all of Spain." From then on, Bernardo did not live for anything else. On May 14th of the same year, he received what is known as the "Great Promise" from the Sacred Heart of Jesus: "This will always be my place of rest. I will make my home here—the place where I have desired and chosen to be. I will reign in Spain with more veneration than in other places."

"I had great confidence in my prayers and petitions, depending on the intercession of the Heart of Jesus; at present I have no doubt about obtaining whatsoever I ask, if it is for the greater glory of God. I am convinced that at the altar the Eternal Father can refuse me nothing."

The Vision

Bl. Bernardo formed a group of devoted collaborators to communicate the essence of the devotion to the Sacred Heart to others. Bl. Bernardo himself would distribute prayer cards and leaflets and founded many confraternities and associations in honor of the Sacred Heart. His book, “The Hidden Treasure”, was the first book published in Spain on the Sacred Heart. But the best way he spread this devotion was through his own holiness, piety, and personal witness to the love of Christ.

On January 2, 1735, Bernardo was ordained a priest, but within the year, on November 29, he died after contracting typhus. He was beatified in Valladolid 18 April 2010. He is considered  the “First Apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” in Spain.