Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is offering specialized guided tours for deaf and blind visitors, giving immersive and sensory experiences to make the sacred site more accessible.

The Deaf and Blind Tour Initiative, which began holding tours in April, includes American Sign Language (ASL)-interpreted guides for those who are deaf and tactile stations for those who are blind, allowing participants to engage with statues, mosaics, and sacred art through touch and sight. 

These tours mark the first of their kind in the U.S., Monsignor Vito Buonanno, the director of pilgrimages for the shrine, told CNA.

The project idea was created by volunteer docent Marilyn Lasecki, ASL interpreter Katy Betker, and with the support of Monsignor Walter Rossi, the rector of the shrine.

Inspired by Vatican accessibility

The root of the idea took shape in 2021 when Lasecki decided to launch the project in honor of her late father, Leonard, who worked with deaf people when he was alive. In her research, she discovered that the Vatican Museums are recognized for their accommodations for deaf and blind visitors. Motivated by that model, the basilica’s staff began planning their own adaptation.

In March, Dee Steel, the director of the basilica’s Office of Visitor Services, traveled to Rome and met with the Vatican’s tour director to study their tactile systems firsthand.

“Both the Deaf and Blind communities are greatly underserved by museums and church communities,” Lasecki told CNA. “The Vatican Museums are at the top of the list for welcoming both the deaf and the blind, with specialized tours.” 

For deaf visitors, volunteer docents work alongside Betker to guide groups through the church. To improve accessibility, Betker helped adapt the docents’ scripts to better suit ASL grammar.

“There is not a word-for-word translation. It’s because they are two very different languages,” Betker said. Tour guides “have to not only change [the] word order around [but also] change a lot of the way that they speak and with their script for the tours.”

She also advised docents on subtle adjustments that enhance communication, like waiting for a deaf participant to finish observing a site before continuing with spoken commentary.

Steel recounted one docent’s realization during a tour: “When somebody is signing what you say, you have to make sure the people are looking at the signer.”

During one of the first tours, Father Michael Depcik — a deaf priest and chaplain from the Archdiocese of Baltimore — concelebrated Mass at the basilica. Depcik emphasized that having direct communication in ASL allowed deaf Catholics to fully experience the liturgy.

“Usually, they would go through an interpreter, but it’s not the same,” the priest told CNA. “The Deaf are finally able to connect directly for the full immersion into the experience with these assets.”

He also highlighted the importance of the sensory experience. “The Deaf are very visual,” he said. 

When asked about smells like incense, Depcik told CNA: “It’s like music for the eyes — the smells and the art, it’s all a very important part of the experience of the Deaf.”

The basilica also created tactile experiences for blind visitors with the help of Father Mike Joly, a blind priest from St. Joan of Arc Parish in Yorktown, Virginia. 

The tour for the blind features 15 hands-on stations, including the Founder’s Chapel, the Our Mother of Africa statue, and the Our Lady of Pompei Chapel.

This tour starts with a scale model of the basilica built from over 10,000 Lego bricks by artist John Davisson. It will be on display on the crypt level to help visitors visualize the structure’s layout and the scale of the building. 

Buonanno described Joly’s visit to the Founder’s Chapel. Staff removed ropes so he could explore the marble sarcophagus of Bishop Thomas Shahan by touch.

“[Joly] realized — he was blind at 7 years old, so he had seven years of seeing — but he never knew the feel of a miter, that it’s two sides,” Buonanno said.

In the Our Mother of Africa chapel, there are faces of the four Evangelists that people can touch as well as the statue of the Blessed Mother and the Christ Child. 

Joly helped staff reinterpret sacred artwork. “We always thought of Jesus as pointing toward another piece of artwork, but [Joly] felt the finger and said, ‘Jesus is giving a blessing,” Steel recalled.

“[Joly] saw more with his hands than we saw with our eyes,” Steel commented.

The priest “taught us things… that is the beautiful interaction with this,” Buonanno added. 

With the tours now underway, the basilica hopes to raise awareness and expand participation.

The facility wants to “expand [the initiative], make it more known,” Buonanno said. “It’s just so that more people can know that it exists.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is offering specialized guided tours for deaf and blind visitors, giving immersive and sensory experiences to make the sacred site more accessible.

The Deaf and Blind Tour Initiative, which began holding tours in April, includes American Sign Language (ASL)-interpreted guides for those who are deaf and tactile stations for those who are blind, allowing participants to engage with statues, mosaics, and sacred art through touch and sight. 

These tours mark the first of their kind in the U.S., Monsignor Vito Buonanno, the director of pilgrimages for the shrine, told CNA.

The project idea was created by volunteer docent Marilyn Lasecki, ASL interpreter Katy Betker, and with the support of Monsignor Walter Rossi, the rector of the shrine.

Inspired by Vatican accessibility

The root of the idea took shape in 2021 when Lasecki decided to launch the project in honor of her late father, Leonard, who worked with deaf people when he was alive. In her research, she discovered that the Vatican Museums are recognized for their accommodations for deaf and blind visitors. Motivated by that model, the basilica’s staff began planning their own adaptation.

In March, Dee Steel, the director of the basilica’s Office of Visitor Services, traveled to Rome and met with the Vatican’s tour director to study their tactile systems firsthand.

“Both the Deaf and Blind communities are greatly underserved by museums and church communities,” Lasecki told CNA. “The Vatican Museums are at the top of the list for welcoming both the deaf and the blind, with specialized tours.” 

For deaf visitors, volunteer docents work alongside Betker to guide groups through the church. To improve accessibility, Betker helped adapt the docents’ scripts to better suit ASL grammar.

“There is not a word-for-word translation. It’s because they are two very different languages,” Betker said. Tour guides “have to not only change [the] word order around [but also] change a lot of the way that they speak and with their script for the tours.”

She also advised docents on subtle adjustments that enhance communication, like waiting for a deaf participant to finish observing a site before continuing with spoken commentary.

Steel recounted one docent’s realization during a tour: “When somebody is signing what you say, you have to make sure the people are looking at the signer.”

During one of the first tours, Father Michael Depcik — a deaf priest and chaplain from the Archdiocese of Baltimore — concelebrated Mass at the basilica. Depcik emphasized that having direct communication in ASL allowed deaf Catholics to fully experience the liturgy.

“Usually, they would go through an interpreter, but it’s not the same,” the priest told CNA. “The Deaf are finally able to connect directly for the full immersion into the experience with these assets.”

He also highlighted the importance of the sensory experience. “The Deaf are very visual,” he said. 

When asked about smells like incense, Depcik told CNA: “It’s like music for the eyes — the smells and the art, it’s all a very important part of the experience of the Deaf.”

The basilica also created tactile experiences for blind visitors with the help of Father Mike Joly, a blind priest from St. Joan of Arc Parish in Yorktown, Virginia. 

The tour for the blind features 15 hands-on stations, including the Founder’s Chapel, the Our Mother of Africa statue, and the Our Lady of Pompei Chapel.

This tour starts with a scale model of the basilica built from over 10,000 Lego bricks by artist John Davisson. It will be on display on the crypt level to help visitors visualize the structure’s layout and the scale of the building. 

Buonanno described Joly’s visit to the Founder’s Chapel. Staff removed ropes so he could explore the marble sarcophagus of Bishop Thomas Shahan by touch.

“[Joly] realized — he was blind at 7 years old, so he had seven years of seeing — but he never knew the feel of a miter, that it’s two sides,” Buonanno said.

In the Our Mother of Africa chapel, there are faces of the four Evangelists that people can touch as well as the statue of the Blessed Mother and the Christ Child. 

Joly helped staff reinterpret sacred artwork. “We always thought of Jesus as pointing toward another piece of artwork, but [Joly] felt the finger and said, ‘Jesus is giving a blessing,” Steel recalled.

“[Joly] saw more with his hands than we saw with our eyes,” Steel commented.

The priest “taught us things… that is the beautiful interaction with this,” Buonanno added. 

With the tours now underway, the basilica hopes to raise awareness and expand participation.

The facility wants to “expand [the initiative], make it more known,” Buonanno said. “It’s just so that more people can know that it exists.”

Vatican City, Jun 27, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday will bless and bestow the “pallium” — a white woolen vestment symbolizing pastoral authority and unity with the pope — on 48 new metropolitan archbishops, including eight from the United States, in a return to a custom changed by Pope Francis in 2015.

Leo will impose the pallia at a Mass for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29.

The U.S. archbishops who will be in Rome to receive the pallium on June 29 are Richard Henning of Boston, Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee, Joe Steve Vásquez of Galveston-Houston, Edward Weisenburger of Detroit, Robert Casey of Cincinnati, Michael McGovern of Omaha, W. Shawn McKnight of Kansas City in Kansas, and Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington.

Archbishop Ryan Pagente Jimenez of Agaña, Guam (a U.S. territory), is also expected to be imposed with the pallium.

The pallium is a narrow, circular band of white wool with pendants hanging down the front and the back. It is adorned with six small black crosses and three pins (called spinulae), which resemble both thorns and the nails used to crucify Jesus.

It is bestowed on the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem and metropolitan archbishops — the diocesan archbishop of the primary city of an ecclesiastical province or region — as a symbol of communion, authority, and unity with the pope and his pastoral mission to be a shepherd for the people of God. The pope also wears the pallium over his chasuble when he is celebrating Mass.

Until Pope Francis changed the policy in 2015, it had been the custom for centuries for the pope to impose the pallium on the shoulders of each new metropolitan archbishop created in the past year.

Ten years ago, Pope Francis opted to only bless the pallia and then give them to each of the new archbishops to be vested by the apostolic nuncio in their own archdiocese as a sign of the archbishop’s relationship with the local Church.

According to the master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Pope Leo will be both blessing and personally imposing the pallia on the archbishops.

Before the vestments are bestowed on the metropolitan archbishops, they are placed for a time in a spot near the tomb of St. Peter, under the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, to reinforce the bishop’s connection to Peter through apostolic succession.

The tradition of the pope giving a pallium to select bishops began as early as the sixth century, though some historians believe a cloak-like version of pallium existed and was worn by Christians in the first century. By the ninth century, all metropolitan bishops were expected to wear the pallium in their territory.

Another tradition tied to the pallia and believed to date back in various forms to the sixth century is the blessing of the lambs from which the woolen stole, or at least a part of it, is made.

For centuries, every year on Jan. 21, the feast of St. Agnes, two young lambs were brought to the Basilica of St. Agnes to be blessed by the pope. They would then be entrusted to the Benedictine nuns of the Basilica of St. Cecilia to be sheared and their wool woven into the new pallia. While today the pallia are still created from lamb’s wool, the papal blessing of the lambs was discontinued by Pope Francis a few years into his pontificate.

At Pope Benedict XVI’s inaugural Mass on April 24, 2005, he explained the symbolism of the pallium and the lamb’s wool as “meant to represent the lost, the sick, or weak sheep which the shepherd places on his shoulders to carry to the waters of life.”

Vatican City, Jun 27, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday will bless and bestow the “pallium” — a white woolen vestment symbolizing pastoral authority and unity with the pope — on 48 new metropolitan archbishops, including eight from the United States, in a return to a custom changed by Pope Francis in 2015.

Leo will impose the pallia at a Mass for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29.

The U.S. archbishops who will be in Rome to receive the pallium on June 29 are Richard Henning of Boston, Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee, Joe Steve Vásquez of Galveston-Houston, Edward Weisenburger of Detroit, Robert Casey of Cincinnati, Michael McGovern of Omaha, W. Shawn McKnight of Kansas City in Kansas, and Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington.

Archbishop Ryan Pagente Jimenez of Agaña, Guam (a U.S. territory), is also expected to be imposed with the pallium.

The pallium is a narrow, circular band of white wool with pendants hanging down the front and the back. It is adorned with six small black crosses and three pins (called spinulae), which resemble both thorns and the nails used to crucify Jesus.

It is bestowed on the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem and metropolitan archbishops — the diocesan archbishop of the primary city of an ecclesiastical province or region — as a symbol of communion, authority, and unity with the pope and his pastoral mission to be a shepherd for the people of God. The pope also wears the pallium over his chasuble when he is celebrating Mass.

Until Pope Francis changed the policy in 2015, it had been the custom for centuries for the pope to impose the pallium on the shoulders of each new metropolitan archbishop created in the past year.

Ten years ago, Pope Francis opted to only bless the pallia and then give them to each of the new archbishops to be vested by the apostolic nuncio in their own archdiocese as a sign of the archbishop’s relationship with the local Church.

According to the master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Pope Leo will be both blessing and personally imposing the pallia on the archbishops.

Before the vestments are bestowed on the metropolitan archbishops, they are placed for a time in a spot near the tomb of St. Peter, under the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, to reinforce the bishop’s connection to Peter through apostolic succession.

The tradition of the pope giving a pallium to select bishops began as early as the sixth century, though some historians believe a cloak-like version of pallium existed and was worn by Christians in the first century. By the ninth century, all metropolitan bishops were expected to wear the pallium in their territory.

Another tradition tied to the pallia and believed to date back in various forms to the sixth century is the blessing of the lambs from which the woolen stole, or at least a part of it, is made.

For centuries, every year on Jan. 21, the feast of St. Agnes, two young lambs were brought to the Basilica of St. Agnes to be blessed by the pope. They would then be entrusted to the Benedictine nuns of the Basilica of St. Cecilia to be sheared and their wool woven into the new pallia. While today the pallia are still created from lamb’s wool, the papal blessing of the lambs was discontinued by Pope Francis a few years into his pontificate.

At Pope Benedict XVI’s inaugural Mass on April 24, 2005, he explained the symbolism of the pallium and the lamb’s wool as “meant to represent the lost, the sick, or weak sheep which the shepherd places on his shoulders to carry to the waters of life.”

Rome Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis’ 2024 encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus is packed with testimonies from the saints of prayer and devotion to the heart of Christ throughout the centuries.

Dilexit Nos, meaning “He Loved Us,” describes how devotion to the heart of Christ “reappears in the spiritual journey of many saints” and how in each one the devotion takes on new hues. The most frequently quoted saints in the encyclical are St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Francis de Sales, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. John Paul II, but more than two dozen saints are quoted in all.

The encyclical explains how the Church Fathers’ descriptions of the wounded side of Christ as the wellspring of the life of grace later began to be associated with his heart, especially in monastic life.

It adds that “devotion to the heart of Christ slowly passed beyond the walls of the monasteries to enrich the spirituality of saintly teachers, preachers, and founders of religious congregations, who then spread it to the farthest reaches of the earth.”

Here are 20 saints devoted to the Sacred Heart found in Dilexit Nos:

St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622)

St. Francis de Sales was deeply moved by Jesus’ words “Learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29). He writes in the “Introduction to the Devout Life” that the ordinary trials of life — such as “the tiresome peculiarities of a husband or wife” or a headache or toothache — when accepted lovingly, “are most pleasing to God’s goodness.” In his letters, Francis wrote about Christ’s open heart, seeing it as an invitation to dwell within and trust completely in God’s grace, describing it as “a heart on which all our names are written.”

“Surely it is a source of profound consolation to know that we are loved so deeply by Our Lord, who constantly carries us in his heart,” he said in a Lenten homily on Feb. 20, 1622.

St. John Henry Newman (1801–1890)

St. John Henry Newman chose “Cor ad cor loquitur” (“Heart speaks to heart”) as his motto, a phrase drawn from a letter by St. Francis de Sales. He experienced Christ’s Sacred Heart most powerfully in the Eucharist, where he sensed Jesus’ heart “beat[ing] for us still” and prayed: “O make my heart beat with thy heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in thy love and thy fear it may have peace.”

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690)

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is perhaps the saint most associated with the Sacred Heart of Jesus because of a series of apparitions of Christ in Paray-le-Monial, France. In the first message Alacoque received, she described how the Lord “asked for my heart, which I asked him to take, which he did and then placed myself in his own adorable heart, from which he made me see mine like a little atom consumed in the fiery furnace of his own.” In subsequent messages, “he revealed to me the ineffable wonders of his pure love and to what extremes it had led him to love mankind” and how “his pure love, with which he loves men to the utmost” is met with “only ingratitude and indifference.”

Alacoque wrote in one of her letters: “It is necessary that the divine heart of Jesus in some way replace our own; that he alone live and work in us and for us; that his will … work absolutely and without any resistance on our part; and finally that its affections, thoughts, and desires take the place of our own, especially his love, so that he is loved in himself and for our sakes. And so, this lovable heart being our all in all, we can say with St. Paul that we no longer live our own lives, but it is he who lives within us.”

St. Claude de La Colombière (1641–1682)

St. Claude de La Colombière was a French Jesuit priest and confessor of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. He helped develop devotion to the Sacred Heart, combining the experiences of St. Margaret Mary with the contemplative approach of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Claude meditated on the attitude of Christ toward those who sought to arrest and put him to death: “His heart is full of bitter sorrow; every violent passion is unleashed against him and all nature is in turmoil, yet amid all this confusion, all these temptations, his heart remains firmly directed to God.”

St. Gertrude of Helfta (1256–1302)

St. Gertrude of Helfta, a Cistercian mystic, writes of a time in prayer in which she leaned her head on the heart of Christ and heard his heart beating. She reflected that the “sweet sound of those heartbeats has been reserved for modern times, so that hearing them, our aging and lukewarm world may be renewed in the love of God.”

St. Mechtilde of Hackeborn (1241–1298)

St. Mechtilde, another Cistercian mystic, shared St. Gertrude’s intimate devotion to the heart of Jesus. The encyclical lists her as among “a number of holy women, [who] in recounting their experiences of encounter with Christ, have spoken of resting in the heart of the Lord as the source of life and interior peace.”

St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660)

St. Vincent de Paul emphasized that “God asks primarily for our heart,” teaching that the poor can have more merit by giving with “greater love” than those with wealth who can give more. He urged his confreres to “find in the heart of Our Lord a word of consolation for the poor sick person.” The constitutions of his congregation underline that “by gentleness we inherit the earth. If we act on this, we will win people over so that they will turn to the Lord. That will not happen if we treat people harshly or sharply.” For him, embodying the “heart of the Son of God” meant going everywhere in mission and bringing the warmth of Christ’s love to the suffering and poor.

St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380)

St. Catherine of Siena wrote that the Lord’s sufferings are impossible for us to comprehend, but the open heart of Christ enables us to have a lively personal encounter with his boundless love. Catherine’s “Dialogue on Divine Providence” records a conversation she had with God in which he said to her: “I wished to reveal to you the secret of my heart, allowing you to see it open, so that you can understand that I have loved you so much more than I could have proved to you by the suffering that I once endured.”

St. John Paul II (1920–2005)

St. John Paul II described Christ’s heart as “the Holy Spirit’s masterpiece” and saw it as foundational for building a “civilization of love.” In a general audience in the first year of his papacy, John Paul II spoke about “the mystery of the heart of Christ” and shared that “it has spoken to me ever since my youth.” Throughout his pontificate, he taught that “the Savior’s heart invites us to return to the Father’s love, which is the source of every authentic love.”

“The men and women of the third millennium need the heart of Christ in order to know God and to know themselves; they need it to build the civilization of love,” John Paul II said in 1994.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)

St. Bernard preached on the importance of loving Jesus with “the full and deep affection of all your heart.” He described Christ’s pierced side as a revelation of the outpouring of the Lord’s love from his compassionate heart. In the year 1072, he preached: “Those who crucified him pierced his hands and feet … A lance passed through his soul even to the region of his heart. No longer is he unable to take pity on my weakness. The wounds inflicted on his body have disclosed to us the secrets of his heart; they enable us to contemplate the great mystery of his compassion.”

St. Bonaventure (1221–1274)

St. Bonaventure presents the heart of Christ as the source of the sacraments and of grace. In his treatise “Lignum Vitae,” Bonaventure wrote that in the blood and water flowing from the wounded side of Christ, the price of our salvation flows “from the hidden wellspring of his heart, enabling the Church’s sacraments to confer the life of grace and thus to be, for those who live in Christ, like a cup filled from the living fount springing up to life eternal.”

St. John Eudes (1601–1680)

St. John Eudes wrote the propers for the Mass of the Sacred Heart and was an ardent proponent of the devotion. Dilexit Nos describes how St. John Eudes convinced the bishop of the Rennes Diocese in France to approve the celebration of the feast of the “Adorable Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” the first time that such a feast was officially authorized in the Church. The following year, five more bishops in France authorized the celebration of the feast in their dioceses.

St. Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916)

St. Charles de Foucauld made it his mission to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus, adopting an image of the cross planted in the heart of Christ as his emblem. He consecrated himself to Christ’s heart, believing that he must “embrace all men and women” like the heart of Jesus. He made a promise in 1906 to “let the heart of Jesus live in me, so that it is no longer I who live, but the heart of Jesus that lives in me, as he lived in Nazareth.”

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that the phrase “heart of Christ” can refer to sacred Scripture, “which makes known his heart.” The encyclical quotes St. Thomas Aquinas’ theological exposition of the Gospel of St. John in which he wrote that whenever someone “hastens to share various gifts of grace received from God, living water flows from his heart.”

St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897)

St. Thérèse of Lisieux felt an intimate bond with Jesus’ heart. At age 15, she could speak of Jesus as the one “whose heart beats in unison with my own.” One of her sisters took as her religious name “Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart,” and the monastery that Thérèse entered was dedicated to the Sacred Heart. She wrote in a letter to a priest: “Ever since I have been given the grace to understand also the love of the heart of Jesus, I admit that it has expelled all fear from my heart. The remembrance of my faults humbles me, draws me never to depend on my strength, which is only weakness, but this remembrance speaks to me of mercy and love even more.”

St. John of the Cross (1542–1591)

St. John of the Cross viewed the image of Christ’s pierced side as an invitation to full union with the Lord. In his poetry, he portrayed Christ as a wounded stag, comforted by the soul that turns to him. John sought to explain that in mystical experience, the infinite love of the risen Christ “condescends” to enable us, through the open heart of Christ, to experience an encounter of truly reciprocal love. 

St. Ambrose (340–397)

The encyclical repeatedly quotes St. Ambrose, who offered a reflection on Jesus as the source of “living water.” He wrote: “Drink of Christ, for he is the rock that pours forth a flood of water. Drink of Christ, for he is the source of life. Drink of Christ, for he is the river whose streams gladden the city of God. Drink of Christ, for he is our peace. Drink of Christ, for from his side flows living water.”

St. Augustine (354–430)

St. Augustine “opened the way to devotion to the Sacred Heart as the locus of our personal encounter with the Lord,” according to Dilexit Nos. “For Augustine, Christ’s wounded side is not only the source of grace and the sacraments but also the symbol of our intimate union with Christ, the setting of an encounter of love.” In his “Tractates on the Gospel of John,” Augustine reflects on how when John, the beloved disciple, reclined on Jesus’ bosom at the Last Supper, he drew near to the secret place of wisdom.

St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556)

In his “Spiritual Exercises,” St. Ignatius encourages retreatants to contemplate the wounded side of the crucified Lord to enter into the heart of Christ. Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, which has promoted devotion to Jesus’ divine heart for more than a century. The society was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1871.

St. Daniel Comboni (1831–1881)

St. Daniel Comboni saw the heart of Jesus as the source of strength for his missionary work in Africa. He founded the Sons of the Sacred Heart Jesus, which today are known as the Comboni Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as well as the Comboni Missionary Sisters. The saintly missionary once said: “This divine heart, which let itself be pierced by an enemy’s lance in order to pour forth through that sacred wound the sacraments by which the Church was formed, has never ceased to love.”

This article was first published on Nov. 1, 2024, and has been updated.

Rome Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis’ 2024 encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus is packed with testimonies from the saints of prayer and devotion to the heart of Christ throughout the centuries.

Dilexit Nos, meaning “He Loved Us,” describes how devotion to the heart of Christ “reappears in the spiritual journey of many saints” and how in each one the devotion takes on new hues. The most frequently quoted saints in the encyclical are St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Francis de Sales, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. John Paul II, but more than two dozen saints are quoted in all.

The encyclical explains how the Church Fathers’ descriptions of the wounded side of Christ as the wellspring of the life of grace later began to be associated with his heart, especially in monastic life.

It adds that “devotion to the heart of Christ slowly passed beyond the walls of the monasteries to enrich the spirituality of saintly teachers, preachers, and founders of religious congregations, who then spread it to the farthest reaches of the earth.”

Here are 20 saints devoted to the Sacred Heart found in Dilexit Nos:

St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622)

St. Francis de Sales was deeply moved by Jesus’ words “Learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29). He writes in the “Introduction to the Devout Life” that the ordinary trials of life — such as “the tiresome peculiarities of a husband or wife” or a headache or toothache — when accepted lovingly, “are most pleasing to God’s goodness.” In his letters, Francis wrote about Christ’s open heart, seeing it as an invitation to dwell within and trust completely in God’s grace, describing it as “a heart on which all our names are written.”

“Surely it is a source of profound consolation to know that we are loved so deeply by Our Lord, who constantly carries us in his heart,” he said in a Lenten homily on Feb. 20, 1622.

St. John Henry Newman (1801–1890)

St. John Henry Newman chose “Cor ad cor loquitur” (“Heart speaks to heart”) as his motto, a phrase drawn from a letter by St. Francis de Sales. He experienced Christ’s Sacred Heart most powerfully in the Eucharist, where he sensed Jesus’ heart “beat[ing] for us still” and prayed: “O make my heart beat with thy heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in thy love and thy fear it may have peace.”

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690)

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is perhaps the saint most associated with the Sacred Heart of Jesus because of a series of apparitions of Christ in Paray-le-Monial, France. In the first message Alacoque received, she described how the Lord “asked for my heart, which I asked him to take, which he did and then placed myself in his own adorable heart, from which he made me see mine like a little atom consumed in the fiery furnace of his own.” In subsequent messages, “he revealed to me the ineffable wonders of his pure love and to what extremes it had led him to love mankind” and how “his pure love, with which he loves men to the utmost” is met with “only ingratitude and indifference.”

Alacoque wrote in one of her letters: “It is necessary that the divine heart of Jesus in some way replace our own; that he alone live and work in us and for us; that his will … work absolutely and without any resistance on our part; and finally that its affections, thoughts, and desires take the place of our own, especially his love, so that he is loved in himself and for our sakes. And so, this lovable heart being our all in all, we can say with St. Paul that we no longer live our own lives, but it is he who lives within us.”

St. Claude de La Colombière (1641–1682)

St. Claude de La Colombière was a French Jesuit priest and confessor of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. He helped develop devotion to the Sacred Heart, combining the experiences of St. Margaret Mary with the contemplative approach of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Claude meditated on the attitude of Christ toward those who sought to arrest and put him to death: “His heart is full of bitter sorrow; every violent passion is unleashed against him and all nature is in turmoil, yet amid all this confusion, all these temptations, his heart remains firmly directed to God.”

St. Gertrude of Helfta (1256–1302)

St. Gertrude of Helfta, a Cistercian mystic, writes of a time in prayer in which she leaned her head on the heart of Christ and heard his heart beating. She reflected that the “sweet sound of those heartbeats has been reserved for modern times, so that hearing them, our aging and lukewarm world may be renewed in the love of God.”

St. Mechtilde of Hackeborn (1241–1298)

St. Mechtilde, another Cistercian mystic, shared St. Gertrude’s intimate devotion to the heart of Jesus. The encyclical lists her as among “a number of holy women, [who] in recounting their experiences of encounter with Christ, have spoken of resting in the heart of the Lord as the source of life and interior peace.”

St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660)

St. Vincent de Paul emphasized that “God asks primarily for our heart,” teaching that the poor can have more merit by giving with “greater love” than those with wealth who can give more. He urged his confreres to “find in the heart of Our Lord a word of consolation for the poor sick person.” The constitutions of his congregation underline that “by gentleness we inherit the earth. If we act on this, we will win people over so that they will turn to the Lord. That will not happen if we treat people harshly or sharply.” For him, embodying the “heart of the Son of God” meant going everywhere in mission and bringing the warmth of Christ’s love to the suffering and poor.

St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380)

St. Catherine of Siena wrote that the Lord’s sufferings are impossible for us to comprehend, but the open heart of Christ enables us to have a lively personal encounter with his boundless love. Catherine’s “Dialogue on Divine Providence” records a conversation she had with God in which he said to her: “I wished to reveal to you the secret of my heart, allowing you to see it open, so that you can understand that I have loved you so much more than I could have proved to you by the suffering that I once endured.”

St. John Paul II (1920–2005)

St. John Paul II described Christ’s heart as “the Holy Spirit’s masterpiece” and saw it as foundational for building a “civilization of love.” In a general audience in the first year of his papacy, John Paul II spoke about “the mystery of the heart of Christ” and shared that “it has spoken to me ever since my youth.” Throughout his pontificate, he taught that “the Savior’s heart invites us to return to the Father’s love, which is the source of every authentic love.”

“The men and women of the third millennium need the heart of Christ in order to know God and to know themselves; they need it to build the civilization of love,” John Paul II said in 1994.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)

St. Bernard preached on the importance of loving Jesus with “the full and deep affection of all your heart.” He described Christ’s pierced side as a revelation of the outpouring of the Lord’s love from his compassionate heart. In the year 1072, he preached: “Those who crucified him pierced his hands and feet … A lance passed through his soul even to the region of his heart. No longer is he unable to take pity on my weakness. The wounds inflicted on his body have disclosed to us the secrets of his heart; they enable us to contemplate the great mystery of his compassion.”

St. Bonaventure (1221–1274)

St. Bonaventure presents the heart of Christ as the source of the sacraments and of grace. In his treatise “Lignum Vitae,” Bonaventure wrote that in the blood and water flowing from the wounded side of Christ, the price of our salvation flows “from the hidden wellspring of his heart, enabling the Church’s sacraments to confer the life of grace and thus to be, for those who live in Christ, like a cup filled from the living fount springing up to life eternal.”

St. John Eudes (1601–1680)

St. John Eudes wrote the propers for the Mass of the Sacred Heart and was an ardent proponent of the devotion. Dilexit Nos describes how St. John Eudes convinced the bishop of the Rennes Diocese in France to approve the celebration of the feast of the “Adorable Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” the first time that such a feast was officially authorized in the Church. The following year, five more bishops in France authorized the celebration of the feast in their dioceses.

St. Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916)

St. Charles de Foucauld made it his mission to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus, adopting an image of the cross planted in the heart of Christ as his emblem. He consecrated himself to Christ’s heart, believing that he must “embrace all men and women” like the heart of Jesus. He made a promise in 1906 to “let the heart of Jesus live in me, so that it is no longer I who live, but the heart of Jesus that lives in me, as he lived in Nazareth.”

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that the phrase “heart of Christ” can refer to sacred Scripture, “which makes known his heart.” The encyclical quotes St. Thomas Aquinas’ theological exposition of the Gospel of St. John in which he wrote that whenever someone “hastens to share various gifts of grace received from God, living water flows from his heart.”

St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897)

St. Thérèse of Lisieux felt an intimate bond with Jesus’ heart. At age 15, she could speak of Jesus as the one “whose heart beats in unison with my own.” One of her sisters took as her religious name “Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart,” and the monastery that Thérèse entered was dedicated to the Sacred Heart. She wrote in a letter to a priest: “Ever since I have been given the grace to understand also the love of the heart of Jesus, I admit that it has expelled all fear from my heart. The remembrance of my faults humbles me, draws me never to depend on my strength, which is only weakness, but this remembrance speaks to me of mercy and love even more.”

St. John of the Cross (1542–1591)

St. John of the Cross viewed the image of Christ’s pierced side as an invitation to full union with the Lord. In his poetry, he portrayed Christ as a wounded stag, comforted by the soul that turns to him. John sought to explain that in mystical experience, the infinite love of the risen Christ “condescends” to enable us, through the open heart of Christ, to experience an encounter of truly reciprocal love. 

St. Ambrose (340–397)

The encyclical repeatedly quotes St. Ambrose, who offered a reflection on Jesus as the source of “living water.” He wrote: “Drink of Christ, for he is the rock that pours forth a flood of water. Drink of Christ, for he is the source of life. Drink of Christ, for he is the river whose streams gladden the city of God. Drink of Christ, for he is our peace. Drink of Christ, for from his side flows living water.”

St. Augustine (354–430)

St. Augustine “opened the way to devotion to the Sacred Heart as the locus of our personal encounter with the Lord,” according to Dilexit Nos. “For Augustine, Christ’s wounded side is not only the source of grace and the sacraments but also the symbol of our intimate union with Christ, the setting of an encounter of love.” In his “Tractates on the Gospel of John,” Augustine reflects on how when John, the beloved disciple, reclined on Jesus’ bosom at the Last Supper, he drew near to the secret place of wisdom.

St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556)

In his “Spiritual Exercises,” St. Ignatius encourages retreatants to contemplate the wounded side of the crucified Lord to enter into the heart of Christ. Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, which has promoted devotion to Jesus’ divine heart for more than a century. The society was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1871.

St. Daniel Comboni (1831–1881)

St. Daniel Comboni saw the heart of Jesus as the source of strength for his missionary work in Africa. He founded the Sons of the Sacred Heart Jesus, which today are known as the Comboni Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as well as the Comboni Missionary Sisters. The saintly missionary once said: “This divine heart, which let itself be pierced by an enemy’s lance in order to pour forth through that sacred wound the sacraments by which the Church was formed, has never ceased to love.”

This article was first published on Nov. 1, 2024, and has been updated.

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