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June Devotions and the Polish Cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The importance of this cult for millions of Poles is evident in the popularity of images of the Sacred Heart, created using various artistic techniques. These images have been a staple of every Polish home for centuries. Another popular Polish religious practice after May is the daily devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June, which remind us of His mercy.
Before becoming Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyła wrote in a 1965 pastoral letter that Poland was the second homeland of the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, encouraging his compatriots to practise it. The 17th-century revelations in France were crucial for the development of this devotion, but it was the Poles who gave it a new impetus at various points throughout history.
Even before Jesus appeared to St Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun from the convent of Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, on 27 December 1673 and twice in the following year, pointing to His wounded but loving heart, the Polish Jesuit mystic and preacher Father Kasper Drużbicki initiated the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, becoming the precursor of the cult of the Heart of Christ in Europe.
Prayers to Him by another French Visitation nun, Anne Madeleine Rémuzat, during the plague in Marseille in 1720, led to the creation of the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Initially, it had twenty-six invocations, then seven were added to correspond to the number of years Christ lived among people.
The next step in the spread of the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was taken by Polish bishops. In 1764, the year of Stanisław August Poniatowski’s coronation, amid the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s challenging political climate, which would culminate in the First Partition eight years later, they penned a memorandum to Pope Clement XIII, requesting the establishment of a feast dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Holy Father granted their request. This new holiday was granted to Poland, the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome and the Congregation of the Visitation Sisters. However, it was not until 1856 that Pope Pius IX extended the feast to the entire Catholic Church. On the last day of 1899, Pope Leo XIII entrusted the community of the faithful and the entire human race to the care of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
During the partitions, Poles found comfort and strength in their devotion to the Heart of Jesus, which was filled with love for those in need. Enlightened priests, including Primate Mieczysław Ledóchowski and Bishop Józef Pelczar, guided this spiritual relationship. Primate Ledóchowski did not give in to the Prussian Kulturkampf. He refused to allow the abolition of the Polish language in religious education, instead entrusting the dioceses of Poznań and Gniezno to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. For this, he was imprisoned. In 1894, Bishop Pelczar founded the Congregation of the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Kraków. Popularly known as the Sercanki, their main tasks included teaching and education. A patriotic brotherhood of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was also established in Lublin, the second largest city in the Austrian partition after Kraków. This religious organisation survived for several decades until the Austrians, fearing its influence on Polish youth, decided to dissolve it.
Shortly after regaining independence, faced with the spectre of another enslavement of Poland and fearing a Bolshevik invasion of Europe, Polish bishops led by Primate Edmund Dalbor gathered at Jasna Góra on 27 July 1920. A few days before the Miracle on the Vistula, they entrusted their homeland to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Less than a year later, on 3 June 1921, after the victory over Soviet Russia, they entrusted Poland to the care of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Small Market Square in Kraków.
On 28 October 1951, they again asked for His power for their compatriots who had experienced the yoke of communism. On that day, the main service to renew the entrustment of Poland to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was held at Jasna Góra by Primate Stefan Wyszyński. Holy Masses were also celebrated in all churches in Poland with the same intention. This act has been renewed three more times in recent decades: in 1975, 2011 and 2021.
John Paul II was a great advocate of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Francis dedicated one of his final encyclicals to Him – 'Dilexit Nos’ (’He Loved Us’) was published in October 2024.
The popularity of images of the Heart of Christ, created using various artistic techniques by both professional and amateur artists, is testament to the importance of the cult for millions of Poles. Mass-produced images of Jesus with His Heart, surrounded by a crown of thorns and emanating rays, or of the Heart alone with its attributes, could be bought at hundreds of church fairs throughout Poland in the last century. These images were usually hung in homes next to an image of the Sacred Heart of Mary.
Thanks to the work of Adolf Hyła, a student of Jacek Malczewski, the most famous image of the Merciful Jesus was established in Poland before World War II. Hyła painted the Heart of Jesus thirty-seven times. These paintings found their way to Jesuit institutions such as the retreat house in Częstochowa and the Jesuit College in Kraków. Several parishes in southern Poland have paintings of the Sacred Heart by Antoni Szopa, a student of Jan Matejko.
The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated on the Friday after Corpus Christi. This feast day reminds us of God’s love for humanity and motivates us to fight against sin, reflect, and renew ourselves spiritually. Devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, also known as 'June Devotions’, build on the 'May Devotions’ dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The latter emphasises the natural bond between mothers and children, as well as the need to care for the vulnerable and those in difficult situations. These devotions are still practised in Poland. John Paul II said that the Heart of Jesus ‘unites love for God with love for one’s neighbour.’
Karolina Prewęcka
Source: DlaPolonii.pl
