Coeur Sacré de Jésus
Anonymous; French
ca. 1880
chromolithograph
47.8 x 35 cm
credit: Author’s collection

WHAT SHE SAW

After 1500 years of episodic evolution, the iconography of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the late 17th century began to assume the form by which it is most commonly known today. As seen in this very popular, and still currently available, 19th century lithograph by an anonymous French artist, this form of the Sacred Heart is based on the visions the French Visitandine nun Marguerite-Marie Alacoque reported seeing in July 1675.

The divine heart was represented to me as a throne all of fire with flames radiating their light.…It appeared more brilliant than the sun, and transparent like crystal. The wound which he received on the cross appeared clearly. There was a crown of thorns around the Sacred Heart and it was surmounted by a cross.

Like everything in this World, and the iconography of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is in this World, even though visions by saints are purported not to be, how the Sacred Heart is rendered continues to evolve. The Sacred Heart that the Polish Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy nun Faustina Kowalska saw in her visions of the early 1930s is very different than the one seen here. In this World, life forms evolve or they go extinct. So it is with the Sacred Heart of Jesus if it is to remain an animate symbol that speaks “de corde tuo, ad cor tuum,” about your heart, to your heart.

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