Divine Champions

Chapter 6 Divine Champions

More than four decades after the Jesuit Joseph de Gallifet was miraculously cured and devoted himself to the Heart, writing De cultu in 1726, the Jesuit novice Nicholas Celestini became gravely ill in 1766. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568–1591), a recently canonized Jesuit saint, came to Celestini in a vision and promised him he would survive if he devoted his life to promoting the cult of the Sacred Heart—not unlike Joseph de Gallifet’s experience decades earlier. Celestini agreed and was cured.1 Printed sources claim Gonzaga said to the novice: “The Lord grants you your life in order that you may apply yourself to the pursuit of perfect virtue, and that during your life, you endeavor to propagate devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is most pleasing to Heaven.”2 Numerous devotional books began to recount the Celestini episode, and artists portrayed such curative episodes as visual proclamations of the benefits of Sacred Heart devotion. These words and images became proof that Christ’s Heart warranted greater recognition. Only one year earlier, in 1765, a Feast and Mass honoring the Heart had been officially granted. The Celestini event added yet further fodder to supporters’ desire to extend the devotion universally. These two moments, Gallifet’s and Celestini’s miraculous cures, had enor- mous power for the Sacred Heart cult and its supporters, even if ultimately Pope Benedict XIV rejected the establishment of an official Feast, Mass, and Office for the universal Church. The miraculous healing episodes surround- ing Gallifet and Celestini offered certain lessons to devotees: to begin, Christ’s Heart protects people from sickness and can act miraculously in other respects, and secondly, saints and visionary experiences proved the cult’s legitimacy. As has been discussed, the Jesuits would also retain a crucial role in supporting the devotion. Gallifet’s De cultu, other accounts of Celestini’s vision, and visual images all helped to spread the cult around the Catholic world and increase public knowledge about the role of Jesuits in Sacred Heart devotion. A large body of texts published in New Spain in the earliest years of the cult’s popularity paired saints, especially Jesuit saints, with the Sacred Heart.

1 Charles G. Herbermann, Edward A. Pace, Condé B. Pallen, Thomas J. Shahan, and John J. Wynne, eds. The Catholic Encyclopedia, 17 vols. (New York: Encyclopedia, 1907–1993 [1909]), 6:366. 2 Croiset, Devotion to the Sacred Heart, 137. Later editions of Croiset’s book included the events involving Celestini.

For instance, Juan Antonio de Mora’s Devoto culto recounts some of the most well-known holy men and women whose lives had been impacted by the Heart. Alacoque, Gertrude, Teresa, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventure: they are but a few of the individuals Mora discusses. Theologians in other Catholic areas, however, typically did not make these pairings until somewhat later.3 Similar to the pairings made in texts, Mexican images also frequently dis- play saints in the company of the Heart. Some visualize moments in miraculous narratives, such as Miguel Cabrera’s depiction of Gonzaga curing Celestini (Fig. 67), or depict Christ revealing his Heart to Alacoque, such as a series found in Mexico City’s Museo del Carmen.4 More commonly however, artists included a sacra conversazione, or holy gathering, of saints in the company of the Sacred Heart to convey their support of the cult and their experience of the organ as a theophany. As discussed in Chapter 3, Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz’s pendant paintings from 1759 portray various saints flanking the Hearts of Christ and Mary, incorporating individuals who experienced visions of this holy matter (Figs. 2, 5, 34–35). While many of them are Jesuits or Jesuit- supported saints, others are important universal holy figures or significant members of the Church. In the painting of Christ’s Heart, fifteen figures frame the composition in decorative roundels or kneel on clouds below the organ. God floats above, his right hand raised to signal his revelation of his son’s Heart to viewers. In the top medallions, the sixteenth-century Franciscan Peter of Alcántara (1499–1562) sits opposite the sixteenth-century Oratorian Philip Neri (1515–1595). Four sixteenth-century Jesuits—Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier (1506–1552), Aloysius Gonzaga, and Stanislaus Kostka (1550–1568)—occupy the middle registers, while Bishop Augustine (354–430 CE) is opposite Bishop François de Sales. The Virgin Mary, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene, all standing on a cloud below, gaze mournfully at the Heart. Beneath them, a Cistercian friar and a Franciscan friar, likely Bernard of Clairvaux and Francis of Assisi, accompany a woman dressed in white (a purified soul); they, too, look at the Heart. Morlete Ruiz’s painting is but one example that figures the Heart amidst a holy gathering, among them Jesuit saints. Other examples focus even more narrowly on a bevy of holy Jesuits. For instance, a painting (c. 1760) by José Berruecos from the church of San Ildefonso in Puebla shows Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Aloysius Gonzaga, Stanislaus Kostka, Francis Borgia, the Jesuit

3 Seydl, “Sacred Heart of Jesus,” 174. For the sake of simplicity, “Jesuit saints” includes canonized Jesuits as well as Jesuit-supported saints, such as John Nepomuk. 4 Images in the Museo del Carmen can be accessed at and at .