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The Immaculate Heart of Mary refers to Mary’s interior heart, which remained sinless and devoted to God despite the challenges and sorrows she encountered on earth.

Pope Paul VI called it “the model of perfect love toward God and toward our fellow beings.”

The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is not even technically a feast but rather a memorial that takes place immediately following the Feast of the Sacred Heart, a devotion to which the Immaculate Heart is closely associated.

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart is a very old tradition inside the Church, and is intertwined with other key moments in the Church’s history, such as the appearances of Mary at Fatima.

Learn all about the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the prayers associated with it and why it’s such an important part of the faith lives of so many. It all begins with references, both overt and more subtle, to Mary’s heart in Scripture.

Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Bible

No explicit references to the concept of the Immaculate Heart of Mary exist in the Old Testament, though popes and early church fathers point to Song of Songs (sometimes called “Canticle of Canticles”) as clear references to Mary.

One alone is my dove, my perfect one, her mother’s special one, favorite of the one who bore her. Daughters see her and call her happy, queens and concubines, and they praise her: “Who is this that comes forth like the dawn, beautiful as the white moon, pure as the blazing sun, fearsome as celestial visions?”

Song of Songs 6:9-10

According to the book Beholding Beauty: Mary and the Song of Songs, “Medieval commentators regarded Mary as the fulfillment of the figure of the bridge throughout the entire Song of Songs.”

The New Testament, specifically the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel, mentions Mary’s heart specifically.

“All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. 19 And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” (Luke 2: 18-19)

“He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:51)

St. John Eudes and the Immaculate Heart

While devotional practices existed in the centuries before him, from the likes of St. Francis de Sales and others, a 17th century French priest St. John Eudes was a major proponent of the devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart who helped make it the recognizable feast it is today.

John F. Murphy calls Eudes “the most ardent advocate” of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

He worked to locally to gain recognition for the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and later, Pope Clement X issued papal bulls expressing approval for devotion to the “Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

In 1805, Pope Pius VII gave approval for a “Feast to the Most Pure Heart of Mary” to dioceses that requested it.

In the 200+ years that have followed, Catholic dioceses and schools have taken up the Immaculate Heart of Mary as their patron.

Pope Pius XII instituted the Immaculate Heart of Mary feast in 1945. In Calendarium Romanum (1969), Pope Pius VI moved the observation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to “Sabbato post dominicam secundam post Pentecosten,” Latin for “the Saturday after the second Sunday after Pentecost.”

This allows the memorial to immediately follow the feast of the Sacred Heart, to which the Immaculate Heart of Mary is closely linked.

Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Just as apparitions of Jesus prompted St. Margaret Mary’s work to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, they stirred a desire in Belgian nun Berthe Petit to promote a devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary in the late 19th century.

It’s just one parallel between Jesus’s heart and Mary’s heart that links these two popular devotions.

As Catholic News Agency explains, the devotion to Jesus’s heart emphasizes His heart full of love for mankind, while Mary’s heart, immaculate and sinless, is the perfect model for loving Jesus.

“That is, although the act of consecration is ultimately addressed to God, it is an act that is made through Mary.”

Therefore, consecrating oneself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a complete devotion of oneself to God. Mary’s Immaculate Heart relies on Jesus’s Sacred Heart and is “subordinate” to it.

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary and Consecration

Petit worked with a priest, Fr. Louis Decorsant, to share and communicate her visions to Rome and to grow the devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The devotion is similar, though separate. Whereas the Immaculate Heart of Mary depicts Mary’s heart radiant and with a ring of roses, the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary is often depicted with seven swords, similar to the 7 Sorrows.

According to this book dedicated to Petit’s life, Jesus told Petit in one of his apparitions to her, “The world must be consecrated to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother as it is to Mine. Fear nothing, no matter what obstacle or suffering you may encounter; your only object must be the accomplishment of My Will.”

In one of these apparitions, she reportedly saw the hearts of Mary and Jesus entwined.

A consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary was offered in 1919, following the end of World War I, with the following text:

Lord Jesus, King of kings, many of us never ceased to place full confidence in Your Divine Heart during the long trial of war. Many, likewise, have implored the help of Your Mother, and we wish to show our gratitude by consecrating ourselves to Her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

It is fitting that we should honor this Sorrowful Heart by special veneration. For Your Mother, O Lord, acquired this title when She shared Your Passion and thus co-operated in the work of our Redemption; a just title which we believe to be dear to Your Heart, and to Her Heart pierced with the wound of Yours.

We, therefore, O Blessed Mother, consecrate to Your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, our persons, our families and our country. We beseech You to come to our help as a Mother.

Behold the trials that oppress us, the menace of evil and the dangers that surround us. We beseech You to obtain for us from Your Divine Son, solace in suffering, social unity between classes and the preservation of peace.

May the reign of the Sacred Heart, a reign of justice and love, be extended throughout our dear country, and may Your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, loved and invoked, reign over us also, O Blessed Mother, and ever obtain for us the mercy and blessing of God.

Immaculate Heart of Mary and Fatima

The Immaculate Heart of Mary has also been made known through Our Lady of Fatima.

In the second apparition of Mary in 1916, she told Lucia, “Jesus wants to use you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. To those who accept it, I promise salvation and those souls will be loved by God as flowers I have placed to embellish His Throne.”

Lucia later became a nun who was devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, even taking on the name Maria Lúcia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart.

She beautifully explained the connection between the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, likening Mary’s heart to a tabernacle inside of which the Father placed Jesus.

“It was in this Heart that the Father placed His Son, as if in the first Tabernacle,” she said. “It was the Blood of Her Immaculate Heart which communicated to the Son of God His Life and His human nature, from which we all, in turn receive ‘grace upon grace’ (John 1:16).”

Immaculate Heart of Mary Today

The Immaculate Heart of Mary remains an important devotion to many, as it leads us to God through Mary.

In the spring of 2022, at the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Pope Francis called for an Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

“This Act of Consecration is meant to be a gesture of the universal Church, which in this dramatic moment lifts up to God, through his Mother and ours, the cry of pain of all those who suffer and implore an end to the violence, and to entrust the future of our human family to the Queen of Peace,” he said.

The Consecration prayer closes with beautiful words entrusting the troubles of today to Our Lady.

“Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the ‘Fiat’, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our ‘living fountain of hope’, water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen.”

Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Prayer

Draw closer to God through Mary by praying a Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

This version comes from St. John Henry Newman, via the University of Dayton:

Lord, have mercy,

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy,

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy,

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us,

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven,

Have mercy on us.

God the Son, redeemer of the world,

Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit,

Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God,

Have mercy on us.

Response to the following: Pray for us.

Heart of Mary

Heart of Mary, after God’s own Heart

Heart of Mary, in union with the Heart of Jesus

Heart of Mary, the vessel of the Holy Spirit

Heart of Mary, shrine of the Trinity

Heart of Mary, home of the Word

Heart of Mary, immaculate in your creation

Heart of Mary, flooded with grace

Heart of Mary, blessed of all hearts

Heart of Mary, Throne of glory

Heart of Mary, Abyss of humbleness,

Heart of Mary, Victim of love

Heart of Mary, nailed to the cross

Heart of Mary, comfort of the sad

Heart of Mary, refuge of the sinner

Heart of Mary, hope of the dying

Heart of Mary, seat of mercy

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,

Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,

Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,

Have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Immaculate Mary, meek and humble of heart.

Conform our hearts to the heart of Jesus.

Pray with Hallow Today

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