Installation of the Religious of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Issoudun

From Annales de Notre-Dame du Sacre-Coeur, September, 1874

For many years, souls devoted to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart have been asking earnestly the grace to give themselves to her service in a Congregation which would be her own.

This holy desire has just been accomplished.

The first religious of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart have inaugurated their newly-formed community at Issoudun, in the shadow of her Basilica, on the 30th August of this year. They bear the title Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
The house occupied previously by the ladies of the Third Order of the Sacred Heart is now theirs. They will devote themselves to works of piety, education of girls, and will set aside a part of their building for ladies coming on pilgrimage and those who would wish to spend some days of retreat at the feet of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

The Archbishop of Bourges, in approving this foundation, very kindly blessed the first twenty religious and their religious habit.

We ask the fervent prayers of the Association for this important work. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus bless this new family, lead it Himself in His own spirit, and make it ever more worthy of the beautiful title of Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

‘Note: Those who wish for information concerning admission into the community of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, or concerning enrolment in the boarding school for girls soon to be opened, may apply directly to Mother Francoise Lefevre, Superior of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Place du Sacre-Coeur, 10. Issoudun.

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The Congregation of the Religious of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Issoudun

Fr. Jouet, from Annales de Notre-Dame du Sacre-Coeur, October, 1874

Translation of article which appeared in the French Annals of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, October 1874. The issue for September, 1874, had already announced the foundation of the Congregation on August 30, 1874. The purpose of the following article was to give details of the new foundation. Though it bears the initials of Father Victor Jouet, M.S.C., official documentation exists (cf. The Designs of His Heart, p. 99) to prove that Father Chevalier acknowledged it as the expression of his thought.

I. Its Origins

The origin of the new Congregation goes back to the very beginning of the Association of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

From the very first time that Mary was given the name Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, it was impossible to forbid oneself the thought that the Queen of the Sacred Heart of Jesus would soon form for herself a court of honour which, in union with her and under her protection, would be consecrated entirely to the service of the Adorable Heart of Jesus. “After her shall virgins be led to the King.” Ps. 44

How many there were who right from that time expressed the desire for this foundation and envied the happiness of those who would he chosen by Our Lady of the Sacred Heart to be offered in the temple of the Heart of Jesus, ‘Adducentur in laetitia et exultatione in templum regis.’ Ps. 44

This happy presentiment has now been realised. During several years. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart has herself been preparing the members of her new-family, and it was on August 31, feast of St. Rose of Lima, that she brought them together from different points around her attar. (Mistake in the date – perhaps a misprint. See article in September Annals which gives August 30 as the correct date of the foundation). No feast could better have been associated with the birth of a Congregation. For is not St. Rose of Lima the model of a true Daughter of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart?

‘Henceforth’, said the Blessed Virgin lo Rose, ‘you will be called daughter of Holy Mary.’ ‘Rose of my Heart,’ had added the Divine Master, ‘be my bride.’ (Breviary). These words seemed to echo in the Basilica when the new religious, clothed in the colours of the Virgin, received in her sanctuary, never to lay it aside again, the insignia of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart inscribed with the motto: MAY THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS BE EVERYWHERE LOVED!

II. Its Ends

The end of the new institute is to devote itself to the Heart of Our Lord Jesus through Our Lady of the Sacred Heart for the sanctification of priests. To devote itself to the Sacred Heart. That says everything. It signifies the perpetual worship of honour and reparation which the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart wish to give Him, and the measure of the love which they want to have for Him. The Heart of Jesus is to be their all, in everything, everywhere and always to an increasing degree. Such is the fundamental end in view of which their holy rules have been written.

To devote itself to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. This is the best means and one which the Sisters wish ceaselessly to use.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. The Archbishop of Bourges, in the special address which he delivered to them on the day of the pilgrimage, said: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart – see in her your Superior, your protector, your model. Look at her and reproduce her faithfully in your whole way of life. She is Virgin, she is Mother, she is Queen. Be virgins by your virtues, mothers by your works, queens by your prayer so efficacious with the Heart of Jesus. All in union with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart – without her nothing.

For the sanctification of priests: Our Lord one day asked Margaret Mary Alacoque, the apostle of His Divine Heart, to make Him an entire donation of all that she would do or suffer so that He might dispose of it in favour of those whom He willed. She generously consented, and her Divine Spouse several times showed her how He made use of her offering in favour of priests and religious in order to lead them to an exemplary and wholly angelic life.

Following her example, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart will offer entirely to the Heart of Jesus, through the hands of Mary, their activity, prayer, penance and merits in order that priests who are the chosen instruments of God for the sanctification of His people may themselves be holy, reproducing in themselves all the virtues of this Divine Heart, and receiving from Him all the graces of which they have need.

III. Its Works

1. Daily perpetual adoration of the Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist
This will be their work of predilection. Ceaselessly, throughout the whole day, replacing one another, there will be one or more of them in adoration, in order to respond to the reproach which the Sacred Heart of Jesus one day made to Blessed Margaret Mary: “I have an ardent desire to be honoured by men in the Blessed Sacrament and I find almost no one who will make any effort to satisfy this desire.” Always this adoration will be made in union with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart – the first and most perfect adorer of the Heart of Jesus.

2. The education of girls
Education is of the first importance in promoting the glory of the Sacred Heart since it holds the key to the social regeneration of the world. Thus the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, as so many other teaching Congregations, will interest themselves very particularly in the education of youth and will spare nothing in order to put their boarding schools on a par with the best educational establishments.*

They will provide for the girls confided to their care a solid Christian education, developing their minds in all useful branches of knowledge and forming their hearts to a sense of duty and to the practice of virtue. In celebrated centres of pilgrimage, e.g. that of our Lady of Montserrat in Spain, there is to be found beside the venerated sanctuary a religious
house where children whom a Christian mother has consecrated to Mary and who have been the object of her special grace, are educated, All will be happy to see the boarding school of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart fill with privileged children who owe to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart their birth, a cure, or a particular grace, and who have been vowed to the colours of the Virgin.

3. Works of zeal and piety which Providence will present and which will be in keeping with their rule will also be undertaken by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

In particular, a part of their house will be put at the disposition of women coming on pilgrimage, or who desire to spend a few days in retreat close to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

‘Footnote: A circular letter has just been addressed to families in Issoudun anxious to confide their children to the Daughters of O.L.S.H. It announces the opening of the boarding school at Easter, This delay is necessary’ in order to complete the material organization of the house. A detailed prospectus giving the programme of studies and the conditions for admission will be sent to anyone on application to Mother Francoise Lefevre, Superior of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 10 Place du Sacre-Coeur, Issoudun (Indre).

IV. Its Resources

Its resources are the concern of the maternal tenderness of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart who commenced this work and who will finish it. It is for this good Mother herself to inspire in pious souls the practical help which, by their prayers and their generosity, they can give to this young Congregation. Saint Teresa relates: One day, a very well-endowed gentleman told me that, if I wished to make a foundation (a convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel), he would gladly give me a house which he possessed and to which was attached a large vineyard and a fine garden … I gratefully accepted. Not very long afterwards the young man died and the Divine Master said to me: “My daughter, the soul of this young man was in very great danger. However, in consideration of the service which he rendered to my Mother in donating this house for the establishment of a monastery of her order, I showed mercy to him. Nevertheless, he will not leave purgatory until the first Mass has been said in the new convent.” With as little delay as possible, the first Mass was said. At the moment of Communion, this gentleman appeared to me, his face resplendent and radiant with joy. He thanked me for what I had done to deliver him from Purgatory and I saw him enter heaven.

What a great thing it is to render a service of no matter what kind to the Blessed Virgin. Who can express how pleasing it is to Our Lord. Such being the case, what special graces the Sacred Heart will bestow upon those persons who will help this foundation belonging to His Mother. And with what still greater graces will He not penetrate those who will give themselves entirely and forever to be Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart?

V.J. (Victor Jouet) Miss. du S.C. (Translated from the French Annals of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart,
Issoudun, September. 1874.)