5 I B DEVOTION TO THE HEART OF JESUS. 



devotion was represented, in their fermons and wri- 

 tings, as a neceffary means to the enjoyment of a blifs^ 

 full hereafter. — Accordingly, it was no wonder, that 

 the partizans of this devotion, were in a fhort time 

 become as numerous, in all catholic chriflendom, as 

 the fands of the fea. 



The bilhops approved and confirmed the brother- 

 hoods, and confecrated churches, altars and chapels 

 erected to the promotion of this enthuliafm. Kings 

 and queens brought petitions to the papal throne, that 

 a proper office might be appointed in the breviary and 

 choir, and a peculiar mafs for the folemnization of the 

 anniverfary ; and even at Rome fraternities arofe and 

 flourifhed that devoted themfelves to the worlhip of 

 the heart of Jefus. 



In recommendation of this new fpecies of worlhip, 

 the jefuits were not wanting either in prophecies or 

 miracles. To one of their noviciates, Caeleftine by 

 name, who lay mortally ill in convulfions, at Rome, 

 St. Aloylius Gonzaga announced his recovery, becaufe 

 he was in the defign of particularly devoting himfelf 

 to the apoftolate of the heart of Jefus # . The nun 

 A la Coque foretold that the fociety would arrive at 

 the pinnacle of wealth and power. — » In the year 1722. 

 the city of Marfeilles was faid to be freed from the 

 plague by this devotion. — The corpfe of a great heart- 

 worlhiper, by name Girolami, at Naples, emitted a 

 celeftial fragrance ^. — At Amberg, in the upper pa* 



* He died three years after, of the fame diftempen, at Frafcati, 



* As the archbifhop Spinelli was examining into the matter, 

 fche odours proceeded from the cufliion under the head. 



- latinate^ 



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