The Divine Heart of Jesus is widely taken as a symbol for countless institutions, including religious congregations, parishes, schools, colleges and hospitals in most countries around the world.
When and who have chosen to place themselves under the patronage of the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
We must return to the seventeenth century to find the oldest institution in making this choice, which appears to be the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Coutances, France.
At the end of the eighteenth century, devotion to the Sacred Heart will be the greatest devotion of the French faithful facing the anti-Catholic revolutionaries, where the image of the Sacred Heart was the banner to defend their faith. The bloody injuries of the Revolution had passed; the nineteenth century saw the proliferation of religious institutes created to meet the needs of the Church, after the destruction of several ancient Orders. Countless people who will then be placed under the patronage of the Sacred Heart, flourishing up to 150 religious families of pontifical right under His protection.
Nowadays, many of them have disappeared, but those that have survived or reformed are particularly active counting over sixty congregations or institutes working actively around the world.