Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary

The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary is a book based on the private revelations reported by the Roman Catholic mystic Berthe Petit (1870–1943), and the object of a particular kind of devotion described therein.

The heart of the Virgin Mary has been referred to in different ways as the Christian tradition has developed. In a 1910 Catholic Encyclopaedia article Jean Bainvel article refers to the "Heart of Mary", noting that a Mass in honour of the "Most Pure Heart of Mary" was permitted in Palermo in 1799 and throughout the Catholic Church from 1855. In the same period, France saw the founding of an Archconfraternity of the "Immaculate Heart of Mary". In 1840, a French religious sister, Justine Bisqueyburu, claimed to have experienced a vision from the Virgin Mary requesting the promotion of a green scapular with an image of the heart of Mary and the inscription "Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death." There is no apparent precedent for the title "Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart" which was specifically promoted by Petit, in response to the revelations she believed she had received.

Berthe Petit was a gifted child who reported conversations with Jesus Christ from an early age. She suffered health problems most of her life and reported that Jesus and the Virgin Mary spoke to her.

Petit derived the title of the book from revelations she purportedly received in which Jesus told her: "Teach souls to love the Heart of My Mother pierced by the very arrows which pierced mine." Petit believed that she was entrusted with the mission to spread devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Elements of this particular devotion included the invocation "Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us" and the consecration of the whole world to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

On 13 March 1911, Cardinal Mercier of Belgium granted an indulgence of 100 days to any Catholic in Belgium who prayed the formula: "Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee." On 28 September 1915, in the midst of the First World War, Pope Benedict XV extended the same indulgence throughout the world, a year later enriching the indulgence by 300 days. (The source does not clarify whether 'enriching' constituted replacing 100 by 300, or adding the two to constitute a 400 days' indulgence).

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