By virtue of arrangements formalised, The Sovereign Hospitaller Order of Saint John (SHOSJ) is on the 12th of February 2022 appointed as the Guard of Honour of The Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our Order has an important role and function in promoting and preserving the adoration of The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Archconfraternity of the Guard of Honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesu is under the authority of the Grand Prior of Italy, though the Order’s affiliation and role is subject to the oversight of the Grand Chancellor of the Order.
This historical achievement has been commemorated with the publication of a book about the constitution of the Guard of Honour of The Sacred Heart of Jesus, the function and purpose of the Archconfraternity and of the Order’s new affiliation and role. This publication is illustrated with photographs and the Order’s Coat of Arms. To formalize this union, the publication has been donated to the Pope, Cardinals and Bishops, as well as to the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Head of State.
The Order’s affiliation and role in the Archconfraternity in no way alters the ecumenical composition and traditions of the Order. The Archconfraternity welcomes all Members regardless Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox or any other theological choice. What is significant about the Order’s affiliation is that, even though the Order is an ecumenical order, the veneration of The Sacred Heart of Jesus is central to the respective denominations and is therefore a means of strengthening the spiritual unity as striving to fulfil the duties laid in the Statutes of the Archconfraternity.
Members of the Order have the opportunity to personally practice as Honour Guard in their own right. The benefits of the Guard of Honour observance can be experienced individually, in connection with an approved centre. It can be organized in the family, in the community, in a parish. Such Members will also be entitled to adorn their mantles (as and when appropriate) with the broach or medal given by the Archconfraternity to its Members.
Historical background
Inspired by Jesus, the servant of God Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, born Constance Bernaud, on the 13th of March 1863, she founded the Guard of Honour. Until her death (3rd of August 1903) this pia visitandina (pious visitors) she worked to make the Guard of Honour known and its importance to love the Sacred Heart. She was assisted by the competition of the first zealous, Maria Deluil-Martiny, who later became founder of the Daughters of the Heart of Jesus. The latter died on the 27th of February 1884 in Marseille, killed in odium fidei (hatred of faith) by an anarchist. During the Holy Week of 1863, Sister Maria del Sacro Cuore is impressed during the Holy Mass, while reading to the offertory: “my heart is waiting for insults and pains; I have desired but in vain someone who sympathizes with my troubles; I looked for a comforter and I didn’t find him”. From this strong emotion arises the reason for the foundation of the Guard of Honour, which has as its main purpose that of console the Heart of Jesus through reparation and love.
The Guard of Honour is theoretically linked to those first Honorary Guards – Holy Mary, John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene and other pious women – who consoled the dying divine with their adorations. They were the first to contemplate the infinite agony of the pierced Heart of Jesus from the lance (Jn 19, 31-37) and also the first to pay him that worship that the Honour Guards now offer him assiduously. History of the Foundation 19 the Guard of Honour began to be practiced in the monastery of the Visitation in Bourg-en-Bresse. On the 9th of March 1864 the bishop of Belley, Msgr. De Langalerie, canonically erect the Guard of Honour in Confraternity in the Church of Visitation of Bourg. On the 26th of November 1878, Leo XIII raised the Brotherhood of Bourg to the dignity of Archconfraternity.
In 1871, his father Giovanni Baccichetti, of the Ministers degli Infmi (Order of St. Camillus), established the first Centre of the Honour Guard in Italy in the Church of SS. Vincenzo and Anastasio in Rome, which in 1872 was erected as a Confraternity by Pius IX. On the 18th of July 1879 the first centre he established in Rome was, by Leo XIII himself, declared an Archconfraternity for Italy. In May 1910, the general management of the Guard of Honour was transferred to the new parish church of S. Camillo De Lellis, to the Orti Sallustiani, in Rome and on the 6th of December 1977, the Pontifical Council for the Laity approved the “New Statutes”. Today the Honour Guard is generally called an Association.
From its beginnings, the Guard of Honour of The Sacred Heart of Jesus has taken a universal boom. After 20 years of existence, it already had 2 million members. They are from every country, from every condition, from every age. For through them, many have been beatified or canonized. One can say that the Hour of Presence was their path to holiness. The Archconfraternity is now widespread in Italy in many Parishes and Hospitals and is joined by many generous souls who offer own sufferings – of body and soul – to implore the Divine Mercy on the Community of Men, every day you forget more and more that you are children of one Father and all brothers in Christ Jesus the Redeemer.
For further information of the Order’s work with the Guard of Honour of The Sacred Heart of Jesus, click on the picture.
