Father Hoyos, 
a disciple of Saint Margaret Mary

LAST February, during our pilgrimage to Fatima, while passing through Castile, we re-read the accounts of the meetings of the seer of Fatima with Mgr Garcia y Garcia, the Bishop of Tuy and Valladolid. Sister Lucy wrote to one of her spiritual directors in 1942: « Mgr Garcia y Garcia spoke to me with great interest about devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It has always been his conviction that the reign of the Heart of Jesus would not come about without being preceded by the reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, since everything comes to us through Her. He told me that he had plans drawn up for a church in honour of the Sacred Heart, which would be built in Valladolid, at the very place where the Divine Heart had told Fr. Hoyos that He would reign in Spain. The architect, confused, presented to him the plan with an imposing tower dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary: “I do not know how it happened, said the architect. It seemed to me that an invisible being was guiding my hand. Without knowing how and without having thought about it, I ended up with this tower dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” »

If Mgr Garcia y Garcia wanted to build this new sanctuary, “the Alcazar of Christ the King,” as he called it, it was in order to commemorate the revelations of the Sacred Heart to Fr. Bernard de Hoyos. Following his example, we discovered and studied them: the visions and apparitions with which this holy Jesuit was favoured at the beginning of the eighteenth century are a continuation of those of Paray-Le-Monial and a confirmation of their veracity. Our Lord’s promise to St. Margaret Mary that « I shall reign in spite of My enemies » was certainly fulfilled in Spain, where the King and the episcopate unanimously asked the Pope to establish liturgical devotion to the Sacred Heart in the Church.

THE REVELATIONS OF THE SACRED HEART IN VALLADOLID

Bernado Francisco de Hoyos was born on 21 August 1711, in Torrelobaton, 30 kilometres from Valladolid. At the age of 14 he was admitted into the noviciate of the Company of Jesus, at Villagarcia, despite his small size and his poor health.

Six months later, he was favoured with the first extraordinary graces: on 3 December 1726, on the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, and then on Christmas Day, his soul was completely enflamed by yearnings and transports of love for the Divine Infant Jesus, who appeared to him on 29 December.

« I perceived the sweet Infant Jesus in His manger, preparing to wound my heart with an arrow. » (José Eugenio de Uriarte, Vida del Padre Bernard de Hoyos segun los escritos del Padre Juan de Loyola, Bilbao, 1888, p. 26)

His Novice Master, Fr. Manuel de Prado, and his assistant, Fr. John de Loyola, were aware of his virginal purity, his unshakeable attachment to the Rule, his application to mortification and his perfect transparency of soul:

« Brother Bernard made it incredibly easy for his director to read his conscience, almost at any time, as though it were an open book. He did so in order to comply with the advice of his dear Father, St. Ignatius, and also to protect himself from all illusion. He was so scrupulous in this matter that, at the time of Heaven’s great visits to him, he went every day, and even several times a day, to account for his slightest thoughts, his simplest affections and his least concerns. As he was humble, he admitted that he had no experience and was afraid of mistaking the enemy for an angel of light. His transparent and expansive conscience did not keep anything hidden. » (Couderc, Le Vénérable Pčre Bernard-Franēois de Hoyos, Tournai, 1907, p. 25)

Fr. John de Loyola, an experienced master, ordered Brother Hoyos to submit the complete account of the favours that he had experienced to Brother Augustine Cardavéraz who, although only twenty-five years old, was exceptionally gifted.

He always fulfilled this obligation of giving an account of his conscience punctually and meticulously. In addition to his actual letter of spiritual direction, he got into the habit of sending Brother Cardavéraz numbered notebooks in which he wrote his examinations of conscience and his personal notes. This correspondence always passed through the hands of Fr. Loyola, who remained the person in charge of his spiritual direction.

VICTORIOUS FROM HIS FIRST COMBATS

At the end of his noviciate, on 12 July 1728, when he pronounced his vows, he saw Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist listening to him … « seated as a Judge upon His judgment seat, but most benevolent ». Moreover, the most Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him along with two glorious virgins of Carmel, St. Teresa of Jesus and St. Mary Magdalena of Pazzi. They said to him: « We will be favourable to you, Bernard, as patrons. »

They did give him assistance during the terrible assaults of the Devil, which were announced by the vision of ferocious mastiffs throwing themselves upon him, and which went on from 14 November 1728 to 17 April 1729.

St. Michael had promised him that during these battles he would never succumb to temptation and that he would always conserve an angelic chastity. He heard him addressing the words of the Song of Songs to him: « Show us your face, O Sulamite, come back, come back, so that we may look at you”. Thus he learned « how much chastity was pleasing to the Lord, and that a soul clothed with this virtue like armour is as strong as an army in battle array against his passions and against the demons themselves. » (Uriarte, p. 83)

Let us quote Fr. Fernando de Morales, his teacher and confessor in Medina del Campo, where the young religious started his philosophy studies in September 1728: « Brother Hoyos was under the influence of the good Spirit; he received extraordinary favours from Him and he related them with sincerity. » (Couderc, p. XIII)

His fellow students admired his « perfect observance of the Rule and the care he took in preserving himself from the slightest faults. » (Uriarte, p. 361)

When a plague epidemic ravaged the country, Our Lord showed Himself to him on 10 August 1729, with His Sacred Wounds opened, especially that of His Side, whence flowed His Precious Blood.

« What is this, O my Beloved? My Master and my Love, what do you wish of me?

– Rejected by men, Jesus replied to him with indescribable tenderness and gentleness, I come to find consolation from the souls that I have chosen. »

Understanding the gravity of certain sins, and how much Our Lord was offended by them, he began a fervent novena to the Mother of Mercy who granted great favours to him: Once on Assumption Day, he attended Her triumph in Heaven.

Renewing his vow of bondage, as he was in the habit of doing at each feast of the Virgin Mary, he reiterated the supplications for his people to be delivered from the plague.

While the Queen of Heaven and earth had promised him that « the epidemic would begin to decrease very soon », he saw, on 2 September, Our Lord seated on His throne, with a most wrathful mien. He hurled with His almighty arm an initial flaming arrow towards the earth that ravaged everything in its path. Although the Divine Judge was not yet satisfied, the most Blessed Virgin checked His arm that was getting ready to hurl another arrow. « I then understood how powerful Our Lady’s pleadings are because they can resist God Himself. »

This vision continued with another tableau that foreshadowed the great warning of the Third Secret of Fatima:

« I saw a new squadron of angels led by St. Michael, who was holding a flaming sword in his hand. Turning towards the earth, in a terrible and frightening voice, which resonated in the air like thunder, he uttered the words of the psalm: “If you do not repent, God holds in His hand His sword unsheathed in order to strike you; His bow is bent and is aimed at you, His arrows bring death. They are fiery shafts for killing His enemies.” (Ps 7, 13-14). » (Uriarte, p. 116)

Since the young religious felt a particular attraction for St. Francis of Sales, God gave this saint to him as a spiritual director. Each evening, after his examination of conscience, the brother knelt before a picture of the gentle Bishop of Geneva in order to give him a meticulous account of his day. Often, he received from the saint advice, recommendations, and sometimes reprimands.

Need we recall that St. Francis of Sales was the founder of the Visitation Order and that he had placed in its coat-of-arms the Heart of Jesus crowned with thorns?

Fifty years after the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to his spiritual daughter, St. Margaret Mary, He was going to fashion providentially the soul of Brother Hoyos, thus preparing him to receive extraordinary gifts to accomplish his mission.

HELL, THE SACRED HEART, THE IMMACULATE

During his annual retreat on 6 January 1730, after the renewal of his vows, he saw in his soul, at the moment of Communion, Jesus in great glory, gracious and full of goodness. With an immense love, He placed His Sacred Heart at the very place of his own. He did this, however, in an admirable way, impossible to describe. The young man’s heart was enclosed and as though set into Jesus’ Heart. Jesus said to him with an inexpressible love: « You have found grace in My eyes, for I have found you conformed to My Heart. »

The two hearts were wounded, pierced by three small golden arrows, the tips of which were the fire of Divine Love. The brother understood that they symbolised his vows of obedience, chastity and poverty.

He did not, however, divulge everything about what he had contemplated: « The very loveable secrets that were revealed to me can be neither expressed nor explained.” (ibid., p. 142)

On 9 January, while performing his retreat exercises, Our Lord showed Hell to him:

« The earth opened up like a mouth into which my Guardian Angel entered and I in his footsteps, to see those unfortunates on whom the all-powerful arm of Divine Justice vents its wrath. A few steps off, I saw a horde of devils rushing out of the same opening: after having thrown into the flames of Hell many souls that they had won by means of the deadly epidemic, they were now returning to the world to lay their nets once more and plunge other damned souls into the abyss.

« We had walked about twenty feet when my Angel said to me: “Behold and write!” All at once, as we left this narrow gorge through which we had passed, I saw an immense cave of fire, billowing with a smoke so thick that it almost quenched the very light of the furnace. I cast my eyes upon this blazing immensity; but I could not see an end to it, nor was I able to distinguish its width.

« Here it was necessary for the presence of my Guardian Angel to restore my courage, for this first vision alone could have deprived me of life.

« I perceived at the same time a foul stench, an appalling din, and an interminable howling as of mad dogs. I also saw how some of the damned, driven by their furious rage, leaped out of the furnace and fell back into it like large stones, into its centre, thrown back by the devils to the voracity of the flames. (ibid., p. 143)

Among the damned souls, the brother recognised with terror a priest that he had known and who had led a very scandalous life.

In the evening of this 9 January, he remained terribly upset by these appalling scenes. He was still trembling and his heart was broken by it, when Our Lord came to comfort him by confirming to him his predestination.

The following day, on the last day of his retreat, he was favoured with new visions of the Sacred Heart. At the end of his account, he specified: « To some people, these manifestations of love will seem suspect. They will think them unworthy of God’s thought. The reason for this is that they have neither savoured how sweet the Lord is nor experienced that His delight is to be with the children of men. » (ibid, p. 149)

Jesus appeared to him in glory, with His Divine Heart unveiled. In His hands as white as snow He carried three golden arrows with tips of fire. Jesus asked him to choose the arrow that he preferred.

« Then in a transport of love, I recalled the passage of the Song of Songs: You have wounded my heart… (Sg 4.9). Without a word, I took the three arrows and I thrust them into the Divine Heart. Good Jesus, with great tenderness, said to me that to drive these arrows into His Heart was to wound myself, as I would see the next day.

On that day, Jesus said to His chosen one that henceforth, they would be faithfully present to each other; therefore it would be advisable to share the three arrows between themselves. The brother pointed out that they could not be shared out equitably. The most Holy Mother of Jesus then appeared and declared that She would joyfully accept an arrow in Her Heart. Immediately, the young man seized an arrow from the Heart of Jesus and planted it in that of the Virgin Mary. To end this love joust, Jesus drew an arrow out of His Heart and drove it into the brother’s heart, saying to him: « I am penetrating your flesh with My love. » The impetus of this divine dart caused in him a pang of love so violent that he thought that he would die from it.

“When the vision disappeared, it left me in transports of love that still persist with the same acuity. And since the Lord and His Holy Mother had left wounded as well, They filled my heart with a very sweet joy.” (ibid, p. 149)

Fr. Villafane, the provincial of Castile, who held Brother Hoyos in high esteem for his obedience and his sound judgment, was irritated when he learned that Fr. Calatayud, Fr. Cardavéraz’s spiritual director, had, in the pulpit, commented on the account of the vision of Hell that Brother Hoyos had sent to him… Moreover, some of the young scholastic’s revelations disturbed him: they concerned the “Palafox affair”. As a matter of fact, Pope Benedict XIII was determined to raise to the altars Mgr Juan Palafox Mendoza, an fierce enemy of the Company. Now Brother Hoyos and Fr. Cardavéraz had received divine communications on this matter, concerning notably the death of Benedict XIII, which did not perfectly agree.

In short, in the spring of 1730, the Provincial had several fathers of the Company and two religious of another order, who were known for their learning and heroic virtues, examine Brother Hoyos’ spiritual life. All of their opinions converged: Brother Hoyos had a « sound spiritual life and was very favoured by the Lord » (Maximo Pérez, El poder de los débiles, Madrid, 1991, p. 116).

Many symbolic visions prepared the brother for a more intimate union with Christ, which was concluded on 15 August 1730. That was his spiritual marriage: « You are Bernard of Jesus and I am Jesus of Bernard. »

Let us admire Our Lord’s condescension when He reveals Himself to him! On 29 June 1732, while the young religious was enjoying His presence, considering Him as his spouse and his brother, words burst from his heart: « Oh! My Brother, who will allow me to see You nursed at my Mother’s breast!” (Ct 8, 1) He then immediately “saw the Infant Jesus nursing the breast of His Holy Mother, who is also ours.

« When He withdrew His charming little mouth, the Divine Infant made a jet of sacred milk spurt out, which sprinkled my heart and made it become brighter. It seemed to me that I then received, to a high degree, the spirit of meekness and suavity given to my dear St. Bernard. My tender Mother indeed called me: “My son Bernard.” I cannot pronounce or recall these words without shedding sweet tears once again. » (Uriarte, p. 214)

Brother Hoyos liked to say the rosary before the Blessed Sacrament: « Everything came to me through the hands of my very sweet Mother.” (Pérez, p. 126)

One of the signs of the veracity of his mystical life was his enlightened and very fervent attachment to Catholic dogma: « The slightest news about any insult to the Church and our Catholic faith caused him extreme suffering. On the contrary, what joy and exhilaration he felt when he learned that she was prospering and spreading her arms around the world!

« He would have liked his superiors to allow him to preach the faith throughout the world. It was to this end that he asked several times to be sent to the New World in order to convert pagans and, at the same while, to attain his desire of more easily obtaining the grace to which he so greatly aspired: shedding his blood for the defence and propagation of the Gospel. » (Uriarte, p. 386)

This was not his vocation. Before relating the providential events that would make him into the apostle of public devotion to the Sacred Heart, we must put them into their historical context.

THEY DID NOT WANT TO HEED MY DEMAND!

The revelations of Paray-le-Monial had been poorly received in the Church, and Our Lord’s great design could not be fulfilled by the man His Heart had chosen for this, namely King Louis XIV, since he had spurned Its requests.

The enemies of the Sacred Heart seemed all-powerful, particularly in Rome. Let us remember that, at the request of St. Margaret Mary, Fr. Croiset wrote his book, Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, which was published in 1691. “The entire book, the saint wrote to him after having read it, pleases Our Lord perfectly.” Nevertheless Rome condemned it by putting it on the Index on 11 March 1704.

Certainly, many confraternities of the Sacred Heart were founded in various places throughout Christendom during those years. The Popes, however, refused to grant the feast, the Mass and the office of the Sacred Heart.

« They even came to the point, observed Fr. Galliffet, of looking on those who wanted to practice or establish the feast of the Heart of Jesus as a kind of sect capable of causing disturbance in the Church. »

As a spiritual son of Fr. La Colombičre and a disciple of Fr. Croiset, Fr. Joseph-Franēois Galliffet came up against the opposition of the Congregation for Rites but also that of Roman Jesuit censors: « We wish that your Paternity not intervene to obtain that the feast of the Sacred Heart with proper Mass and office be granted to the entire Church. » (Bainvel, La dévotion au Sacré-Cœur de Jésus, Beauchesne, 1921, p. 523)

FR. GALLIFET AND PHILIP V

He saw his promotion as Assistant of France in 1724 as a sign of Providence: undoubtedly, he had been appointed to Rome, to the Father General of the Company, in order to promote the liturgical devotion to the Divine Heart of Jesus. So, in 1726, he published his book De cultu Sacrosancti Cordis Dei ac Domini nostri Jesu Christi, dedicated to Pope Benedict XIII. This masterly book established the theological foundations for devotion to the Sacred Heart, and exposed Heaven’s will as revealed to St. Margaret Mary, based on the canonical inquiry of 1715.

Engaging himself in prodigious activity, Fr. Galliffet requested the support of Catholic princes and kings, especially Philip V, a grandson of Louis XIV, who had been reigning over the Spanish kingdoms since 1700.

Philip V, El Animoso, the Courageous, as the Spanish people called him, was a great monarch, pious and just. In April 1701, the Marquis de Louville wrote to the Duke de Beauvillier: « You can be sure that our prince is as religious as St. Louis. He still has his baptismal innocence, although not as a child does. It is not at all because he has no knowledge of the evil that he does not commit it, and I even assure you that he is virtuous contrary to his own temperament, the nature of which prompts him to anything rather than to virtue?.” (Jean-Franēois Labourdette, Philippe V, réformateur de l’Espagne, éd. Sicre, 2001, p. 115)

Before his solemn entry into Madrid, « he made a spontaneous gesture, truly worthy of the Catholic Kings. While returning from Casa del Campo by Atocha Street, he met a priest carrying the Viaticum to a dying man. He immediately expressed his « royal piety and fervent religion” by dismounting from his horse and accompanying, on the carriage’s footboard, “the King of Kings”. » (ibid, p. 113.)

« He displayed a special devotion to Our Lady: he exhorted his son to have always “a great veneration for the most Blessed Virgin”, and to put “yourself and your Kingdoms under Her protection, since there is no better way to obtain everything that is necessary for you and them.”

“As the great-grand son of Louis XIII, who had consecrated his kingdom to Our Lady, and as a prince who, at Versailles, had participated in the procession of this vow on 15 August, he introduced it into his Court. Each time that there was an opportunity to thank God: for a wedding, birth, baptism, victory, the sovereigns went with great pomp to Our Lady of Atocha, in order to pray and give public thanksgiving. There was also, in the evening of certain Sundays or feast days, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at Atocha, to which the King and the Queen often went informally through Madrid’s suburbs. The fact that this man from Versailles, “who was as though seized by Castellan mysticism”, had adopted his people’s rather ostentatious piety cannot be doubted: it corresponded to his deepest feelings. » (ibid, p. 376 and 416)

Philip V knew that his kingdoms were favoured by Heaven: « Always support the tribunal of the Inquisition, he said to his son, which can be called the shield of the Faith, and to which the Spanish countries owe the purity of their faith, in such a way that the heresies that have caused so many sad and horrifying ravages in the other states of Christendom were unable to enter into Spain. » (ibid, p. 282)

If he abdicated in 1724 after having conquered his kingdom at the point of a sword it was, according to the explanation he gave to his son, because it had pleased « the Divine Majesty, in His infinite mercy, to make known to me for a few years now, the vicissitudes of the things of this world and the nothingness of its grandeur; and at the same time to inspire me with an ardent desire for celestial goods that are infinitely more estimable than those of the earth, that are granted to us only to lead us to the others » (ibid, p.443). Nevertheless, in September 1724, after the death of his son, Louis I, he once again accepted the Crown.

At his court some ladies, who had been educated in Visitation monasteries in France, were familiar with the teachings of Paray-le-Monial and practiced devotion to the Sacred Heart. On 22 December 1725, Fr. Galliffet wrote to him: « I make so bold as to remind Your Majesty of his great devotion to the adorable Heart of Jesus. He promised his royal protection to the steps that would be taken to obtain official approbation of devotion to this Divine Heart from the Holy See. » (Letierce, Étude sur le Sacré-Cœur, t. 2, Paris, 1891, p. 137)

On 10 March 1727, the King of Spain addressed a petition to Pope Benedict XIII for the institution of the feast of the Sacred Heart in his Kingdoms.

The Roman canonist Prosper Lambertini, the future Benedict XIV, under the pretext of a physiological theory of the heart, which had been adopted by Fr. Galliffet and was already contested at that time, developed his criticisms and objections: the feast of the Sacred Heart was new; Margaret Mary’s case had not been settled; if new feasts were accepted, we would come to the point of asking for a feast in honour of the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary…

The Congregation for Rites, during its meeting of 12 July 1727, rejected Fr. Galliffet’s request, with the note Non proposita: it was advised that such a demand not be presented again in the future!

« Father Galliffet, far from considering the cause as definitely lost, resumed the fight with renewed energy. He replied to the theological difficulties raised by Cardinal Lambertini, the Promoter of the Faith, with rigorously precise clarifications and invincible logic concerning the object of devotion to the Sacred Heart, and what tradition says relative to the devotion itself. Nevertheless, a Roman decision on 30 July 1729 was once again negative. » (Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, art. Galliffet)

In 1733, he published the French translation of his book De cultu Cordis, with a dedicatory epistle to Philip V:

« I hope that Your Majesty will recognise the special grace that God gave him by having chosen him to obtain for this Divine Heart a glory which is so dear to Him. This choice, Sire, is an additional proof of Jesus Christ’s love for You, for there was only one King after His own Heart who was worthy of such a choice. The great pains that Your Majesty takes to respond to this are the expectation of a portion of the Church that is devoted to the Heart of Jesus Christ, and which has spread to almost all the provinces of Christendom today. With the protection of such a powerful monarch, it hopes for the fulfilment of its desires, which are to see this divine Heart honoured throughout the Church.

« Your Majesty, by obtaining the execution of a work so pleasing to God, will draw down upon his reign a new protection from Heaven, which he needs for the success of the great designs that he has planned for his empire’s extension, or rather for that of Jesus Christ and His Church. A part of Africa has already submitted to your laws. Oran, which was capable of sustaining a long siege, struck by a terror that God imparts when it pleases Him, surrendered without bloodshed, and the barbarians took flight. A superior Power subjugated them. God has rewarded the King’s piety; victory was granted due to his prayers.

« Your Majesty will see in this book, which I am honoured to dedicate to him, how much the prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ are efficacious with the eternal Father. »

FATHER CARDAVÉRAZ’S VISIONS

At Valladolid, in Spain, Brother Augustine de Cardavéraz, who was one of Brother Bernard de Hoyos’ spiritual directors, read Fr. Galliffet’s book, De cultu Cordi, as soon as it was published in 1726. He immediately became a fervent devotee of the Sacred Heart, who soon revealed Himself to him. The brother gave an account of his visions, ecstasies and transports of love to his directors, Fr. John de Loyola and Fr. Peter de Calatayud.

During his Communions, Jesus told him: « Fear not, I want you to see My Divine Heart. »

On 11 September 1727, He opened the wound of His side to him: « My son, enter into My Heart, and take there the repose that you wish. »

« When my soul penetrated into this Divine Heart, the brother related, a perfume so delightful, an odour so sweet completely pervaded it so that it plunged and lost itself in an immense ocean, like a little fish that moves about in the sea without finding either bottom or shore.

« When I came back from my ecstasy, Jesus said to me in a tone of the keenest tenderness: “Augustine, My beloved, today was the first time that you entered into My Heart. From now on, the door will always be open to you so that you can come in to rest here. You will find herein the delights of Heaven, and all of your desires will be fulfilled; here you will find your abode and dwelling.” » (Letierce, p. 164)

After being ordained a priest in 1730, Fr. Cardavéraz mentioned the Sacred Heart every Friday, during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

One day, Christ showed him a throng of His predestined people. He saw, among many Jesuits, Fr. Calatayud, a preacher of missions, and Fr. Villafane, to whom Our Lord recommended, through his intermediary, to work for the cause of the Sacred Heart by every means.

In another ecstasy, he saw St. Michael ready to fight and holding a flaming sword in his hand. Our Lord ordered the glorious archangel to support Fr. Catalayud: « Love him, comfort him, confirm him; yes, I will show My enemies the strength of My arm. Fortify him; may he speak out and not remain silent; may he not be stopped by difficulties, trials and contradictions; may he have no fear, I shall come to his assistance. » (Letierce, p. 166)

Father Cardavéraz, who was called on to preach in the Basque provinces, delivered in Bilbao, on 12 June 1732, a panegyric of the Sacred Heart, the brilliant success of which was, however, short-lived.

MAY 1733: FR. HOYOS’ MISSION

At the end of April 1733, Fr. Cardavéraz asked Brother Hoyos to translate for him a passage from Fr. Galliffet’s book, De cultu Cordis.

On 3 May, the brother took it out of the library of the College of St. Ambrose:

« I, who had never heard anything like it, began to read the history of the origin of devotion to the Heart of our beloved Jesus. I felt in my soul an extraordinary movement, strong, gentle, with nothing violent or impetuous; I immediately rushed to the Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament, and I offered myself to His Heart, to work with all my strength, at least by prayer, for the extension of His cult. I could not remove this thought from my mind until the next morning. »

On 4 May, « while I was adoring the Lord in the consecrated Host, He clearly and distinctly told me that He wanted, through my agency, to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart, in order to pour His gifts out on a great number of people through adoration and veneration of this Heart.

« He made me understand that it was He Himself who had urged my brother, Fr. Cardavéraz, to recommend this to me (to read De cultu Cordis), because He wanted in this instance to fill my heart with these lights.

« Plunged into an abyss of confusion, I renewed my offering of the previous day, although I remained somewhat troubled at seeing the disproportion between the instrument and the task, for which I saw no means of realisation. This trouble was due to nature. Grace produced only confusion and resignation. I spent the entire day with a feeling of close union with the Heart of Jesus. »

On 5 May, « while I was at prayer, the Lord granted me a grace similar to the one that He gave to the first foundress of this devotion, the venerable Margaret Mary Alacoque, a daughter of our holy director (St. Francis of Sales).

“He showed me His Divine Heart, ablaze with love and grieved by the little consideration shown to it. He repeated to me that He had chosen me, although unworthy, to promote devotion to it and He completely allayed the anxiety of which I have spoken. He made me understand that I must let His Providence act, and that it would guide me. I must consult with Your Reverence (that is, with Fr. Loyola) concerning everything. He would be particularly pleased if this province of the Company (Castile) celebrated the feast of His Heart as it is already celebrated in so many other places.” (Uriarte, p. 225 sq.)

Some bishops had granted it to certain confraternities.

The revelation of 10 May 1733, clarified his mission:

« On the Sunday that follows the feast (of the apparition) of St. Michael, after Communion, I sensed this holy archangel at my side. He told me how to extend devotion to Jesus’ Heart throughout Spain and, more universally, throughout the entire Church. He told me that he himself, as the Church’s protector, would assist in this enterprise; that this would come about through our agency insofar as God wished; that there would be very serious difficulties, but that we would feel the effects of his assistance: they would be overcome. »

These apparitions are both similar to and different from those of Paray-le-Monial. The archangel St. Michael never appeared to St. Margaret Mary.

« After this, I was startled when, during an admirable imaginative vision, the Divine Heart of Jesus showed Itself to me. Flames of love shot out of It, as from a furnace, but of a different nature than material fire. »

« An imaginative vision is not an « imaginary » vision that would be the natural result of an unsound imagination. It is a real and objective vision: it is caused by a perceptible representation produced in the imagination by God.

« Jesus thanked me for the generosity with which I had offered to shed even the last drop of my blood for the glory of His Heart. Wishing to show me how much this offering was pleasing to Him and the great satisfaction He took in my simple desire to spread this glory throughout the world, He enclosed and concealed my miserable heart within His own. A wonderful intellectual vision then revealed to me the treasures and riches of the Father placed in this Heart, the sovereign channel of the waters of life. As for the delicacies, the bliss, the sweetness and the heavenly delights that flooded my poor heart, engulfed in the Divine Heart, a fiery ocean of love, Jesus alone knows them. For my part I do not.

« It was as though my heart had been plunged into a boiling vapour bath which purified it of all the filth coating it.

« From this moment, I have been absorbed and submerged in this Divine Heart. As for eating, sleeping, speaking and studying, everywhere my soul appears to touch nothing other than the Heart of its Beloved. It is when I am before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, that the torrents of His choicest favours break forth. Since this devotion is addressed in particular to the Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist, that is where it enjoys fully what love ardently seeks there. » (ibid., p. 229)

What a touching revelation of the Eucharistic Heart!

At the College of St. Ambrose in Valladolid, where he had been studying theology since the month of October 1731, Brother Hoyos was able to visit the Blessed Sacrament without being seen by his fellow students, thanks to two private chapels and to the church tribunes. He wrote to Fr. Loyola:

« Jesus the Host is my glory and my happiness, my solace and my life. Since I have come to know this Divine Heart, I feel my devotion for this mystery of the love of our God in the Blessed Sacrament increase immensely within myself. His presence, even distant, lets itself be perceived by my soul; when near, it seizes and uplifts my soul at the same time.

« When I go alone to visit Him, without anyone seeing me, I bow deeply before Him three times, lowering my forehead down to the earth, before speaking to him. The slightest distraction or lack of attention to His presence are presented to me as serious faults, and this negligence often gives me reason to weep during my confessions. The slightest irreverence in church, either in words or looks, pierces my heart.

« The delights that I feel here are infinite; I would like never to withdraw from them, by day or by night. So, whenever it is compatible with my occupations, I visit Him frequently, more than thirty times a day and sometimes even fifty.

« On the days before going to Communion, my whole spirit is aroused and I spend my day in great emotion: I would like to possess Him in my heart forever.” (Pérez, p. 348)

THE GREAT PROMISE

Here is the account that Brother Hoyos gave of his revelations and divine communications of Ascension Thursday, 14 May 1733:

« After Communion, I had the same vision of the Heart, but this time encircled by the crown of thorns and surmounted by a cross, exactly as it is represented by Fr. Galliffet. »

He had placed in the frontispiece of his book, De cultu Cordis, Massini’s engraving representing the apparition of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary, amidst the flames of Its pure love, surrounded by seraphim. The Divine Heart was drawn with the same dimensions and form as a human heart.

Brother Hoyos went on:

« I also saw the wound from which emanated the most pure effusions of this Blood which redeemed the world. Jesus, my divine Love, beckoned my heart to enter into His own through this wound, giving the assurance that His Heart would be my palace, my fortress and my rampart in all combats.

« As my heart acquiesced the Lord said to me: “Do you not see that it is encircled by thorns, and that they will hurt you?” All this was to fan the ardour of my love further; and as this love was penetrating my innermost self, I realised that the thorns were roses.

« I noted that besides the large wound there were three smaller ones in the Heart of Jesus. I asked Him who had caused them. He reminded me of that favour in which He had revealed Himself wounded with three arrows by our love.

« While my soul was entirely recollected within this heavenly chamber, Jesus said: “This is the place [the soul of Fr. Hoyos] of my repose forever. I will dwell in it, for I have chosen it.”

« I was made to understand that He did not have me savour the riches of His Heart for myself alone, but so that through me others might savour them. I asked of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity the realisation of our desires. As I requested, for Spain in particular, this feast that did not seem to be present in any commemoration, Jesus said to me: “I shall reign in Spain, and there I shall be more venerated than in many other countries.” » (ibid., p. 153)

On 4 June, on the feast of Corpus Christi, Our Lord showed him in advance the institution of the devotion to His Sacred Heart. He predicted to him that « the solemnity of His Heart would one day be, in the Church, the feast the most celebrated after that of Corpus Christi. » (Uriarte, p. 288) Certainly obstacles were going to delay the institution of the feast, and even more the universal triumph of the Divine Heart. « But in the end He shall reign! » exclaimed the young religious in concluding his account.

HIS INCESSANT INTERCOURSE WITH THE HEAVENLY COURT

During the Mass of the feast of the Sacred Heart on 12 June 1733, in the church of the College of St. Ambrose, he personally consecrated himself to the Divine Heart using Fr. Claude La Colombičre’s Act of Consecration, with which he had become acquainted in Fr. Galliffet’s book. « I then felt the presence of the three virgins, (St. Teresa, St. Margaret Mary and St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi,) and that of the Beloved Disciple, St. John the Evangelist. I understood that the Heart of Jesus accepted my sacrifice. As I signed my act of consecration, I realised in a very pleasing manner, not so much in a vision but rather by a sort of touch or contact, that Jesus had inscribed my name in His Heart. » (ibid., p. 238)

On 29 June, on the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, by an extraordinary favour, he was able to converse at great length with them about the affairs of the Sacred Heart, and he was not content with their answers until St. Peter guaranteed that « one of his successors would establish in the universal Church the feast of the Heart of Jesus » (ibid., p. 239).

St. Ignatius, on the day of his feast, that is on 31 July, confirmed to his son Our Lord’s wishes and His marvellous promises:

« When I was about to receive Communion, I sensed this saint on my right and, on my left, St. Francis Xavier. When I received in my breast the divine Sacrament of Love, it seemed to me that Our Lord made a sign to our venerable Father to speak to me, and a sign to me to listen to him:

« The saint told me, either in true words or in intellectual locutions, that Divine Providence wanted the members of the Company to receive as an inheritance the glory of promoting and of propagating the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and that they would obtain from the Church the institution of the desired feast. He himself, along with St. Francis of Sales, my director, was responsible for this enterprise which concerned the sons and daughters of the two orders (namely, the Company of Jesus and the Visitation). He added that Our Lord had chosen me as an instrument that should serve as an intermediary for the promotion of this devotion; that this work would come about through prayer associated with the works of Your Reverence (that is, of Fr. Loyola); that the time would come when I would cooperate directly, but that, for the time being, I should simply declare to Your Reverence what I had been made to understand about these things. Lastly, he told me to tell Fr. Calatayud that he strongly advised him to take as much part as he could in this, for the greater glory of the Heart of Jesus. » (ibid., p. 240)

When relating these revelations to Fr. Loyola and Fr. Calatayud, the young brother requested them to consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart as he had done on the feast of the Assumption: « You will declare to these two Divine Hearts your love and your desires for Their greater glory, for whatever one does for the Heart of Jesus is done consequently for that of His Mother. »

On 15 August 1733, the young religious received valuable lights, specifically on the relationship of the Heart of Mary to the Holy Trinity:

« I saw the Heart of the Eternal Father in the likeness of an immense globe of fire that increased in size as it stretched over the earth, the heavens, and even over the abyss. The immense rays and the waves of light that it emitted were gathered into the Sacred Heart of our good Jesus, which I saw in a sky that was much larger and broader than all the celestial spheres. The beneficial rays that It, in turn, gave out came together in order to concentrate their heat in the most lovable Heart of our Mother, Mary Most Holy. Her Heart was manifested as a bright and beautiful sun, which immediately dispatched to mankind and to the entire earth this multitude of luminous rays.

« Thanks to this mysterious symbol, I understood how the Heart of Jesus transmits to men the infinite gifts and benefits received from the Father and from the Divinity of the Word, through the medium of the most pure Heart of His Holy Mother. She is the channel whence come to us all good things.

« The various sizes of these orbs of fire indicated the difference which exists between the Heart of the Father, that of the Son, with respect to His Humanity, and that of His Most Holy Mother. Now, although Her Heart is the smallest of the three, its capacity is comparable to that of the material sun that lights the whole universe. The difference, however, is that while the most pure Heart of Mary enlightens and warms every hemisphere, it simultaneously delights Heaven itself, for the Blessed experience a special joy at the sight of the perfections of Mary’s Heart reflecting those of Her Divine Son as in a mirror of the most pure crystal. (ibid., p. 242)

« In Spain, remarked Fr. Galliffet, it is perhaps by beginning to work for the cause of the Heart of Mary that we will come to that of the Heart of her Most Holy Son. »

« There, in fact, observed Fr. Uriarte, the devotion to the Heart of Mary precedes that of the Heart of Jesus, at least insofar as public devotion is concerned. » (ibid.)

The feast of the Transverberation of St. Teresa is celebrated in Spain on 27 August. Seized by a holy boldness, Brother Hoyos said to this saint « that, from Heaven, she should endeavour to obtain the feast of her Divine Spouse. For if the Church celebrated the feast of her inflamed heart, it was even more just for her to celebrate the feast of the Divine Heart of Jesus, for from this sphere of ardent love come the sparks revealed in all loving hearts. » The saint declared herself persuaded by such an argument, and promised the young theologian that she would put it forward in the divine Presence.

On 30 September 1733, he had a vision that is very consoling for all devotees of the Sacred Heart:

« During the Mass, I saw our good Jesus with the very beautiful wound of His side, through which His Divine Heart could be seen. A multitude of very pure doves entered through this wound to make their nests in the Sacred Heart; others were hovering about as if they wanted to enter; still others settled upon the loving bosom of the Lord. I was conscious that this was the cleft in the rock to which the Holy Spirit invited the dove when He said: “Come, My dove, hidden in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff.” It is also the window of the Ark through which the dove entered with her olive branch.

« I understood as well a thousand marvels concerning the Divine Heart, especially that it is the refuge of saintly souls, those chaste doves, when the vulture threatens them, that it is the nest where his favourites huddle. For, though it is open to all, it is particularly so to the souls who are doves; thus this feast of the Divine Heart would be the magnet of saintly souls. » (ibid., p. 255)

THE RAPID CONQUEST OF SOULS

From 1733 on, Brother Hoyos passed on the flame of his devotion to the most influential Jesuit Fathers of the province of Castile, so that they in turn would propagate both interior and public devotion to the Heart of Jesus.

The young religious urged mission preachers to cooperate in his apostolate: « Could not a missionary begin by directing his penitents towards the Heart of Jesus as to the source of all grace? Could he not imperceptibly draw his listeners after him into this ark of salvation whose door was opened by a spear? If our Beloved, and of this I have no doubt, draws the hearts of the faithful to Himself by the sweet magnet of His Divine Heart, we shall soon see the banner of the Confraternities of the Sacred Heart floating throughout Spain. »

He would have liked the first confraternity to be founded at Madrid: when the head was conquered the entire nation would follow… Fr. Calatayud, however, was ahead of him: he founded one in the city of Lorca.

Our Lord directed their enterprises by the instructions that he gave to Brother Hoyos: « Tell your Father (Fr. Calatayud) to persevere. I shall keep My promise. » Then He added, in a martial tone yet very tender: « My Heart will be your fortress and will serve as a rampart against which the waves of contradiction will break. » (ibid., p. 233)

On 28 October 1733, the brother wrote to Father Loyola: « What the Divine Heart does for me is ineffable and surpasses all understanding. He assails me with His Love and absorbs me into the conflagration burning with seraphic fire. On Sunday (it was 25 October), when I received the Blessed Sacrament, He gave me such an intense feeling of having within me He Who is the centre of all my desires that I thought that my heart was going to burst under the vehemence of the love that had seized it; and if, at that moment of grace, my heart, which was so compressed by these ardours and these flames of love, had not been dilated, I would certainly have died.

« My heart poured itself out in interior groans, as calls that slipped out of my soul, by which I invited all creatures to love the most loving Heart of Jesus and, with vehemence beyond what is human, I exclaimed with St. Augustine: “Hasten, O you just! Hasten, O you sinners! Hasten, O you nations! All hasten and come to the Heart of Jesus.”

« Then, I heard a very sweet interior voice say to me the same words spoken to venerable Margaret Mary, words recorded in the book De cultu Cordis: “Ask of Me what you desire for the most Holy Heart of My Son, and I will listen to you and I will grant it to you.”

« Unhesitatingly, I requested the extension of the reign of this Sacred Heart in Spain, and I was given to understand that it had been granted. Then, sweetly enjoying these tidings, my soul found itself buried in the Divine Heart, at the station of the Cross that is known as “Jesus is laid in the sepulchre. » “Buried”, he explained elsewhere, because the soul is dead to all that is not Jesus.

During these days, I have often experienced transports of love that made my poor heart dilate with the desire of extending to the New World the love of the Heart of its beloved Jesus, and that made the whole world seem to it a very little thing. » (ibid., p. 251)

With an inexpressible joy, Fr. Galliffet learned of the progress that the devotion so dear to him was making in Catholic Spain.

Fr. Loyola himself was amazed: « I consider it as something prodigious that so young a religious has been able to fire with so sacred an enthusiasm for a new and unknown devotion men learned, prudent, of great authority, and of superior intelligence. Among the Jesuits there were Provincials, Rectors, Master of Novices, Preachers, and Missionaries – in short, the most eminent Fathers of the Province of Castile. Since, however, it was the Sacred Heart Himself Who set fire to the words of our young man, human prudence and wisdom could not resist him. » (ibid., p. 232)

The Feast of the Circumcision, 1 January 1734, fell on the First Friday of the month. As soon as he had awakened, « he lovingly thanked the sweet Child and Divine Lord for having deigned to bless his projects and granted success to his works, to those of his friends and of his directors, with results that no one could have imagined. He asked Him to let fall a drop of the Precious Blood that He had shed on this day on all the plans, decisions, ideas, thoughts, desires and impulses that they would have in the future for the glory and honour of His Divine Heart, to the point of sacrificing their lives, the offering of which they renewed today. »

To his directors, he specified: « When receiving Communion, I sensed that my heart was pressed against the Heart of Jesus, with those of your Reverences and with that of St. John, the Beloved Disciple. It found itself as if bathed in the most sweet and most precious Blood that gushed from this door of Paradise and from this source that delights the City of God. Good Jesus, in the language that the soul understands, without words, told me that He joyfully accepted our offering and that He poured out over our desires and affections the Blood of His Heart so that they might produce fruits pleasing to His Eternal Father, fruits capable of obtaining for us eternal glory, fruits of honour for His Heart, each one of us according to his specific path. » (ibid., p. 128)

« LABOUR IN SILENCE »

Our Lord granted extraordinary favours to His chosen one in order to reign undivided first of all in his own heart.

On 17 January 1734, when I received Communion, the Lord said to me: “Open yourself and bloom like a fragrant rose.” Then it appeared to me that my heart opened like a red rose, and on all its petals was written the monogram: IHS. (the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek). My beloved Jesus entered, and the petals closed again, leaving my heart like a rosebud, tightly shut and sealed with this same sweet Name.

« Through these symbols, I understood that the Beloved Lord desired that my heart should be a rose in which His Heart would find beauty, delights and fragrance, and that all the petals of its desires, its thoughts, and its works should be marked with His royal seal. He desired that, withdrawing into itself, my heart should be like a tightly closed bud and that His Name, like a coat of arms, should seal off the passage to all that is not Jesus, to all that does not come from God. Like the rose whose green leaves conceal the flower without smothering its fragrance, so humility and modesty veil the beauties of the soul without harming their fragrance, for the Divine Heart alone has the right to penetrate into it. » (ibid., p. 270)

Heaven instructed, enlightened and guided the apostle of the Sacred Heart. One of his visions, on 12 June 1734, the feast of the Holy Trinity, taught him that the works offered through the Sacred Heart were welcomed by the Three Divine Persons as a very melodious concert. From then on, he liked to appeal to the Sacred Heart using this ejaculation: « Heart of Jesus, melodious harp with which the Blessed Trinity is well pleased, inflame me with this divine love that consumes You! » (ibid., p. 286)

« During the triduum of the renovation of vows, on 29 June, perhaps he displayed a little impatience for undertaking some action to propagate the reign of the Sacred Heart. On the last day of the retreat, St. Francis of Sales made known to him what God desired of him: Age in silentio, labour in silence!

« “By these words, explained Brother Hoyos, he showed me in a very noble manner the humility, the peace and the tranquillity that I should manifest in my relationships with my fellow men, with myself and with God for the affairs of the Heart of Jesus.”

« The brother understood that this advice from his director was in perfect harmony with words of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary: “In imitation of Me, you will act and suffer in silence, without any other concern than the glory of God in the establishment of the reign of My Sacred Heart in the hearts of men, to whom I wish to manifest It through you.” » (Pérez, p. 218)

THE HIDDEN TREASURE

As soon as his mission had been revealed to him in May 1733, Brother Hoyos wanted to publish a brochure on public devotion to the Sacred Heart.

He begged Fr. Loyola to write it. « I refused, the latter related, because of my incompetence and because I was overburdened with work. The young man, however, ironed out all the difficulties. His fervent prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus contributed more than anything, in my opinion, to making the work easier for me. Without knowing how, I began to write a little book; I felt dispositions that were not my own. Despite my occupations and the impediments of my responsibilities, one or two weeks later, I sent Bernard the brochure that he so desired. » He corrected it, enlarged it and improved it.

The manuscript was then given to the Company’s examiners and then sent to Rome… In short, there were complications, delays. When at last the imprimatur was granted by the archbishop of Valladolid, who did not like new devotions, the Provincial postponed its printing because Fr. Calatayud had just published his book The Fire of Holy Love, the Loving Respiration of Devout Souls with the Heart of Jesus.

Heaven, though, had not forgotten its chosen one. On 8 May 1734, as the brother was recommending to his advocate and protector the cause of the Sacred Heart, St. Michael replied to him: « that the Holy Trinity had already charged him with this affair and that he must submit himself to Divine Providence, seeing therein nothing but the good pleasure of the Divine Heart. The Lord knows how to bless our desires, that will be realised even through means that are apparently contrary. » (Uriate, p. 278)

When the dummy of the book was given to Brother Hoyos for last corrections, another misfortune arose: the Provincial ordered him to accompany an ill student to a convalescent home in Villerias. « The brother said nothing and obeyed his superior; he immediately abandoned his work. The Provincial had forgotten the work with which the brother was occupied, unless he wanted to once again put him to the test by this terrible blow. » (ibid., p. 282)

Brother Hoyos wrote to Fr. Loyola: « This delay, despite the sadness that I feel, makes me understand that Our Lord wishes that the affairs of His Divine Heart advance amid contradictions, and that this much desired little book, that has required so much effort, will serve all the better for the promotion of this sacred devotion. » (ibid., p. 283)

At last, the brochure was printed under the title “The Hidden Treasure in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, revealed to our Spain”; on 21 October 1734, the young brother offered it to Our Lord who promised him:

« Those who will read this book with an upright intention will enjoy His favours, and He will grant to each of them a special grace: in reading it, sinners will find the inspiration for changing their lives, the righteous will receive from it an increase of strength and impetus towards perfection; as for those who are perfect, they will savour heavenly joys in an ever more pure and ardent love of this Divine Heart. » (ibid., p. 285)

THE PETITION OF THE SPANISH EPISCOPATE AND OF PHILIP V TO POPE CLEMENT XII

Brother Hoyos, always preoccupied with winning over the authorities, had magnificently bound copies of The Hidden Treasure sent to the Royal Court. They were passed on rapidly from one person to the next.

« “Thanks to this holy enterprise, indicated Fr. Loyola, devotion to the Heart of Jesus was not only soon spread within the palace but it was even enthroned in the hearts of the princes.” Actually, it is impossible to express the progress that it made in so short a time among the people of the Court. Most of them, following the Monarch and his entourage, acknowledged rendering private honours to the Divine Heart. Moreover, encouraged by the royal prestige, they publicly declared themselves in favour of this new devotion and ready to defend it. » (ibid., p. 310) « They showed solid piety: frequent confessions and Communions, novenas to the Sacred Heart, alms and other practices were the fruits produced at the Court by this book. » (Pérez, p. 164)

Brother Hoyos soon sent a big parcel to the Archbishop of Burgos, Mgr Manuel Samaniego y Jaca, who had given his support to the publication of The Hidden Treasure. He begged him insistently to send a copy to each Spanish bishop: « At the same time, Your Grace will invite them to form a pious league for the extension of devotion to the Sacred Heart, and to request of His Holiness the concession of a feast, an office and a Mass in honour of this adorable Heart. » Mgr Samaniego y Jaca worked on this effectively: « All of the Archbishops and Bishops of Spain sent letters to their Roman representative, commissioning him to submit them collectively to the Holy Father. Thus the Spanish nation was the first to offer to the Sovereign Pontiff the touching and glorious spectacle of all its bishops requesting, with one voice, the institution of the feast of the Sacred Heart. » (Letierce, p. 178)

Moreover, Fr. Loyola solicited Philip V, through his Jesuit confessor, Fr. Clarke. The King agreed to renew his request of 1727 to Pope Clement XII. Transmitted through the Archbishop of Burgos, it received an encouraging response from Cardinal Belluga on 1 July 1735, which gave good hope of obtaining the feast of the Sacred Heart for the kingdoms of Spain.

We will relate, in the next article, the revelations and divine communications with which the Venerable Hoyos was favoured while he was preparing for the priesthood and during his sacerdotal ordination on 2 January 1735. They echo and confirm the message of Paray-le-Monial message concerning reparation.

At the beginning of his third probationary year at St. Ignatius College in Valladolid, Fr. Hoyos celebrated on 17 October, with great fervour, but in private, the forty-fifth anniversary of the death of St. Margaret Mary.

While he remained grieved by the resistance of the Holy Father who had not yet granted the feast of the Sacred Heart, « he received, during Mass, the visit of St. Francis of Sales, accompanied by St. Teresa and the venerable Margaret Mary: “Our kind director told me that a heavenly and delicate bond of friendship should unite my soul to that of the venerable Margaret Mary since we had both been chosen by the Sacred Heart with a view to the same design. As she treated me with remarkable familiarity, I should have recourse to her with confidence, especially for all that concerns this devotion.” »

Our Lord wished to melt their two hearts into a single heart in order to invite his chosen one to join Him in His Heaven of glory: « On that day, I was given to understand that the death of venerable Margaret Mary had been an ecstasy of love. It was a sweet repose on the Heart of her Beloved when she gave Him her last breath. At the sight of such a desirable death, O good Jesus! my poor heart, moved by a holy jealousy, felt a violent pang of love! » (Uriarte, p. 343)

Seriously stricken with typhoid, he had to take to his bed in mid November. To a confrere who asked him several times if he wanted to die, he replied invariably: « I think and I want only what the Sacred Heart wishes. »

Fr. Manuel de Prado, who was sitting up with him, heard him repeat several times: « Oh! It is good to dwell in the Heart of Jesus. »

Fr. Hoyos died at St. Ignatius College on 29 November 1735 at twenty-four years, three months and nine days of age.

Fr. Uriarte wrote: « “My death is necessary to the glory of the Heart of Jesus”, repeated Blessed Margaret Mary to a nun who lamented her imminent departure. This is what we must think in seeing our dear Bernard leave, so rapidly and so young. It was necessary that it be so in order that the admirable manner in which the Sacred Heart manifested Himself to us be revealed to us. Immediately after his death, Spain learned that she was the object of the special love of Sacred Heart Who had fulfilled His promise to reign in our country, and to reign here more than in other countries.. »

Brother Francis of Mary of the Angels