The Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thérèse of Lisieux, and the Transformation of U.S. Catholic Piety, 1865-1940

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thérèse of Lisieux, and the Transformation of U.S. Catholic Piety, 1865-1940 James P. McCartin A vote of confidence from a friend can change a person’s life, and in my case, one such vote came from David O’Brien. Upon graduation from Holy Cross in 1996, I received a letter from O’Brien suggesting graduate school: even if landing an academic job might be tricky, he said, I would never regret passing my twenties in the company of thoughtful, creative scholars. He then argued the need for young Catholic intellectuals who possessed a critical understanding ofAmerican life: only if we appreciate our cultural context, recognizing its potentials and pitfalls, only then can we realize the kind of fruitful, mutually beneficial dialogue between Church and culture envisioned at Vatican II (1962-65). Reading O’Brien’s Isaac Hecker: An American Catholic drove home this point by illuminating a distinctly American Catholic sensibility emerging in the second half of the nineteenth century—a sensibility as much defined by confidence in American democracy as it was by faith in God’s abiding presence in human history.1 I was persuaded by the need for a critical, historical understanding that could contextualize this kind of engagement, and in the end, I did get a job. This present essay builds from O’Brien’s argument for engagement, and it offers perspective on the historical relationship between Catholicism and American culture. Moreover, it demonstrates how examining devotional literature can produce a longer, more accurate view of the transition from a pre-conciliar (before 1962) to a post-conciliar (after 1965) Church. Such a view highlights how piety and democratic culture were mutually supportive, and it clarifies changes that predated Vatican II, helping account for widespread lay appreciation of conciliar reforms. When considered alongside the popular practice of intercessory prayer to saints, the popularization of 53 1. David J. O’Brien (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1992). the Sacred Heart of Jesus and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, widely known as the “Little Flower of Jesus,” show that a transformation was underway between the Civil War and World War II. Together, the priests and vowed religious who promoted the Sacred Heart and Thérèse advanced the prominence of interior prayer—a set of spiritual practices designed to produce a more deeply personal and experiential connection to God by appropriating a more intimate style of piety. Devotional authorities writing for broad popular audiences thus highlighted the individual’s unmediated relationship with a loving, indulgent, merciful Creator—a God whose action within the individual soul was rejuvenating, consoling, and emotionally palpable. Since devotional writers exemplified a shifting emphasis in popular piety through their writings—thus, anticipating aspects of reform and renewal in the conciliar period—an examination of this devotional literature and the transformation it suggests can deepen our understanding of the context for Vatican II and the post-conciliar Church. The popularization of the Sacred Heart and Little Flower occurred within a historical context where interior piety attracted growing interest. Two developments especially signaled the revival of interiority during the nineteenth century: first, the curiosity of non-Catholic Americans toward Catholic forms of spirituality and, second, the post-French Revolutionary resurgence of religious orders and the recovery of past spiritual models. In the United States, transcendentalists from the 1830s to the 1850s mined the spiritual works of Augustine of Hippo, Thomas à Kempis, Catherine of Genoa, and Catherine of Siena, among others. Though uneasy with Catholic hierarchy, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, and scores of others announced their deep appreciation for the mystical experience of God to which these writers pointed.2 In later decades, such spiritual guides attracted continued interest as U.S. Protestant leaders, nourished on romanticism and shaped by England’s Oxford Movement, raised Catholicism’s popular profile. Aside from their interest in Catholic writers, shapers of popular Protestantism incorporated Catholic interest in built environment , church decoration, and liturgical rubric into the worship experience. Such developments signaled broad interest in Catholic symbols and spiritual techniques, even as the Church’s hierarchical structure helped fuel popular anti-Catholicism.3 While non-Catholics indulged ecumenical...