Acta Sanctorum: Bl. Bernard Francis Hoyos (Nov 29)
November 29, 2024
November 29
Bl. Bernard Francis de Hoyos
Life (1711-1735)
Bernardo de Hoyos was born in Torrelobatón, (Valladolid) on August 21, 1711. He studied in the Jesuit Colleges of Medina del Campo and Villagarcía de Campos, and in 1726 he entered the novitiate of the Society that was part of the latter college. Because of his young age (he was not yet fifteen years old) and his frail constitution, he had to seek the permission of his family and convince the Provincial before he could enter. While he was in the novitiate (1726-28), Aloysius Gonzaga and Stanislaus Kostka were canonized. Both saints were proposed as models to young Jesuits, but above all Bernardo was influenced by the example of Saint John Berchmans, whose canonization process was well underway. During the novitiate years Bernardo was initiated into the mystical life. Philosophy studies (Medina del Campo, 1728-1731) were a time of interior purification tested by the dryness of the dark night of the soul.
Bernardo studied theology (1731-35) at the College of Saint Ambrose of Valladolid. This is where the process of his spiritual life reached its culmination, making him a true mystic. In the extensive account of conscience he gave to Father John de Loyola, his Spiritual Director, in October 1732 he said: “I see that everything in my heart is moving towards God, drawn like iron to a magnet. It desires only God, searches only for God, and longs only for God….” Because of the clarity with which Bernardo was able to perceive and describe his inner life, his Director insisted that this young man was “far more advanced than a man of his age, with more knowledge than he could have acquired from books.” References in the internal reports of the Society (Catálogos trienales) speak of a strong temperament that he was always able to master, of his brilliant intelligence, of his tenacity in overcoming difficulties, of his capacity for cordial relationships, and of his qualifications for all ministries, especially for preaching.
On May 3, 1733, when Bernardo was 22 years old, he experienced the Lord giving him a mission that would become the only objective of his life: to propagate devotion to the Sacred Heart as a means of personal sanctification and as an effective means for accomplishing the apostolate. When his friend, Fr. Agustín de Cardaveraz had to preach on the feast of Corpus Christi in Bilbao, he asked Bernardo to send him some notes that could be found in the community library in a book by Fr. José Gallifet: “De Cultu Sacratissimi Cordis Dei Jesu.” When Bernardo read the book, he said, “I felt in my spirit an extraordinary motion—strong, gentle, not abrupt or impetuous. I then placed myself before the Blessed Sacrament, offering myself to His Sacred Heart in order to cooperate as much as possible… in propagating devotion to it.”
The first thing that Bernardo then did was to consecrate himself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 12, 1733, using the same formula written by St. Claude La Colombière fifty years earlier. However, this was not a grace received to be lived only interiorly. Bernardo believed that God was asking him to be an instrument communicating to others the riches of the Heart of Christ.
Among his collaborators were Fathers John de Loyola and Agustín de Cardaveraz. Father John was in charge of writing about “the essence and the soundness of this devotion.” The outline and the core of this book, entitled Hidden Treasure, belong to Bernardo. After overcoming not a few difficulties, it was finally published on October 21, 1734.
His apostolic approach would consist in distributing leaflets and prayer cards everywhere, founding confraternities and associations in honor of the Sacred Heart, asking that this theme be included in talks and preaching. He wrote to bishops and even to King Philip V asking for support in requesting the Holy See’s approval of a special liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart.
On January 2, 1735 Bernardo was ordained a priest in Valladolid and on the 6th of the same month he celebrated his first mass in the chapel of St. Ignatius College. A few months later, Bernardo began tertianship there, but he was unable to finish because he contracted typhus and subsequently died on November, 29 1735. His reputation for holiness spread immediately after his death.
On April 18, 2010 in Valladolid, Spain, Fr. Bernardo de Hoyos was beatified by Pope John Paul II.
Source: Adolfo Nicolás, Superior General of the Society of Jesus (April 12, 2010)
Scripture (Eph 3:14-21)
I kneel before the Father, from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Writings
(Year B). I saw [Jesus'] Sacred Heart, whence through the three wounds made by the three darts that I have mentioned emanated rays of purest light, which came toward my heart. But before attaining it, they formed a heart halfway between Jesus’ and mine, a heart which appeared to be of gold mixed with silver or amber. On this heart sparkled an exquisite diamond and a beautiful emerald. This heart symbolized the three theological virtues: the gold of the heart signified love of God, the silver alloy love of neighbor; the diamond firmness of faith; and the emerald hope.
Between these two precious stones, not engraved, but written with the purest Blood of the Heart of the Saviour, was the sweetest name IHS (Jesus Hominem Salvator — Jesus, the Savior of Humanity]. And as He was saying to me words of peerless love, this heart thus emblazed approached mine, permeated it and so to speak identified itself with it. Among other things, the Divine Love, confirming His promise with His word, informed me that by means of this token I could well be certain of my predestination and of its realization. To suit the action to the discourse, He reached out with His right hand and clasped mine. Meanwhile I felt an inexplicable happiness extending even to my physical being.
This vision of the Sacred Humanity ended and the Lord elevated me to another, of a higher type, to give me an assurance and a portent from the Divinity. For I saw as in a mirror by means of an abstract vision Its Unity and Its Essence and the distinction between the Divine Persons. The Eternal Father treated me lovingly and spoke to me most consolingly telling me among other things to look at Him. I looked, and saw confusedly through intellectual vision—the highest I had had until then—in His divine Intellect, the predestination of all who have been saved and who will be saved….
The Lord gave the final touch to my spirit with the mystical death which occurred spiritually in my soul in a marvellous and secret manner that I cannot explain. Suddenly I felt, I saw and I heard the divine Essence coming to unite and bind itself quite intimately to the highest peak of my soul. It seemed as if my soul were being ripped away, carried off, purified, alienated, divided, elevated—briefly, being made to die to all things that are visible and decaying. Love was mystically realizing in my soul what death does for the body; and I saw accomplished in myself, to the letter, these words: “Love is strong as death” (Cant. 8:16]. Although any degree of love works thus in the soul, this state, nevertheless, was and still is so intense, so drastic, so prodigious, that it may specially be called mystical death. Immediately I saw my soul sunk in the divine immensity of the same Godhead, its life dead and hidden within Him. (Visions)
Musical Selection
O Sacred heart, O love Divine
Do keep us near to Thee
And make our love so like to Thine
That we may holy be
Heart of Jesus hear
O heart of love Divine
Listen to our prayer
Make us always Thine
O temple pure, O house of gold
Our heaven here below
What sweet delight, what wealth untold
From Thee do ever flow
Ungrateful hearts, forgetful hearts
The hearts of all have been
To wound Thy side with cruel darts
Which they have made by sin
Collect
Loving God and Father, grant that we who honour the heavenly
birthday of Bernard de Hoyos may through his example make our
way to you. We ask this in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who
lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and
ever. Amen.