Acta Sanctorum: Bl. Bernard Francis Hoyos (Nov 29)
November 29, 2025
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 C). I remained fairly recollected until in an imaginative vision the Divine Heart of Jesus was disclosed to me so wrapped in flames of love that it seemed hidden in fire, though not of a material kind. He [Jesus] thanked me for the spirit with which I had offered to shed even the last drop of my blood for the glory of His Heart; and so that I would feel how much He appreciated this offering and how much my simple desires to make widespread this devotion throughout the world pleased Him, He closed and enfolded my miserable heart within His own.
In a wonderful intellectual vision, I then witnessed the treasures and riches the Father contained in this ciborium [the Divine Heart], the extreme longing which this Sacred Heart held of manifesting them to mankind and the pleasure it would have at being esteemed as the major artery of the saving waters of grace. Through other marvellous illuminations I clearly comprehended St. Michael’s advice. Then the joy, the bliss, the sweetness and the heavenly delight of my poor heart swamped in the Divine Heart, fiery ocean of love, only Jesus knows. For my part I do not. My heart emerged as from a bath or strong wash which purified it and rid it of the dust coating it. From this moment, I have been submerged and absorbed by the Divine Heart. As for eating, sleeping, studying and the rest, my soul appears not to recognize anything but the Heart of its Beloved; and while I am before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, then break loose the torrents of His choicest favors. Since this devotion regards the Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament as its object, here it fully satisfies its ardent and loving aspirations.
I saw the aperture where the most pure Blood which redeemed the world looked visible. Jesus, my divine Love, beckoned my heart to enter within through the opening of this wound: it would be my palace, my castle and my rampart always. As mine accepted, the Lord said: “Do you not see that it is barbed by thorns, and that they will prick you?” All this was to exasperate my love further, and only after entering into the confines of the Divine Heart did it discover that the thorns were roses.
I noted that beside the large opening there were three smaller ones in the Heart of Jesus. On asking if I knew who had caused them, He reminded me of that favor thanks to which our love had struck it with three darts. While my soul was secluded within this heavenly spot, it said: “This is my rest for ever and ever: here will I dwell, for I have chosen it” [Ps. 131:14]. I was made to understand that the riches of this Heart had not been offered to me for myself alone, but that through me others might benefit by them. I asked of the entire Blessed Trinity the success of our desires.
At this time, the Sacred Heart of Jesus took on the appearance of burning fire, projecting flames and discharging through the wound the excessive ardor of its love changed into the purest rays of light. My soul remained engrossed, even more so, when my good Jesus invited it to enter into His Heart. Daunted, then, by its lowliness and by the infinite magnitude and abundance of flames, it shrank back and was lost in its nonentity. But without knowing how, it was inside the Divine Heart, in a manner so supernatural, imperceptible and lofty that it is impossible to explain it with the coarse expressions of our human speech. Here the vision of all the Saints who accompanied our most sweet Jesus terminated, and my soul stayed alone with its Beloved, the guest of His Heart.
As soon as my soul entered into this most Holy Heart, it felt itself pervaded by this sacred fire wherein was burning the Divine Heart, much as a man entering a live furnace instantly would be destroyed by the intensity of the fire. It absorbed and annihilated in its flame all the coldness, all the lukewarmness, all the mixture of other things, until there remained purely the soul and nothing more, like the crucible which separates and destroys all the slag or metal, leaving gold and nothing else. Here it seemed that the soul was stripped of the “old man” and remained as a materia prima ready to receive the impress of the Divine Heart.
Within this hidden treasure I saw in a lofty intellectual vision the infinite wealth which the Eternal Father deposited in this tabernacle of the Divinity, and I heard a thousand marvellous secrets telling me about the flood which, so to say, irresistibly sought to burst from the source-fire of this Sovereign Heart, to drown in its flames of love the icy hearts of men. O my Father, how could I explain to Your Reverence the exalted virtues, the prerogatives and greatness of this Sovereign Heart which I discovered? How could I convey to you the emotions of this Sacred Heart at the sight of its love despised! (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.