The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ( pt, Igreja do Sagrado Coração de Jesus) is a

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Ermesinde Ermesinde is a civil parish in the municipality (''concelho'') of Valongo, in continental Portugal, northeast of Porto. The population in 2011 was 38940,municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Valongo Valongo () is a Portuguese municipality located in the District of Porto and 10 km from Porto, in the northern region of Portugal. The municipality area consists of 75.12 km² and 93 858 inhabitants (2011), and is subdivided into fou ...

, in the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

district of Porto. The religious sanctuary actually goes by several names, including the ''Church of the Good Shepherd'' or ''Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus'', a

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they ...

dedicated to the worship of the

Sacred Heart of Jesus The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This dev ...

History

The church was built between 14 July 1957 and 21 April 1966, and consecrated in fulfillment of a vow made by Mary of the Divine Heart, the Countess Droste zu Vischering, a religious personality known for influencing

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

to make a consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Later, in 1964, this

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

of the

Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, also known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, is a Catholic religious order that was founded in 1835 by Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Angers, France. The religious sisters belong to a ...

and Mother Superior of the Convent of the Good Shepherd of

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

was proclaimed

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and was later

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

on 1 November 1975, by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in Augus ...

. According to the writings of Mary of the Divine Heart, Jesus had revealed to her a promise in relation to the church-shrine: This church-shrine has become an important place for Christian pilgrims seeking to deepen their devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the life, virtues and work of Mary of the Divine Heart.

Architecture

Inside this temple, there is the tomb with the incorrupt body of Mary of the Divine Heart exposed to public

veneration Veneration ( la, veneratio; el, τιμάω ), or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Ety ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em Roman Catholic churches completed in 1966 Bom Pastor Roman Catholic shrines in Portugal 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Portugal