Description: In a richly layered and beautifully illustrated narrative, Raymond Jonas tells the fascinating and surprisingly little-known story of the Sacre-Coeur, or Sacred Heart. The highest point in Paris and a celebrated tourist destination, the white-domed basilica of Sacre-Coeur on Montmartre is a key monument both to French Catholicism and to French national identity. Jonas masterfully constructs the history of the devotion responsible for the basilica, beginning with the reputed apparition of the Sacred Heart to Marguerite-Marie Alacoque in the seventeenth century, through the French Revolution and its aftermath, to the construction of the monumental church that has loomed over Paris since the end of the nineteenth century.

According to the legend, Jesus offered his heart as a symbol of divine love for humanity but also made specific requests of France and its king. The country would prosper and triumph over its enemies if certain conditions were met, among them a public consecration of France to the Sacred Heart and the construction of a church of that name. Jonas focuses on key moments in the development of the cult: the founding apparition, the invocation of the Sacred Heart during the plague of Marseille, its adaptation as a royalist symbol during the French Revolution, and its elevation to a central position in Catholic devotional and political life in the crisis surrounding the Franco-Prussian War. Jonas draws on a wealth of archival sources to produce a learned yet accessible narrative that encompasses a remarkable sweep of French politics, history, architecture, and art.

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