SACRED HEART OF JESUS, SOCIETY OF THE

Religious institute established May 8, 1794, in the former Jesuit residence at Eegenhoven near Louvain, Belgium, which followed the rule of the jesuits. Its main purpose was to effect the restoration of the Society of Jesus, suppressed since 1773. Members promised to seek admission into this order upon its restoration. The founder and first superior was Éléonor de tournÉly, aided by Charles de Broglie, a nobleman whose brother was Bp. Maurice de broglie. Both were French priests, émigrés from the French Revolution, and former seminarians at St. Sulpice, Paris, as were the other two original members. Joseph varin, superior (1797–99) after Tournély's death, soon joined them. Advancing armies of the French Revolution forced the group to flee to Cologne, then to Augsburg where the nine members pronounced vows (Nov. 15, 1794) similar to those of St. ignatius of loyola and his first companions at Montmartre, Paris, in 1534. They sought admission about this time into the remnant of the Jesuits existing in White Russia; but acceptance of their petition was deferred. After moving to the neighborhood of Vienna to escape the French (August 1796), the Society established its headquarters in Hagenbrunn (April 1797), in a house donated by the Abbey of klosterneuburg. Two years later its 50 members were well organized, influential, and possessed of considerable material resources. About half were priests, most being from distinguished backgrounds and well educated. Upon the recommendation of Pius VI, who noted the nearly identical rule and aims of the two organizations, the Society united with the paccanarists (April 18, 1799); accepted Paccanari, who initiated the negotiations, as superior; and exchanged its own title for that of the Society of the Faith of Jesus, official name of the Paccanarists. Its subsequent brief history is that of the Paccanarists.

Bibliography: f. speil, P. Léonor Franz v. Tournély u. die Gesellschaft des heiligsten Herzens Jesu (Breslau 1874). o. pfÜlf, Die Anfänge der deutschen Provinz der neu entstandenen Gesellschaft Jesu (Freiburg 1922). a. guidÉe, Vie du R. P. Joseph Varin (Paris, 2d ed. 1860). j. burnichon, La Compagnie de Jésus en France 1814–1914 v.1 (Paris 1914). l. koch, Jesuiten-Lexikon: Die Gesellschaft Jesu einst und jetzt (Paderborn 1934); photoduplicated with rev. and suppl., 2 v. (Louvain-Heverlee 1962) 1763–64.

[j. f. broderick]