Sacred Heart meaning: what does the symbol represent?
Traditionally, the Sacred Heart represents the heart of Jesus Christ and his love for humanity.
In his 1956 encyclical Haurietis Aquas, Pope Pius XII described Christ's heart as the natural sign and symbol of his boundless love. [1]
Nearly seventy years later, Pope Francis returned to the subject in Dilexit Nos, exploring the heart as a symbol of our inner life and our capacity to love. [2]
The familiar Sacred Heart image is more than a decorative heart shape. Each element forms part of its visual language:
- The heart - love
- The flames - burning or radiant love
- The crown of thorns - suffering and sacrifice
- The cross - Christ's crucifixion and self-giving
Together, they create an image that has carried meaning for generations.
What do the symbols of the Sacred Heart mean?
The heart
At the centre is the heart itself, representing the love of Christ for humanity. [1]
It is the simplest idea behind an extraordinary image: love made visible.
The flames
Flames rise from the heart, echoing what Pope Pius XII described as Christ's "burning love" for humanity.[1]
Visually, they also transform the familiar heart shape into something radiant and alive.
This image is of Four Saints Adoring Christ Crucified on the Sacred Heart (Lucas Cranach the Elder German, 1505) Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access
The crown of thorns
A crown of thorns usually surrounds the heart, recalling Christ's suffering.
Pope Francis connects the wounds and thorns of Sacred Heart imagery with Christ's self-giving and sacrifice.[2]
The cross
A cross traditionally rises above the heart, linking the image with the crucifixion and the Christian understanding of sacrificial love.[2]
The result is an image in which love and suffering exist side by side - part of what gives the Sacred Heart its emotional and visual power.
Where did the Sacred Heart come from?
The history of the Sacred Heart stretches much further back than many people realise.
Devotion to the heart of Christ had been developing for centuries before the image became widely known in the seventeenth century.
Both Pope Pius XII and Pope Francis trace elements of this devotion to medieval figures including St Gertrude of Helfta and St Bonaventure, who wrote about the wounded heart of Christ long before there was a formal feast dedicated to the Sacred Heart.[1][2]
France is where the story gathers pace.
During the seventeenth century, French priest St John Eudes helped establish formal liturgical devotion to the heart of Christ. [1]
Soon afterwards, St Margaret Mary Alacoque (image below) a Visitation nun living in Paray-le-Monial, France, reported a series of visions during the 1670s that became closely associated with the spread of Sacred Heart devotion.
While Margaret Mary is one of the names most associated with the Sacred Heart today, she was not its beginning.
She became part of a story already centuries in the making.
From sacred symbol to folk art
This is where the Sacred Heart becomes particularly fascinating to me as a collector.
Once the image existed, generations of artists and artisans continued to interpret it - and not only within churches.
In Mexico, retablos became an important devotional and folk-art tradition. These small religious paintings were often created on sheets of tin and depicted saints, sacred figures or expressions of gratitude and devotion.
New Mexico State University's University Art Museum holds the largest public collection of Mexican retablos in the United States, with more than 2,200 works.[3][4]
The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago carries the same folk-art tradition into its public programs, including workshops on making tin Sacred Hearts.[5]
Some Sacred Hearts are simple, spare lines of tin. Others are exuberantly ornate.
They have been painted, carved, embroidered and hammered from metal. Their materials and techniques may change, but the heart remains instantly recognisable.
And when they are handmade, no two feel quite the same.
Frida Kahlo, retablos and personal symbolism
The visual language of Mexican devotional art also travelled into twentieth-century art.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera were known collectors of Mexican retablos, and scholars have explored the influence of retablos and ex-voto paintings on Kahlo's own work.[6]
That connection is particularly interesting because it shows how an established religious visual language can also become intensely personal.
A recognisable symbol can carry centuries of inherited meaning while still allowing an artist to tell an individual story.
The Sacred Heart in art and fashion today
The Sacred Heart has never completely disappeared from contemporary visual culture.
In 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute presented Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, exploring the long relationship between fashion, Catholic imagery and devotional traditions.[7]
The Sacred Heart has also appeared repeatedly in the work of Dolce & Gabbana, including within the fashion house's Devotion universe of clothing and accessories.[8]
In 2026, the motif appeared again in Dolce & Gabbana's Alta Gioielleria collection in an elaborate Sacred Heart Parure created using gold filigree and gemstones.[9]
That doesn't mean the Sacred Heart has acquired one new universal meaning outside religion.
I think the reality is more interesting than that. An image created centuries ago to communicate meaning instantly remains recognisable enough to be continually reinterpreted.
For people of faith, its religious significance remains.
For someone else, a Sacred Heart may evoke love, remembrance or connection.
And sometimes, we may simply respond to the craftsmanship and beauty of an object before we know anything about its history. Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access
Why handmade Sacred Hearts feel different
Look closely at a handmade Sacred Heart and you will often find something a machine would have removed.
A slightly uneven edge.
A visible brushstroke.
A tiny hammer mark in the metal.
These aren't necessarily imperfections.
They are evidence of the maker.
That is something I particularly love about the Sacred Hearts I collect and choose for Bespoke Hearts.
A symbol with centuries of history can still feel completely individual when interpreted by another pair of hands.
A collector's note
When I first became fascinated by Sacred Hearts, I wasn't searching for a particular style, colour or period.
I simply noticed that certain ones made me stop.
Some were ornate. Others beautifully simple. Some carried those tiny irregularities that immediately gave away a human hand.
Over time, I realised I wasn't collecting them because they matched anything.
I was collecting them because they made me feel something.
Then I got curious.
What did the flames mean? Why the thorns? Where had this extraordinary image actually come from?
I'm sure that's how most collections really begin. First you fall in love with the object.
Then, if you're lucky, you find out its story.
Danielle
Founder & Chief Heart Hunter, Bespoke Hearts
If a Sacred Heart has ever made you stop too, you're welcome to explore our current Sacred Heart collection - each piece chosen for its craftsmanship, symbolism and individual character.
Research & references
- Pope Pius XII. Haurietis Aquas: On Devotion to the Sacred Heart. The Holy See, 15 May 1956. vatican.va
- Pope Francis. Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. The Holy See, 24 October 2024. vatican.va
- New Mexico State University - University Art Museum. NMSU Mexican Retablo Collection: New Acquisitions 2019-2023. artnews.nmsu.edu
- New Mexico State University Newsroom. Digitizing NMSU's massive retablo collection opens art to scholars and public. 19 February 2024. newsroom.nmsu.edu
- National Museum of Mexican Art. NMMA en Casa: Tin Sacred Hearts. History, Mission + Impact
- María A. Castro-Sethness. "Frida Kahlo's Spiritual World: The Influence of Mexican Retablo and Ex-voto Paintings on Her Art." Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2004-2005. jstor.org
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. 2018. metmuseum.org
- Dolce & Gabbana. Devotion - From the Heart to the Hands. world.dolcegabbana.com
- The National. "Hand-embroidered florals meet precious gemstones in Dolce & Gabbana's Alta Moda shows in Italy." July 2026. thenationalnews.com