Holy card Sacred Heart of Jesus Fratelli Bonella Milan

Italian holy card of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, issued by Fratelli Bonella of Milan, bearing serial number 744-I.G.1 and the FB anchor mark on the reverse. The card likely dates from the third quarter of the twentieth century, when Bonella distributed this chromolithographic imagery on a large scale to parishes across Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The image is set within a gilded neo-Renaissance border decorated with grape clusters, ears of wheat and a central cross. The reverse is blank. The card is in good condition.

Christ is shown frontally, his right hand pointing to the flaming heart encircled by the crown of thorns and surmounted by a cross, his left hand raised in blessing. Devotion to the Sacred Heart, formalised after the visions of Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial in 1673, was inscribed by Pope Pius IX as a universal feast in the Roman calendar in 1856 and grew during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries into one of the most widespread forms of Catholic piety. Between 1950 and 1980 Bonella ranked among the leading Italian publishers of such cards, supplying parishes for baptisms, first communions, confirmations and funeral remembrances.