[2] According to the General Roman Calendar since 1969, it is formally known as the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (Latin: Sollemnitas Sacratissimi Cordis Iesu) and celebrated on the second Friday after Trinity Sunday (see § Date, below).

[4][5] The first liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated, with episcopal approval, on 31 August 1670, in the major seminary of Rennes, France, through the efforts of John Eudes.

In June 1675, according to Margaret Mary Alacoque of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary at Paray-le-Monial, France, she had a vision of Jesus Christ in which he asked her "that the first Friday after the octave of the Blessed Sacrament be dedicated to a particular feast to honor my heart, by receiving communion on that day and making reparation to it by honorable amends, to repair the indignities it received during the time it was exposed on the altars".

In 1856, at the entreaties of the French bishops, Pope Pius IX extended the Feast of the Sacred Heart to the Latin Church under the rite of double major.

On June 12, 2023, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the following statement: This year, on June 16 — the day of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — a professional baseball team has shockingly chosen to honor a group whose lewdness and vulgarity in mocking our Lord, His Mother, and consecrated women cannot be overstated.

[12] The bishops called on Catholics to pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart on June 16, offering this prayer "... as an act of reparation for the blasphemies against our Lord we see in our culture today.