In this French Victorian holy card, Mary is holding the Sacred Heart as well as the baby Jesus, so we get two powerful Catholic Icons in this rare image: The Sacred Heart and the Madonna and Child. The colors are rich and warm, but still have some of that vintage feel. We love this card and think it is beautiful!

The French inscription at the bottom reads, “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Pray for Us.” Underneath that it says, “100 days one day at a time for the Associates,” which we think was prayer instructions for an indulgence at the time. There are also words in the gold mandorla (the full halo around their bodies). We’re pretty sure the first word is JÉSUS in the lower left, and clockwise, EST L'ESPÉRANCE, and on the other side DES DÉSESPÉRÉS, which means “Jesus is the hope of the despairing.” (It took us a long time to discern those words!)

There was a lot of discoloration and tarnish on this long out-of-copyright image. We spent hours restoring it to its original beauty. Overall, there are tens of thousands of good Catholic images out there, but we work to bring you just the few we love, and to make them as perfect as we can. We want to curate a collection that brings you joy.

For framing, a lot of frames would look good with this. Try a warm wood or a gold frame. You can matte it if you want, but you don’t have to matte our prints. They look pretty good with the 1.35” white border around the print. All our prints are standard size, so you can easily get a frame you like at Hobby Lobby or online. Convo us if you'd like us to frame it, and we'll find something you'll like.

– 8.5 x 11" acid-free paper
– Archival pigments
– Cardboard backer
– Story of the card
– Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal clear bag.

** IMPORTANT ** There is about an inch-and-a-third of white space around the picture, so the image is smaller than the paper.

You might also be interested in original Catholic art and jewelry by me, Sue Kouma Johnson, available all over this shop! Thanks!