Objects of Devotion

The “Sacred Heart” symbolizes unconditional love, sacrifice, mercy, and redemption. Its origins are in Catholicism, where it represents God’s love for humankind.

Recently, I have begun to notice this symbolism frequently in home goods and in fashion. Why is religious iconography so appealing to secular people that we see it sewn into designer sweaters, household objects, tableware, and jewelry?

While traveling through France last summer, I encountered an entire wall of ex-voto décor at Le Bon Marché, a famous Parisian department store. Dozens of small tin sacred hearts were fastened to a showroom wall. Not long after, I wandered through medieval hilltop villages and their quiet chapels, where 18th-century frescoes painted directly onto stone walls revealed the very same imagery (as seen in my photograph above from Église Saint-Firmin in Gordes).

I was raised by Catholic parents, and as a child I was endlessly drawn to images of Mary: Mary crowned with a halo, bathed in rays of light, surrounded by flowers, holding her child, her Immaculate Sacred Heart exposed and glowing.

When I married my husband, who is Jewish, my collecting expanded into Judaica: intricate gold filigree mezuzah charms, a tiny antique silver menorah. I designed the “bashert” charm to echo the scale of the Virgin Mary gold medal I received at my First Communion.

There is something about these antique objects: shaped by centuries of devotion and worn smooth by belief, that make them feel deeply beautiful and precious to me. 

What is it about devotional objects that speaks to us so immediately, both visually and emotionally? As society drifts further from formal religious practice, do we still hunger for symbols of faith, mystery, and transcendence? I would love to know your thoughts. What spiritual symbol speaks most deeply to you?