Blessed Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos

Bernardo de Hoyos (1711–1735) was born in Torrelobatón, near Valladolid, and entered the Jesuits as a teenager. In May 1733, while still a student, he read a book about the Sacred Heart and soon after experienced a vision in which Christ asked him to spread this devotion throughout Spain. With the help of his Jesuit superiors, books and prayers about the Sacred Heart spread across the country. He was ordained a priest in early 1735 and died of typhus on November 29 of that year, only 24 years old; he was beatified in 2010.

He reported that Jesus promised him, "I will reign in Spain," words now carved at the national shrine of the Sacred Heart in Valladolid. Through Spanish missionaries this devotion reached Latin America, and in 1874 Ecuador became the first nation consecrated to the Sacred Heart.