Catholic devotions

:This article is primarily about devotions in the Latin Rite. For devotions in the Eastern Catholic Churches, refer to the articles on the individual Churches or the corresponding Orthodox Churches.
Catholic devotions are prayer forms which are not part of the official public liturgy of the Church but are part of the popular spiritual practices of Catholics. Many are officially sanctioned by the Church as profitable for spiritual growth but not necessary for salvation. Often devotions in the Church take the form of formalized prayers, sacred objects or sacred images that arise from private revelations, or personal religious experiences of individuals such as apparitions of Mary or of Christ. Catholic devotions also include the veneration of the saints. The Church has a tradition of thorough investigation of such private revelations and the lives of candidates for sainthood to assure that no natural or scientific explanation can, at the time of investigation, account for any miracles involved. Often an approved devotion of the Church has a particular prayer form, an image and sometimes a message or prophecy.
Several examples of Catholic devotions include the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Face of Jesus, the various scapulars, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Seven Sorrows of Mary, Novenas to various saints, pilgrimages and devotions to the Blessed Sacrament, and the veneration of icons in the Eastern Catholic Rites, etc.
==Terminology==
Several terms related to Catholic Devotions require some clarification as they are used by various religious groups and scientific fields with different senses.
===Veneration vs. worship===
English-speaking Catholics today generally do not use the term "worship" except in relation to God, (that is, the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and the sacramental real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament). The relationship of Catholics to saints is one of honor and to request intercessory prayer, not worship in the modern sense of the word. In Catholic belief, it is absolutely forbidden to give anything adoration, which is due to God alone.
In the past, it was common for Catholic theologians to use the term "worship" in relation to Mary and the saints as documented here in the Catholic Encyclopedia. Back then, it had no connotation of "adoration due to God" as it does now, but meant to acknowledge the "worth" of something. Worship is considered the genus to which latria (worship of God as the supreme being), dulia (worship of saints), and hyperdulia (worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary) all belong as distinct species. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes these as "three degrees of worship". A few tradition-minded Catholic theologians still persist in using the term "worship" in this way.
It is not rare to find Catholics who claim that Catholics that saying they "pray to Mary or the saints" is bad terminology, and instead say they "ask Mary or the saints to intercede" for them. However, the official website of the Holy See contains eighteen uses of the specific phrase "pray to Mary", including by the current Pope Benedict XVI Thus the official posture of the Catholic Church indicates that it is correct Catholic theology and terminology even if it is misunderstood by Christians outside the Church. "To pray" is defined be the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "to entreat" or "to implore," and it is in this sense that Catholics may be said to "pray" to saints: they ask the prayers of saints in the same manner they ask other fellow Christians to pray for them. 
Veneration is specifically the worship given to God or the honor given to a saint by acts of piety offered to God or the saint through a prayer, song or gesture before an image of the one worshipped or honored. An example is the "Veneration of the Cross" on Good Friday when Catholics commemorate the death of Jesus on the Cross. During the Church's liturgy for that day, after the homily, the faithful are invited to approach the front of the Church to kiss a cross or crucifix. As Catholics believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, this is an act of worship by veneration. To lay flowers or light a candle before a statue of St. Joseph, on the other hand, is an act of honor through veneration. In response to the Age of Iconoclasm, the Second Council of Nicaea defined this principle: "For the honor of the image passes to the original," that is, to honor given to an image passes to the one imaged.
===Latria, dulia and hyperdulia===
Latria, dulia and hyperdulia are terms which come from Greek and describe the proper relations between the faith and God and the faithful and saints. Latria, translated as "worship" in English is the praise, honor, glorification and adoration due to God alone as Creator of all that is. Dulia is the kind of honor given to the communion of saints, with the exception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is honoured with hyperdulia. While the faithful honor her to a greater extent than other saints (for her unique and essential role in salvation in the Annunciation) this honor given her remains inferior to latria.
As precise definitions of words do not translate well from one language to another, words connoting latria and dulia vary from one language to another. In English certain words are theologically reserved to instances of latria, though in everyday usage the distinctions are often less clear. Terms generally reserved today for Latria include "worship" and "adoration". 
Terms that may refer to either latria or dulia include: "veneration", "honor", "praise". Gestures applied to latria and dulia include: kissing an image, using incense, making the sign of the cross, bowing the head, bowing at the waist, laying flowers, lighting votive candles, etc.
===Cultus===
Cultus in Catholic theology refers to the accumulated literature, music, and gestures of a local faith community or particular church in the veneration of a saint. Over time as the Church in a local area develops practices related to the honoring of someone who has died as a person of exemplary and heroic holiness through such observances as the commemoration of the person's anniversary of death (also known as the saint's "birth into heaven"), or honoring the person's image, through processions or prayers for intercession, it can be said that a cult of a person has developed. The spontaneous development of such pious practices is one kind of evidence in favor of that person's canonization. The various aspects of a person's cult may not be publicly promoted in the Church until that person has been beatified."
"Cultus" in this theological sense is not to be confused with cult in the sociological sense, which is group formed for the psychological control of its members.
==Origins and functions==
By the term "devotions" in the plural, or "popular devotions" are external practices which evoke a sense of piety, devotion, love or affection for God. Several factors shape the effects of these practices on the devout:
::# association with the private revelation of others
::# the strong appeal which they make to the emotions
::# the simplicity of form which puts them within the reach of all
::# the association with many others engaged in the same practices
::# their derivation from the example of others considered to lead a holy life.
==Development of Devotions==
Historically, the best known devotions have either originated from the imitation of some practice of the religious orders, or from reported religious visions, often by saints such as Juan Diego or Margaret Mary Alacoque. 
The Rosary, for instance, was known in its earliest form as "Our Lady's Psalter". At the time, the recitation of all one hundred fifty Psalms was a common practice of the religious orders; those unable to read recited instead a hundred fifty Pater Nosters or Hail Marys. The Rosary was thus a miniature Psalter.
Another example is the Stations of the Cross. It became popular in the eleventh century, at a time when much Christian attention was focused on the Holy Land but few were able to actually visit. Great numbers of Europeans found an equivalent to walking the Via Dolorosa in following Christ's footsteps in spirit. The practice of the Stations of the Cross was a kind of miniature pilgrimage.
Similarly, wearing a scapular of a particular religious order is like wearing a miniature habit. 
The Angelus originated with the eleventh-century monastic custom of reciting three Hail Marys during the evening bell. 
Some devotions are limited in popularity to certain periods or particular churches. Many Tridentine-era Roman Catholic devotions such as the Six Sundays of St. Aloysius, the Five Sundays of St. Francis's Stigmata, the Seven Sundays of the Immaculate Conception, the Seven Sundays of St. Joseph, the Ten Sundays of St. Francis Xavier have fallen out of use since the liturgical reforms of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Other devotions such as the Rosary, Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and other devotional prayer forms which declined abruptly after the Second Vatican Council have flourished once again since the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. Over time and in different nations and cultures there is a tendency to multiply various devotional forms. Whilst the Rosary is on particular devotion, the rosary beads are often used for other devotional purposes known as chaplets. 
The Popes, Doctors of the Church, and saints have also recommended some traditional devotions and pious practices which have been effective for growth in holiness, specially through daily practice: morning offering, spiritual reading, visit to the Blessed Sacrament, thanksgiving after Communion, mental prayer, lectio divina, and examination of conscience.
===Rosary===
Among the many Roman Catholic prayers and devotions, the Rosary is one of the most prominent, and most often recited prayers. Of course, since the words to the rosary include the words to the Our Father prayer, the frequency of the Our Father by definition exceeds that of the rosary. Yet the significance of the rosary is widely emphasized in Roman Catholic teachings, e.g. Saint Louis de Montfort's widely read book The Secret of the Rosary discusses the religious and mystical views on the rosary from multiple perspectives.Saint Louis de Montfort "Secret of the Rosary" ISBN 978-0895550569
The Roman Catholic emphasis on the rosary is part of the focus on Roman Catholic Mariology, as exemplified by Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis MariaePope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae_en.html which builds on the total Marian devotion pioneered by Saint Louis de Montfort.
In his encyclical Ingruentium Malorum Pope Pius XII stated that repeating of identical formulas within the rosary has a great impact on those who pray, giving them confidence in the Virgin Mary.
====Rosary popularity====
There are no exact data on the number of daily rosaries prayed around the world, but to get an idea of the spread of the rosary within Roman Catholics, it is worth noting that literally hundreds of millions of rosaries have been made and distributed free of charge by volunteers worldwide. A number of rosary-making clubs exist around the world for the purpose of making and distributing rosaries to missions, hospitals, prisons, etc. free of charge. The largest such non-profit organization in the United States is Our Lady's Rosary Makers whose 17,000 members annually distribute roughly 7 million free rosaries. A good number of other volunteer-based clubs and groups exist worldwide and distribute tens of millions of free rosaries every year.
====Rosary: the fifteen promises====
Roman Catholic beliefs on the power of prayer allege that according to legend, through Saint Dominic and Blessed Alan de Rupe, the Blessed Virgin Mary made fifteen specific promises to Christians who pray the rosary.Dominican Fathers on the Rosary http://www.catholic.org/clife/mary/promises.php
The fifteen rosary promises range from protection from misfortune to meriting a high degree of glory in heaven.Rosary center http://www.rosary-center.org/conprom.htm In support of this statement Patrick Cardinal Hayes of New York provided his imprimatur to this effect.Rosary promises http://www.catholic.org/clife/mary/promises.php
====Rosary-based prayers without mysteries====
There are Roman Catholic devotional prayers which are said on the usual rosary beads but which do not include the usual mysteries of the Holy Rosary. 
One example is the Rosary of the Holy Wounds first introduced at the beginning of the 20th century by the Venerable Mary Martha Chambon, a lay Roman Catholic Sister of the Monastery of the Visitation Order in Chambery, France.Ann Ball, 2003 Encyclopedia of Catholic Devotions and Practices ISBN 087973910X She reported that Jesus appeared to her and asked her to unite her sufferings with His as an Act of Reparation for the sins of the world. Sister Mary Martha attributed the following purpose for the devotion to Jesus: "you must not forget ... the souls in Purgatory, as there are but few who think of their relief . . . The Holy Wounds are the treasure of treasures for the souls in Purgatory."Legionnaires Praying for the Clergy http://www.lpca.us/five_sacred_wounds.htmMichael Freze, 1993, Voices, Visions, and Apparitions, OSV Publishing ISBN 
087973454X
Another example is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy introduced in the early 1930s by Saint Faustina Kowalska, a nun who lived in Płock, Poland. This prayer is often said as a rosary based prayer but its theme is mercy. It focuses on three forms of mercy: to obtain mercy, to trust in Christ's mercy, and to show mercy to others. In 2000, Pope John Paul II ordained the Sunday after Easter Divine Mercy Sunday, where Roman Catholics remember the institution of the Sacrament of Penance.Vatican web page for Saint Faustina Kowalska http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20000430_faustina_en.html
===Devotions to Jesus===
Several widespread devotions in the Catholic tradition relate directly to Jesus Christ including the Sacred Heart, Holy Face of Jesus, the Stations of the Cross (including a relatively modern Scriptural Way of the Cross celebrated by Pope John Paul II since 1991), and the Holy Name of Jesus. 
====Reparations to Jesus====
Some devotions have the form of spirit of reparation for the sufferings and insults that Jesus endured during His Passion or for the sin of blasphemy.
Pope John Paul II referred to such Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified".Vatican archives http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_20001021_riparatrici_en.html Pope Pius XI called these Acts of Reparation "some sort of compensation to be rendered for the injury" with respect to the sufferings of Jesus.
Miserentissimus Redemptor Encyclical of Pope Pius XI 
====Sacred Heart of Jesus====
 
Formal references to this devotion began to first appear in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07163a.htm
However, the most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the form it is known today was Visitandine Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), who claimed to have received visions of Jesus and Mary and that Jesus had permitted her to rest her head on his Heart. There is nothing to indicate that she had known the devotion prior to then, or at least that she had paid any attention to it. 
After the letters of Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart (1863-1899) requesting, in the name of Christ Himself, to Pope Leo XIII consecrate the entire World to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on 11 June 1899, the Holy Father solemnly consecrated all mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Feast of the Sacred Heart is now a holy day in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Sacred Heart has been closely associated with Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ. 
In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor Pope Pius XI stated: "the spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus".Miserentissimus Redemptor Encyclical of Pope Pius XI http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_08051928_miserentissimus-redemptor_en.html
====Holy Face of Jesus====
 
This devotion dates back to Sister Marie of St. Peter, a Carmelite nun in Tours France who in 1843 reported visions of Jesus and Mary in which she was urged to spread the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, in reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in His Passion. This resulted in The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer)
.Catholic Tradition http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/golden-arrow.htm The devotion was further spread from Tours by the efforts of the Venerable Leo Dupont who prayed for the establishment of the devotion for 30 years, burning a lamp before a painted image of Jesus. The devotion was initiated shortly before Dupont's death and later influenced Saint Therese of Lisieux.Dorthy Scallan. The Holy Man of Tours. (1990) ISBN 0895553902 Pope Leo XIII approved of the devotion in in 1885.
On the first Friday in Lent 1936, Sister Maria Pierina de Micheli, a nun born near Milan in Italy, reported a vision in which Jesus told her: “I will that My Face, which reflects the intimate pains of My Spirit, the suffering and the love of My Heart, be more honored. He who meditates upon Me, consoles Me”. Further visions reportedly urged her to make a medal with the Holy Face based on the image from Secondo Pia's photograph of the Shroud of Turin. 
In 1958, Pope Pius XII approved of the devotion and the Holy Face medal and confirmed the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all Roman Catholics.Joan Carroll Cruz, OCDS. Saintly Men of Modern Times. (2003) ISBN 1931709777Holy Face Devotion http://www.holyfacedevotion.com/timeline.htm
====First Friday====
History of First Friday.
First Friday devotions among Catholics are related to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ. First Friday practices date to the last decades of the 17th century, when Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary and spoke to her of His Sacred Heart. Among the promises Our Lord revealed to St. Margaret Mary, the 12th specifically referenced practices for Fridays:
In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart, as given to St. Margaret by Jesus, began to grow in popularity as soon as the saintly woman had died, but was officially recognized 75 years later. Though the devotion dictated to Margaret referred to 9 consecutive first Fridays, it does not need to end there. Many of the Catholic faithful continue to make the First Friday devotion beyond the nine consecutive months.
First Friday Mass.
Holy Mass on Friday is devoted to the Sacred Heart and to the Precious Blood of Jesus. Due in part to the promise revealed by Christ to St. Margaret Mary, attending Mass on the First Friday of the month is popular among many Catholics, even if they are unable to attend daily mass regularly throughout the week. Reception of the Holy Eucharist on such Fridays was popular even in years when frequent Communion was not. Fridays, particularly the first Friday of the month, are the popular day in many parishes for the Blessed Sacrament to be taken to the sick and homebound.
===Devotions to the Virgin Mary===
Popular Roman Catholic devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary include the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Our Lady of Guadalupe. The construction and maintenance of a Mary garden is also a popular form of Marian devotion.
Marian devotions build on the established Roman Catholic philosophy for the study and veneration of the Virgin Mary via the field of Mariology, which in recent years has been further emphasized with Pontifical schools such as the Marianum specifically devoted to this task.Mariology Society of America http://mariologicalsocietyofamerica.usCenters of Marian Study http://www.servidimaria.org/en/attualita/promotori2/promotori2.htmPublisher’s Notice in the Second Italian Edition (1986), reprinted in English Edition, Gabriel Roschini, O.S.M. (1989). The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta (English Edition). Kolbe's Publication Inc. ISBN 2-920285-08-4
In his Apostlic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II emphasized the importance of Marian devotions by quoting Saint Louis de Montfort:
:Since Mary is of all creatures the one most conformed to Jesus Christ, it follows that among all devotions that which most consecrates and conforms a soul to our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be consecrated to Jesus Christ." 
====Reparations to the Virgin Mary====
Roman Catholic teachings and traditions includes specific devotions as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary for insults that she suffers. The Raccolta Catholic prayer book (approved by a Decree of 1854, and published by the Holy See in 1898) includes a number of such prayers.Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12620a.htmJoseph P. Christopher et al., 2003 The Raccolta St Athanasius Press ISBN 978-0970652669
These devotions and prayers do not involve a petition for a living or deceased beneficiary, but aim to repair the sins of others against the Virgin Mary.
====Immaculate Heart of Mary====
The Immaculate Heart of Mary (originally The Sacred Heart of Mary) is a devotional name used to refer to the physical heart of Saint Mary as a symbol of the Blessed Virgin's interior life, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for her God, her maternal love for her Son, Jesus, and her compassionate love for all people. 
In the twelfth century indications of a regular devotion can be noted in a sermon by St. Bernard (De duodecim stellis), from which an extract has been taken by the Roman Catholic Church and used in the Offices of the Compassion and of the Seven Dolours. Stronger evidences are discernible in the pious meditations on the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina, usually attributed either to St. Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or St. Bernard; and also in the large book "De laudibus B. Mariae Virginis" (Douai, 1625) by Richard de Saint-Laurent.
In July 1855, the Congregation of Rites finally approved the Office and Mass of the Most Pure Heart of Mary without, however, imposing them upon the Universal Church. According to the third reported apparition at Fatima, Portugal on July 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary stated that "God wishes to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart" in order to save souls from going into the fires of hell and to bring about world peace. To fulfill this in part, Our Lady requested that the Pope, together with the bishops of the world, undertake the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. On March 25, 1984, Pope John Paul II fulfilled this particular request by consecrating the world, including Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary before the statue of the Virgin Mary of Fatima brought to Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican for the occasion. Again on October 8, 2000, Pope John Paul II made an act of entrustment of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the new millennium.
====Our Lady of Guadalupe====
In 1531, Saint Juan Diego reported an early morning vision of the Virgin Mary in which he was instructed to build an abbey on the Hill of Tepeyac in Mexico. The local prelate did not believe his account and asked for a miraculous sign, which was later provided as an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe permanently imprinted on the saint's cloak (called a tilma) where he had gathered roses. Over the years, Our Lady of Guadalupe became a symbol of the Roman Catholic faith in Mexico.
In 1945 Pope Pius XII declared the Virgin of Guadalupe "Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas", and "Patroness of the Americas" in 1946. Pope John XXIII invoked her as "Mother of the Americas" in 1961.Notitiae, bulletin of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 2002, pages 194-195 In 2002 Pope John Paul II declared Juan Diego a saint. 
Replicas of Juan Diego's tilma can be found in churches throughout the world, including Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome.
====Scapular====
Although the Scapular may have initially started as a Christocentric devotion, by the end of the Middle Ages it had taken on a distinct Marian tone, to the extent that the Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages called it "one of the main Marian devotions of Christendom".Andre Vauchez, 2001, Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, Fitzroy Dearborn Press ISBN 9781579582821 page 1314
In the 18th and 19th centuries the Scapular continued to grow, along with the Rosary, as a key Marian devotion and number of Marian scapulars such as the Blue Scapular of the Immaculate Conception, the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Scapular of the Seven Dolours of Mary, and the Scapular of the Immaculate Heart of Mary were approved. By early 20th century the devotional Scapular had gained such a strong following among Catholics worldwide that the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1914 stated: "Like the Rosary, the Brown Scapular has become the badge of the devout Catholic." Catholic EncyclopediaEWTN on the History of the Brown Scapular Henry Charles Lea, 2002, A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church, Adamant Media Corp. ISBN 1402161085 page 498Mark Forster, 2001, Catholic Revival in the Age of the Baroque Cambridge Univ Press ISBN 0521780446 page 145
In the early and mid 20th century, the Scapular gained further momentum by being recommended in Marian apparitions such as Our Lady of Fatima. In one of the final reported Fátima appearances on October 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary had a Brown Scapular in one hand and a Rosary in the other and reportedly encouraged the praying of the Rosary and the wearing of the Brown scapular.Thomas W. Petrisk, 1998, The Fatima Prophecies, St. Andrews Press, ISBN 9781891903304 page 345Lucia Santos, 1976, Fatima in Lucia's Own Words, Ravengate Press ISBN 0911218106 In the mid 20th century, the United States "Scapular Magazine" helped enroll one million Americans to pray the Rosary based on the Our Lady of Fatima messages.Eli Lederhendler, 2006 Jews, Catholics, and the Burden of History Oxford University Press ISBN 0195304918 page 98
The Scapular, along with the Rosary, has become a key Roman Catholic Sacramental for Marian devotions. These two Sacramentals have been supported, encouraged and linked by a number of Catholic figures such as popes, saints and cardinals and specific promises and indulgences have been associated with them.Vatican website for Pope Paul VI's Apostolic Constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina Thomas Petrisko, 2000, Inside Heaven and Hell, St. Andrews Press ISBN 9781891903236 page 105Pope John Paul II, 1996, Gift And Mystery, Doubleday Books ISBN 9780385409667 page 28 The Rosary and the devotional scapular continue to be encouraged together as key Marian devotions in the 21st century.Zenit News 2008 Cardinal Urges Devotion to Rosary and Scapular
====Other Marian devotions====
Other Marian devotions include:
* The Five First Saturdays
* Seven Joys of Mary
* Seven Sorrows of Mary
 ♥ Holy Eucharist ♥
Eucharistic adoration is a practice in the Roman Catholic and in Anglican Churches, in which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed to and adored by the faithful. Early references to the adoration of the Eucharist go back to St. Basil (who died in 379). The Franciscan archives credit Saint Francis of Assisi (who died in 1226) for starting Eucharistic Adoration in Italy.Franciscan Archives: http://www.franciscan-archive.org/patriarcha/opera/fwintro.html 
The lay practice of adoration formally began in Avignon, France also in 1226 to give thanks for the victory over the Albigensians in the later battles of the Albigensian Crusade. The "Confraternity of Penitents-Gris" brought Eucharistic Adoration back after the French revolution in 1829.http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/manual/section1/sec1_12a.pdf 
Twenty years later, the Venerable Leo Dupont initiated the nightly adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Tours in 1849, from where it spread within France.Dorthy Scalan. The Holy Man of Tours. (1990) ISBN 0895553902 The adoration of the Eucharist within France grew in this period and there were interactions between Catholic figures who were enthusiastic about spreading the Eucharist e.g. Leo Dupont and Saint Peter Julian Eymard (also known as the Apostle of the Eucharist) who formed the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament in 1858.Joan Carroll Cruz, OCDS, Saintly Men of Modern Times. (2003) ISBN 1931709777 
The devotion to the Holy Eucharist spread rather quickly thereafter. For instance, at years and counting, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration have been praying in front of the Blessed Host non-stop longer than anyone in the United States.
==Approbation process==
Specific devotions in the Roman Catholic Church may not be promoted publicly through any ecclesiastical medium such as parishes, publications, etc. unless they are approved by the Church. The process of approval requires a detailed investigation by the local ordinary. After it is determined that a practice is based on sound doctrine and is not injurious to one who practices, it may be permitted (but not promoted by the clergy). Although the Holy See as a rule refrains from intervention, on rare occasions, where some theological principle is involved, action may be taken by one of the Roman Congregations, The slow recognition by the Church of the devotion to the Sacred Heart illustrates the caution with which the Holy See proceeds in matters of theological principle. Only after a thorough investigation by the Holy See may a devotion be fully approved and recommended (though never required) by the Church. With such approval the devotion may be given a feast day on the liturgical calendar after which it may be used as the name of Churches, schools and various other ecclesiastical institutions. Examples include Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Infant of Prague, el Santo Niño de Atocha, the Feast of the Holy Rosary, among many others.
==Indulgences==
Indulgences have long been associated specifically with Roman Catholic devotions. In the Medieval period until the reforms of the Second Vatican Council indulgences were expressed in terms of days, weeks and years worth of penance and were attached to various devout practices. An indulgence is the removal of some of the temporal penalty for sin. As breaking a window even accidentally requires two forms of repayment, an apology (contrition and appeal for forgiveness or mercy) and replacement of the window (an act of justice) so all sin is an offense against God requiring two responses (contrition, and appeal for mercy) and purification of the damage caused to one's soul (an act of justice as we belong to God). The Church understands Purgatory an indefinite state of purification in preparation for the fullness of the Beatific Vision or heaven. While the remission is no longer expressed in temporal terms such as days, weeks, months, the Roman Catholic Church continues to attach indulgences (partial and plenary) to many forms of Catholic devotions, particularly in relation to pilgrimages, certain feast days (like All Souls' Day or Divine Mercy Sunday) and other pious practices during Jubilees or Holy Years. Plenary indulgences remit all of the existing temporal punishment due for the individual's sins, while partial indulgences remit only a part of the existing punishment. Eastern Catholic Churches, on the other hand, do not use the concept of indulgences.
==Sacramentals==
 
Many Catholic devotions incorporate "sacramentals", such as the Rosary and Brown Scapular, objects which have been blessed or consecrated, set aside as instruments of God's grace through their symbolic value and the devout use of the faithful. Some examples of sacramentals are blessed crosses, crucifixes, rosaries, religious medals, images and other objects of religious significance. The use of sacramentals is not "magic" but can provide an occasion for a deeper relationship with God. This is not automatic but depends on the spiritual disposition of the individual and the will of God who offers grace freely out of his mercy.
==See also ==
:* Saint George: Devotions, traditions and prayers
==References==
==External links==
* Devotions
* Devotions and Promises
* Eternal Word Television Network, Global Catholic Network (EWTN), Faith Devotionals.
* Several Devotions
* 
Category:Catholic spirituality
*
de:Andacht
es:Devoción
id:Devosi Katolik
it:Devozione
pt:Devoção