Devotion to Mary’s Heart always flourished in the Church, but its first official approval did not come till the beginning of the 19th Century when Pius VI approved, for certain religious organizations, a Feast for the Most Pure Heart of Mary. The devotion was approved for the universal Church when Pius XII dedicated all mankind to the Heart of Mary in December 1942, following this by the institution of the new Feast of the Immaculate Heart the Blessed Virgin Mary.