Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

Virgin, Apostle of the Sacred Heart
(1647–1690)

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque was born on July 22, 1647, at Lhautecour in Burgundy, France. Her childhood was marked by suffering: her father died when she was eight, and she spent years as a sickly child in the care of relatives who treated her and her mother harshly. She made a vow to Our Lady to consecrate herself to God, and despite strong pressure from her family to marry she eventually entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial in 1671.

As a novice and young religious she struggled greatly with the ascetical demands of community life, feeling herself to be clumsy, tactless, and a burden to her community. But from the beginning of her religious life she experienced a powerful interior life of prayer, and in December 1673 she began to receive a series of apparitions of Our Lord that would make her name known throughout the Catholic world.

In these apparitions, which occurred over eighteen months and are known as the Great Revelations, Our Lord appeared to Margaret Mary and revealed to her His Sacred Heart, the physical heart of Jesus as the symbol and sign of His infinite love for humanity, a love that was met with ingratitude, indifference, and contempt from so many. He asked her to promote devotion to His Sacred Heart, to make reparation for the sins and ingratitude of mankind, and to ask for the institution of a special feast of the Sacred Heart on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.

Her mission was largely accomplished through the collaboration of her confessor, Saint Claude de la Colombière, who recognised the authenticity of her experiences and supported her in her difficult mission within her own community. She died on October 17, 1690, with the words My God, I desire only thee on her lips. She was beatified in 1864 and canonised by Benedict XV in 1920. Her feast is celebrated on October 16th.