St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Margaret Mary Alacoque was born in L’hautecour, France on July 22, 1647 to Claude Alacoque and his wife Philiberte Lamyn. Her father died with she was eight and Margaret was sent away to school with the Poor Clares. At the age of ten she developed rheumatic fever and was bedridden for five years. She was devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and was miraculously cured of her illness when she was fifteen. She then promised to be a religious, but delayed her vocation and went to dances at the urging of her mother. At age twenty she began to have visions of Christ, but she thought that everyone must experience such favors. She entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial in 1671 and made her final vows the next year. She was misunderstood at the convent, particularly when her visions became known. On December 27, 1673 she began receiving revelations from Christ about the devotion to His Sacred Heart which He wanted her to establish. She had trouble getting her superiors to believe her visions or to allow her to make a Holy Hour each Friday night has Our Lord had requested her to do. Finally, with the help of St. Claude La Colombière who was confessor to her community for awhile, her visions were believed and devotion to the Sacred Heart was privately established at the convent. Margaret became the assistant to the convent’s new mother superior and then was chosen to be novice mistress. She died on October 17, 1790. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as revealed to her was approved by Pope Clement XIII in 1765. Margaret Mary Alacoque was canonized in 1920 and is known as the Apostle of the Sacred Heart.