Our Path to Sainthood… St. Feast Day – October 16 This Wednesday, we celebrate the feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque ( Marguerite Marie Alacoque in French), who lived from 1647-1690. She was a French Catholic Visitation and mystic whose visions of Jesus Christ helped to spread devotion to His throughout the Roman . Jesus revealed to her the devotion He wanted to His Sacred Heart through: • attendance at Mass on nine consecutive First Fridays (called the ) …which might also require the Sacrament of Reconciliation if you are not in a of grace or it has just been a long time since your last Confession • Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament () • Establishment of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque “experienced visions of Christ, and on December 27, 1673, she began a series of that were to continue over the next year and a half. In them Christ informed her that she was His chosen instrument to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart, instructed her in a devotion that was to become known as the Nine Fridays and the Holy Hour, and asked that the feast of the Sacred Heart be established” (Catholic Online). These promises were revealed in one of many private revelations that Jesus gave St. Margaret Mary. Our Lord promised the following: 1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state in life. 2. I will establish peace in their families. 3. I will comfort them in their trials. 4. I will be their secure refuge during life, and, above all, in death. 5. I will shed abundant blessings on all their undertakings 6. Sinners will find in My Heart an infinite ocean of mercy. 7. Lukewarm souls will become fervent. 8. Fervent souls will rapidly grow in holiness and perfection. 9. I will bless every place where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored. 10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts. 11. The names of those who promote this devotion will be written in My Heart, never to be blotted out. 12. I promise thee, in the excessive mercy of My Heart, that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment. From the time she was a young child, Margaret showed intense love for the , and preferred silence and prayer to play. From age 9-13 she suffered a paralyzing illness. “At the end of this period, having made a vow to the Blessed Virgin to consecrate herself to religious life, she was instantly restored to perfect health. (Knight) “In recognition of this favor, she added the name Mary to her baptismal name of Margaret. According to her later account of her life, she had visions of Jesus Christ, which she thought were a normal part of human experience and continued to practice austerity” (Wikipedia). Her father’s death and her family’s struggle with relatives over property plunged the family into poverty and humiliation. “More than ever Margaret found consolation in the Blessed Sacrament, and Christ made her sensible of His presence and protection. He usually appeared to her as the Crucified or the Ecce Homo, and this did not surprise her, as she thought others had the same Divine assistance” (Knight). At 17, the family property was restored, and her mother convinced her that the vow she had made to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a child was no longer binding, and that she could serve God at home by penance and charity to the poor. After that, Margaret lived a relatively ordinary life and began to consider marriage. “One night upon her return from a ball, she had a of Christ as He was during the scourging, reproaching her for infidelity after He had given her so many proofs of His love” (Knight). Margaret Mary entered the Order of the Visitation in Paray-le-Moniel at the age of 24, and pronounced her vows a year later. On December 21, 1674, three years a nun, she had a in which “she heard Christ explain that he desired to show his love for the human race in a special way, by encouraging devotion to ‘the heart that so loved mankind’” (Catholic News Agency). During the next 13 months, Christ appeared to her at intervals. His human heart was to be the symbol of his divine-human love. By her own love Margaret Mary was to make up for the coldness and ingratitude of the world—by frequent and loving Holy Communion, especially on the first Friday of each month, and by an hour’s vigil of prayer every Thursday night in memory of his agony and isolation in Gethsemane. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted” (Franciscan Media). “He appointed the Friday after the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart; He called her ‘the Beloved Disciple of the Sacred Heart’” (Knight). “On 27 December 1673, the feast of St. John, Margaret Mary claimed that Jesus had permitted her to rest her head upon his heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of his love, telling her that he desired to make them known to all mankind and to diffuse the treasures of his goodness, and that he had chosen her for this work” (Wikipedia) “The love of the Sacred Heart was the fire which consumed her, and devotion to the Sacred Heart is the refrain of all her writings. In her last illness she refused all alleviation, repeating frequently: "What have I in heaven and what do I desire on earth, but Thee alone, O my God", and died pronouncing the Holy Name of Jesus” (Knight). The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was officially recognized and approved by Pope Clement XIII in 1765, seventy-five years after her death. “When her tomb was canonically opened in July 1830, two instantaneous cures were recorded to have taken place. Her incorrupt body rests above the side altar in the Chapel of the Apparitions, located at the Visitation Monastery in Paray-le-Monial, and many striking blessings have been claimed by pilgrims attracted there from all parts of the world” (Knight). When a body remains incorrupt after death, it means that it does not go through the normal process of decomposition after death because of a person’s holiness in life. Many ’ bodies or parts of their bodies are found to be incorrupt when exhumed during the investigation of their cause for sainthood. Saint Margaret Mary was canonized by Benedict XV in 1920.

Works Cited Catholic News Agency. "St. Margaret Mary Alacoque". www.catholicnewsagency.com. n.d. electronic news source.

Catholic Online. "St. Margaret Mary Alacoque". 2019. website.

Franciscan Media. "Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque". 2019. website.

Knight, Keven. "St. Margaret Mary Alacoque" New Advent.org. 2017. online encyclopedia.

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. "Margaret Mary Alacoque". www.wikipedia.org. 21 June 2019. online encyclopedia.