Margaret Mary Alacoque
Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque or Margaret Mary Alacoque [1] (22 July 1647-17 October 1690) was a French Catholic nun and mystic, who originated the Catholic devotion of the Sacred Heart in its modern form.
She was born at Lhautecour, a village in the diocese of Autun, now part of the commune of Verosvres in 1647. From early childhood Margaret was described as showing intense love for the Blessed Sacrament (the Eucharist), and to have preferred silence and prayer to childhood play. After her First Communion at the age of nine, she practised in secret severe corporal mortification until becoming paralyzed, which confined her to bed for four years. Having been cured of her paralysis, by, she believed, the intercession of the Virgin Mary, she changed her name to Marie (French: Mary) and vowed to devote her life to the service of Mary.
On 25 May 1671, she entered the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial with the intent of becoming a nun. She was subjected to many trials to prove the legitimacy of her vocation, and in November 1672, pronounced her final vows. Though her reading was confined to the lives of the saints, she taught in the school kept by the nuns of the convent for female students of the area, to whom she is reported to have endeared herself by her kindly disposition.
The appalling austerities, however, to which she was allowed to subject herself quickly affected her mental and bodily health. Hallucinations, to which she had been always subject, became more and more frequent. She conceived herself to be specially favored by Christ, who appeared to her in the most extravagant forms. At last, by dint of fasting and lacerating her flesh, she succeeded in reducing herself to such a state of ecstatic suffering that she believed herself to be undergoing in her own person the Passion of the Lord. Her reward was the supreme vision in which Christ revealed to her his heart burning with divine love, and even, so she affirmed, exchanged it with hers, at the same time bidding her establish, on the Friday following, the feast of Corpus Christi, a festival in honor of His Sacred Heart.
The first to believe in the authenticity of her mystical revelations was a young Jesuit priest, Father Claude de la Colombière, who had been assigned to be the confessor at the Visitation Convent. It was not until ten years later, in 1685, that the festival was first celebrated, at Paray, and not until after Margaret's death, on 17 October 1690, that the devotion to the Sacred Heart, fostered by the Jesuits and the subject of violent controversies within the Church, spread throughout France and the Catholic populations of many countries.
The discussion of the Margaret Mary's mission and qualities continued for years. All her actions, her revelations, her spiritual maxims, her teachings regarding the devotion to the Sacred Heart, of which she was the chief exponent as well as the apostle, were subjected to the most severe and minute examination, and finally the Sacred Congregation of Rites passed a favourable vote on the heroic virtues of this "servant of God." In March, 1824, Pope Leo XII pronounced her Venerable (the first step on the path to canonized sainthood) and on 18 September 1864, Pius IX declared her Blessed. When her tomb was canonically opened in July 1830, two instantaneous cures were recorded to have taken place. Her body rests under the altar in the chapel at Paray, and many striking blessings have been claimed by pilgrims attracted there from all parts of the world. Her body was allegedly "incorrupt" St. Margaret Mary was finally canonized by Benedict XV in 1920.
Her short devotional writing, La Devotion au Sacré-Coeur de Jesus (French: Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus), was published by J. Croiset in 1698, and has been popular among Catholics. Her feast day is celebrated in the Catholic Church on 17 October.
Quote
"And He [Christ] showed me that it was His great desire of being loved by men and of withdrawing them from the path of ruin that made Him form the design of manifesting His Heart to men, with all the treasures of love, of mercy, of grace, of sanctification and salvation which it contains, in order that those who desire to render Him and procure Him all the honor and love possible, might themselves be abundantly enriched with those divine treasures of which His heart is the source." — from Revelations of Our Lord to St. Mary Margaret Alacoque
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
^ Note: Her surname has also been spelled Al Coq.