WHO IS ST. MARGARET MARY?
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was a French nun who entered the Order of the Visitation in the late 1600s. During her lifetime, she had several visions which became the foundation for the Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
During her first vision, Jesus said, “Behold the wound in my side, wherein you are to make your abode now and forever.”
Later, while kneeling before the exposed Blessed Sacrament she experienced a vision in which the Lord told her to take the place that St. John had occupied at the Last Supper. Jesus then revealed to her His Sacred Heart as a symbol of His love for mankind.
He said, “My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for mankind….that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its burning charity and must spread them abroad by your means.”
Sister Margaret Mary had three more visions over the next year and a half. Jesus instructed her in what would eventually become known as the Nine Fridays and the Holy Hour. In the final revelation, the Lord asked that a feast of reparation be instituted for the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.
Jesus told Margaret Mary not to do anything without the approval of those who guided her. This presented a strain, as her revelations were not well received by her superior or by the Catholic community. She often fell ill. Eventually, Margaret Mary’s superior came around to believing, and Margaret Mary eventually was named Assistant Superior of her convent. Still, she continued to face skepticism from the broader community.
That is, until a Jesuit priest named Claude La Colombiere (now Blessed Claude) became her confessor. Blessed Claude transcribed her visions into a book that was circulated among the Visitidines and shared throughout France. Then, devotion to the Sacred Heart began to spread.
It was officially recognized and approved by the Catholic Church in 1765, 75 years after Sister Margaret Mary’s death. Today, the devotion is known worldwide and we embrace it with special affection here at SMMA. Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque was canonized in 1920.
Prayer to our patroness, St. Margaret Mary
Dear St. Margaret Mary, permitted by the Sacred Heart of Jesus to become a caretaker of its divine treasures, obtain for us, we ask You, from that Adorable Heart all the graces we need. We ask for them with boundless confidence; may the Divine Heart be willing to grant them to us through Your intercession, so that once again He may, through You, be glorified and loved. Amen.
