Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque was a French nun of the Visitation monastery at Paray-le-Monial and a mystic. The Church owes to her in large measure the spread of devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her liturgical memorial falls on October 16.

She was born on July 22, 1647, at Lhautecour near Verosvres in Burgundy, into the family of the notary Claude Alacoque. Her father died when she was about eight. She was then sent to be schooled by the Poor Clares at Charolles, but she soon fell seriously ill and for four years did not leave her bed. As her biographies relate, she recovered when she promised the Mother of God that she would give herself to religious life. After her father’s death the household was run by relatives, from whom Margaret and her mother suffered many humiliations.

Her family wanted her to marry, and for a time she herself hesitated. In the end, in 1671, she entered the Monastery of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Paray-le-Monial, which belonged to the order founded by Saint Francis de Sales. She made her religious profession on November 6, 1672, and afterward helped in the monastery infirmary.

Between the end of December 1673 and June 1675, as she testified, Christ appeared to her several times. The first of these apparitions took place on December 27, 1673, while she was praying before the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus spoke to her of the love of his Heart for people and of how rarely it meets with gratitude. In the octave of Corpus Christi in 1675 she heard the words, “This is the heart that so loved human beings,” and also the request that a feast be established in honor of his Heart. Holy Communion on the first Fridays of the month and the Thursday Holy Hour also go back to what she handed on.

In the monastery these accounts were received with distrust, and the first clergy who were asked for an opinion judged them to be a delusion. In 1675 the Jesuit Saint Claude de La Colombière came to Paray-le-Monial. He recognized her experiences as authentic, came to her defense, and himself began to spread devotion to the Heart of Jesus. In time the attitude of the community changed as well. Margaret Mary became assistant to the superior and mistress of novices, and in 1686 the whole monastery kept the feast of the Heart of Jesus. At the direction of her spiritual director she wrote her autobiography.

She died at Paray-le-Monial on October 17, 1690, at the age of 43. Her tomb is there, in the chapel of the Visitation monastery known as the Chapel of the Apparitions. In 1765 Pope Clement XIII allowed the bishops of Poland and the Roman Archconfraternity of the Heart of Jesus to celebrate the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and in 1856 Pius IX extended it to the whole Church.

Pope Pius IX beatified her on September 18, 1864, and Benedict XV canonized her on May 13, 1920. In 1986 John Paul II prayed at her tomb. Pope Francis recalled her witness in the encyclical “Dilexit nos” of 2024.