Apparitions of Our Lord Jesus Christ to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at the Visitation monastery of Paray-le-Monial, revealing His Sacred Heart and calling for reparation, First Fridays, and the feast of the Sacred Heart. The Holy See approved the devotion and liturgical feast; Pius XI affirmed the revelations.
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690), a Visitandine nun at Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, received a series of apparitions of Jesus that shaped modern devotion to the Sacred Heart.
In the principal revelations—traditionally dated from the feast of St. John the Evangelist in December 1673 through the 'great apparition' during the octave of Corpus Christi in June 1675—Christ showed His Heart as the symbol of His burning love for humanity, lamented ingratitude and sacrilege, and asked for concrete practices of reparation: frequent Communion, Communion on the first Friday of each month, a Holy Hour of prayer, and a liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart. He called Margaret Mary the beloved disciple of His Heart and entrusted her with making the devotion known.
Spread of the devotion met resistance and then wide acceptance, aided by confessors and friends of the saint, including Jesuit promoters. The Holy See granted the liturgical feast in stages (notably for Poland and an archconfraternity in 1765 under Clement XIII) and later extended it. Papal teaching—including Pius XI's encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor (1928)—affirmed the revelations to Margaret Mary as a providential invitation to contemplate Christ's merciful love. She was canonized in 1920. Paray-le-Monial remains a major pilgrimage shrine of the Sacred Heart.
Ecclesial character. Catalog status is Holy See recognition: the universal liturgical cult of the Sacred Heart and explicit papal affirmation of the Paray revelations. Private revelation does not add to the deposit of faith; Catholics may embrace the devotion as the Church proposes it, centered on the Eucharist and the love of Christ crucified and risen.
Narrative source SanctumNomen (public historical digest) · Catalog source SanctumNomen curated catalog · Further reading Catholic Encyclopedia — Sacred Heart of Jesus · Private revelation is not required belief. Approval means the faithful may believe with prudence. · Images from Wikimedia Commons (public domain or Creative Commons).
