Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin

Margaret Alacoque was born on 22 July 1647 at L'Hautecour in Burgundy (now part of Verosvres), the fifth of seven children and only daughter of Claude Alacoque, a well-to-do notary, and Philiberte Lamyn. Raised in a fervent Catholic home, she already loved the Blessed Sacrament intensely as a child and, at about five years of age, consecrated herself to the Lord by a vow of chastity.

When she was eight her father died of pneumonia. She was sent to the Poor Clares at Charolles, where she made her First Communion at nine. Rheumatic fever then confined her to bed for four years. At the end of that illness she vowed herself to the Blessed Virgin for religious life and was instantly restored to health; in gratitude she added the name Mary to Margaret. Family property fell under an uncle's control and the household knew poverty; her consolation was prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. When her brother came of age, circumstances improved. Out of obedience to her mother she took part for a time in social life, believing her childhood vow no longer binding.

One night after a Carnival ball she saw Christ scourged and bloody. He reproached her forgetfulness yet showed her His Heart filled with love because of the promise she had made to His Mother. She resolved to fulfill her vow. Overcoming family resistance, she entered the Order of the Visitation founded by Saint Francis de Sales at Paray-le-Monial on 25 May 1671, nearly twenty-four years old. She received the habit on 25 August 1671 and made profession on 6 November 1672, taking the name Margaret Mary. Humble, simple, frank, kind, and patient, she was tried in the infirmary and elsewhere, and for more than twenty years lived among sisters who often doubted or mocked her visions of Our Lady and of Jesus, treating her as ill or mad. She bore extraordinary graces and severe penances with a smile.

From 27 December 1673, the feast of Saint John, Jesus permitted her to rest her head upon His Heart and disclosed the wonders of His love, choosing her to make them known. For some seventeen years He appeared to her as the "beloved disciple," sharing the secrets of His Heart and the science of love. She saw that Heart radiant like a sun, with its adorable wound, surrounded by thorns, surmounted by a cross, resting on a throne of thorns—the image that shaped later iconography. He spoke of the sadness of receiving only ingratitude and coldness for so great a love, a pain more grievous than His Passion. He asked the First Fridays: Holy Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays, with the Great Promise of the grace of final penitence, the sacraments, and His Heart as safe refuge at death. He asked the Holy Hour each Thursday night in union with His agony in Gethsemane, and that the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be kept as a feast of reparation to His Heart—the origin of the liturgical Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.

He also asked that the King of France, Louis XIV, consecrate the realm to the Sacred Heart, honor It in the royal house, and place It on standards; she obtained no answer from the sovereign. Many in her community and some consulted theologians rejected her. Her Jesuit confessor, Saint Claude de la Colombière, recognized the charism of the saints, ordered her to write her experiences, and thus her autobiography was preserved. She resisted at first, then obeyed, still thinking she wrote only for herself. Around 1681, with her superior's leave, she carved the name of Jesus upon her breast with a knife and signed in her blood an act of total donation as "Disciple of the Divine Heart." Later, when the marks faded, she tried again and even burned her chest, then humbly submitted to correction in the infirmary.

In 1683 opposition eased; she became assistant and later novice mistress. The monastery began to keep the feast of the Sacred Heart privately in 1686, and a chapel was raised in Its honor. The devotion spread among Visitation houses and, through the Jesuits, far beyond. Margaret Mary died on 17 October 1690; tradition holds that Jesus Himself came to take her by the hand. Through her mission the great Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur rose on Montmartre (1875–1914, consecrated 1919). Pius IX beatified her in 1864; Benedict XV canonized her in 1920.

May Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque obtain for us a heart of reparation, that we may honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the same humble love she showed.

This is the prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that the Saint used to recite:

I give and consecrate to the adorable Heart of Jesus my person and my life, my actions, pains, and sufferings, so that no part of my being may be used henceforth except to honor, love, and glorify Him. This is my irrevocable will: to be entirely His and to do everything for His love, renouncing all that may displease Him. I choose You, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, as the sole object of my love, the guardian of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy for my frailty and inconstancy, the restorer of all the faults of my life, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be, O Heart of goodness and mercy, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me His just indignation. O loving Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You, for I fear everything from my own malice and weakness, but I hope for all things from Your goodness. Destroy in me whatever may displease You. May Your pure love be deeply impressed upon my heart so that I may never forget You or be separated from You. I beg You, by Your goodness, that my name may be written in You, for I wish to live and die as Your true devotee. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You!

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XV AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE READING OF THE DECREE "SUPER DUBIO" REGARDING THE MIRACLES ATTRIBUTED TO BLESSED MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE

IT IS NOT FAR

6 January 1918

He is not far from the truth who believes that in Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque we should consider above all the mission entrusted to her of propagating the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Perhaps the name of that humble daughter of Saint Francis de Sales would not have gone beyond the small circle of the Monastery of Paray-le-Monial if Jesus had not graced her with His apparition and His sweet words: "Behold this Heart that has loved men so much!". We therefore applaud the esteemed Prelate who, from the solemn approval of two miracles attributed to the intercession of Blessed Margaret Mary, has drawn reason to hope that the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is about to take on new and greater growth.

The praised orator was speaking in the name of the Postulation of the Cause of Canonization of Blessed Margaret; and therefore in his words, even had he not inserted the closing hint, We would have recognized the echo of a soul hastening the moment to see the Virgin of Paray crowned with the halo of the Saints. Oh, may the certainty that the host of those who share the sentiments and desires of his soul is innumerable increase his confidence!

But, since he would be mistaken who, from the approval of miracles attributed to the intercession of a Servant of God, believed—we do not say facilitated, but now made certain—the canonization of that same Servant of God, it pleases Us now to set aside the link that today's ceremony may have with the fulfillment of the aforementioned desires. And, returning in thought to the first part of the noble address directed to Us by the praiseworthy Postulator, We prefer instead to insist upon the hope that today's publication of the decree relating to the two miracles attributed to the intercession of Blessed Alacoque will give new and greater development to the devotion of the faithful toward the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

It must not be passed over in silence that many, perhaps even among the most devoted children of the Church, shared a sense of painful wonder, because it did not yet appear that God wished to choose the Blessed Alacoque as an instrument of wonders. Far be it from Our mind to entertain any, even the slightest, suspicion that that sense of painful wonder was not joined in everyone by the reverence due to the inscrutable will of God. But We cannot refrain from asking whether sufficient reflection has been given to the fact that the apostolate of Alacoque has not yet found, among the general body of the faithful, that response and that favor which both its own excellence and the holiness of the life of her who performed it should have secured for it. Oh! With what boldness, and with how much frequency, so many Christians have continued to repeat, at least in practical life, the words of those wicked subjects whose open rebellion against their Sovereign is related by Saint Luke: \"We will not have this man to reign over us\" (Lk. 19:14). In vain has the pious Virgin of Paray-le-Monial labored, first directly and then through the continuers of her work, to persuade the world of the excellence of \"that Heart which has so much loved men\"; in vain has she recalled the multiplicity of benefits springing from that inexhaustible source of graces which is the deified Heart. Alas! Too much have the iniquities of men long continued to confirm the sorrowful lament that broke forth from the divine lips in the cell of Paray-le-Monial: \"And yet this Heart is so little loved in return by men.\" If the apostolate of Margaret Mary Alacoque has not yet achieved the desired fruit to the extent of which it would be intrinsically capable, the cause is not to be sought in its nature or in the insufficiency of the gifts of her who exercised it. Yet, even without presuming to lift the veil of the divine decrees, which we venerate \"with the bending knees of the mind,\" it seems to Us that one would not be far from false who supposes that the full glorification of Alacoque is reserved by God for that time when the mission entrusted to her, to propagate the devotion to the Sacred Heart, shall appear more extensive, better received in the world, and therefore more fruitful in results. To the simple expression of this Our thought, We believe that in souls anxious to honor Margaret Mary Alacoque among the crown of saints, there should spring up spontaneously, and grow with urgency, the desire to soon see multiplied the fruits of the mission entrusted to the pious pupil of the Visitation cloister. Oh! How beautiful and appropriate is such a desire; We express the hope, however, that whoever embraces it will also add the resolve to direct their own efforts toward facilitating the desired multiplicity of fruits that we can expect from devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

But to you, most beloved sons, we do not wish to conceal that today Our soul opens to the dear hope that our age, hitherto oppressed by infinite miseries, may find its salvation in a more docile correspondence with him who continues the apostolate of Alacoque. Let us give praise to God, and recognize as having now fallen into common contempt the darts that in the past the pretended sages dared to hurl against the doctrine that vindicates for the Heart of Jesus the cult due to any member of a divine Person: let us give praise to God, and recognize the extraordinarily increased number of sodalities that take their name from the Sacred Heart of Jesus; to God let our praise ascend and recognize the prodigies of charity that, in union with and through the merits of the Deific Heart, intrepid missionaries accomplish in distant lands or timid religious in nearby hospitals. But in a most special manner, and with accents of the liveliest gratitude, let us give praise to God and recognize the admirable spread that the most holy work of the Consecration of Christian families to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has taken today. Ah! If all families were to consecrate themselves to the Divine Heart, and if all were to fulfill the obligations of such a consecration, the social reign of Jesus Christ would be assured! And should we not rejoice to see the cause of such a desirable effect set in motion? We rejoice in it so much that it pleases Us to argue from it that the day of the canonization of Blessed Alacoque is not far off. If indeed this must follow a more convenient spread of the cult of the Sacred Heart, who will not hasten by desire and by work the extension of this most excellent cult? From the dawn the midday is argued, and We, in the auspicious practice of the consecration of families to the Sacred Heart, salute the dawn of that most desired midday in which the sovereignty of Jesus Christ will be recognized by all. We repeat with confident exultation the word of Paul: \u00ab He must reign \u00bb. (I Cor., XV, 25).

Right from the beginning we have said that today\u2019s ceremony also contributes to nourish Our hope of a new and greater development in the devotion of the faithful to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Indeed, a decree has been published recognizing the truth of two instant cures attributed to the intercession of Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque. In the two prodigies, the reward given to devotion to the Most Holy Heart of Jesus is manifest.

For over a year, Luisa Agostini Coleschi had been afflicted by an illness judged incurable: in vain she had several times implored the intercession of several Saints. But was it not on the eve of the feast of the Sacred Heart that, sweetly impressed by the account of many graces obtained through Alacoque, she made her exclusive appeal to her throughout the day of the feast? Was it not on the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart that she obtained the longed-for grace? To the relatives and friends who were the first to visit her after the cure, Luisa Coleschi said: \u00ab The Most Holy Heart of Jesus has granted me the grace \u00bb, and she added, almost to anticipate and resolve a possible doubt: \u00af In my mind I have never separated the Blessed from the Most Holy Heart of Jesus, so that, in naming the Most Holy Heart, I have always intended to include the Blessed in it \u00bb. It seems to Us that the prodigy, of which pious Luisa Coleschi was the fortunate recipient in Valle di Pompei, must undoubtedly be attributed to the intercession of Blessed Alacoque; but who would not also say that it was ordained to propagate the devotion of the faithful to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

Equally we believe it must be said of the grace granted to Countess Astorri, widow Pavesi, because this pious lady, when she learned the gravity of her illness, and thinking that the octave of the feast of Blessed Margaret was running, turned trustfully to her, and, together with her daughter, dedicated a novena of prayers to her; but did not Astorri later declare in her sworn deposition that she had turned to Alacoque because \u00ab she knew of the love with which the Blessed had zealously guarded the glory of the Heart of Jesus \u00bb?

Now, from this immediate connection between the wonders recognized today and devotion to the Sacred Heart, why should we not deduce that the Almighty also employs the virtue of miracles to persuade mortals of the necessity to embrace, and indeed to second, the apostolate of the pious Virgin of Paray-le-Monial? Oh! What a "new manifestation" of His love Jesus makes in today's solemnity of the Epiphany, destined to commemorate the "first manifestation" that the Incarnate Word made of Himself to our first fathers in the faith! In that first Epiphany, the foundations of the social reign of Jesus Christ were laid: oh! May the Epiphany we celebrate today ensure the extension and firmness of such a reign!

To achieve so desirable an effect, everyone must direct their own strengths. We would wish that everyone direct them thither, especially by promoting and facilitating the already praised consecration of Christian families to the Divine Heart of Jesus; and we believe that the postulators of the cause of canonization of Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque will not delay in recognizing the close bond that the fulfillment of their desires may have with the further and more decisive efficacy of the apostolate entrusted to their Blessed. What we say of the "official postulators" can be extended to all the devotees of Alacoque, who with their desires and aspirations "almost postulate" the supreme honors for the privileged daughter of the Salesian family. And therefore We address a warm exhortation to all to contribute, first by their own example and then with every best endeavor, to extending the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to every corner of the earth. Let no one fear the arduousness of the enterprise; let no one's courage be diminished by the memory of their own weakness, because God's blessing makes even difficult things easy, and makes even the weak strong.

We therefore invoke the abundance of heavenly blessings upon all those who holily labor to promote the greater glory of Margaret Mary Alacoque. First to enjoy Our good wishes are those who have attended today's ceremony. But Our heart at this moment goes further than Our sight, and meeting both with the faithful gathered today with the most worthy Bishop of Autun in the Sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, and with the devoted pupils of all the Monasteries of the Visitation at this very hour gathered around the sacred altars, to both the one and the other Our heart wishes to extend the Apostolic Blessing. Oh! May it be a truly salutary blessing, which induces everyone to prepare the new glory of Alacoque by cooperating in making effective her sublime mission to promote and propagate devotion to the Most Holy Heart of Jesus.