St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin, Mystic and Visionary of the Sacred Heart



Margaret Mary Alacoque was born in Charolles, a small farming community about 20 miles away from Paray-el-Monial on July 22, 1647. She was instructed in the Catholic faith by her godmother and made a vow of perpetual virginity at age four and a half. Both as a child and as an adult, she spent many hours on her knees adoring Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Margaret’s father died of pneumonia when she was eight. His death left the family in a state of poverty and Margaret was sent to school with the Poor Clares at Charolles. She developed a painful rheumatic condition there at 12 and was bedridden until she was 15.

After suffering from a childhood that was filled with family problems and illness, Margaret entered the convent of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial at the age of 24. The other sisters viewed her as ignorant, sickly, and clumsy, but she was humble and patient and exercised great charity toward others. She was considered a simple and unremarkable member of the community.

However, the Lord wanted to use Margaret in a remarkable and miraculous way. On December 27, 1674, the feast of St. John the Evangelist, Jesus asked her to take the place that St. John had occupied at the Last Supper and that she would act as His instrument. He then appeared to her and showed her His Sacred Heart, a symbol of His Divine love. He asked her to promote devotion to His Sacred Heart through frequent Communion and an hour of prayer each Thursday night (in memory of His agony in Gethsemane).

Jesus appeared to Margaret Mary on three more occasions over a period of eighteen months in which he instructed her in a devotion that was to become known as the Nine Fridays and the Holy Hour, and in the final revelation, the Lord asked that a feast of reparation be instituted for the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. While others questioned the authenticity of these visions, her Jesuit confessor, St. Claude de la Colombière, believed and encouraged her.

St. Margaret Mary died of natural causes in 1690 and was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. The Sacred Heart devotion was officially recognized and approved by Pope Clement XIII in 1765, seventy – five years after her death.


The Twelve Promises of the Sacred Heart

1. I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life.

2. I will establish peace in their homes.

3. I will comfort them in all their afflictions.

4. I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all in death.

5. I will bestow abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.

6. Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy.

7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.

8. Fervent souls shall quickly move to high perfection.

9. I will bless every place in which an image of my Heart shall be exposed and honored.

10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.

11. Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in my Heart, never to be effaced.

12. I promise thee in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in my disgrace nor without receiving their Sacraments. My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.
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