Margaret Mary Alacoque | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque | |
| Virgin | |
| Born | (1647-07-22)22 July 1647 L'Hautecour,Duchy of Burgundy,Kingdom of France |
| Died | 17 October 1690(1690-10-17) (aged 43) Paray-le-Monial, Duchy of Burgundy, Kingdom of France |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 18 September 1864,Rome byPope Pius IX |
| Canonized | 13 May 1920,Vatican City byPope Benedict XV |
| Majorshrine | Monastery of the Visitation, Paray-le-Monial,Saône-et-Loire, France |
| Feast | October 16 (October 17 by theOrder of the Visitation of Holy Mary and universally prior to 1969; transferred to Oct 20 in Canada) |
| Attributes | wearing the religious habit of the Visitandines and holding an image of the Sacred Heart |
Margaret Mary AlacoqueVHM (French:Marguerite-Marie Alacoque; 22 July 1647 – 17 October 1690) was a FrenchVisitation nun andmystic who promoteddevotion to theSacred Heart of Jesus in its modern form.
Alacoque was born in 1647 inL'Hautecour, Burgundy, France, now part of thecommune ofVerosvres, then in theDuchy of Burgundy. She was the fifth of seven children, and the only daughter of Claude and Philiberte Lamyn Alacoque.[1] Her father was a well-to-do notary. Her godmother was the Countess of Corcheval. Margaret was described as showing intense love for the Blessed Sacrament from early childhood.
When Margaret was eight years old, her father died of pneumonia. She was sent to a convent school run by thePoor Clares in Charolles, where she made herFirst Communion at the age of nine. She later contractedrheumatic fever which confined her to bed for four years. At the end of this period, having made a vow to theBlessed Virgin Mary to consecrate herself to religious life, she was instantly restored to perfect health.[1] In recognition of this favor, she added the name "Mary" to her baptismal name of Margaret. According to her later account of her life, she hadvisions of Jesus Christ, which she thought were a normal part of human experience, and continued to practice austerity.
With the death of Alacoque's father, the family's assets were held by an uncle who refused to hand them over, plunging her family into poverty. During this time, her only consolation was frequent visits to pray before the Blessed Sacrament in the local church. When she was 17, however, her brother came of age, took undisputed possession of the home and things improved. Her mother encouraged her to socialize, in the hopes of her finding a suitable husband. Out of obedience, and believing that her childhood vow was no longer binding, she began to accompany her brothers in the social events, attending dances and balls.[1]
One night, after returning home from a ball forCarnival dressed in her finery, she experienced a vision of Christ, scourged and bloody. He reproached her for her forgetfulness of him; yet he also reassured her by demonstrating that his heart was filled with love for her, because of the childhood promise she had made to his Blessed Mother. As a result, she determined to fulfill her vow and entered, when almost 24 years of age, theVisitation Convent atParay-le-Monial on 25 May 1671, intending to become a nun.[1]
Alacoque was subjected to many trials to prove the genuineness of her vocation. She was admitted to wearing thereligious habit on 25 August 1671, but was not allowed to make her religious profession on the same date of the following year, which would have been the usual course.[2] A fellow novice described Margaret Mary as humble, simple and frank, but above all kind and patient.[3] She was finally admitted to profession on 6 November 1672. It is said that she was assigned to the infirmary and was not very skillful at her tasks.[4]
At the monastery, Alacoque reportedly received several apparitions andprivate revelations ofJesus Christ between 27 December 1673 and June 1675. Among other things, these visions revealed to her different forms of devotion to theSacred Heart.
On 27 December 1673, the feast of St. John, Margaret Mary said that Jesus had permitted her to rest her head upon his heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of his love, telling her that he desired to make them known to all mankind and to diffuse the treasures of his goodness, and that he had chosen her for this work.
Between 1674 and 1675, other apparitions followed. From the second apparition onwards, a theme ofsadness was present in her visions:
"Jesus spoke of the sadness he feels because his great love for humanity receives in exchange "nothing but ingratitude and indifference", "coldness and contempt". And this, he added, "is more grievous to me than all that I endured in myPassion".[5]
The apparitions also revealed practices expressing the devotion to the Sacred Heart. TheFirst Fridays Devotion, which is the reception ofHoly Communion on nine first Fridays of each month as an act of reparation, was asked to Margaret Mary and a "Great Promise" was given to those who accomplish it: "I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who shall receive communion on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penance; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment."[6] In an other vision, Margaret Mary also stated that she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night in prayer and meditation on Jesus'Agony in the Garden ofGethsemane : "and on each night of Thursday to Friday, I will make you participate in the mortal sadness that I have accepted to feel in the Garden of Olives, (...), you will get up from eleven until midnight, to prostrate yourself during an hour with Me...".[7] That practice later became widespread among Catholics, known as theHoly Hour, also frequently performed during an hour ofEucharistic adoration on Thursdays.[8][9]
Between 13 and 20 June 1675, she had a vision of Jesus in which he asked her "that the first Friday after the octave of theBlessed Sacrament be dedicated to a particular feast to honor my heart, by receiving communion on that day and makingreparation to it by honorable amends..."[10] That vision later led to the institution of theFeast of the Sacred Heart, which is now asolemnity in the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, celebrated eight days after theFeast of Corpus Christi.[11]
On 16 June 1675, Alacoque reported three specific requests for France, directly from her spiritual talks.[12] These would have political and religious repercussions and would successively be realized under the royal, imperial and republican French regimes:[13]
Initially discouraged in her efforts to follow the instruction she had received in her visions, Alacoque was eventually able to convince her superior, Mother de Saumaise, of the authenticity of her visions. She was unable, however, to convince a Benedictine and a Jesuit, whom Saumaise had consulted. Nor was she any more successful with many of the members of her own community.
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Sometime around 1681, Alacoque felt compelled to write a personal testament, passionately donating her life completely to Jesus with her own blood. With the permission of her superior she used a pocket knife to carve the name of Jesus into her breast and used the blood to sign the document. The following account recalls this event:
She herself wrote out the donation, and signed this humble formula:'Sister Peronne-Rosalie Greyfie, at present Superioress, and for whom Sister Margaret Mary daily asks conversion with the grace of final penitence.' This done, Sister Margaret Mary implored Mother Greyfie to allow her, in turn, to sign, but with her blood. The Mother having assented, Sister Margaret Mary went to her cell, bared her breast, and, imitating her illustrious and saintly foundress, cut with a knife the name of Jesus above her heart. From the blood that flowed from the wound she signed the act in these words:'Sister Margaret Mary, Disciple of the Divine Heart of the Adorable Jesus'[15]
Upset by the fact that the wounds which she had cut into her breast were beginning to fade, she attempted to reopen the original wounds on more than one occasion using a knife. But, having failed to open them to her liking, she decided to burn her chest with fire. This incident placed her in the infirmary: "Trembling and humbled, she went to acknowledge her fault. Mother Greyfie, true to her custom, apparently paid little attention to what Margaret said, but ordered her in a few dry words to go to the infirmary and show her wound to Sister Augustine Marest, who would dress it."[15]
She eventually received the support ofClaude de la Colombière, the community'sconfessor for a time, who declared that the visions were genuine. In 1683, opposition in the community ended when Mother Melin was elected Superior and named Margaret Mary her assistant. She later becameNovice Mistress,[4] and saw the monastery observe the Feast of the Sacred Heart privately, beginning in 1686. Two years later, a chapel was built atParay-le-Monial to honor the Sacred Heart. Observation of the feast of the Sacred Heart spread to other Visitation convents.[16]
In 1689, Alacoque received a private request from Jesus to urge the King of France,Louis XIV, to consecrate the nation to the Sacred Heart, so that he may be "triumphant over all the enemies of Holy Church".Henri Ghéon alludes to a letter she sent to Louis XIV, but notes that "either [he] never received the letter or he refused to reply".[17]
Alacoque died on 17 October 1690.
After Alacoque's death, the devotion to the Sacred Heart was fostered by theJesuits even as it remained controversial within the Catholic Church. The practice was not officially recognized for 75 years.[8] The discussion of Alacoque's own mission and qualities continued for years. All her actions, herrevelations, her spiritualmaxims, her teachings regarding the devotion to the Sacred Heart, of which she was the chief exponent as well as theapostle, were subjected to the most severe and minute examination.
TheSacred Congregation of Rites eventually voted favorably andPope Leo XII pronounced herVenerable on 30 March 1824, introducing a cause for hercanonization.[18]
Six years later,Commissaries Apostolic were sent toParay-le-Monial by theHoly See to inspect thevirtues of the venerable Alacoque. The Commissaries desired to open her tomb in order to authenticate her remains. When Alacoque's tomb was opened in July 1830, they discovered that her brain had been preserved fromcorruption, 140 years after her death. Four doctors recorded the miracle in a report and two instantaneous cures were also recorded by the Commissaries. The examination of Alacoque's virtues and writings lasted 14 years.[19] Nowadays, her body rests above the side altar in the Chapel of the Apparitions, located at the Visitation Monastery inParay-le-Monial, which draws pilgrims from all parts of the world.[1]
On 23 August 1846,Pope Pius IX officially declared herheroic virtues, granting her the title "Servant of God".[19]
On 18 September 1864, Pope Pius IX declared herBlessed. Another tomb opening was done for the process and her brain was still discovered showing signs ofincorruptibility, 174 years after her death.[20]
Alacoque wascanonized byPope Benedict XV on 13 May 1920. The two miracles attributed to Alacoque's intercession that are required for the canonization approval were Louise Agostini-Coleshi's instant and complete cure of chronictransverse meningo-myelitis, and Countess Antonia Artorri's instant and complete cure of rightpapillary cancer.[21] The Pope also inserted the "Great Promise" of theFirst Fridays Devotion into theBull of her Canonization.[22]
In his 1928encyclicalMiserentissimus Redemptor,Pope Pius XI affirmed the Catholic Church's position regarding the credibility of hervisions of Jesus Christ by speaking of Jesus as having "manifested Himself" to Alacoque and having "promised her that all those who rendered this honour to His Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces".[23]
In 1929 herliturgical commemoration was included in theGeneral Roman calendar for celebration on 17 October, the day of her death. During the reforms of 1969, the feast day was moved to 16 October. It is an optional memorial in the United States.[24]
Alacoque's short devotional work,La Devotion au Sacré-Coeur de Jesus (Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus), was published posthumously by J. Croiset in 1698 and has been popular amongCatholics.[25]
On the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia there are two flower festivals supported by their respective Societies. Each society has a patron saint on whose feast day the grande fete is celebrated. For the Roses it is the feast of St. Rose of Lima on 30 August; and for the Marguerites it is that of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, 17 October.[26]
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And He [Christ] showed me that it was His great desire of being loved by men and of withdrawing them from the path of ruin that made Him want to manifest His Heart to men, with all the treasures of love, of mercy, of grace, of sanctification and salvation which it contains, in order that those who desire to render Him and procure Him all the honour and love possible might themselves be abundantly enriched with those divine treasures of which His heart is the source.
— from Revelations of Our Lord to St. Mary Margaret Alacoque
Thedetente bala amulet used by Spanish soldiers is said to derive from Alacoque's emblems.[27]
InJames Joyce's short story "Eveline", in his bookDubliners, a "coloured print of the promises made to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque" is mentioned as part of the decorations of an Irish home at the turn of the 20th century, testifying to Joyce's fine eye for the details of Irish Catholic piety.[28]
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