MARGUERITE MARIE ALACOQUE

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'Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque' or 'Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque' (22 July 1647 – 17 October 1690) was a French Catholic nun and mystic, who fomented and promoted the growth and development of the Catholic devotion of the Sacred Heart in its modern form.
She was born at L'hautecour, a village in the diocese of Autun, now part of the commune of Verosvres in 1647. From early childhood, Margaret was described as showing intense love for the Blessed Sacrament (the Eucharist), and as preferring silence and prayer to childhood play. After her First Communion at the age of nine, she practised in secret severe corporal mortification until becoming paralyzed, which confined her to bed for four years. Having been cured of her paralysis, by the intercession of the Virgin Mary, she added to her name the name ''Marie'' (French: ''Mary'') and vowed to devote her life to the service of Mary , the Mother of God.
On 25 May 1671, she entered the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial with the intent of becoming a nun. She was subjected to many trials to prove the legitimacy of her vocation, and in November 1672, pronounced her final vows. Although her reading was confined to the lives of the saints, she taught in the school kept by the nuns of the convent for female students of the area, to whom she is reported to have endeared herself by her gracious and kindly disposition.
The appalling austerities, however, to which she was allowed to subject herself quickly again affected her health. The Visions, to which she had been always subject, became more and more frequent. The Church believes her to have been specially favored by Christ, who appeared to her in the most extravagant forms. At last, by dint of fasting and lacerating her flesh, she believed herself to be undergoing in her own person the Passion of the Lord. Her reward was the supreme vision in which Christ revealed to her his own heart burning with divine love, and requiring her to establish, on the Friday following, the feast of Corpus Christi, a feast in honor of His Sacred Heart. He called her "the Beloved Disciple of the Sacred Heart", and the heiress of all Its treasures.
The first to believe in the authenticity of her mystical revelations was a young Jesuit priest, Father Claude de la Colombière, who had been assigned to be the confessor at the Visitation Convent. It was not until 10 years later, in 1685, that the festival was first celebrated, at Paray, and not until after Margaret Mary's death, on 17 October 1690, that the devotion to the Sacred Heart, fostered by the Jesuits and the subject of violent controversies within the Church, spread throughout France and then among the Catholic populations of many other countries.
The discussion of the Margaret Mary's mission and qualities continued for years. All her actions, her revelations, her spiritual maxims, her teachings regarding the devotion to the Sacred Heart, of which she was the chief exponent as well as the , were subjected to the most severe and minute examination, and finally the Sacred Congregation of Rites passed a favourable vote on the heroic virtues of this "servant of God." In March, 1824, Pope Leo XII pronounced her Venerable (the first step on the path to canonized sainthood) and on 18 September 1864, Pius IX declared her Blessed. When her tomb was canonically opened in July 1830, two instantaneous cures were recorded to have taken place. Her body rests under the altar in the chapel at Paray, and many striking blessings have been claimed by pilgrims attracted there from all parts of the world. Her body was allegedly "incorrupt."
St. Margaret Mary was canonized by Benedict XV in 1920.
Her short devotional writing, ''La Devotion au Sacré-Coeur de Jesus'' (French: ''Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus''), was published posthumously by J. Croiset in 1698, and has been popular among Catholics. Her feast day is celebrated in the Catholic Church on 17 October.

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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 form the design of manifesting 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 honor 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''

External link

★ The Secret of St. Margaret Mary

★ http://apotres.amour.free.fr/page4/margueritemarie.htm

★ http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=443

★ http://web.comhem.se/~u13117202/smmalacoque.htm

References

Note: Her surname has also been spelled ''Al Coq''.