FEAST OF ST MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE – 16th OCTOBER

SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE
FEAST DAY – 16th OCTOBER

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was born in the Diocese of Autun (France) on July 22, 1647, the fifth of seven children. She had a deep love for Jesus from a tender age and always wanted to please him. She was very deeply devoted to Our Lady. While growing up, St. Margaret Mary had two years of formal learning from the Urbanist Nuns, yet her contributions to the Church have been significant.

At the age of 9, she received her First Holy Communion. In her words, “This Communion shed such bitterness over all my little pleasures and amusements that I was no longer able to enjoy any of them, although I sought them eagerly”. (The Letters of St. Margaret Mary of Alacoque, The Apostle of the Sacred Heart). She became extremely ill after that, and even lost her mobility, due to paralysis, for about four years, losing much weight.

St. Margaret Mary was cured, and in 1671, joined the Visitation order and she professed the following year. She experienced apparitions from Christ, who revealed his most Sacred Heart to her, while she was praying before the Blessed Sacrament or after receiving Holy Communion.

Sometimes Jesus’ Sacred Heart was a blazing furnace, at other times it was torn and bleeding on the account of the coldness and sin of mankind. She saw Christ’s heart engulfed in flames and surrounded by thorns and heard his loving voice, pained by the sins of mankind.

St. Margaret Mary knew Christ had selected her and, with the help of St. Claude de la Colombiere, SJ, was instrumental in instituting the great feast of the Sacred Heart and spreading the devotion to the Sacred Heart throughout the world. She is a saintly role model on how to love as Christ taught her. She once wrote:

“True it is that one who loves does not think, even in the midst of the greatest sufferings, that he is suffering anything. But you will surely grant me that no one can love without suffering. The love of my God is a pitiless tyrant who never says “enough.” (The Letters of St. Margaret Mary of Alacoque, The Apostle of the Sacred Heart)

On her death bed, St. Margaret Mary showed an earnestness to die, and yet she was extraordinarily joyful, despite being in tremendous pain. During her final agony, she was filled with an all-consuming fear of God’s divine justice and her own final judgement. Yet, her immediate consolation came by holding a crucifix and saying the words, “Mercy, O my God, mercy.” After this moment her fear disappeared and her spirit was filled with a great calm and peace.

This saint shared the messages of Christ in a way that touched even the hardest of sinners, providing many with hope that miracles can happen when hearts unite with Christ. She died on Oct. 17, 1690, at the age of 42 and was canonized on May 13, 1920, by Pope Benedict XV. Her feast is celebrated on 16th October. She is known as the Apostle of the Sacred Heart. She is the patron saint of those suffering with polio, devotees of the Sacred Heart, and loss of parents.

CONTEMPLATING THE LIFE OF SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE – A HEART CHOSEN TO REVEAL THE HEART OF CHRIST

A FRAGILE CHILDHOOD

Margaret Mary Alacoque was born on 22 July 1647 in Verosvres, Burgundy, France. After her father’s sudden death, her family suffered poverty and humiliation due to a dispute with relatives. From childhood, she found comfort in God. At nine, her First Communion deepened her love for Christ. After suffering a serious illness for four years, she made a vow to consecrate herself to God if healed. Upon her recovery, this promise remained firmly in her heart.

A WORLD IN NEED OF LOVE

During seventeenth century France, religious life was often influenced by rigid attitudes that emphasized divine justice and human unworthiness. Margaret Mary was called to remind people that God is not distant or unapproachable but full of mercy and love. Her mission was to reveal the Heart of Jesus, wounded by humanity’s indifference yet continually burning with love for all.

THE VISITATION CONVENT

At the age of twenty four, Margaret Mary entered the Visitation Convent at Paray le Monial, founded by Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane Frances de Chantal. Her humility and unusual devotion were sometimes misunderstood by her fellow sisters. However, beneath her quiet exterior was a deep spiritual life. Between 1673 and 1675, she experienced the visions that would shape her mission.

THE VISIONS OF THE SACRED HEART

Margaret Mary reported that Jesus appeared to her and revealed His Sacred Heart, surrounded by flames and crowned with thorns, with a cross above it. He expressed His sorrow that, despite His immense love for humanity, He received so little love in return. He asked for a special feast in honour of His Sacred Heart, acts of reparation, and Holy Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months. Through these revelations, she was called to make Christ’s boundless love known throughout the world.

TRIALS AND VINDICATION

Margaret Mary faced doubt, criticism and misunderstanding. Some questioned her visions, and she was discouraged from speaking about them. However, Saint Claude de la Colombière, a Jesuit priest and her spiritual director, recognized her sincerity and supported her mission. Gradually, her community and local clergy became more receptive to her experiences, and devotion to the Sacred Heart began to spread.

DEATH AND LEGACY

Margaret Mary died peacefully on 17 October 1690, aged forty three. Her life and mission helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1765, Pope Clement XIII approved the feast for certain places, and in 1856, Pope Pius IX extended it to the universal Church. Today, the Sacred Heart remains a powerful reminder of Christ’s merciful and enduring love for humanity.

WHY HER MESSAGE ENDURES

Saint Margaret Mary’s mission was more than the promotion of a devotion. She reminded the world that the heart of Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus, founded on love, trust and reparation. Her message continues to invite us to respond to Christ’s wounded Heart with sincere faith, grateful love and compassionate lives.

PRAYER

Jesus, you desire that we learn to love others by first loving you. The Sacred Heart of Jesus devotion, started by your greatest devotee, St Margaret Mary Alacoque, is one where we allow you to renew us and transform our heart. You revealed to your worthy servant, the flames engulfing your Sacred Heart, with pain at our sins.

Love for your Sacred Heart especially honors the Incarnation, and makes our soul grow rapidly in humility, generosity, patience, and union with you. Help us to emulate the example set by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, to honor you with all our hearts and accept our sufferings as the cross of our love for you. Amen

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ALSO CELEBRATED:

𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗧 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗛𝗘𝗗𝗪𝗜𝗚
Duchess of Poland and Widow

Saint Hedwig was the wife of Henry, Duke of Silesia and Poland, and the mother of six children. To one of her sisters, married to the King of Hungary, was born the future Saint Elizabeth of Hungary; another was the wife of Philip-Augustus of France, and the third, Abbess of a celebrated monastery at Lutzingen. Saint Hedwig led a humble, austere, and holy life amid all the pomp of her royal state. While still young, she and her spouse made a solemn vow of chastity, ratified by their bishop.

Her house was a school of piety and good order; with Duke Henry she built the large monastery of Trebnitz, where she placed nuns of the Order of Citeaux. Inspired by these holy examples, the Secretary of State of the Duke and Duchess left the court and dedicated all his wealth to the construction of a Cistercian monastery, which he then entered, to spend there the rest of his life.

Saint Hedwig attended to the needs of all the monasteries and the hermits of the region, visiting them herself and taking them clothing, food and all she judged necessary. She visited prisoners and saw that they did not suffer from the cold or from lack of light. She cared for the poor and served them herself in her residence. On Holy Thursday she washed the feet of several lepers, remembering the lessons of Our Saviour. She fasted often and walked barefoot in the snow when she prayed; she slept on the ground.

Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was the keynote of her life. She considered it her very great privilege to supply the bread and wine for the Sacred Mysteries, and each morning would attend as many Masses as were celebrated. After the death of her husband in 1238, she retired to the Cistercian convent of Trebnitz, where she lived under obedience to her daughter Gertrude, abbess of that monastery, growing day by day in holiness, until God called her to Himself in the year 1243.

She was canonized twenty-four years later, by Pope Clement IV. This Pontiff, during the ceremony of her canonization, asked God through her intercession to cure a girl who was blind, and the cure was immediately effected. Saint Hedwig is buried in the church of Trebnitz.

𝙎𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙃𝙚𝙙𝙬𝙞𝙜 and Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, 𝙥𝙧𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙪𝙨

A Day of Radical Compassion and Divine Love: Remembering St. Hedwig and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

The Church honors two extraordinary women who walked vastly different paths, yet both exemplified the radical, consuming love of Christ: Saint Hedwig (Religious) and Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (Virgin).

Though they lived centuries apart, their lives together paint a breathtaking picture of what it means to completely surrender to God—one through tireless charity on the earth, and the other through mystical communion with the Heart of Heaven.

Saint Hedwig: The Mother of the Poor

As the Duchess of Silesia and Poland, St. Hedwig possessed worldly power, wealth, and status. Yet, her crown never blinded her to the crown of thorns worn by the suffering. She chose a life of deep austerity, using her influence to build hospitals, shelters, and monasteries, and famously stripped herself of comforts to walk alongside the poor, orphans, and widows as an equal. She teaches us that true royalty is found in service, and that material blessings are meant to be poured out in love for others.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque – The Apostle of the Sacred Heart

As a French Visitation nun, St. Margaret Mary was chosen by Jesus to ignite the world with a realization of His passionate, burning love. Despite facing deep misunderstandings, skepticism, and trials within her own community, she steadfastly championed the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Through her visions, Christ revealed a heart that beats with mercy, inviting us to find refuge, peace, and an ocean of forgiveness. Her life reminds us that intimacy with Jesus is worth every trial, and His heart is an unceasing fountain of grace.

PRAYER

Saint Hedwig, teach us to open our hands and hearts to the least of these, stripping away our pride to serve Christ in our neighbor.

Saint Margaret Mary, draw us closer into the furnace of Christ’s Sacred Heart, teaching us to trust in His infinite mercy through every storm.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Get Spritual Insight