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Margarita Maria AlakokFrench nun, founder of the cult of the "Sacred Heart of Jesus"
Date of Birth: 22.06.1647
Country:  France |
Content:
- Early Life and Vocation
- Piety and Penance
- Mystical Visions and the Cult of the Sacred Heart
- Death and Beatification
Early Life and Vocation
Born on July 22, 1647, in Lothecourt, France, Marguerite Alacoque was the daughter of a lawyer. After his untimely death in 1655, she entered the Convent of the Visitation in Charolles, suffering from paralysis. Miraculously cured, she attributed it to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and embraced an ascetic lifestyle.
Piety and Penance
In 1671, at the age of 24, Marguerite entered the Visitation monastery in Paray-le-Monial and took the name Marie-Marguerite. Renowned for her intense longing for humility, she sought frequent humiliations and inflicted self-mortification through prolonged scourgings. Despite her pleas, her superiors forbade her use of other instruments of penance.
Mystical Visions and the Cult of the Sacred Heart
Marguerite experienced profound religious ecstasies, which she penned down in her mystical treatise, "La dévotion au coeur de Jésus." Published in 1698 by Father Croiset, it inspired the founding of the Cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jesuits zealously promoted its dissemination, often using it for political and clerical agendas.
Death and Beatification
Marguerite Alacoque passed away on October 17, 1690. In 1864, Pope Pius IX canonized her as a saint. Her relics are enshrined in the chapel of the Visitation monastery in Paray-le-Monial.
