Between December 1673 and June 1675, in the Visitation monastery at Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, a young choir sister named Margaret Mary Alacoque received the series of visions of the Heart of Christ that gave the Western Church one of its principal devotions. The Church keeps her memorial on October 16.
She was born at Verosvres in 1647 and entered the Visitandines at Paray in 1671. Her community did not believe her. The theologian who settled the matter was Claude la Colombière, the Jesuit appointed superior of the house at Paray in 1675, who examined her and judged the visions genuine — a judgment that cost him nothing at Paray and much in London, where he was sent as preacher to the Duchess of York and imprisoned in the panic over the Popish Plot. He was canonized in 1992.
The devotion asked for a feast on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, and Clement XIII granted it to Poland and to the Roman archconfraternity in 1765; Pius IX extended it to the universal Church in 1856. Margaret Mary died on October 17, 1690, and Benedict XV canonized her in 1920. Her relics rest in the Chapel of the Apparitions at Paray-le-Monial, which draws pilgrims from across France and beyond each summer.
