Margaret was born into a wealthy Burgundian family in 1647. Her parents were practicing Catholics, but not Catholic enough to allow their daughter to consecrate herself to the Lord in a convent. However, at the age of 24, overcoming her parents’ resistance, she managed to enter the Order of the Visitation founded by Saint Francis de Sales.

Among the Visitandines, but with Jesus

Among her religious sisters, Margaret—whose name was Mary when she made her profession of vows—was neither understood nor appreciated: although she had frequently had visions of Our Lady, she had never spoken of them. However, rumors circulated, and many among the sisters and their superiors did not believe her or even mocked her, suggesting that she was sick or crazy. Despite everything, Margaret would remain amidst the coldness of her Visitation sisters for more than twenty years, experiencing extraordinary graces and also enormous penances and mortifications, only to lovingly accompany Jesus in the intimate passion of his Sacred Heart.

An autobiography to preserve the truth

It was her spiritual father, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, who recognized in her the charisma of the saints and ordered her to describe her mystical experiences in a text that would later become her autobiography, which fortunately has survived. At first, Margaret resisted, but then, out of obedience, she consented. While writing, she was convinced that such writings would have been useful only to herself, but she did not realize the transcendent value of what she described in those pages. Beginning in 1673, Margaret Mary also began to have visions of Jesus, who asked her to have a special devotion to his Sacred Heart, which appeared to her “radiant like the sun, with the adorable wound, surrounded by thorns and crowned by a cross, resting on a throne of thorns.” Thanks to her vivid account, the well-known iconography depicting the Heart of Christ amidst light, fire, and thorns would emerge. Likewise, the institution of the liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, set on the eighth day after Corpus Christi, is due to his efforts and labor.

“The Great Promise”

Jesus appeared to Margaret Mary for 17 years, until the day of his death, when he finally came to take her by the hand to lead her to heaven. He called her “beloved disciple,” communicated the secrets of his heart to her, and made her a participant in the science of love. From Jesus, Margaret also received a great promise: whoever worthily approached the Eucharist and received Communion on the first Friday of the month for nine consecutive months, in a spirit of atonement for the offenses committed against the Blessed Sacrament and loving and honoring the Heart of Jesus, would obtain the precious gift of final perseverance; that is, she would end her life having received the sacraments and the complete forgiveness of her sins. Jesus also asked her to appeal to the King of France, Louis XIV, to consecrate the country to the Sacred Heart, but the saint never received a response from the sovereign.

His death and the cult of the Sacred Heart

Margaret Mary died on October 17, 1690; thanks to her intercession, a shrine dedicated to the Sacred Heart was built in the Montmartre district of Paris between 1875 and 1914, and consecrated in 1919. Beatified by Pius IX in 1864, she was canonized by Benedict XV in 1920.