Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin

Margaret Mary Alacoque was born in 1647 at L'Hautecour in Burgundy. After her father's death the family lived in hardship, and she was bedridden for years as a child. In 1671 she entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial. Between 1673 and 1675 she reported a series of visions in which, she said, Christ showed her his heart and asked for a devotion of reparation, with communion on the first Friday of the month and a feast of the Sacred Heart. Many in her community doubted her, but the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière supported her. She died on 17 October 1690. The devotion spread widely; in 1856 the feast of the Sacred Heart was extended to the whole Latin Church, and she was canonized in 1920.