Baroque France/England (17th century)
Feast: February 15
The one priest who believed Margaret Mary when everyone else called her crazy — then nearly died spreading the devotion in anti-Catholic England.
Claude de la Colombière arrived at Paray-le-Monial as the new Jesuit confessor and walked into a mess. The visionary nun Margaret Mary Alacoque had been dismissed by the community, and Claude had to decide whether she was genuine or disturbed. He chose to believe her. That decision shaped Catholic devotion for centuries. Claude became the first major promoter of the Sacred Heart, writing about it and preaching it wherever he went. His superiors then sent him to England — Protestant England, where Catholic priests could be arrested and executed. He served as chaplain to the Duchess of York at the court of Charles II, preaching discreetly and hearing confessions in secret. When the Titus Oates plot whipped up anti-Catholic hysteria in 1678, Claude was arrested and thrown into prison. He was eventually expelled from England rather than executed, but the cold, damp conditions of his imprisonment broke his health. He returned to France and died at Paray-le-Monial in 1682, at forty-one. His total trust in God's providence — even when everything around him was collapsing — became the hallmark of his spiritual teaching.