Baroque France (17th century)
Feast: October 16
Her own community thought she was delusional — but her visions of Christ's heart reshaped Catholic devotion worldwide.
Margaret Mary Alacoque was not an obvious candidate for anything remarkable. She was sickly as a child, bedridden for four years with what was likely rheumatic fever, and entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial partly because it was the gentlest order available. Then, starting in 1673, she began reporting visions of Jesus showing her his heart — burning, wounded, and surrounded by thorns. He asked for a holy hour on Thursdays, Communion on First Fridays, and a feast day honoring his Sacred Heart. Her superior thought she was mentally ill. Her fellow sisters mocked her. The convent's confessor dismissed her. Only when a new Jesuit confessor arrived — Claude de la Colombière — did anyone take her seriously. Claude recognized something authentic and began promoting the devotion. Margaret Mary endured years of humiliation within her own community before the tide turned. She never sought attention and found the public interest in her visions agonizing. She died at forty-three, and within decades the Sacred Heart devotion she described had spread across the Catholic world. The feast she requested was established in 1856.