St Margaret Mary

Margaret Mary Alacoque lived hidden before she became influential, and even then the influence came only through suffering, patience, and obedience. The revelations linked to devotion to the Sacred Heart are central to her life, but they do not stand alone. They are bound to humility, penance, fidelity, and the very ordinary humiliations of convent life, where she was not quickly believed or easily understood.

St Claude La Colombiere mattered greatly because he recognized her mission and helped steady its reception, but the center remains Margaret Mary herself: a quiet Visitation nun learning how to answer Christ's love with love while enduring obscurity and trial. That is why this life holds together. The devotion is great, but the saint who bore it had to be purified first.