When 250 Catholic bishops gather in Orlando, Florida, on June 11, they will be in the presence not only of the Shroud of Turin exhibit but also of the relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Consecrating the nation to the Sacred Heart on the occasion of its 250th anniversary, the bishops will have the blessing of venerating relics of the French sister to whom the Sacred Heart was first revealed.
St. Margaret Mary was a religious living in the Monastery of the Visitation in Parais-le-Monial in 1673 when she began having visions of Jesus. He showed her his Sacred Heart, on fire with love for humanity. She shared her visions with her confessor, the Jesuit St. Claude de la Colombiere, who, along with his Jesuit brothers, encouraged the spread of devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Sister Margaret Mary was declared Blessed in 1864. As part of the process, her tomb was opened, and her brain was found to be incorrupt. Her remains were placed in reliquaries in the Chapel of the Apparitions in the Visitation Monastery, and her intercession was credited with miracles. She was canonized in 1920.
Today, four reliquaries allow St. Margaret Mary's relics to be taken around the world for the veneration of innumerable devotees of the Sacred Heart.
Relics in the cargo hold
The reliquary coming to the United States today is the largest of the four, and contains the saint's clavicle, two of her ribs, and a portion of her brain. It weighs nearly 150 pounds in its protective case. Arnaud Bouthéon, lay leader of the Knights of Columbus in France, is escorting the relics from Parais-le-Monial to New York today. He told OSV News: “It [the reliquary] will have to go in the cargo hold of the plane. I won’t be able to keep it in the cabin.”
When the relics arrive in New York, they will be taken first to the headquarters of the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Connecticut. They will be available for veneration there during this first week of June. There is a deep connection, Arnaud Bouthéon told OSV News, between the Knights and the Sacred Heart:
“My family has a special devotion to the Sacred Heart,” he said. “My grandmother, my mother and my daughter are named Margaret Mary. But it was thanks to the Knights of Columbus that I rediscovered the spirituality of the Sacred Heart. Their founder, Father Michael McGivney, was devoted to it. He wore a Scapular of the Sacred Heart.”
Bouthéon will accompany the relics to Orlando, where they will be present for the plenary assembly of the Catholic bishops from June 10-12. On June 11, the eve of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, the bishops will concelebrate Mass and formally consecrate the United States to the Sacred Heart. Before the Mass, they will listen to reflections on the Sacred Heart.
More opportunities to venerate the relics
The relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque will remain in the United States through the end of September. They will be present in Denver, Colorado, from August 1-6 for the annual convention of the Knights of Columbus. They will return to the Knights' headquarters in New Haven from September 25-27. In between, Bouthéon hopes dioceses will arrange for veneration in their own parish churches. (Contact the Knights of Columbus News Bureau at [email protected] or 475-255-0097 for queries.)
Bouthéon stresses the importance of an educational presentation of these or any relics:
“The veneration of a relic must be presented in an educational manner,” he stressed. “It helps us to become tangibly aware, as popular devotions do, of the mystery of the Incarnation — that God, in Jesus, came to dwell among us.”
That, of course, is what St. Margaret Mary Alacoque lived for, and why we venerate her in death: bringing the Sacred Heart to others, and others to the Sacred Heart.
