Saint Who?
Saints Who Lost Loved Ones
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
Religious († 1690) Feast: October 16
Margaret Mary, mystic of the Sacred Heart, lost her father when she was eight. His affairs were left in a bad way, and unsympathetic relatives took charge. Margaret and her mother were reduced to a servant-like existence in their own home. Matters did not improve until Margaret’s brothers came of age.
Sadly, two of those brothers died in their early twenties. The estate fell to another brother, who was adamant that his charming sister forget her hopes to be a nun. Margaret’s mother, a highly sensitive women, likewise feared losing Margaret to a convent and finding herself at the mercy of in-laws. So Margaret was pressured to marry. But a vision of Jesus scourged reminded her of her childhood vow to enter the religious life, which she now resolved again to seek.
Margaret visited an uncle, who was eager to help her enter a convent where his own daughter was a novice. Margaret declined, insisting that she would then be entering for love of family, not love of God. The Blessed Mother, ever her guide, had assured her that she had a different place in mind. Margaret’s heart found rest at last when she entered the Visitation convent in Paray-le-Monial. She died there in 1690. Her final words: “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.”
Merciful Jesus, may we, like Saint Margaret Mary, find strength and mercy when we are hurt
by family members.
