Two Frenchwomen and the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Venerable Anne Madeleine Remuzat was born in France in 1696.  Around the age of nine, she begged her parents to let her join the cloistered Visitation order. (The Visitation order was founded by St. Frances Jane Chantal and St. Francis de Sales in 1610.)

Around 1713, Sister Anne Madeleine was inspired to continue to the work of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, also a Visitation sister, whose visions of Christ had developed the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart focuses on Christ’s boundless love for mankind and seeks reparation for sins and the indifference and abuse committed against the Blessed Sacrament. The Sacred Heart is usually depicted as Christ’s heart with a bleeding wound, wrapped in the crown of thrones, and with a flame rising above it.

Margaret Mary Alacoque had died in 1690, so it was a new devotion and mostly just recognized among the Visitation sisters and Jesuits. Sister Anne Madeleine established an association that included lay people dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Members would spend time in adoration in front of the tabernacle. This followed Sister Margaret Mary’s example of a holy hour every Thursday night. The association received Vatican approval in 1717. During adoration that same year, Sister Anne Madeleine felt God telling her that Marseille must repent from its immorality.

Three years later the plague arrived, one of the last major outbreaks of bubonic plague in France. In Marseille, it killed 100,000 people in under three years. Churches were closed. Open-air services were held. Priests, including the bishop, would walk the streets, administering last rites and alms.

Sister Anne Madeleine approached the bishop about a feast honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus in order for the city to repent of its sin and beg for an end to the plague. On Nov. 1, 1720, the bishop consecrated the diocese to the Sacred Heart. It was most likely the first public consecration of the Sacred Heart.

In 1722, when the plague reemerged after a short decline, the bishop ordered Corpus Christi processions and a new feast of the Sacred Heart, following the instruction of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who had said that Christ requested that a Solemnity of the Sacred Heart be established on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. The plague in Marseille ended that fall.

Devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, along with practices of Eucharistic adoration and holy hours, has become widespread among Catholics. The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated world-wide on the Friday following Corpus Christi, like today.

Venerable Anne-Madeleine Remuzat died in 1730, and she is on the path to canonization.