When the bishops of the United States gathered for their spring meeting in Orlando, Florida, on June 11, they consecrated the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of this nation. Few people realized that also in the sanctuary were the relics of the “Apostle of the Sacred Heart,” St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.

These major relics traveled from the shrine at Paray-le-Monial in France thanks to the Knights of Columbus. After the consecration in Florida, the relics returned to the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center, formerly the Knights of Columbus Museum, in New Haven, Connecticut, where, from June 17–27, people came to venerate this great saint and pray before her relics.

“It was brought here specifically because it was St. Margaret Mary that really helped to codify the devotion and the practices we have of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the bishops opting to consecrate our nation on the occasion of our 250th anniversary to the Sacred Heart,” Peter Sonski, the director of education and outreach at the McGivney Pilgrimage Center, told the Register.

“It seemed very appropriate that her relics be present on that occasion. The Knights were entrusted with the reliquary for that reason and are happy that it’s here to allow the faithful an opportunity to venerate it in this year that we’re very focused on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”

Sonski described the reliquary as a “very unusual presentation.” Most relics available for veneration consist of a tiny piece of bone, a lock of hair or another physical relic of a saint. By contrast, these major relics — the saint’s clavicles, two ribs and a small piece of her brain — are encased in a large, 150-pound, gold-and-glass reliquary. A white veil covers the bones while still letting them be seen, with a golden rose resting on top of the veil.

The reliquary’s permanent “home” is in the Chapel of the Apparitions at St. Margaret Mary’s French convent, the Monastery of the Visitation. A 17th-century Visitation sister, St. Margaret Mary, received visions of Jesus between 1673 and 1675 about his Sacred Heart and spread that devotion worldwide.

After its June stay at the museum, the relics of St. Margaret Mary will travel to Washington, D.C., where people will be able to recall the consecration and venerate them during the semiquincentennial celebrations.

“During the week of Independence Day, the relics will visit two cities significant to America’s 250th anniversary. First, they will visit the nation’s capital,” Sonski explained.

People will be able to venerate the relics through July 1 at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine. Then the relics will travel 40 miles to Baltimore and the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, familiarly known as the Baltimore Basilica, for veneration July 5-6. Again, there is a tie-in to the country’s anniversary celebration because this basilica — which was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the architect of the U.S. Capitol — was the first Catholic cathedral in the budding country. Bishop John Carroll blessed the cornerstone in 1806.

The relics will return to the museum in New Haven for veneration in July.

People have been coming in steadily throughout the day, Sonski reported of recent days. In New Haven, he said, “we’ve had people drive several hours from different directions in order to come here and venerate; some people came from north of Boston, some from South Jersey. People are making the effort to come.”

Lorraine Maloney and her husband Robert drove “knowing that June is the Month of the Sacred Heart,” she said. “How appropriate to see St. Margaret Mary’s relics, to visibly see the bones of this great saint and to be able to pray for her intercession for intentions, especially of family members. I offered it for my family members that need those prayers.”

Maloney told the Register she found it “very moving knowing that God spoke to the saint — and that we’re that close in proximity to being able to kneel before the relics and pray.” She said she “always had a special feeling for Margaret Mary from my days in Catholic school,” adding “that the nuns taught us about her.”

John and Jeanine Marcin came with their son Joseph and his fiancée Amanda, who got engaged two days before the visit. They not only wanted to see the relics but also to touch the engagement ring to the reliquary.

The Marcins knew of St. Margaret Mary because they were familiar with the First Friday devotion as well as the First Saturday devotion from Fatima.

They found it “very appropriate and really special” the relics came in the month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart.

Praying before the reliquary “gives you a reminder that you can pray to these people that were extraordinary people on earth,” John Marcin said, “but now there is a person in heaven that you could actually pray to with a specific devotion to the Sacred Heart. So that’s what touched us.”

He also said praying before the relics provided another incentive. “It gives us a reminder that maybe we should strive a little harder here to try to emulate some of the good things that other people have done on earth. It’s a good reminder of our mortality and our purpose and how we all should be striving to be saints in heaven.”

Patricia Anne Balzer was “delighted” to be there for the second time and able to touch her rosary and a holy card to the reliquary.

“I have had quite a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus since I was quite young, and I was inspired by her,” she told the Register. “She led me to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” She learned how “his heart’s aflame for each and every one of us — and to do what’s called the Holy Hour of reparation. This was at least 20 years ago.” Before that, unknowingly, she took “Margaret” as her confirmation name.

Balzer shared that “one of the things that’s not well known and is worth promoting is that he specifically said to her, ‘make reparation for the ingratitude of men. Spend an hour in prayer to appease divine justice, to implore mercy for sinners to honor me, to console me for my bitter suffering when abandoned by my apostles when they did not watch one hour with me.’”

Before the reliquary and the picture of St. Margaret Mary kneeling before the Sacred Heart, “I knelt down and the first thing I said [was], ‘St. Margaret Mary, I’m here to thank you for having your visions lead me to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to have me be led to the Holy Hour of reparation, which I have faithfully done every week for more years than I can even remember.’”

Balzer said that she also asked a favor — her intercession for a friend struggling with her faith. All this was “what was in my heart — gratitude, first and foremost — to tell her.”

Grateful, too, was Sister Doretta D’Albero of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “St. Margaret Mary is one of our principal patron saints, for obvious reasons,” she said. “We have a retirement home right on the property,” and “a lot of sisters there won’t be able to travel down to the museum.” So the relics made the trip to them in Hamden, Connecticut, just outside of New Haven.

“It was just joyful,” Sister Doretta said. Sisters, families who recently consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart, and benefactors joined the sisters to pray and venerate the relics. At the top of each hour, she gave a meditation on the 12 promises of the Sacred Heart, on the litany, and on forgiveness of sins and reparation. “It was just a beautiful day for me.”

She also shared, “All of a sudden it dawned on me that this is the very chapel where I learned about devotion to the Sacred Heart, where I learned to love the Sacred Heart, where we recited the Litany of the Sacred Heart every single Friday.” That began for her in 1978, when she entered religious life. “It dawned on me that this woman was responsible for getting that devotion alive in the Church — certainly, the devotion goes all the way back to St. John and the cross. And she’s the one who got it going.”

Sister Doretta added, “The personal joy for me was to have her relics present in the chapel where the prayers to the Sacred Heart have been said for 75 years. We end our prayers saying, ‘Receive, O Jesus, our love and devotion in reparation for all the offenses against your Sacred Heart.’ I said, ‘Please, renew those graces again and just pour them down on us. I have a whole new appreciation for Margaret Mary and her message, Jesus, and the revelations.’”

 

Check Tour Dates

Visit the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center website for further veneration dates that include July 8-11 and July 15-18; other dates might be added through the early fall.