The Knights of Columbus released a schedule June 23 detailing upcoming opportunities for public veneration of major relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.
Known as the "Apostle of the Sacred Heart," St. Margaret Mary's relics traveled to the U.S. for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ June 11 consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart ahead of America's 250th anniversary.
According to the announcement from the Knights, the relics will be available for public veneration at the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center in New Haven, Connecticut, June 24-27.
During the week of Independence Day, the relics will visit the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. The two cities, the Knights said, are significant to America's upcoming semiquincentennial.
Additional periods of veneration are also planned at the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center later in July, and further opportunities for veneration are expected to be announced.
St. Margaret Mary, a member of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, received a series of visions of Jesus beginning in 1673. With the assistance of her spiritual director, St. Claude de la Colombière, she helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart and was canonized in 1920.
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