Relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the French nun to whom Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart in the 17th century, will travel from France to Florida this summer, as U.S. bishops consecrate the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will gather for its plenary assembly in Orlando, Florida, June 10-12, during which the bishops will consecrate the nation to the Sacred Heart in observance of the United States' 250th anniversary. The relics will be present at the assembly.
According to a May 28 OSV News report by Paris-based Caroline de Sury, the relics will be accompanied across the ocean to the Knights of Columbus international headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut, by Arnaud Bouthéon, the lay leader of the Knights of Columbus in France, on June 2. The relics are typically kept at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in France and will be venerated during the first week of June in Connecticut.
Bouthéon said the relics’ arrival in the U.S. “is an invitation to consecrate families and individuals to the Sacred Heart.”
Alacoque was a French Visitation sister and mystic who lived from 1647 to 1690. Three years after entering the religious order, she began receiving visions of Christ, Who asked her to make reparation for offences against His Sacred Heart, particularly through the devout reception of the Eucharist on the first Friday of each month. Many Catholics have since practiced this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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In August, the reliquary will be brought to the Knights of Columbus’ convention in Denver, and then back to New Haven for veneration Sept. 25-27, according to OSV News.
OSV News reports that there are four portable reliquaries of St. Alacoque in France that are brought to local parishes and beyond. The protective case of the reliquary accompanied by Bouthéon to the U.S. is almost 150 pounds, and has a small piece of the saint's brain, her clavicles, and two of her ribs within.
Bouthéon said relics are a reminder of God’s care for human beings who are both body and soul.
Venerating relics “helps us to become tangibly aware,” he said, “as popular devotions do, of the mystery of the Incarnation — that God, in Jesus, came to dwell among us.”