Feast 16 October
Visitandine of Paray-le-Monial. The Sacred Heart as a public devotion.
Sacred art
The portrait kept with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is the image this library has of Margaret. The honour goes to the person, and through the person to God. It is not a machine, and it is not a substitute for the life written below.
Visions of 1673–75. Died 1690. First Fridays. The heart that was not loved.
If it belongs to Margaret, it is here, with a door back into the story.
Basilica of St. Margaret, CortonaDied 1297
A penitent: a noble’s mistress who lost him to murder, then took the Franciscan habit of the Third Order. Her body remains in Cortona, above the high altar, a woman who changed her life and was not allowed to disappear.
Florence, Discalced CarmelDied 1770; found intact
A Florentine Carmelite who died at twenty-two. The body remained flexible and incorrupt, the face beautiful in death, and has been shown in the Carmel of Florence.
