ALACOQUE or AL COQ, MARGUERITE MARIE (1647-169o), French nun and founder of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was born at Lauthecourt on July 22, 1647, and died on Oct. 17, 169o. Having been cured of paralysis, as she believed by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, in 1671 she entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial and in the fol lowing year made her final vows. After a long period of severe austerities she testified that Christ had revealed to her His heart burning with love for man, and bade her establish the Holy Hour, communion on the first Friday of the month and the feast of the Sacred Heart to be observed on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. The devotion to the Sacred Heart spread rapidly throughout Christendom, and Marguerite Marie was pro nounced venerable in 1824, blessed in 1864, and finally on May 13, 192o, was canonized.
Her writings and autobiography are contained in Vie et Oeuvres par les Contemporaines, 2 vols. (Paris, 1901), her autobiography being published again at Paray-le-Monial in 1918. See also E. Bougaud, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (New York, 192o).