Margnerite Marie Alacoque, a French nun, to whom the festival of the Sacred Heart of Jesus owes its origin, born at Lauthecour, diocese of Autun, July 12, 1647, died Oct. 17, 1690. She took the veil in the Visitation convent of Paray-le-Monial, where, according to her biographers, she displayed the gifts of miracles, of prophecy, of revelations, and direct intercourse with God and his angels. She predicted the day of her own death, and experienced ineffable pleasure while engraving the name of Jesus Christ on her bosom with a penknife. She left a treatise on La devotion au caeur de Jesus, which she believed to embody a supernatural communication. The church gives her the title of venerable.