Saint Margaret Maria Alacoque.

Saint Margaret Maria Alacoque was born on the 22nd of July 1647 in the village of Lauthecour in Burgundy. Her family was middle-class, religious, and considered trustworthy and honorable. Her father, Claude Alacoque, had made it to the Royal Notary. Her mother, Philiberta Lamyn, was the daughter of Francois Lamyn, who had also already been a royal notary.

Abhorrence of sin

Her family members discovered very early on that Margarete Maria felt a genuine disgust for sin from the tender childhood of around three years old. Simply pointing out that a particular action offended God caused the girl to recoil in horror. This abhorrence of sin was soon joined by a great fondness for prayer and penitential exercises, as well as a tendency to help the poor.

„God gave me such a deep love for the poor“, the saint once wrote, „that I would have preferred to dedicate it only to them. He imprinted on my soul such a great pity for their misery that I would have liked to leave everything to them if only it had been in my power. If I had money, I would give this to the poor people so that they would approach me and I could teach them the catechism and how to pray.“

According to the custom of the time (1652 – 1655), she spent her childhood from the fourth to the seventh year of her life at the castle of her godmother, Madame de Corcheval, a noblewoman in the area. Her education began in this quiet, barren environment.

Two women took care of her upbringing. One was graceful and accommodating. But Margarete tried more to escape her. The other, on the other hand, was strict and bold, and Margarete was strangely attracted to her. Nobody could explain this preference. Only later would one discover that, in this case, too, it was an expression of special divine protection. The first led a morally flawless life, while the second did not fault his lifestyle.

Margarete’s upbringing suffered a deep turning point when Madame de Corcheval died. The godchild was sent back to his parents’ home. But Margarete’s father would also die in the same year, 1655. Her mother was now forced to put right the family’s complicated financial situation left by her husband, and therefore had no time to raise their daughter. As was usual at the time, she sent them into retirement with the Poor Clares. The silence of the monastery corridors, the long hours of reflection and gathering, and the nuns’ modesty and spirit of prayer awakened Margaret’s calling to monastic life. Here, she received her first Holy Communion at around nine. From now on, the grace of prayer and the taste for inner contemplation increased even more significantly.

The young Margarete was to receive from the Poor Clares the education that a girl of her class usually received, that is, she was to be prepared for the life of a future mother and lady of society. This definitely includes a solid moral education, the outstanding characteristics of which were modesty, tact, restraint, and self-control in dealing with people.

In addition to character development, the practice of the art of light, pleasant but by no means superficial conversation, was meaningful. There were also subjects such as music, painting, and dance, which were intended to develop the girls’ sense of pleasing rhythm and good tone. Ultimately, an orderly coexistence among pensioners should foster a sense of moderation, naturalness, and well-behavedness, while developing the ability to assess people and events—a talent to which particular emphasis was placed in French education during the Ancien Régime.