Ven. Anne-Madeleine Remuzat

Born at Marseilles, 29 Nov., 1696; died 15 Feb., 1730. At nine years of age she asked her parents to be allowed to enter the convent of the Visitation; the request was granted. From 1708 she began to experience severe sufferings which, during her whole life, she bore patiently for the salvation of souls. In 1709 her parents withdrew her, but in 1711 she re-entered the convent and on 23 Jan., 1713, made her profession . At this time she applied herself to prayer, and the "Spiritual Retreat " written then is a proof of her progress in the contemplative life. She experienced on 17 Oct., 1713, a "particular and extraordinary" revelation of Jesus "concerning the glory of his Sacred Heart ". As the repute of her sanctity became known, Anne-Madeleine was consulted by many, and was thus the means of spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her influence actuated Mgr de Belsunce to establish at Marseilles the Association of Perpetual Adoration of the Sacred Heart, of which she wrote the statutes. As Jansenism and a spirit of moral laxity had then invaded the town Anne-Madeleine suffered keenly, and in reparation inflicted on her body continual mortifications ; when her superiors interdicted these austerities, she begged our Lord to mortify her himself; and from that day she went into a painful decline, while her soul was abandoned to temptations. In 1720, during the plague at Marseilles, Our Lord enjoined her to institute a feast in honour of the Sacred Heart, which Mgr de Belsunce established on 22 Oct., 1720. From 1722 the veneration of the Sacred Heart spread throughout Provence, Lyons, Rouen, Constantinople, Cairo, Spain, Louisiana, Persia, Syria, and the Indies by her endeavours. In 1888 her cause was submitted to the Sacred Congregation, whose favourable vote was given on 18 Dec., 1890. Leo XIII signed on 24 Dec., 1891, the introduction of the cause of the Venerable servant of God.