(OSV News) — The relics of the French nun to whom Christ revealed his Sacred Heart will be available for public veneration in the U.S. at a number of locations, as the nation — newly consecrated to the Sacred Heart — marks its 250th anniversary.
The Knights of Columbus announced June 23 that major relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque will travel to Washington and Baltimore from June 29 through July 5.
The relics — which include the saint’s clavicles, two of her ribs and a small piece of her brain — arrived in the U.S. in early June, ahead of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ formal consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart during their annual spring plenary assembly in Orlando, Florida.
The lay leader of the Knights of Columbus in France, Arnaud Bouthéon, personally supervised the relics’ transatlantic transfer from the Chapel of the Apparitions at the Monastery of the Visitation in Parais-le-Monial, where they are housed along with a wax effigy of the 17th-century saint’s body.
Between 1673 and 1675, the Visitation nun experienced visions of Christ showing his Sacred Heart and calling on humanity to experience his love, mercy and tenderness.
The devotion — with roots in Scripture and patristic writings, and widely extolled by a number of popes — spread through the efforts of St. Claude La Colombière, the Jesuit confessor of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, and the Society of Jesus.
The saint’s relics are currently on display from June 24-27 at the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center in New Haven, Connecticut.
Where would the relics be next?
From June 29 through July 4, the relics will be available for public veneration at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington. Access hours vary slightly during that time, with the relics on public display from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. June 29-July 1, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 2-4.
From July 5-6, the relics will be available at Baltimore’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Public veneration will begin with a 10:30 a.m. Mass on July 5 celebrated by Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, and will last until 7 p.m. that day. On July 6, the relics will be available from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the basilica.
Following public veneration in Baltimore, the relics will return to the Blessed Michael McGivney Center for viewing July 8-11 and July 15-18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The relics are scheduled to be transported to Denver Aug. 1-6 for the Knights of Columbus’ annual convention, after which they will return to the center in New Haven for public veneration Sept. 25-27.
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina. Caroline de Sury, who writes for OSV News from Paris, contributed to this report.
