Claude La Colombière (1641-1682) was a French Jesuit priest, a renowned preacher of the Grand Siècle and one of the great spiritual figures of the Catholic Reformation. Church history remembers him above all as the spiritual director of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial and as the first to recognise the authenticity of the revelations of the Sacred Heart.[1][2]
When he arrived at Paray in 1675, the young Visitandine was alone, doubted and tried by mystical graces that no one around her understood. Yet Christ had announced to her that he would send her "his faithful servant and his perfect friend" to enlighten her. That confessor was Claude La Colombière. His authority discerned, authenticated and carried the message of the Heart of Jesus from the secret of a cell to a genuine apostolate.[3][4]
His life was brief and harsh. Sent to England in 1676 as preacher to the Duchess of York, the future queen, he was caught up in Titus Oates's Popish Plot: arrested, imprisoned, expelled, his health ruined. Returning to France tubercular, he died at Paray-le-Monial on 15 February 1682, aged forty-one.[5][6]
But his name remains attached to a luminous message: absolute trust in God. His Act of Confidence, which opens with the words — "I have resolved henceforth to live without any anxiety" — remains one of the finest French texts on abandonment to Providence. Beatified in 1929 by Pius XI and canonised in 1992 by Saint John Paul II, he is honoured as the co-apostle of the Sacred Heart. His feast is fixed on 15 February.[7][8]
A Dauphinois who joined the Jesuits (1641-1674)
Born at Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon
Claude La Colombière was born on 2 February 1641 — the feast of the Presentation of the Lord — at Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon, a small town in the Dauphiné, south of Lyon.[9][10] He was the third child of Bertrand La Colombière, a royal notary, and Marguerite Coindat, a respectable and deeply Christian family of the provincial bourgeoisie. The household would number six children, four of whom embraced the religious life: an eloquent sign of a home where faith was not an ornament but sap.[11] The family later settled in Vienne, where the boy received his first education.
School, vocation, the Avignon novitiate
Young Claude pursued his secondary studies at the Jesuit college of Lyon, one of the most brilliant in the kingdom.[12] There, in contact with the sons of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, his vocation matured. At seventeen, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Avignon on 25 October 1658.[13] He would later confide that he had felt, in making this choice, a natural repugnance which he had to overcome — the first manifestation of that faithfulness in effort which would mark his whole spiritual life.
After his two years of novitiate and his first vows, he completed his formation at Avignon, where he taught grammar and letters for five years while already distinguishing himself by the quality of his speech.[14] In 1666, his superiors sent him to Paris, to the famous Collège de Clermont (the future Louis-le-Grand), to study theology.[15][16]
Tutor to Colbert's sons in Paris
In Paris, the young religious's talent did not go unnoticed. He was entrusted with a delicate mission: becoming tutor to the children of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the all-powerful minister of Louis XIV.[17][18] The post brought him into contact with the high society of the day and honed his eloquence; but it also exposed him to court intrigues. Tradition reports that an imprudent remark — or a jealousy — cut this tutorship short. Above all, Claude gained from it a lucid knowledge of the world and its vanities, which would later nourish his preaching.
He was ordained priest on 6 April 1669.[19] Sent back to Lyon, he exercised there the ministry of the pulpit and the direction of souls, and his reputation as a solid and profound preacher was quickly established — a preaching which, the Holy See's notice would say, sought less to shine than to "raise souls to God, following the path of love and mercy" .[20]
The tertianship at Lyon: the heroic vow
Before solemn profession, every Jesuit completes a final year of spiritual formation, the tertianship. Claude La Colombière made his at Lyon, in 1674.[21] That year proved decisive: in the course of an intense retreat, he made a heroic resolution, which he set down in writing and which would set the tone of his Spiritual Retreat — to observe the Rule of the Society with perfect fidelity, down to the smallest detail, out of pure love of God.[22][23]
"Nothing is closer to my heart than to be faithful to God in small things as in great." — spirit of the Spiritual Retreat of Saint Claude La Colombière[24]
This vow of fidelity was nothing scrupulous: it expressed the central conviction of his spirituality, that holiness is played out in the ordinary, in pure obedience to God's will instant by instant. It was this man, already wholly given, whom Providence would lead, the following year, to an obscure little town in Burgundy.
The superior of Paray-le-Monial and the decisive meeting (1675)
Arrival at Paray, on his 34th birthday
On 2 February 1675, the day of his thirty-fourth birthday, Claude La Colombière arrived at Paray-le-Monial as superior of the small Jesuit residence, sent by the provincial François de Lachaise — the future confessor of Louis XIV.[25] The charge seemed modest: a house of a few fathers, in a town without lustre. He would remain there about twenty-three months, but that short stay would suffice to inscribe his name in the history of Christian spirituality.
Among his duties, he was appointed extraordinary confessor of the Visitation monastery. Living in that cloister since 1671 was a humble religious of twenty-eight, Margaret Mary Alacoque, recently graced with extraordinary visions of the Heart of Jesus — and regarded by many, in her own community, as overwrought.[26][27]
"Here is my faithful servant and my perfect friend"
The meeting was prepared from on high. According to Margaret Mary's own account, Christ had announced to her that he would send her a guide to reassure and enlighten her, designating him by words that have remained famous: his "faithful servant and perfect friend".[28] When the Jesuit preached for the first time to the community, the religious heard inwardly: "Here is the one I am sending you."
"He called him his faithful servant and his perfect friend." — words of Christ to Saint Margaret Mary, reported in her Life and taken up by the liturgy[29]
For Claude La Colombière, the meeting was just as decisive. Far from merely listening, he discerned. A cultivated man, a prudent theologian, trained in the Ignatian rigour of the discernment of spirits, he examined at length, prayed, questioned — and concluded that God's work in this soul was authentic.[30][31] That verdict, from a mind reputed for its balance, changed everything: it turned the doubted visionary into a credible messenger.
Authenticating the apparitions of the Sacred Heart
Claude's role was precise and momentous. He reassured Margaret Mary about the nature of her graces, ordered her to obey what the Lord asked of her, and above all had her write down the message received — accounts which he then copied into his own retreat notebooks to preserve and spread them.[32][33] He was the first to carry devotion to the Heart of Jesus from the register of private experience to that of the apostolate: he spoke of it in his retreats, inscribed it in his own life, and encouraged the spread of a cult which, without him, might have remained buried. According to the saint's account, Christ himself sent her back to this guide: "Go to my servant" .[34]
The stakes were far from small. At a time marked by the rigour of Jansenism, which presented a distant and terrible God and discouraged frequent communion, the message of the Sacred Heart set against it the image of a Heart burning with love for men, wounded by their indifference and calling for reparation. Claude La Colombière immediately grasped the scope of this spiritual counter-stroke.[35]
"I believe it is the spirit of God who guides you; do not resist him." — spirit of Saint Claude La Colombière's discernment with Saint Margaret Mary[36]
His own consecration to the Heart of Jesus
The director did not merely authorise: he embraced the message. In the course of a retreat, Claude La Colombière composed an Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by which he consecrated himself to that Heart, thus sealing his own spiritual discovery.[37] The relationship became reciprocal: the mystic received doctrinal security from the theologian, and the theologian received a new fire from the mystic.
This double movement explains why the Church associates the two names as the two apostles of a single grace. The great devotion to the Sacred Heart, today universal, thus has at Paray two complementary founders: the visionary who receives and the priest who discerns, formulates and transmits. On the liturgical background of this cult, see also the work of Saint John Eudes, who had already composed its Mass in 1672.[38]
The English ordeal (1676-1679)
Preacher to the Duchess of York in London
Scarcely had his work at Paray begun when obedience tore Claude La Colombière from Burgundy. In 1676, his superiors sent him to England as preacher to Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, wife of the future King James II and a Catholic in a land turned Protestant.[39][40] He settled at the Court of St James's, in London, where he exercised a delicate ministry of preaching and spiritual direction, in a country where the Catholic faith was officially proscribed.
The mission was fraught with peril, but the Jesuit deployed in it the same zeal as at Paray, winning conversions and sustaining the small Catholic community of the court. He also continued to direct Margaret Mary by letter, remaining at a distance her spiritual guide.[41]
Titus Oates and the Popish Plot
In 1678 broke one of the darkest episodes in English history: the "Popish Plot", the pure invention of the impostor Titus Oates, who accused Catholics of plotting the assassination of King Charles II. The tale unleashed a wave of anti-Catholic persecution: hunted priests, rigged trials, executions.[42][43]
Claude La Colombière, an influential Catholic priest at the very heart of the court, was a marked target. Denounced, he was arrested in November 1678 and thrown into the harsh King's Bench prison in London, in conditions that ruined an already fragile health.[44] There he contracted, or aggravated, the tuberculosis that would carry him off; the older biographies speak of several weeks' imprisonment in degrading conditions, at the height of the 1678 "popish terror".[45]
"We cannot want for anything when we look for all things from God." — Saint Claude La Colombière, Act of Confidence in God[46]
Prison, expulsion, ruined health
His status as a subject of the King of France earned him the protection of Louis XIV, who intervened on his behalf. Instead of being executed like so many other priests of those terrible months, Claude La Colombière was banished from England in 1679 and escorted back to France.[47][48] But he returned physically broken. The prison climate, the deprivations and the disease had done their work: he had only a few years left to live.
This English ordeal was no accident in his life's course: it was its summit of abandonment. The man who had written that he wished to live "without any anxiety" by entrusting everything to God verified his doctrine in prison, calumny and sickness. His spirituality of trust is no theory of a spared man: it is the word of a confessor of the faith. Margaret Mary herself had sensed the price of this mission; according to tradition, she had announced to him that "Our Lord wanted the sacrifice of his life in that country" .[49]
The spiritual doctrine: trust and abandonment
"I have resolved to live without anxiety": the Act of Confidence
If a single text had to sum up the soul of Claude La Colombière, it would be his Act of Confidence in God, written about 1677.[50] In it we hear, in limpid and firm prose, the spiritual translation of a whole life of trials borne in peace. It is one of the great French classics of abandonment to Providence, still prayed today throughout the world as a school of interior peace: to cast every anxiety upon God, not from carelessness, but from the certainty of being loved.[51]
"My God, I am so persuaded that Thou watchest over those who hope in Thee, and that we can want for nothing when we look for all things from Thee, that I am resolved henceforth to live without any anxiety, and to cast all my cares upon Thee." — Saint Claude La Colombière, Act of Confidence in God[52]
The text does not deny trial: it passes through it. Claude coolly envisages the loss of goods, honour, health, and even of grace itself through sin — without ever renouncing hope.
"Men may take away from me both goods and honour; sickness may deprive me of strength and of the means of serving Thee; I may even lose Thy grace by sin; but I will never lose my hope; I will preserve it to the last moment of my life." — Saint Claude La Colombière, Act of Confidence in God[53]
The summit of the text is a luminous paradox: it is confidence itself that grounds confidence, because it has God for its object and God never deceives those who hope in him.
"For myself, O Lord, all my confidence is my confidence itself; this confidence never deceived anyone. I am therefore assured that I shall be eternally happy, because I firmly hope to be so, and it is from Thee, O my God, that I hope for it." — Saint Claude La Colombière, Act of Confidence in God[54]
This hope looks not only for God's gifts: it looks for God himself. The prayer ends with these words — "I hope in Thee Thyself, O my Creator, both for time and for eternity. Amen!" — which make abandonment not a calculation, but an act of love.[55]
Faithfulness in ordinary life and the apostolate of preaching
The trust of Claude La Colombière is no gentle passivity. Its reverse side is a rigorous demand for fidelity in the duty of one's state. His whole spirituality lies in this articulation: to look for all things from God, to do all things for God. That is the meaning of his heroic vow of 1674 — to observe the Rule in the smallest things — and it is what makes his abandonment credible: it is nothing like a refuge for the lazy; it is the oxygen of a man wholly applied to his task.
This fidelity expressed itself first through preaching, his great ministry. A contemporary of Bossuet and Bourdaloue, Claude La Colombière left sermons remarked for their doctrinal solidity and their concrete application to the Christian life, far from the oratorical effects of his century.[56][57] His word aimed at the conversion of the heart, not the admiration of his audience.
His doctrine achieves a harmonious synthesis between the two great spiritual currents of the Grand Siècle: the Ignatian rigour of discernment and interior combat, inherited from Saint Ignatius of Loyola, and the Salesian gentleness of trust and love, inherited from Saint Francis de Sales — whose Visitation, where Claude exercised his ministry, was precisely the spiritual family.[58] It is this alliance that gives his spirituality its balance: neither Jansenist rigorism, nor soft sentimentalism, but a manly and lucid abandonment.
The writings: the Spiritual Retreat
The most intimate work of Claude La Colombière is his Spiritual Retreat — the journal of his retreats, notably that of his tertianship year at Lyon, in which he sets down his resolutions and his dialogues with God.[59][60] A document of great purity, it reveals a man inhabited by the desire for holiness and by an unsparing lucidity about himself.
The table below sums up the saint's principal writings, published for the most part after his death, from 1684 onwards.
| Work | Kind | Central theme |
|---|---|---|
| Spiritual Retreat | Intimate retreat journal | Fidelity, abandonment, life of union with God |
| Act of Confidence in God | Prayer | Absolute hope in Providence |
| Sermons | Preaching | Conversion, concrete Christian life |
| Spiritual letters | Correspondence | Direction of souls, including Margaret Mary |
| Offering to the Sacred Heart | Consecration | Gift of self to the Heart of Jesus |
His works would be gathered in the 19th century in the Œuvres du R.P. Claude La Colombière (Avignon, 1832; Paris, 1864), which ensured the lasting spread of his spirituality.[61]
Death, the glory of the altars, and the legacy
Paray-le-Monial, 15 February 1682
Back in France, undermined by disease, Claude La Colombière spent his last two years between Lyon, where he directed young Jesuits, and Paray-le-Monial, where he returned to seek a milder climate and to find again the place of his great mission.[62][63] Tuberculosis gave him no more respite. He died at Paray-le-Monial on 15 February 1682, aged forty-one, in the peace he had so preached.[64][65]
Margaret Mary, who survived him, would receive from Christ the assurance of her former director's glory — an interior confirmation of what the Church would solemnly recognise three centuries later. His relics are kept and venerated at Paray-le-Monial, now one of the great sanctuaries of the Sacred Heart.[66][67]
Beatification (1929) and canonisation (1992)
The reputation for holiness of Claude La Colombière was great, but his cause was long, as is often the case. He was beatified on 16 June 1929 by Pope Pius XI, the very year in which that pope forcefully encouraged devotion to the Sacred Heart.[68][69] The cause for canonisation was reopened on 14 November 1934.[70] Nearly sixty more years would pass: Claude La Colombière was canonised on 31 May 1992 by Saint John Paul II, in Rome.[71][72]
The table below sums up the great stages of his life and glorification.
| Stage | Date | Place / agent |
|---|---|---|
| Birth | 2 February 1641 | Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon |
| Jesuit novitiate | 25 October 1658 | Avignon |
| Priestly ordination | 6 April 1669 | Lyon |
| Superior at Paray | 2 February 1675 | Paray-le-Monial |
| Mission to England | 1676 | London, Court of St James's |
| Arrest, Popish Plot | November 1678 | King's Bench prison |
| Expulsion from England | 1679 | return to France |
| Death | 15 February 1682 | Paray-le-Monial |
| Beatification | 16 June 1929 | Pius XI |
| Canonisation | 31 May 1992 | John Paul II |
The "co-apostle" of the Sacred Heart
In canonising him, the Church consecrated what history had already recognised: Claude La Colombière is, with Saint Margaret Mary, one of the two providential artisans of the great devotion to the Heart of Jesus, "particularly necessary to the Church and to the world" .[73][74] Liturgy and popular piety have fixed him under the very title Christ had given him — the "faithful servant and perfect friend" of Jesus.[75] Without the visionary, there would have been no message; without the theologian, there might have been no apostolate.
His most universal legacy, however, is spiritual and overflows the Sacred Heart alone: it is his doctrine of trust and abandonment. Through his Act of Confidence, read and prayed today on every continent, the Dauphinois Jesuit continues to teach a simple and liberating truth — the one he verified in prison and on his sickbed: we never lose anything by looking for all things from God.
"I shall be eternally happy, because I firmly hope to be so, and it is from Thee, O my God, that I hope for it." — Saint Claude La Colombière, Act of Confidence in God[76]
To go further
- Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) — the Visitandine of Paray-le-Monial to whom the Sacred Heart revealed itself, and whom Claude La Colombière authenticated and directed.
- The Infinite Love of God in the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy — the great devotion to the Heart of Christ of which Claude La Colombière was, at Paray, the first theologian.
- Saint John Eudes (1601-1680) — who, as early as 1672, had composed the liturgical Mass of the Holy Hearts, preparing the ways of Paray.
- What the saints say about reparation — an anthology in which the message of the Sacred Heart, received at Paray, holds a central place.
- Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) — the founder of the Society of Jesus, whose discernment of spirits formed the judgement of Claude La Colombière.
- The Catholic Counter-Reformation (1517-1648) — the great movement of regeneration of the Church of which the Jesuits and devotion to the Sacred Heart are fruits.
- The Council of Trent (1545-1563) — the doctrinal matrix of the Catholic Reformation within which the whole spirituality of the Grand Siècle is inscribed.
- Victim souls — the French spirituality of reparation, of which the Sacred Heart of Paray is one of the major sources.
Notes and References
Wikipedia (FR), "Claude La Colombière": fr.wikipedia.org. Biographical notice of reference: born 2 February 1641 at Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon (Dauphiné), son of Bertrand La Colombière, royal notary, and Marguerite Coindat; third of six children; entered the Jesuit novitiate on 25 October 1658 at Avignon; theology at the Collège de Clermont in Paris (1666); tutor to Colbert's children; superior of the Jesuit residence at Paray-le-Monial (1675) and confessor to the Visitation; spiritual director of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, first to recognise the authenticity of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart; sent to England in 1676 as preacher to Mary of Modena, Duchess of York; arrested during Titus Oates's Popish Plot (1678), imprisoned, expelled in 1679; died at Paray-le-Monial on 15 February 1682; beatified 16 June 1929 by Pius XI; canonised 31 May 1992 by John Paul II; feast on 15 February.
1 6 9 13 15 17 26 39 43 47 63 64 68 71Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart of Paray-le-Monial, page "Saint Claude la Colombière": sacrecoeur-paray.org. Details: born 2 February 1641 at Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon; entered the Jesuit novitiate aged 17 at Avignon; ordained priest 6 April 1669; arrived at Paray-le-Monial 2 February 1675, the day of his 34th birthday, sent by the provincial François de Lachaise; about 23 months in the service of the sanctuary; authenticated Margaret Mary's visions and became the first apostle of devotion to the Sacred Heart; particular vow of fidelity to the Rules and Constitutions of the Society; composition of an "Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus"; spiritual purification through sickness in his last years; died in 1682 at Paray-le-Monial; relics kept in the Jesuit church of Paray; beatified 16 June 1929; canonised 31 May 1992 by John Paul II.
2 4 8 19 23 24 25 27 30 32 36 37 38 60 65 67 69 72 73Words of Christ to Saint Margaret Mary designating Claude La Colombière as his "faithful servant and perfect friend", reported in the Life of the saint and taken up by liturgical tradition. Concordant sources: Sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial (sacrecoeur-paray.org); Famille Missionnaire de Notre-Dame, homily "Saint Claude La Colombière, fidèle serviteur et parfait ami de Jésus" (fmnd.org). The meeting between the visionary and the Jesuit took place in 1675, at Paray-le-Monial.
3 28 29Wikipedia (EN), "Claude de la Colombière": en.wikipedia.org. Detailed cross-check: born 2 February 1641 at Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon, Dauphiné; parents Bertrand La Colombière (notary) and Margaret Coindat; family moved to Vienne; secondary studies with the Jesuits at Lyon; entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1658 (aged 17) at Avignon; taught grammar and literature for five years; sent to Paris in 1666 to study theology at the Collège de Clermont; tutor to the children of Jean-Baptiste Colbert; ordained priest 1669; tertianship 1674, with a personal vow to observe the Jesuit Rule; professed solemn vows 2 February 1675; appointed superior/rector at Paray-le-Monial in 1675; spiritual director and confessor of Margaret Mary Alacoque, validating her Sacred Heart visions; sent to England in 1676 as preacher to Mary of Modena, Duchess of York; resided at the Court of St James's; arrested November 1678 in Titus Oates's Popish Plot, imprisoned at the King's Bench Prison, expelled from England 1679; protected by Louis XIV; last years directing Jesuit novices at Lyon and recovering at Paray-le-Monial; died at Paray-le-Monial 15 February 1682 (tuberculosis); beatified 16 June 1929 by Pius XI; cause reopened 14 November 1934; canonised 31 May 1992 by John Paul II; feast 15 February; relics at the Jesuit church of Paray-le-Monial; works gathered as Œuvres du R.P. Claude La Colombière (Avignon 1832; Paris 1864).
5 10 11 12 14 16 18 21 22 40 41 42 44 48 57 59 61 62 66 70Saint Claude La Colombière, Act of Confidence in God (about 1677). Text reproduced notably by Notre-Dame du Web (ndweb.org) and by several Catholic prayer collections. Quoted here in English, translated from the French. Extract: "My God, I am so persuaded that Thou watchest over those who hope in Thee, and that we can want for nothing when we look for all things from Thee, that I am resolved henceforth to live without any anxiety, and to cast all my cares upon Thee. Men may take away from me both goods and honour; sickness may deprive me of strength and of the means of serving Thee; I may even lose Thy grace by sin; but I will never lose my hope; I will preserve it to the last moment of my life. […] For myself, O Lord, all my confidence is my confidence itself; this confidence never deceived anyone. […] I am therefore assured that I shall be eternally happy, because I firmly hope to be so, and it is from Thee, O my God, that I hope for it. […] I hope in Thee Thyself, O my Creator, both for time and for eternity. Amen!"
7 46 50 52 53 54 55 76The Holy See (vatican.va), biographical notice of Claude La Colombière: vatican.va. Stresses a preaching marked by "its solidity and depth", addressed concretely to the faithful, and a charism of "raising souls to God, following the path of love and mercy"; spiritual director and approver of Margaret Mary's revelations on the Heart of Christ; unreserved support for the cult of the Sacred Heart, which he helped the religious to formulate and put into writing.
20 31 35 56 74Claves, "Saint Claude La Colombière, co-apôtre du Sacré-Cœur": claves.org. Details the Jesuit's decisive role in authenticating devotion to the Sacred Heart: spiritual director of Margaret Mary from 1675, he defended her before her superiors from their first meeting, asked her to write down her experiences and copied them into his own retreat notebooks to preserve and spread them; he formulated the theological message and encouraged the community's recognition of the revelations; according to the saint's account, Christ sent her back to "his servant" as her authentic guide. Even before meeting her, Claude had written in his journal his desire for union with the Heart of Christ, living "not for self but wholly for God".
33 34Réflexion chrétienne, "Saint Claude La Colombière, jésuite, confesseur de sainte Marguerite-Marie (✝1682) — fête le 15 février": reflexionchretienne.fr. Traditional biography: born 2 February 1641 at Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon to Bertrand La Colombière, notary, and Marguerite Coindat; four of the six children entered religion; novitiate at Avignon 25 October 1658; solemn profession in 1674; rector of Paray-le-Monial in February 1675; confessor to the Visitation and director of Margaret Mary; preacher to Mary-Beatrice, Duchess of York, in 1676; imprisoned at the King's Bench during the 1678 "popish terror", then expelled; died of tuberculosis 15 February 1682 at Paray, aged 41; beatified 16 June 1929, canonised 31 May 1992.
45Nominis (Conference of Bishops of France), "Saint Claude La Colombière": nominis.cef.fr. Biographical notice: Jesuit born in 1641 near Lyon into a bourgeois family; entered the Society aged 17; solemn profession in 1674; confessor at the Visitation of Paray-le-Monial, spiritual director of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, whose devotion to the Sacred Heart he spread; preacher to the Duchess of York in England, banished after two years following the calumnies of the Popish Plot; died in 1682 aged 41, weakened by tuberculosis; feast on 15 February. Stresses "the fine harmony between the spirituality of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and that of Saint Francis de Sales" in his writings, and reports Margaret Mary's prophetic word on the sacrifice of his life in England.
49 58Aleteia, ""J'ai résolu de vivre désormais sans souci": une belle prière d'abandon" (14 February 2019): fr.aleteia.org. Presents the Act of Confidence in God as an act of total abandonment to Providence: casting every anxiety upon God out of trust in his love, and not from vague carelessness; Jesuit confessor of Saint Margaret Mary, feast on 15 February.
51Famille Missionnaire de Notre-Dame, homily "Saint Claude La Colombière, fidèle serviteur et parfait ami de Jésus": fmnd.org. Meditates on the title given by Christ to Saint Margaret Mary to designate the Jesuit — his "faithful servant and perfect friend" — feast on 15 February, and his role as apostle of the Sacred Heart alongside the visionary of Paray-le-Monial.
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