Saint Luke

October 18 is the Feast of Saint Luke. He was a native of Antioch and was educated as a physician. After being converted by Saint Paul, Saint Luke accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys. He was the author of the third Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles. The Gospel of Luke preserved the most extensive biography of Our Lord Jesus Christ and is recognized as being the largest volume in the New Testament out of all of its books.

It is believed that Saint Luke had a special connection with Our Lady because it is only in Luke's gospel that we read the narratives of the Annunciation, Mary's visit to Elizabeth including the Magnificat, the Presentation, and the disappearance of Jesus in Jerusalem. Saint Luke was also the founder of Christian iconography and is credited with painting several icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary, including the “Salus Populi Romani”, or the “Salvation of the Roman People”. This icon of Mary with the child Jesus was brought to Rome by St. Helena and has survived to this day. It is housed in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

Born in 1647 in Burgundy, France, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was a nun of the Visitation Order and was greatly recognized for her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As a child, Margaret Mary was bed-ridden for 4 years with rheumatic fever. Upon promising the Blessed Virgin that she would consecrate herself to religious life, she was restored to perfect health. Later, at age 17, after attending a ball one evening, she had a vision of Jesus, scourged and bloody. He reproached her for forgetting Him, while also expressing His love for her. She remembered her vow and at age 24 entered the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial, France in 1671.

During her time in the monastery, Our Lord Jesus appeared to Margaret Mary on several occasions to impart to her the mission of spreading devotion to His Most Sacred Heart. His instruction included devoting the first Friday of every month to his Sacred Heart and to pray for an hour between 11 p.m. and midnight every Thursday. These two practices, the First Friday and the Holy Hour, as well as the iconic image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Christ’s burning furnace of charity, have since become widely known and utilized among Catholics throughout the world. The Feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is October 17.