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How the message of Paray-le-Monial spread to the world All Claude’s instincts were to shun the limelight. He once prayed to be a “man forgotten” as a way of addressing what he considered his tendency to vain glory (the Lord revealed to Margaret Mary that he was completely mistaken in this perception of himself). This prayer was answered in a variety of ways. An entry in the annual record of the Jesuit house where he died on 15 February, 1682, notes that during the year: “Nothing happened worth recalling or of sufficient consequence as to merit entry in our annals”. Perhaps the fact that his canonisation was put on hold for more than two centuries is another instance of this. The consoling message of divine love revealed to Margaret Mary came to the attention of the world mainly through four different channels. 1. Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, wife of King James II In his preaching and conversations, Claude discreetly referred to the Heart of Jesus during the lifetime of Margaret Mary, especially while chaplain to the Duchess of York, Mary Beatrice of Modena at the Palace of St James, London and later, for a short-time Queen, when her husband became for a short while James II. As the Irish know only too well, he lost the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (the year Margaret Mary died) and also the throne to his son-in-law, William of Orange. Referring to the sufferings of the faithful he met while in England, which he described as the “land of crosses” Claude said: “I could write a book on the mercy of God I’ve seen Him exercise since I came here.” 2. His own writings Besides his preaching, the devotion flourished as the result of the publication, after his death, of Claude’s writings. These included his retreat notes and four volumes of his sermons. These caused a sensation when they first appeared (similar to the publication of The Story of a Soul by Thérèse of Lisieux at the end of the nineteenth century) and ran into many reprints. Some of these writings are considered among the “pearls of all spiritual writing”. They were soon translated into every European language. Unlike Margaret Mary, Claude never seems to have ever had a vision himself, but he was called on to authenticate her extraordinary visions and help her to make their message known to the whole world. As a contemplative nun in an enclosed order she could not preach the devotion to the Sacred Heart as asked for by the Lord himself so she depended on him to spread it abroad. Speaking of him to Margaret Mary, the Lord said: “Tell him from Me to do all he can to establish this devotion and thus console My Heart”. In his writings on the subject Claude never referred to Margaret Mary by name but simply as a “privileged soul”. Strangely it was only during public refectory reading of his Retreat Notes shortly after their publication following his death that Margaret Mary’s ‘cover was blown’, and the community at Paray-le-Monial realised, for the first time, that one of their own sisters had been the recipient of perhaps the most extraordinary private revelations in the history of Christianity. 3. The writings of other Jesuits The advocacy, preaching and writing of other Jesuits, principally Jean Croiset and Joseph de Gallifet who had known Claude personally as their spiritual director at Lyons, were vital to the subsequent spread of the devotion. Gallifet’s book on the Sacred Heart was most influential in the Papal decision of 1765 to permit the celebration of a Feast of the Sacred Heart in Poland and in the Roman Confraternity of the Sacred Heart. Universal permission would have to wait for almost another century. Jean Croiset wrote the first biography of St. Margaret Mary. 4. St. Margaret Mary’s own correspondence St. Margaret Mary’s own extensive correspondence, much of which is still extant, as well as her autobiography contributed greatly to the spread of the devotion. She was extremely reluctant to draw any attention to herself but did not hesitate to write, even voluminously, when commanded to do so under obedience. 5. St Thérèse de Lisieux In April 1897, a few months before her death, St. Thérèse de Lisieux wrote to a Father Bellière who was working in what is modern Malawi. She wrote: “It seems that our Divine Saviour wishes to unite our souls in the work for the salvation of sinners as he once united those of Venerable Fr Claude de la Colombière and Blessed Margaret Mary”. Thérèse then quoted an extract from the autobiography written by St. Margaret Mary in obedience to a command of her religious Superior.
6. In spite of Claude's wretched health Claude’s efforts to spread the message through the normal channels of preaching and advocacy were badly hampered by the tuberculosis he contracted in the London prison where he was falsely accused of complicity in the Titus Oates plot. This situation was the background to the Lord’s reference to him in a message to Margaret Mary.
In this way he learned that God could make use of him for His own purposes in spite of sickness, a message of much consolation for all who have to carry the heavy burden of illness and incapacity. At the end of 1680 he wrote to Margaret Mary:
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