At the end of this period, having made a vow to the Blessed Virgin Mary to consecrate herself to religious life, she was instantly restored to perfect health.

According to her later account of her life, she had visions of Jesus Christ, which she thought were a normal part of human experience, and continued to practice austerity.

Out of obedience, and believing that her childhood vow was no longer binding, she began to accompany her brothers in the social events, attending dances and balls.

[4] At the monastery, Alacoque reportedly received several apparitions and private revelations of Jesus Christ between 27 December 1673 and June 1675.

On 27 December 1673, the feast of St. John, Margaret Mary said that Jesus had permitted her to rest her head upon his heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of his love, telling her that he desired to make them known to all mankind and to diffuse the treasures of his goodness, and that he had chosen her for this work.

"[5] In an other vision, Margaret Mary also stated that she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night in prayer and meditation on Jesus' Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane : "and on each night of Thursday to Friday, I will make you participate in the mortal sadness that I have accepted to feel in the Garden of Olives, (...), you will get up from eleven until midnight, to prostrate yourself during an hour with Me...".

Nor was she any more successful with many of the members of her own community.Sometime around 1681, Alacoque felt compelled to write a personal testament, passionately donating her life completely to Jesus with her own blood.

The following account recalls this event: She herself wrote out the donation, and signed this humble formula: 'Sister Peronne-Rosalie Greyfie, at present Superioress, and for whom Sister Margaret Mary daily asks conversion with the grace of final penitence.'

The Mother having assented, Sister Margaret Mary went to her cell, bared her breast, and, imitating her illustrious and saintly foundress, cut with a knife the name of Jesus above her heart.

Mother Greyfie, true to her custom, apparently paid little attention to what Margaret said, but ordered her in a few dry words to go to the infirmary and show her wound to Sister Augustine Marest, who would dress it.

"[14] She eventually received the support of Claude de la Colombière, the community's confessor for a time, who declared that the visions were genuine.

[15] In 1689, Alacoque received a private request from Jesus to urge the King of France, Louis XIV, to consecrate the nation to the Sacred Heart, so that he may be "triumphant over all the enemies of Holy Church."

All her actions, her revelations, her spiritual maxims, her teachings regarding the devotion to the Sacred Heart, of which she was the chief exponent as well as the apostle, were subjected to the most severe and minute examination.

The Sacred Congregation of Rites eventually voted favorably and Pope Leo XII pronounced her Venerable on 30 March 1824, introducing a cause for her canonization.

[18] Nowadays, her body rests above the side altar in the Chapel of the Apparitions, located at the Visitation Monastery in Paray-le-Monial, which draws pilgrims from all parts of the world.

[26] In James Joyce's short story "Eveline", in his book Dubliners, a "coloured print of the promises made to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque" is mentioned as part of the decorations of an Irish home at the turn of the 20th century, testifying to Joyce's fine eye for the details of Irish Catholic piety.