The surgeon said wait for spring. She said one month.

LHAUTECOUR, Burgundy, winter 1663 AD — A surgeon came to the Alacoque family’s farm at Lhautecour, in Burgundy. He said nothing could make his patient well before spring. It was winter, and his patient was Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. She was sixteen, with ulcers on her legs and a pain in her side. But St. Margaret Mary had already told her mother something different. God had sent her this suffering, she said, and God would take it away without any medicine.

St. Margaret Mary had been ill before, as a younger girl, and once she was well she spent hours praying. She prayed before daybreak and late at night, so that her praying didn’t take time from her housework. She slept on the bare floor and did other penances, until a servant found out. Her mother, Philiberte Lamyn, was afraid for her daughter’s health. So she made St. Margaret Mary sleep in her room with her.

A pain she told no one about

Then St. Margaret Mary fell ill again. For a long time she told no one about the pain in her side. But she couldn’t hide the ulcers that broke out on her legs.

St. Margaret Mary wanted a room of her own again. There she could pray through the night and do her penances where no one would see. So she asked her mother to let her sleep alone again, and gave the ulcers as her reason. Her mother agreed. St. Margaret Mary went back to praying through the night and doing penance, and did nothing for her legs.

Her mother begged her to look after her health. St. Margaret Mary gave her the same answer about God and the medicine. Then her mother stopped begging and ordered her to be treated, and the surgeon came. He tried his remedies, and none of them worked. St. Margaret Mary took every one without complaining.

Then St. Margaret Mary told her mother: “You see the utter weakness of human remedies. I have obeyed your commands.” She went on: “Remember what I said; God, Who has sent me this light affliction, will cure me before the expiration of another month.” So the two of them made a novena together, nine days of prayer.

Before the nine days were out

Before the nine days were over, St. Margaret Mary felt that she was cured. The ulcers on her legs had closed, without any treatment at all. They healed so well that nothing showed where they had been. The pain in her side had stopped at the same time.

St. Margaret Mary called her mother and showed her the healed legs in private. The two of them knelt in front of a crucifix to thank God.

Her mother was afraid that new penances would bring a new illness. She asked her daughter to take care of her health. That way St. Margaret Mary could help her in her old age. St. Margaret Mary answered her: “Do not be uneasy, God will give me strength sufficient to serve you.”

St. Margaret Mary didn’t give up her penances. But she gave her mother all the help her mother could have hoped for. Her health held for eight years. Then, in 1671 AD, St. Margaret Mary entered the convent of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial.