Over 600 years before the revelations of Divine Mercy to St. Faustina, and over 300 years before the revelations of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque there were the revelations of the Sacred Heart to St. Mechtilde (1241-1298) a Benedictine nun and friend of St. Gertrude the Great. Lovers of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will find many similarities between these and the other apparition where God has shared the mystery of the Sacred Heart with mankind, though there is no evidence that she was familiar with St. Mechtilde's writings. Most importantly Our Lord speaks on topics of great importance in the practice of the devout life: the divine office, frequent confession and communion and so forth. These divine revelations also greatly influenced the Poet Dante when he wrote his Divine Comedy.
