Southern Burgundy is rich in the architectural treasures of the Church’s glorious past. There are a number of exquisite Romanesque churches, the ruins of the abbey of Cluny and the beautiful 12th-century Basilica of Paray-le-Monial, which today is a place of pilgrimage second only to Lourdes. It was here that, in 1673, St Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun in the town’s Visitation convent, had her visions of Jesus pointing to his flaming heart and assuring us of his burning love for all humanity. At first, she was treated with scepticism, but Margaret’s Jesuit confessor, St Claude de la Colombière, believed that her visions were genuine. So began the cult of the Sacred Heart, which saw plaster statues of Jesus pointing to his flaming heart in Catholic churches throughout the world.