WHY OUR LADY
19TH CENTURY - OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE
LA SALETTE, FRANCE
VISIONARY(S): Maximum Giraud (11), Melanie Mathier (14)
NUMBER OF APPARITIONS: 1
FIRST APPARITION: September 19, 1846
LAST APPARITION: September 19, 1846
APPROVED: September 19, 1851
CONFIRMED: November 4, 1854
FEAST DAY: September 19th
“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan,
which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principal
to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds.”
SUMMARY
Amazingly, Our Lady only appeared at La Salette a single time, one day only, but what a day it must have been for both Melanie (14) and Maximin (11). These two young visionaries saw Our Lady face to face, as other visionaries had at previous apparitions, but they also saw Our Lady as no one else had previously seen her; so dazzling in her brilliance, but also so sad while crying much of the time.
Mary’s apparition at La Salette is a modern-day reminder of an ancient truth: that Mary constantly intercedes for us before God; that she is the Reconciler of Sinners, calling us back to the message and way of the Son, Jesus. The central theme of the Virgin's messages was turn away from sin and do penance or undergo terrible suffering.
This important apparition of Our Lady is one of the most powerful religious occurrences of the Marian Age. With a warning of threatened punishments, it was a forerunner of both Fatima and Garabandal. Its timeliness asserts itself to our world today as we find ourselves at the same crossroads that Europe found herself in the middle of the 19th century; a great falling away from Christianity and its resulting universal denigration. Catholic churches were (and unfortunately still are) abandoned and the Sacraments neglected, just as Our Lady of Good Success prophesied in Quito, Ecuador in the 16th century.
As we ponder this apparition, the message of our Blessed Mother is as pertinent now as then: How many people forsake Sunday Mass but take time for the newspaper, sports, or shopping? How many have not been to Confession in years? How many use our Lord’s name as a common profanity? How many fail to pray each day? How many entertain such blasphemies as The DaVinci Code? Oh yes, the message still resounds. The world and each of us is in need of conversion. Let us turn to Our Lady of La Salette.
BEFORE THE APPARITION
In the 16th century, 1594 to be exact, Our Lady of Good Success appeared in Quito, Ecuador, and spoke of the worldwide crisis in the Church and society that would begin in the 19th century and extend throughout the 20th century. And sure enough, many of those prophesies have become true as have many of the prophesies made by Our Lady of LaSalette in 1878.
The effects of the French Revolution which had terrorized the Church, the blood spilt during the reign of Napoleon, the increasing secularization of social thought, and the rising political turmoil enveloping Europe had taken a serious toll on the faith of the people. In the parish of La Salette, fewer and fewer people attended Mass and the sacraments were neglected. Cursing had overtaken praying; licentiousness, purity; and greed and self-indulgence, piety and sacrifice.
Melanie, one of eight children, came from a poor family and began working at age seven. She had no schooling, knew only bits of the Catechism, infrequently attended Mass, and could hardly recite the Our Father or the Hail Mary. Similarly, Maximin, whose mother had died and who did not like his stepmother, had little religious education and no schooling.
THE APPARITION
While they were tending their sheep, Melanie and Maximim saw a beautiful light, shining more brightly than the sun. The following is Melanie’s description of what happened next, along with Our Lady’s comments.
“I felt myself being drawn. I felt a great respect, full of love, and my heart beat faster.
“I kept my eyes firmly fixed on this light, which was static, and as it had opened up, I caught sight of another, and in the light I saw a most beautiful lady sitting on top of our Paradise, with her head in her hands.
“This beautiful Lady stood up. She coolly crossed her arms while watching us, and said to us: ‘Come, my children, fear not, I am here to proclaim great news to you.’
“These soft and sweet words made me fly to Her, and my heart desired to attach itself to Her forever. When I was close to the Beautiful Lady, in front of Her on Her right, She began to speak and from Her beautiful eyes tears also started to flow.
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much I can no longer keep hold of it.
“I have suffered all the time for the rest of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually. And the rest of you think little of this. In vain you will pray, in vain you will act, you will never be able to make up for the troubles I have taken over for the rest of you. I gave you six days to work, I kept the seventh for myself, and no one wishes to grant it to me. This is what weighs down the arm of my Son so much.
“Those who drive carts cannot speak without putting the name of my Son in the middle.
“These are the two things which weigh down the arm of my Son so much. If the harvest is spoiled, it is only because of the rest of you. I made you see this last year with the potatoes, you took little account of this. It was quite the opposite when you found bad potatoes, you swore oaths, and you included the name of my Son. They will continue to go bad... at Christmas there will be none left.”
“At this point, I was trying to interpret the word ‘potatoes’ (pommes de terre): I thought I understood it to be ‘apples’ (pommes). The Beautiful and Good Lady, reading my thoughts, repeated this:
“You do not understand, my children. I will tell it to you another way. If the harvest is spoiled, it does not seem to affect you. I made you see this last year with the potatoes. You took little account of this. It was quite the opposite when you found bad potatoes, you swore oaths, and you included the name of my Son. They will continue to go bad and at Christmas, there will be none left.
“If you have corn, you must not sow it. The beasts will eat all that you sow. And all that grows will fall to dust when you thrash it. A great famine will come. Before the famine comes, children under the age of seven will begin to tremble and will die in the arms of those who hold them. The others will do penance through hunger. The nuts will go bad, the grapes will become rotten.”
“At this point, the Beautiful Lady, who was entrancing me, for a moment did not make Herself heard. I could see, however, that She was continuing, as if speaking, to move graciously Her kindly lips. At this moment, Maximin was receiving his secret.”
Note: The secrets were given to both in pure French, which neither understood, nor could speak or write.
Secret to Maximin Giraud
Maximin relates: “On the 19th of September, 1846, I saw a lady brilliant like the sun, whom I believe to be the Holy Virgin. However, I have never said it was the Holy Virgin. I have always said that I saw a lady, but never ventured to affirm that it was the Holy Virgin. From what I am going to state here, it pertains to the Church to judge whether it was truly the Holy Virgin or some other person. She gave me my secret about the middle of Her conversation with me, after these words: ‘The nuts will go bad, the grapes will rotten.’
The Lady began by saying to me”:
“1. ‘Three fourths of France shall lose the faith, and the other fourth, that will preserve it, will practice it with tepidity.”
“2. ‘Peace shall not be given to the world until men be converted.”
“3. ‘A Protestant nation in the North shall be converted to the faith, and through the means of that nation, the others shall return to the holy Catholic Church.”
“4. ‘The next Pope shall not be a Roman.”
“5. ‘When men shall be converted, God will give peace to the world.”
“6. ‘Afterwards this peace shall be disturbed by the monster.”
“7. ‘The monster shall arrive at the end of this nineteenth century or, at least, at the commencement of the twentieth.”
“8. ‘In this time the Antichrist will be born of a nun of Hebraic descent, a false virgin, who will have intercourse with the ancient serpent, with the master of impurity and putrefaction. His father will be a bishop. He will perform false miracles and subsist on on vitiating faith. He will have his brethern who will be children of evil but not incarnate devils like himself. Soon they will be at the head of armies, supported by the legion of hell.”
“9. ‘Up, ye children of light, and fight! For behold, the age of ages, the end, the extremity is at hand! The Church passes into darkness. The world will be in a state of consternation, perplexity and confusion.”
“10. ‘On Henoch and Elias: They will suddenly appear on earth full of the spirit of God, when the Church becomes darkened and the world is in terrible agony. They will convert those of good will and comfort the oppressed Christians. With the help of the Holy Ghost, they will have great success against the heresies of the Antichrist. But in the end they will be delivered unto death.”
When she finished with Maximin, the Lady turned to Melanie and spoke directly to her, with Maximin being left out of the conversation.
Secret to Melanie Mathieu Calvat
“Melanie, what I am about to tell you now will not always be a secret. You may make it public in 1858.”
“The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the holy mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, and the priests have become cesspools of impurity.”
“Yes, the priests are asking vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives are crucifying my Son again! “
“The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls; there is no one left worthy of offering a stainless sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way.”
“Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together.”
“The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish.”
“God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years.”
“The Society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God.”
“May the curate of my Son, Pope Pius IX never leave Rome again after 1859; may he, however, be steadfast and noble, may he fight with the weapons of faith and love. I will be at his side. May he be on his guard against Napoleon: he is two-faced, and when he wishes to make himself Pope as well as Emperor, God will soon draw back from him. He is the master-mind who, always wanting to ascend further, will fall on the sword he wished to use to force his people to be raised up.”
“Italy will be punished for her ambition in wanting to shake off the yoke of the Lord of Lords. And so she will be left to fight a war; blood will flow on all sides. Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death. Several will abandon the faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops.”
“May the Pope guard against the performers of miracles. For the time has come when the most astonishing wonders will take place on the earth and in the air.”
“In the year 1864, Lucifer together with a large number of demons will be unloosed from hell; they will put an end to faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of hell; several religious institutions will lose all faith and will lose many souls.”
“Evil books will be abundant on earth and the sprits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. They will have great power over Nature: there will be churches built to serve these spirits. People will be transported from one place to another by these evil spirits, even priests, for they will not have been guided by the good spirit of the Gospel which is a spirit of humility, charity and zeal for the glory of God. On occasions, the dead and the righteous will be brought back to life.” (“That is to say that these dead will take on the form of righteous souls which had lived on earth, in order to lead men further astray; these so-called resurrected dead, who will be nothing but the devil in this form, will preach another Gospel contrary to that of the true Christ Jesus, denying the existence of Heaven; that is also to say, the souls of the damned. All these souls will appear as if fixed to their bodies).
In a letter to Father Combe, dated October 7, 1899, Melanie corrects these words in parenthesis which are her own, she says, and which she judges to be unclear and inaccurate.
“That is to say, she writes, 'That is those days, which only seem like twenty years ago, some perverted people (Italian; malvages) had given themselves over to devotion to the demon of magic. These people would cause to appear, in the eyes of the curious and acquainted, theirs who had not led a Christian way of life. These supposedly resurrected individuals appeared in heavenly glory. People known to have lived in the fear of God appeared to be in horrible suffering, and urged their friends and acquaintances not to follow in their footsteps, and they preached a Gospel opposed to that of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that these bizarre occurrences may be put down to the fashion for spiritualistic evocations and for certain spiritualistic and demoniac practices which no doubt will one day be brought to life through a thorough examination of the Luciferian archives of Free-Masonry.'”
In the same letter, Melanie takes care to explain that where it is said that people will be transported from one place to another, it must be understood as to be in rare cases only.
The secret to Melanie continues:
“Everywhere there will be extraordinary wonders, as true faith has faded and false light brightens the people. Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches to protect their authority and dominate with pride.”
”The Vicar of my Son will suffer a great deal, because for a while the Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis.”
“The true faith to the Lord having been forgotten, each individual will want to be on his own and be superior to people of same identity, they will abolish civil rights as well as ecclesiastical, all order and all justice would be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension would be seen without love for country or family.”
“The Holy Father will suffer a great deal. I will be with him until the end and receive his sacrifice. The mischievous would attempt his life several times to do harm and shorten his ways, but neither him nor his successor will see the triumph of the Church of God.”
“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principal to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds.”
“In the year 1865, there will be desecration of holy places. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the King of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the earth.”
”France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other; massacre each other even in their homes. “
“At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy.”
“The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession. And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ and all those given over to sin will perish and the earth will become desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshipped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the holy Church, which will be strong, humble, and pious in Its poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God.”
“This peace among men will be short-lived. Twenty-five years of plentiful harvests will make them forget that the sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this earth.”
“A forerunner of the Antichrist, with his troops gathered from several nations, will fight against the true Christ, the only Saviour of the world. He will shed much blood and will want to annihilate the worship of God to make himself be looked upon as a God.”
“The earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds (in addition to plague and famine which will be wide-spread). There will be a series of wars until the last war, which will then be fought by the ten Kings of the Antichrist, all of whom will have one and the same plan and will be the only rulers of the world. Before this comes to pass, there will be a kind of false peace in the world. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin. But the children of the holy Church, the children of my faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God and in all the virtues most precious to me. Blessed are the souls humbly guided by the Holy Spirit! I shall fight at their side until they reach a fullness of years.”
“Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles with dread at what must happen to the earth stained with crime. Tremble, earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves, tremble, for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption. Many convents are no longer houses of God, but the grazing-grounds of Asmodeas and his like. It will be during this time that the Antichrist will be born of a Hebrew nun, a false virgin who will communicate with the old serpent, the master of impurity, his father will be B. At birth, he will spew out blasphemy; he will have teeth, in a word; he will be the devil incarnate. He will scream horribly, he will perform wonders; he will feed on nothing but impurity. He will have brothers who, although not devils incarnate like him, will be children of evil. At the age of twelve, they will draw attention upon themselves by the gallant victories they will have won; soon they will each lead armies, aided by the legions of hell.”
“The seasons will be altered, the earth will produce nothing but bad fruit, the stars will lose their regular motion, and the moon will only reflect a faint reddish glow. Water and fire will give the earth's globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains, cities, etc...”
“Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”
“The demons of the air together with the Antichrist will perform great wonders on earth and in the atmosphere, and men will become more and more perverted. God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will. The Gospel will be preached everywhere, and all peoples of all nations will get to know the truth.”
“I make an urgent appeal to the earth. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven; I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Saviour of men; I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit.”
“Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world.”
“It is time they came out and filled the world with light. Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children. I am at your side and within you, provided that your faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honour of Jesus Christ. Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see. For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends.”
“The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. But now Enoch and Eli will come, filled with the Spirit of God. They will preach with the might of God, and men of good will will believe in God, and many souls will be comforted. They will make great steps forward through the virtue of the Holy Spirit and will condemn the devilish lapses of the Antichrist. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases. It will rain with a fearful hail of animals. There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries. Voices will be heard in the air.”
“Men will beat their heads against walls, call for their death, and on another side death will be their torment. Blood will flow on all sides. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test? All the blood, the tears and prayers of the righteous, God will relent. Enoch and Eli will be put to death. Pagan Rome will disappear. The fire of Heaven will fall and consume three cities. All the universe will be struck with terror and many will let themselves be lead astray because they have not worshipped the true Christ who lives among them. It is time; the sun is darkening; only faith will survive.”
“Now is the time; the abyss is opening. Here is the King of Kings of darkness; here is the Beast with his subjects, calling himself the Saviour of the world. He will rise proudly into the air to go to Heaven. He will be smothered by the breath of the Archangel Saint Michael. He will fall, and the earth, which will have been in a continuous series of evolutions for three days, will open up its fiery bowels; and he will have plunged for all eternity with all his followers into the everlasting chasms of hell. And then water and fire will purge the earth and consume all the works of men's pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified.”
21st of November 1878 - Extract from a letter of Melanie relating to the Secret of La Salette.
“I anticipate with great pleasure the ‘Secret’ circulating at full extent; the more it spreads the more it will arouse salutary fear and numerous returns to God. Mary will bless those who help at the diffusion as she absolutely wants this passed on to all of the people. We are punished for having neglected this absolute order from the Mother of God.”
Additional words of Melanie:
“The great chastisement will come, because men will not be converted; yet it is only their conversion that can hinder these scourges. God will begin to strike men by inflicting lighter punishments in order to open their eyes; then He will stop, or may repeat His former warnings to give place for repentance. But sinners will not avail themselves of these opportunities; He will, in consequence, send more severe castigations, anxious to move sinners to repentance, but all in vain. Finally, the obduracy of sinners shall draw upon their heads the greatest and most terrible calamities.
“We are all guilty! Penance is not done, and sin increases daily. Those who should come forward to do good are retained by fear. Evil is great. A moderate punishment serves only to irritate the spirits, because they view all things with human eyes. God could work a miracle to convert and change the aspect of the earth without chastisement. God will work a miracle; it will be a stroke of His mercy; but after the wicked shall have inebriated themselves with blood, the scourge shall arrive.
“What countries shall be preserved from such calamities? Where shall we go for refuge? I, in my turn, shall ask, What is the country that observes the commandments of God? What country is not influenced by human fear where the interest of the Church and the glory of God are at stake? (Ah, indeed! What country, what nation upon earth?) In behalf of my Superior and myself, I have often asked myself where we could go for refuge, had we the means for the journey and for our subsistence, on condition that no person were to know it? But I renounce these useless thoughts. We are very guilty! In consequence of this, it is necessary that a very great and terrible scourge should come to revive our faith, and to restore to us our very reason, which we have almost entirely lost. Wicked men are devoured by a thirst for exercising their cruelty; but when they shall have reached the uttermost point of barbarity, God Himself shall extend His hand to stop them, and very soon after, a complete change shall be effected in all surviving persons. Then they will sing the Te Deum Laudamus with the most lively gratitude and love. The Virgin Mary, our Mother, shall be our liberatrix. Peace shall reign, and the charity of Jesus Christ shall unite all hearts...Let us pray; let us pray. God does not wish to chastise us severely. He speaks to us in so many, so many ways to make us return to Him. How long shall we remain stubborn? Let us pray, let us pray; let us never cease praying and doing penance. Let us pray for our Holy Father the Pope, the only light for the faithful in these times of darkness. O yes, let us by all means prays much. Let us pray to good, sweet, merciful Virgin Mary; for we stand in great need of her powerful hands over our heads.”
Once Melanie’s secret was revealed to her, Our Lady again spoke to both of them together in their own dialect: “If people are converted, the rocks will become piles of wheat, and it will be found that the potatoes have sown themselves.” She then asked the children, “Do you say your prayers well, my children?” “No, we hardly say them at all,” they mumbled. “Ah, my children, it is very important to say them, at night and in the morning. When you don’t have time, at least say an Our Father and a Hail Mary. And when you can, say more.”
Our Lady then returned to her chastisement of the people: “Only a few rather old women go to Mass in the Summer. All the rest work every Sunday throughout the Summer. And in Winter, when they don’t know what to do with themselves, they go to Mass only to poke fun at religion. During Lent they flock to the butcher shops, like dogs. Have you ever seen wheat that is spoiled, my children?” “No madam”, they both answered together.
“Ah, but you my child,” the Lady said to Maximin, “you must certainly have seen some once near Coin, with your father. The farmer said to your father, ‘Come and see how my wheat has spoiled!’ You went to see, and your father took two or three ears in his hand, and when he rubbed them, they became dust. Then on your way back, when you were no more than a half hour from Corps, your father gave you a piece of bread and said, ‘Take it and eat it while you can, son, because I don’t know what we’ll be eating next year if the wheat continues to spoil like that.’” Confronted with such precise details, Maximin was able to recall the incident. “That is quite true madam,” he admitted, I didn’t remember that at first.”
“The Most Holy Virgin brought her speech to an end in French. “And so, My children, you will pass this on to all My people.”
The beautiful Lady then began to turn away from them while saying, “Well, my children, you will make this known to all my people.” She crossed a dried-up river bed, and taking two steps farther, with the children following after her, keeping themselves within her brilliance, she again repeated, “And so, my children, you will make this known to my people.”
“Then the most beautiful Lady walked on up to the place where I had gone to see our cows. Her feet touched nothing for the tips of the grass and without bending them. I had forgotten both my cows and the masters I worked for. In the presence of my Lady, I felt I had forgotten paradise. I thought of nothing more but to serve Her in every way possible; and I felt I could have done everything She could have asked me to do, for it seemed to me that She had a great deal of power. She looked at me with a tender kindness which drew me to Her. I could have thrown myself into Her arms with my eyes closed. She did not give me the time to do so.
“She rose imperceptibly from the ground to a height of around four feet or more; and, hanging this in the air for a split second, my beautiful Lady looked up to Heaven, then down on the earth to Her right and then Her left. Then She looked at me with Her eyes so soft, so kind and so good that I felt She was drawing me inside Her, and my heart seemed to open to Hers.
“And as my heart melted away, sweetly gladdened, the beautiful face of my good Lady disappeared little by little. It seemed to me that the light in motion was growing stronger, or rather condensing around the Most Holy Virgin, to prevent me seeing Her any longer.”
Our Lady’s Appearance
The following desciption of Our Lady of LaSallette was provided by Melanie (Sr. Maria of the Cross) in a letter dated November 21, 1878. How absolutely beautiful Our Lady must be. It is no wonder that the visionaries (for example at Garabandal from 1961 to 1965; and later at Medugorje from 1981 to today) go into such ecstasy when She appears to them. And the sadness of the visionaries when her apparitions stop is even more understandable after reading this description. Yet their sadness seems to be miniscule in comparison to the sadness of Our Lady as a result of the sin in the world. QUESTION(S): Is there more sin in the world today than there was in 1878? Have Our Lady’s prophesies not come true; are they still coming true? At what point can Our Lady no longer hold back the hand of Her beloved Son, the Son of God? Of all of the concerns that we might have, perhaps this should be our biggest!
“The Most Holy Virgin was tall and well-proportioned. She seemed so light that a mere breath could have stirred Her, yet She was motionless and perfectly balanced. Her face was majestic, imposing, but not imposing in the manner of the Lord’s here below. She compelled a respectful fear. At the same time as Her Majesty compelled respect mingled with love, She drew me to Her. Her gaze was soft and penetrating. Her eyes seemed to speak to mine, but the conversation came out of a vivid feeling of love for this ravishing beauty who was liquifying me.
The softness of Her gaze, Her air of incomprehensible goodness made me understand and feel that She was drawing me to Her and wanted to give Herself. It was an expression of love which cannot be expressed with the tongue of the flesh, nor with the letters of the alphabet.
The clothing of the Most Holy Virgin was silver white and quite brilliant. It was quite intangible. It was made up of light and glory, sparkling and dazzling. There is no expression nor comparison to be found on earth.
The Holy Virgin was all beauty and all love; the sight of Her overwhelmed me. In Her finery as in Her person, everything radiated the majesty, the splendor, the magnificence of a Queen beyond compare. She seemed as white, immaculate, crystallized, dazzling heavenly, fresh and new as a Virgin.
The word LOVE seemed to slip from Her pure and silvery lips. She appeared to me like a good Mother, full of kindness, amiability, of love for us, of compassion and mercy.
The crown of roses which She had placed on Her head was so beautiful, so brilliant, that it defies imagination. The different colored roses were not of this earth; it was a joining together of flowers which crowned the head of the Most Holy Virgin. But the roses kept changing and replacing each other, and then, from the heart of each rose, there shone a beautiful entrancing light, which gave the roses a shimmering beauty.
From the crown of roses there seemed to arise golden branches and a number of other little flowers mingled with the shining ones. The whole thing formed a most beautiful diadem, which alone whone brighter than our earth’s sun.
The Holy Virgin had a most pretty cross handing round Her neck. This cross seemed golden. (I say golden rather than gold-plated, for I have sometimes seen objects which were golden with varying shades of gold, which had a much more beautiful effect on my eyes than simple gold plate). On this shining, beautiful corss, there was a Christ, it was Our Lord on the Cross.
Near both ends of the cross there was a hammer, and at the other end, a pair of tongs. The Christ was skin-colored, but He shone dazzingly; and the light that shone forth from His whole body seemed like brilliantly shining darts which pierced my heart with the desire to melt inside Him. At times the Christ appeared to be dear. His head was bent forward and His body seemed to give way, as if about to fall, had He not been held back by the nails which held Him to the Cross.
I felt a deep compassion and would have liked to tell His unknown love to the whole world, and to let seep into the mortal souls the most heart-felt love and gratitude towards a God who had no need whatsoever of us to be everything He is, was and always will be. And yet, a love that men cannot understand. He made Himself man, and wanted to die, yes die, so as to better inscribe in our souls in our memory, the passionate love He has for us.
Oh, how wretched am I to find myself so poor in my expression of the love of our good Savior for us! But, in another way, how happy we are to be able to feel more deeply that which we cannot express!
At other times, the Christ appeared to be alive, His head was erect, His eyes open, and He seemed to be on the cross of His own accord. At times, too, He appeared to speak: He seemed to show that He was on the Cross for our sake, out of love for us, to draw us to His love, and that He always has more love to give us, that His love in the beginning and in the year 33 is always that of today and will be for ever more.
The Holy Virgin was crying nearly the whole time she was speaking to me. Her tears flowed gently, one by one, down to Her knees, then, like sparks of light, they disappeared. They were glittering and full of love. I would have liked to comfort Her and stop Her tears. But it seemed to me that She needed to show better Her love forgotten by men. I would have liked to throw myself into Her arms and say to Her: “My kind Mother, do not cry! I want to love You for all men on earth.” But she seemed to be saying to me: “There are so many who know me not!”
The tears of our sweet Mother, far from lessening Her air of majesty, of a Queen and a Mistress, seemed, on the contrary, to embellish Her, to make Her more beautiful, more powerful, more filled with love, more maternal, more ravishing, and I could have wiped away Her tears which made my heart leap with compassion and love.
To see a Mother cry, and such a Mother, without doing everything possible to comfort Her and change Her grief into joy, is that possible? Oh! Mother, who is more than good, You have been formed with all the prerogatives God is able to make: You have married the power of God, so to speack; You are good, and more, You are good with the goodness of God Himself. God has extended Himself by making You His terrestial and celstial masterpiece.
The Most Holy Virgin had a yellow pinafore. What am I saying, yellow? She had a pinafore more brilliant than several suns put together. It was not a tangible material, it was composed of glory, and this glory was scintiallating, and ravishingly beautiful. Everything in the Holy Virgin carried me firmly and made me kind of slide into the adoration and love of my Jesus in every state of His mortal life.
The Most Holy Virgin had two chains, one a little wider that the other. From the narrower one hung the cross which I mentioned earlier. These (since they must be given the name of chains) were like rays of brightly shining glory, sparkling and dazzling. Her shoes, (since they must be called shoes) were white, but a silvery brilliant white. There roses around them. These roses were dazzlingly beautiful, and from the heart of each rose there shone forth a flame of very beautiful and pleasing light. On Her shoes there was a buckle of gold, not the gold of this earth, but rather the gold of paradise.
The voice of the Beautiful Lady was soft. It was enchanting, ravishing, warming to the heart. It satisfied, flattered every obstacle. It soothed and softened. It seemed to me I could never stop eating up Her beautiful voice, and my heart seemed to dance or want to go towards Her and melt inside Her.
The eyes of the most Holy Virgin, our Sweet Mother, cannot be described in human language. To speak to them, you would need a seraphg, you would need more than that, you would need the language of God Himself, of the God who formed the Immaculate Virgin, the masterpiece of His omnipitence. The eyes of the majestic Mary appeared thousands of times more beautiful than the rarest brilliants, diamonds and precious stones. They shone like two suns; they were soft, softness
itself, as clear as a mirror. In Her eyes, you could see paradise. They drew you to Her, She seemed to want to draw and give Herself. The more I looked, the more I wanted to see; the more I saw, the more I loved Her and I loved Her with all my might.
The eyes of the beautiful Immaculate One were like the door to God’s Kingdom, from which you could see all that can elate the soul. When my eyes met those of the Mother of God and of myself, I felt inside me a happy revolution of love and a declaration that I love Her and am melting with love. As we looked at each other, our eyes spole to each other in their fashion, and I loved Her so much I could have kissed Her in the middled of Her eyes, which touched my soul and seemed to draw it towards them and it melt into Hers. Her eyes set up a sweet trembling in all my being; and I was afraid to make the slightes movement which might cause Her the smallest displeasure.
Just the sight of the eyes of the purest of Virgins would have been enough to make the Heaven of a blessed creature, enough to fill the soul with the will of the Most High amid the events which occur in the course of mortal life, enough to make the soul perform continual acts of praise, of thanksgiving, of atonement and expiation. Just this sight focuses the soul on God, and makes it like a living death, looking upon all the things of this earth, even the things which seem the most serious, as nothing but children’s playthings. The soul would want to hear no one speaking unless they spoke of God, and of that which affects His Glory.
SIN IS THE ONLY EVIL SHE SEES ON EARTH. SHE WILL DIE OF GRIEF UNLESS GOD SUSTAINS HER. AMEN.”
Sr. Maria of the Cross,
Victim of Jesus, nee Melanie Calvat,
Shephedess of LaSalette.
Castellamare,
21st of November, 1878.
AFTER THE APPARITION
Convinced they saw “a great saint”, the two gave a full report of what happened when they returned to the village that evening, and were told by their astonished listeners that they had seen the Mother of God herself although they themselves, until the apparition was officially approved five years later, would only refer to her as “the beautiful Lady.” They would continue to repeat their story in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead, to lay people, priests, religious, bishops and ecclesiastical commissions. They never contradicted themselves despite numerous attempts to get them to do so. Generally, the two shepherds’ account was well-received, the Bishop of Grenoble moved cautiously in his investigation.
Miracles and Signs
During interrogations from the local authorities, the children were taken to the site of the apparition. A man broke off a piece of rock at the spot of the Virgin's appearance and uncovered a spring. The spring was found to have healing powers which inspired the bishop to begin an official inquiry. Twenty-three cures were attributed to the mountain spring in the first year after the apparition. Additionally, hundreds of miraculous cures have also been reported at the Basilica of LaSalette.
Prophecy Fulfillment
In December 1846, only three months after Our Lady’s apparition at LaSalette, most of the popular crops in France were disease stricken, and in 1847 a famine hit Europe which resulted in the loss of approximately one million lives, including one hundred thousand in France alone. Cholera became prevalent in various parts of France and claimed the lives of many children.
Approval
Mgr de Bruillard published a pastoral letter September 19, 1851 for the fifth anniversary of the Apparition in which he affirmed "We judge that the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin to the two cowherds on the 19th of September, 1846, on a mountain of the chain of Alps, situated in the parish of LaSalette, in the arch presbytery of Corps, bears within Itself all the characteristics of truth, and that the faithful have grounds for believing it Indubitable and certain."
On November 4th, 1854, Mgr de Ginoulhiac issued a pastoral letter which condemned a memorandum published in Grenoble addressed to the Pope against the judgment of 1851. He additionally renews his predecessor’s doctrinal judgement in a more explicit and this time definitive way.
The mission assigned by Our Lady to Maximin and Melanie was now ended. On September 19, 1855, Monseigneur Ginoulhiac, the new bishop of Grenoble, thus assessed the situation: “The mission of the children is now ended, that of the Church begins.” Innumerable today are the men and women of all races and countries who have found in the message of La Salette the road to conversion, a deepening of their faith, the needed dynamism for their everyday lives, and the motives for their commitment with and in Christ to the service of all peoples.
Memorare to Our Lady of La Salette:
Remember, Our Lady of La Salette, true mother of Sorrows, the tears you shed for us on Calvary. Remember also the care you have taken to keep us faithful to Christ, your Son. Having done so much for your children, you will not now abandon us. Comforted by this consoling thought, we come to you pleading, despite our infidelities and ingratitude. Virgin of Reconciliation, do not reject our prayers, but intercede for us, obtain for us the grace to love Jesus above all else. May we console you by living a holy life and so come to share the eternal life Christ gained by His cross. Amen.
SOURCES
Garabandal Journal; Septermber-October, 2010; Our Lady of La Salette
https://catholicstraightanswers.com/what-is-the-story-of-our-lady-of-la-salette/
“The Lady in Tears,” by Msgr. John S. Kennedy in A Woman Clothed with the Sun.)
http://www.thepopeinred.com/secret.htm
https://www.lasalette.org/about-la-salette/apparition/the-story/705-the-message-of-la-salette.html
https://olpssulphur.com/story-of-our-lady-of-lasalette
http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/lasalette1.htm
Secrets of La Salette; The 101 Foundation
La Salette Explained; Apostolate of Our Lady of Siluva
The Secret of Maximin Giraud; “Christian Trumpet, by Pellegirno, Publisher, Patrich Donahoe, Boston, 1878; “La Vie de Melanie,”, Leon Bloye, 1915; “The Reign of Antichrist,” by Cullerton, Fresno,
California, 1951.
The Secret of Melanie Mathieu Calvat; Melanie’s secret message was published in its entirity in a
brochure which she had printed in 1879 at Lecce, Italy, with the approval of the Bishop of Lecce.