By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
Part 1
This is the first of two articles on the apparition of our Lady at La Salette in September 1846, which has a lot to teach us in our own day. At that time, the small nearby town of Corps, in the Grenoble region in southeastern France, was a poor place, whose inhabitants were mostly indifferent to religion, and the two children privileged to see our Lady, Maximin and Mélanie, shared in this general poverty.
Maximin Giraud was 11 years old in 1846 but was unable to read or write, and knew virtually nothing of religious matters; he had barely managed to learn the Our Father or Hail Mary. Mélanie Mathieu (or Calvat) was 14 and had looked after the cows of neighboring farmers from an early age; like Maximin she was virtually uneducated.
On Thursday, September 17, 1846, Mélanie was working for Baptiste Pra who lived in the hamlet of Ablandins. She was looking after his cattle in the high pasture, when for the first time she met young Maximin; he was working for another farmer as a replacement for his usual cowherd, who was ill. They were not acquainted prior to this since they lived at opposite ends of Corps, and Mélanie was nearly four years older than Maximin, although the boy knew the Pra family, since his sister had formerly worked for them.
The next day the two children pastured their respective herds together, and on Saturday, September 19 they again rose early and drove their cows ahead of them, with Maximin’s employer, Pierre Selme, coming on behind. The morning passed without incident as the children sat on the grass watching the cows, until, at the sound of the midday angelus bell of La Salette church, a couple of miles away down in the valley, Selme told Maximin to water the animals. Mélanie joined him, and after seeing to the animals they went on to a spring surrounded by stones a few yards away where they sat down to eat their lunch of bread and cheese.
After this they moved a bit further down the mountain to rest near another spring, again encircled by stones, but dry at the end of the long hot summer. It was a beautiful warm autumn day with a clear blue sky, and after their very early start they decided to lie down nearby.
It is worth noting that Selme, in his formal deposition concerning the events at La Salette, made it clear that he was certain that no one had approached the children on the mountain or spoken to them prior to the apparition.
It was unusual for either to sleep during the day, and Mélanie was the first to wake with a start after about an hour. Her first thought was for the cows, but after she and Maximin had found they were all there, she returned to the spring to fetch her satchel. There she was met by an astonishing sight. She could see a dazzling globe of light on the stones of the dry spring, near where they had recently been resting, and frightened, called to Maximin.
Both children shaded their eyes from the glare of the globe as it grew bigger and began to open, revealing a seated woman with her head in her hands. She then stood up and spoke to them: “Come, my children. Do not be afraid. I am here to tell you great news.”
Her voice reassured them and they ran toward her, close enough to see all the details of her appearance. They later described her as very tall and beautiful, wearing a long white, pearl-studded, sleeved dress, and a white shawl, with some type of tiara or crown on her head. Hanging from her neck was a large crucifix adorned with a small hammer and pincers, with a brilliantly shining figure of Christ on it. The whole effect was as if she was made of light and indeed the children could see through her, although neither she nor they cast a shadow.
Mélanie could look at the face of the Lady but her radiance was too much for Maximin, although he could hear her words; both remarked that she was in tears the whole time she spoke to them:
“If my people do not obey, I shall be compelled to loose my Son’s arm. It is so heavy I can no longer restrain it. How long have I suffered for you! If my son is not to abandon you, I am obliged to entreat Him without ceasing. But you take no heed of that. No matter how well you pray in the future, no matter how well you act, you will never be able to make up to me what I have endured on your behalf. I have given you six days to work. The seventh I have reserved for myself, yet no one will give it to me. This is what causes the weight of my Son’s arm to be so crushing. The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my Son’s name. These are the two things which make my son’s arm so heavy.”
The Lady then went on to speak about the coming punishments for these sins of Sabbath-breaking and blasphemy, including crop blights and famine, at one point switching from French, which the children did not understand very well, to the local patois. Then she spoke to Maximin alone, imparting a secret to him which Mélanie could not hear, before turning to her to give a secret that Maximin likewise could not hear.
The content of those secrets has not been officially revealed by the Vatican, although there are various unofficial versions in circulation. Presently she again spoke to both saying that if the people were converted, then the fields would produce self-sown potatoes and the stones become wheat.
Make This Known
She then asked a significant question: “Do you say your prayers well, my children?” They replied that they hardly prayed, and she told them they should say at least their morning and night prayers, before continuing: “Only a few rather old women go to Mass in the summer. Everyone else works every Sunday all summer long. And in the winter, when they don’t know what else to do, they go to Mass only to scoff at religion. During Lent, they go to the butcher shops like dogs.”
She then asked the children if they had ever seen spoiled wheat and when both replied that they had not, the Lady reminded Maximin that he had once seen it when on a visit to a nearby hamlet with his father; he then remembered that what she had said was true.
Finally the Lady spoke to them in French: “Well, my children, you will make this known to all my people,” before moving forward between them. She went on a few yards and then reemphasized her message to them without turning around: “Now, my children, be sure to make this known to all my people.”
She continued to move away from them up the slope, hovering over the ground, and then stopping near the summit she turned toward the southeast, toward Italy and Rome, no longer crying now, but with a look of great sadness. Then she began to disappear into a light similar to that which had initially encircled her, and in a few moments, she was gone, and the globe of light then dissolved in the autumn sunshine.
The next article will deal with the aftermath of this Church-approved Marian apparition.
+ + +
(Donal Anthony Foley is the author of a number of books on Marian Apparitions, and maintains a related website at www.theotokos.org.uk.)
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress