History
On Saturday afternoon, September 19, 1846, two children– Maximin Guiraud (age 11) and Melanie Calvat (age 14)– were tending sheep for their employers near La Salette in the French Alps. 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.
While they were tending their sheep, they saw a brilliant light, brighter than the sun. As they approached, they noticed a “Beautiful Lady” seated on a rock and crying, with her face in her hands. In tears, she stood and spoke to them in their local French dialect. She wore a headdress topped by a lucent crown with a band of roses, a dress with beams of light, and slippers edged with roses. Around her neck hung a golden crucifix: on one end of the cross beam was a hammer and nails, and on the other, a pincher. Over her shoulders was a heavy chain.
She said, “Come to me, my children. Do not be afraid. I am here to tell something of the greatest importance.” She continued, “If my people will not obey, I shall be compelled to loose my Son’s arm. It is so heavy, so pressing that I can no longer restrain it. How long I have suffered for you! If my Son is not to cast you off, I am obliged to entreat Him without ceasing. But you take not the least notice 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 for your sake.
I have appointed you six days for working. The seventh I have reserved for myself. And no one will give it to me. This it is which causes the weight of my Son’s arm to be crushing. The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my Son’s name. These are the two things which make my Son’s arms so burdensome.
If the harvest is spoiled, it is your own fault. I warned you last year by means of the potatoes. You paid no heed. Quite the reverse, when you discovered that the potatoes had rotted, you swore, you abused my Son’s name. They will continue to rot, and by Christmas this year there will be none left.
If you have grain, it will do no good to sow it, for what you sow the beasts will devour, and any part of it that springs up will crumble into dust when you thresh it.
A great famine is coming. But before that happens, the children under seven years of age will be seized with trembling and die in their parent’s arms. The grownups will pay for their sins by hunger. The grapes will rot, and the walnuts will turn bad.”
Truly a sobering message! Then Our Lady said, “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.” She concluded saying, “My children, you will make this known to all my people.” She then walked away, up a steep path, and disappeared in a bright light.
The children repeated the story to each of their employers. When the people ascertained that the stories matched, and several pious people concluded this had been an apparition of the Blessed Mother, the children were sent to the parish priest of La Salette. The priest recounted the children’s story at Mass. The government officials began an investigation, and the children maintained their story despite threats of imprisonment. Once when investigating the site, someone broke off a piece of the rock on which Our Lady had sat; a spring of water emerged in a place that was dry except for when the snows were melting. The spring flowed steadily and abundantly. Some of the water was given to a woman suffering from a long-term serious illness; she drank a little of the water each day as she prayed a novena, and on the ninth day, she was cured.
The case was then submitted to Bishop Bruillard of Grenoble, who initiated a thorough investigation of the apparition. Meanwhile, more miraculous cures occurred. The greatest miracle was truly spiritual: people started to attend Mass faithfully and confess regularly, they stopped working on Sundays, and they returned to living a pious and devotional life. Pilgrimages to the site became increasingly popular. Five years later, on September 19, 1851, Bishop Bruillard determined that the apparition “bore in itself all the marks of truth and that the faithful are justified in believing it to be certain and indubitable.” A real conversion of the people had taken place.
The following year, a new religious community was founded, the Missionaries of La Salette. Also, Bishop Bruillard laid the cornerstone for a new basilica. Pilgrims increasingly visited the site of the apparition, and Our Lady was referred to as “Reconcilatrix of sinners.” Great saints have been devoted to Our Lady of La Salette, including St. John Bosco, St. John Vianney, and St. Madeleine Sophie Barat.
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, and offer her Memorare:
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.
(The dialogue recorded here was taken from “The Lady in Tears,” by Msgr. John S. Kennedy in A Woman Clothed with the Sun.)
This is the message that the Virgin Mary shared with Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat, near the small village of La Salette in the French Alps on September 19, 1846. It is told with the help of the nine stained glass windows in the Mary Keane Chapel at the La Salette Shrine in Enfield, New Hampshire. This apparition and message gave rise to the Catholic Religious Community—the Missionaries of La Salette—and their ministry of reconciliation.
First Window: “If my people do not obey…”
The beautiful Lady stood up and said: “If my people do not obey, I shall be compelled to loose my Son’s arm. It is so heavy that I can no longer hold 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 what I have endured on your behalf.”
Second Window: “I have given you six days to work.”
“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 heavy.”
Third Window: “The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my Son's name.”
The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my Son's name. These are the two things that make my Son's arm so heavy.”
Fourth Window: “A great famine is coming.”
“If the harvest is spoiled, it is your own fault. I warned you last year by means of the potatoes. You paid no heed. Quite the contrary, when you discovered that the potatoes had rotted, you swore, you abused my Son's name. They will continue to be spoiled, and by Christmas time this year there will be none left.”
Seeing the puzzled look of the children, Mary changed from French to the local dialect in order to make herself better understood. “If you have wheat, it will do no good to sow it, for what you sow the vermin will eat, and whatever part of it springs up will crumble into dust when you thresh it.
“A great famine is coming. But before that happens, children under seven years of age will be seized with trembling and die in the arms of those holding them. The others will pay for their sins by hunger. The grapes will rot and the walnuts will become worm-eaten.”
Fifth Window: “If my people are converted, ...”
“If my people are converted, the very stones will become mounds of wheat and the potatoes will grow self-sown.”
Sixth Window: “Do you say your prayers well, my children…”
“Do you say your prayers well, my children?” The children answered with one voice: “Not too well, Madame, hardly at all!”
The Lady said: “Ah, my children, it is very important to do so, at night and in the morning. When you don't have time, at least say an Our Father and a Hail Mary, and whenever you can, say more.”
Seventh Window: “During Lent they go to the butcher shop like dogs.”
“Only a few rather elderly women go to Mass in the summer. Everyone else works every Sunday all summer long. And in 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 shop like dogs.”
Eighth Window: “Once near the field of Coin…”
“Have you ever seen spoiled wheat, my children?” “No, Madame,” declared Maximin, quick to speak for Melanie as well as for himself.
Turning toward Maximin, the Lady replied: “But you, my child, must have seen some once near the field of Coin with your papa. The owner of the field said to your papa, ‘Come and see my spoiled wheat.’ The two of you went. You took two or three ears of wheat in your hands. You rubbed them together and they crumbled into dust. Then you came back from Coin. When you were only a half hour away from Corps, your papa gave you a bit of bread and said: ‘Here, my son, eat some bread this year anyhow. I don't know who will be eating any next year if the wheat continues to spoil like this.’”
“Oh, yes, Madame, now I remember! Until now I didn't,” admitted Maximin.
Ninth Window: “You will make it known to all my people.”
The Beautiful Lady concluded, no longer in dialect but in French: “Well, my children, you will make this known to all my people.” These were her last words.
The radiant vision now began to disappear. “We saw her head no more, then the rest of the body no more; she seemed to melt away. There remained a great light,” related Maximin, “as well as the roses at her feet which I tried to catch with my hands; but there was nothing more.”
“We looked for a long time,” added Melanie, “to see if we could not have another glimpse of her,” but the Beautiful Lady had disappeared forever. The little shepherdess then remarked to her companion: “Perhaps it was a great Saint.” “If we had known it was a great Saint,” said Maximin, “we would have asked her to take us with her.”
Prayer to Our Lady of La Salette
Remember, Our Lady of La Salette, true Mother of Sorrows, the tears which thou didst shed for me on Calvary; be mindful also of the unceasing care which thou dost exercise to screen me from the Justice of God; and consider whether thou canst now abandon thy child, for whom thou has done so much. Inspired by this consoling thought, I come to cast myself at thy feet, in spite of my infidelity and ingratitude. Reject not my prayer, O Virgin of reconciliation, convert me, obtain for me the grace to love Jesus Christ above all things and to console thee, too, by living a holy life, in order that one day I may be able to see thee in heaven. Amen.
Source: Missionaries of La SaletteMary, Mother of the Americas Province , lasaletteattleboroshrine
