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Apparition of Our Lady at La Salette, France in 1846
to Melanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud aged 15 and 11 years
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When Our Lady appeared to Melanie she gave her "Secrets," some of which happened soon afterward and some of which have not happened even yet. The Lady of La Salette described a continuous series of evolutions for three days, a period of peace for the whole world, then the Antichrist, and, at last, "all will be renewed, God will be served and glorified."
Only the witness herself,
Melanie, can, along with Maximin, give an account of the apparition. After
giving it by word of mouth an incalculable number of times, she decided to
write it all down in 1878. It was published at Lecce on the 15th of November
1879 – with the “Imprimatur” of Bishop Zola - and reprinted “ne varietur” at
Lyon in 1904, a few months before Melanie's death. This "slim booklet" is now a
rarity. The text is followed exactly here. The original text of the
Message and Secret of La Salette, approved by the Catholic Church, written below, in entirety, translated only recently into English.
Written in her own hand and published at her own expense in 1879, Catholic Church approved
I
On the 18th of September (1846), the eve of
the Holy Apparition of the Holy Virgin, I was alone, as usual, watching over my
Master's cows. Around eleven o'clock in the morning, I saw a small boy walking
towards me. I was frightened at this,
for it seemed to me that everyone ought to know that I avoided all kinds of
company. This boy came up to me and said:
“Little girl, I’m coming with you, I'm from Corps too”. At these words,
the natural evil in me soon showed itself, and taking a few steps back, I told
him: “I don't want anybody around. I want to be alone.” But the boy followed
me, saying: “Go on, let me stay with you. My Master told me to come and watch over
my cows together with yours. I'm from Corps.”
I walked away from him,
gesturing to him that I didn't want anybody around, and when I was some
distance away, I sat down on the grass. There, I used to talk with the little
flowers of the Good Lord. A moment
later, I looked behind me, and there I found Maximin sitting close to me.
Straightway he says to me: “Keep me with
you. I'll be very good.” But the natural
evil in me will not hear reason. I jump
to my feet, and run a little farther off without saying a word and again I
start playing with the little flowers of the Good Lord. In an instant, Maximin
was there again, telling me he would be very good, that he wouldn't talk, that
he would get bored all by himself, and that his Master had sent him to be with
me, etc. This time, I took pity, I gestured to him to sit down, and I kept on
playing with the little flowers of the Good Lord.
It wasn't long before
Maximin broke the silence by bursting into laughter (I think he was making fun
of me). I look at him and he says to me:
“Let's have some fun, let's make up a game”. I said nothing in reply,
for I was so ignorant I didn't understand what games with other people were,
always having been alone. I played with the flowers, on my own, and Maximin
came right up close to me, doing nothing but laughing, telling me the flowers
didn’t have ears to listen to me and that we should play together instead. But I had no liking for the game he told me
to play. I started talking to him,
however, and he told me that the ten days he was to spend with his Master would
soon be over and then he would go home to his father in Corps etc...
While he was talking, I
heard the bell of La Salette, it was the Angelus. I gestured to Maximin to lift
his soul up to God. He took off his hat and was silent for a moment. Then I
said: “Do you want to have dinner?” “Yes, he replied, let's eat.” We sat down
and I brought out of my bag the provisions my Master had given me. As was my
habit, before breaking into my little round loaf, I made a cross with the point
of my knife on the bread, and a little hole in the middle, saying: “If the
devil's in there, may he leave, and if the Good Lord is in there, may he stay!”
and I rapidly covered up the little hole.
Maximin burst into laughter and kicked the loaf out of my hands. It
rolled down the mountainside and was lost from sight. I had another piece of
bread which we shared. Afterwards, we
played a game. Then, realizing that Maximin must still be hungry, I pointed out
a place on the mountainside covered with all kinds of berries. I urged him to
go and eat some and he went straight away. He ate a few berries and brought
back his hat full of them. In the evening we walked back down the mountain
together and promised to come back the next day and watch over our cows
together.
The next day, the 19th of
September, I met Maximin on the way up.
We climbed up the mountain side together. I discovered that Maximin was
a very good, simple boy, and would willingly talk about what I wanted to talk
about. He was also very flexible and had no fixed opinions. He was just a
little curious, for, when I walked away from him, as soon as he saw I had
stopped, he would run over to me to see what I was doing and hear what I was
saying to the flowers of the Good Lord. And if he arrived too late, he would
ask me what I had said.
Maximin told me to teach
him a game. It was already late morning.
I told him to gather some flowers for the “Paradise”. We set to work
together. Soon we had a number of
flowers of various colours. I could hear the village Angelus ringing, for the
weather was fine and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Having told the Good Lord
what we had learned, I said to Maximin that we ought to drive our cows on to a
small plateau near the gully, where there would be stones to build the
“Paradise”. We drove our cows to the selected spot and then had a small meal.
Then we started collecting stones to build our little house, which comprised of
a so-called ground floor which was where we were to live, and then a story
above which was to be, as we called it, “Paradise.”
This story was decorated
all over with different-colored flowers, with garlands hanging from flower
stalks. This “Paradise” was covered by a single large stone which we had strewn
with flowers. We had also hung garlands all the way round. When we had finished, we sat and looked at
the “Paradise”. We began to feel sleepy and having moved a couple of feet away,
we went to sleep on the grass.
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Maximin Giraud (1835 - 1875) Melanie Calvat (1831 - 1904)
Maximin and Melanie in 1846
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II
When I woke up I couldn't
see the cows, so I called Maximin and climbed up the little mound. From there I
could see our cows grazing peacefully and I was on my way down, with Maximin on
his way up, when all at once I saw a beautiful light shining more brightly than
the sun. “Maximin, do you see what is
over there? Oh! My God!” At the same
moment, I dropped the stick I was holding.
Something inconceivably fantastic passed through me in that moment and 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 if it had opened up, I caught
sight of another, much more brilliant light which was moving, and in this 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 up close to the Beautiful Lady, in
front of her to 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 of 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, and you will never be able to make up
for the trouble 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) [Neither Melanie nor Maximin understood French. The Beautiful Lady now
continues her speech in “patois,”] The Beautiful and Good Lady, reading
my thoughts, repeated thus: “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 thresh 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. Then, turning to me, the Most Holy Virgin
spoke to me and gave me a secret in French. Here is this secret in its entirety
as she gave it to me.
III
“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 spirits 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 7th, 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 in 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, acquainted and 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 light through a thorough examination
of the Luciferian archives of FreeMasonry.” 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.]
“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 days 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 worshiped
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.”
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| Mélanie Calvat, 1903, Moulins, France |
IV
Then the Holy Virgin gave
me, also in French, THE RULE OF A NEW RELIGIOUS ORDER. When She had given me
the Rule of this new religious Order, the Holy Virgin continued the speech in
the same manner [In patois].
“If they convert, the stones and rocks will change into wheat, and potatoes will be found sown in the earth. Do you say your prayers properly, my children?” We both replied: “Oh! no, Madame, not so much.” “Oh! my children, you must say them morning and evening. When you can do no more, say a Pater and an Ave Maria; and when you have the time to do better, you will say more. Only a few old women go to Mass; in the summer, the rest work all day Sunday and in the winter, when they are at a loose end, they only go to Mass to make fun of religion. During Lent, they go to the butcher's like hungry dogs.
“Have you ever seen any
spoilt wheat, my children?” We both
answered: “Oh no, Madame.” The Holy
Virgin turned to Maximin, saying: “But
you, my child, you must have seen some once near le ‘Coin’, with your father.
The farmer said to your father: ‘Come and see how my wheat's gone bad!’ You
went to see. Your father took two or three ears in his hand, rubbed them, and
they fell to dust. Then, on your way back, when you were no more than half an
hour away from Corps, your father gave you a piece of bread, and said: ‘Take
it, eat it while you can, my son, for I don't know who will be eating anything
next year if the wheat is spoiled like that!’”
Maximin replied: “It's quite true, Madame, I didn't remember.”
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 most beautiful Lady
crossed the stream, and after two more steps, without turning back towards us,
who were following Her (for we were drawn to her by her brilliance and even
more by her kindness which elated me, which seemed to melt my heart), she
repeated to us: “AND SO, MY CHILDREN,
YOU WILL PASS THIS ON TO ALL MY PEOPLE.”
Then, She walked on up to
the place where I had gone to see our cows.
Her feet touched nothing but the tips of the grass and without bending
them. Once on the top of the little mound, the beautiful Lady stopped, and I
hurried to stand in front of Her to look at Her so, so closely, and try and see
which path she was most inclined to take. For it was all over for me. I had forgotten both my cows and the masters
I worked for. I had linked myself forever and unconditionally to my Lady. Yes,
I wanted never, never to leave Her. I followed Her with no other motive and fully
disposed to serve Her for the rest of my life.
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 thus 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 [“In which direction had the Holy Virgin
turned when she rose?” “That way (she pointed to the East)... I know
that Rome is in that direction.” (Conversation
with Melanie, Miss des Brulais, 8th Sept. 1849.)] 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 up 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 from seeing her
any longer.
And thus light took the
place of the parts of Her body which were disappearing in front of my eyes; or
rather it seemed to me that the body of my Lady was melting into light. Thus
the sphere of light rose gently towards the right. I cannot say whether the volume of light
decreased as She rose, or whether the growing distance made me see less and
less light as She rose. What I do know, is that I was a long time with my head
raised up, staring at the light, even after the light, which kept getting
further away and decreasing in volume, had finally disappeared. I take my eyes
from the firmament, I look around me.
I see Maximin looking at
me, and I say to him: “Maxi, that must have been my father’s Good Lord, or the
Holy Virgin, or some other great saint” [“My Father's Good Lord: this is the Crucifix, this living crucifix which
the beautiful Lady wears round Her neck, and which seemed to talk to Her. The
Holy Virgin...” Melanie does not seem to
have doubted for a moment that it was Her, this comes out in the account,
however, she does not dare to be the first to state it: it is for the Church of
Jesus Christ to do so, she has this intuition. In effect, the next morning, it
is the parish priest of La Salette who cries out, at the account of the two
children: “It was the Holy Virgin who
appeared to you”, and from the pulpit, will announce this to his parishioners,
and to all the faithful ones among them.] And Maximin throws his arms into the air and
says: “Oh! If only I had known!”
V
The evening of the 19th
of September, we went back down a little earlier than usual. When I arrived at
my master’s farm, I was busy tying up my cows and tidying up in the stable, and
had not yet finished when my mistress came up to me in tears and said: “Why, my child, why didn't you come and tell
me what happened on the mountain?” Maximin,
not having found his masters who were still at work, had come over to mine and
recounted everything he had seen and heard. I replied: “I did want to tell you, but I wanted to get
my work finished first.” A moment later, I walked over to the house and my
mistress said to me: “Tell me what you
have seen. De Bruite, the shepherd (that was the nick name of Pierre Selme, Maximin's
master), has told me everything.”
I began, and towards the
middle of the account, my master arrived back from the fields. My mistress, who
was in tears at hearing the complaints and threats of our sweet Mother, said:
“Ah! You were going to harvest the wheat
tomorrow (Sunday). Take great care. Come
and hear what happened today to this child and Pierre Selme's shepherd-boy.”
And turning to me, she said: “Repeat everything you have said.” I started again, and when I had finished, my
master said: “It was the Holy Virgin or
else a great saint, who has come on behalf of the Good Lord, but it’s as if the
Good Lord had come Himself. We must do what this Saint said. How are you going
to manage to tell that to all Her people?”
I replied: “You tell me how I must go about it, and I will do it.” Then,
looking at his mother, wife, and brother, he added: “I'll have to think about that”. Then
everyone went back to their business.
After supper, Maximin and
his masters came over to see my masters and to recount what Maximin had told
them, and decide what was to be done. “For”,
they said, “it seems to us that it was the Holy Virgin sent by the Good
Lord. The words which She spoke convince
us of this. And she told them to pass it
on to all of Her people. Perhaps these children will have to travel the world
over to make it known that everyone must observe the commandments of the Good
Lord, lest great misfortunes come upon us.”
After a moment's silence, my master said to Maximin and me: “Do you know what you must do, my children?
Tomorrow, you must get up early and both of you go and see the priest and tell
him everything you have seen and heard.
Tell him carefully how it all happened. He will tell you what you have
to do.”
The 20th of September,
the day after the Apparition, I left early in the morning with Maximin. When we
reached the presbytery, I knocked at the door. The priest's housekeeper came
and opened the door and asked us what we wanted. I said to her (in French, and
I, who had never spoken French), “We
would like to speak to Father Perrin.” “And
what have you got to say to him?” she asked.
“We wish to tell him, Miss, that yesterday we went up to watch over our
cows on Baisses Mountain and after dinner, etc...etc.” We recounted a good piece of the Most Holy
Virgin’s words. Then the church-bell
rang: it was the final call for Mass. Father Perrin, the parish priest of La
Salette, who had heard us, flung open his door; he was in tears and was beating
his chest. He said to us: “My children,
we are lost, God will punish us. Oh! Good Lord! It was the Holy Virgin who
appeared to you!” And he left to say Holy Mass.
We looked at each other, Maximin, the housekeeper, and I. Then Maximin
said to me: “Me, I’m off home to my
father in Corps”, and we parted company.
As my masters had not
told me to return to work immediately after speaking to Father Perrin, I saw no
harm in going to Mass. And so I was in church. Mass begins and after the first
reading from the Gospel, Father Perrin turns to the congregation and tries to
recount to his parishioners, the story of the Apparition which had just taken
place, the day before, on one of their mountains, and he urges them to stop
working on Sundays. His voice was broken
with sobs, and all the congregation was greatly moved. After Holy Mass, I went
back to my masters to work. Mr. Peytard,
who still today is the mayor of La Salette [Today: 21st of November 1878, when this
account was written.] came to
question me on the Apparition, and when he had made sure that I was speaking
the truth, he went away convinced.
I stayed on in the
service of my masters until All Saint's Day. Then I was boarded with the nuns
of Providence, in my home town of Corps.
VI
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 Lords 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 deep and vivid feeling of
love for this ravishing beauty who was liquefying 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 splendour, 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 coloured 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 little flowers
mingled with the shining ones. The whole thing formed a most beautiful diadem,
which alone shone brighter than our earth's sun.
The Holy Virgin had a
most pretty cross hanging 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 cross, 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 dazzlingly; and the light
shone forth from His holy body seemed like brightly shining darts which pierced
my heart with the desire to melt inside Him. At times, the Christ appeared to
be dead. 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 mortal souls the most heartfelt 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, O love that men cannot understand, He made Himself man, and wanted to
die, yes, die, so as to better inscribe in our souls and 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 Saviour 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 the tears
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!” I was in between life and death, and on one
side, I saw so much desire by this Mother to be loved, and on another side, so
much cold and indifference... Oh! My Mother, most beautiful and lovable Mother,
my love, heart of my heart!
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 to 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 speak; you are good, and more,
you are good with the goodness of God Himself. God has extended Himself by
making you His terrestrial and celestial 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 scintillating, 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 than the other. From the narrower one, hung the
cross which I mentioned earlier. These chains (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 were 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 sight of the Holy Virgin
was itself a perfect paradise. She had
everything needed to satisfy, for earth had been forgotten.
The Holy Virgin was
surrounded by two lights. The first light, the nearer to the Most Holy Virgin,
reached as far as us. It shone most beautifully and scintillatingly. The second light shone out a little around
the Beautiful Lady and we found ourselves bathed in it. It was motionless (that
is to say it wasn't scintillating) but much more brilliant than our poor sun on
earth. All this light did not harm nor tire the eyes in any way. In addition to all these lights, all this
splendour, there shone forth concentrations or beams of light and single rays
of light from the body of the Holy Virgin, from her clothes and from all over
Her.
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 of them, you would need a seraph,
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 omnipotence.
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 spoke to each other in their
fashion, and I loved Her so much I could have kissed Her in the middle of Her
eyes, which touched my soul and seemed to draw it towards them and make it melt
into Hers. Her eyes set up a sweet trembling in all my being; and I was afraid
to make the slightest 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 occurs 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.
[Signed]
MARIA OF THE CROSS
Victim of Jesus nee MELANIE CALVAT
Shepherdess of La Salette
Castellamare
21st of November 1878.
MARIA OF THE CROSS
Victim of Jesus nee MELANIE CALVAT
Shepherdess of La Salette
Castellamare
21st of November 1878.
“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.” [Extract from a letter
of Melanie relating to the Secret of La Salette.]
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.”
WORDS OF MAXIMIN: “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
only on vitiating faith. He will have brethren, who will be children of evil
but not incarnate devils like himself.
Soon they will be at the head of armies, supported by the legions of
hell.” The Secret of La Salette
Love, Jeanne
