On Saturday afternoon, September 19th 1846, two young shepherds were
tending their employer's flock on the slopes of the French Alpine
Mountains above the village of La Salette. Coming from the town of Corps,
near Grenoble in the southeast of France, the fourteen year-old girl,
Mélanie Calvat (also Mélanie Mathieu) and the eleven year-old
boy Maximim Giraud saw at a distance, in a ravine, a brilliant light. As
they approached, they discerned a beautiful woman seated on a stone, with
her head in her hands, wearing a tiara or crown, and dressed in a long,
white, pearl-studded, sleeved gown, with a white shawl. Around her neck,
she wore a large crucifix adorned with a small hammer and pincers and a
brilliantly shining figure of Christ. The apparition was unlike anything
witnessed before as she was shedding tears constantly, despite the fact
she appeared to be composed entirely of light.
The woman spoke first to both children, and then individually,
revealing to each a secret, which they were not to divulge. Her
words were initially in French, but as the children did not understand her
perfectly, she switched to the local dialect. She spoke to Maximim alone,
giving him a secret, which the girl could not hear, then she spoke to
Mélanie, telling her a secret that Maximum could not hear.
Afterwards, she spoke once more to both children.
She then asked: "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. She stated that: "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. When
both replied that neither had, She reminded Maximin that he had once seen
it while on a visit to a nearby hamlet with his father, at which point he
remembered that what she had said was true. Finally the Lady said: "Well,
my children, you will make this known to all my people."
"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 Blessed Virgin, having completed her messages which included
punishments of crop blights and famine, gave them instructions for her
words to be revealed, after which she ascended into the air and gradually
disappeared.
The children hurried back home, bursting with the story of their
vision, but the townspeople did not believe them. The next day, an
account of their story was taken down in writing, and in spite of the
disbelief, they remained resolute to the details. Soon, thereafter, many
locals converted, including Maximim's father and a locally notorious
rebellious priest. Water from a stream nearby the apparition site, which
had long since dried-up, began to flow again, and was responsible for two
dozen healings. The incident was investigated over three to four years,
finally leading to the Bishop's approval. A year later, a basilica was
built to the Virgin of Converts, also known as the Reconciler of
Sinners.
Upon the conclusion of the investigation, the Bishop announced: "We
declare that the apparition of the Blessed Virgin to two shepherds, on
September 19, 1846, on a mountain in the Alps in the parish of La Salette,
bears in itself all the marks of truth and that the faithful are justified
in believing without question in its truth. To mark our lively gratitude
to God and the glorious Virgin Mary, we authorize the cult of Our Lady of
La Salette."
The message to Mélanie has been referred to as the Appeal to the
Apostles of the Latter Times, part of which includes: "I address an urgent
appeal to the earth: I summon the true disciples of God, who lives and
reigns in heaven. I summon the true imitators of Christ, made man, the
one true Savior of men. I summon My children, My true devotees, those who
have given themselves to Me so that I might lead them to My divine Son,
those whom I carry, so to speak, in My arms, those who have lived
according to faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn of
the world and of themselves, in poverty and in humility, in contempt 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 for them to arise
and come forth to enlighten the earth. Go, and show yourselves as My
cherished children; I am with you and in you, provided that your faith be
the light that enlightens you in these days of woe."
"May your zeal cause you to be as famished for the glory and honor of
Jesus Christ. Fight, children of light, you little number who see; for
behold the time of times, the end of ends."
To her young witnesses, the beautiful lady in a crown and robe, gave the
Rule for the members of the Order of the Mother of God. Mélanie
was also given prophetic visions of the future life and works of the sons
and daughters of this Order of the Mother of God, as missionaries who
would take their message to all parts of the world. She also saw many
religious Orders uniting to merge with this Order and finding a primitive
fervor by its association. On orders from Pope Leo XIII, Mélanie
presented the Rule for examination by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops
which gave its approbation on May 27, 1879. The Constitutions that
Mélanie had composed for the Order of the Mother of God, upon the
request of Leo XIII, were approved.
Many more statements concerned prophecies that related to current
European strife, poor harvests for France, and criticism that: "those who
drive the carts cannot swear without introducing the name of my Son. These
are the two things which makes the arm of my Son so heavy." She had
previously stated, "If my people will not submit, I shall be forced to let
fall the arm of my Son. It is so strong, so heavy, that I can no longer
withhold it."
In an apparent prophetic vision of Adolph Hitler, she said: "A forerunner
of the antichrist with his troops from several nations will fight against
the true Christ, the only Savior of the world; he will spill much blood,
and will want to annihilate the worship of God in order to make himself be
looked upon as a God."
Other prophecies paralleled those of the Biblical prophecies of the Last
Days, including: "Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the
Antichrist." "Fight, children of light, you the small number who can
see; for behold the time of times, the end of ends."
Maximim died March 1, 1875. His true secret was never publicly revealed.
Mélanie in 1904.
(End Notes concerning the character of the witness Mélanie):
Francoise Mélanie Calvat had been born November 7, 1831 in Corps
France, the fourth of 10 children to Pierre Calvat, a stonemason and Julie
Barnaud, a woman who was known to mistreat her daughter. Once, she had
been put out of the house at age three, and took refuge in the woods,
where she imagined that a beautiful little Child (later thought to be the
Child Jesus) visited her, calling her the "sister of My Heart". He
consoled her and instructed her, and was her only friend throughout her
childhood. At age three, she was stigmatized, and favored with a vision
of Our Lady, who promised to watch over her as Mother and Mistress. At
the age of six, she was forced into becoming a shepherdess, and she
suffered much for it. In 1846, at age fourteen, she was watching her
master's cows along with the boy shepherd Maximim Giraud in La Salette, a
few miles from Corps, when the Apparition of the Blessed Mother made her
appearance.
After the celebrated events, both children were placed as boarders in a
convent, the Sisters of Providence in Corps, whereupon an inquiry
concerning the Apparition commenced.
Six years later, at age twenty, Melanie entered religion in her native
village of Corps. For a year or two, Mélanie suffered from
spectacular attacks of the devil, which threw her to the ground, making
her deaf and dumb, plunging her into despair and sometimes taking the form
of terrifying animals. A troubled soul, she was later exiled from France
by her bishop, who arranged for her to be accompanied to Darlington,
England by an English prelate. There she was sequestered for several
years, until released from its vow of cloister by the Holy Father Pius IX.
He wanted her to be free to accomplish her mission. Thereafter, she was
able to publish the Secret, as the Virgin had commanded, only in 1872 and
1873, in Italy, with an Imprimatur of Cardinal Sforza, Archbishop of
Naples, and with the approbation of Pope Pius IX. She completed the
Secret by adding an account of the Apparition from beginning to end in
1878. Pope Leon XIII, reading her narration, declared that the document
must be published. Included in it was the urgent appeal of Our Lady,
summoning the Apostles of the Latter Times, who will have lived in
contempt of the world and themselves, in silence, prayer and
mortification, in chastity and union with God, in suffering and unknown to
the world. She calls to them to come forth, to combat, in these days of
woe.
"Melanie's life was one of constant miraculous help from Heaven amid
unceasing contradictions; her soul, hidden behind a very modest exterior
which only the holy consecrated souls of her time could penetrate, was one
of beautiful innocence and of a sanctity far from ordinary."
The bishops of France resisted the Secret with, at times, a real fury,
because its warnings as to the political ambitions of Napoleon III and the
regrettable state of the clergy in general, were not to their liking.
Melanie was called insane, she was calumniated, refused possession of a
terrain in France willed legally to the Order of the Mother of God which
she represented; refused Holy Communion at times; and was exiled from
certain dioceses when she returned from Italy for a few years. Eventually,
after prolonged efforts to establish the Order of the Mother of God both
in Italy and in France, she again went to Italy, where she died in 1904.
Mélanie had foretold: "The spirit of La Salette can be transported.
And when the hour has sounded, the Blessed Virgin will be able to
resurrect La Salette and accomplish Her Work. The Blessed Virgin's words
are not sterile like those of men. Her Work will be done. Men and devils
can do nothing against Her. She will triumph. Men can resist the call of
grace and Her appeal, but She can transport Her great light and show it to
others. Let us await Her help and Her hour."
Among her Apocalyptic statements were the following:
The Antichrist.
"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 a bishop. He will be the devil incarnate,
he will work wonders, he will feed on nothing but impurity."
To the Apostles of the last times.
"I address an urgent appeal to the earth. I call on the true disciples of
the living God who reigns in Heaven. I call on the Apostles of the last
times. For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends.
"But now Enoch and Elijah will come, filled with the Spirit of God. They
will condemn the diabolical errors of the Antichrist. Woe to the
inhabitants of the earth! Who will be able to withstand them? God will
allow Himself to bend through the blood, tears and prayers of the just:
Enoch and Elijah will be put to death.
"It is time; the sun will be darkened; faith alone will live. Behold the
Beast with his subjects, calling himself the saviour of the world."
The victory.
"He will be stifled by the breath of Saint Michael the Archangel. And then
water and fire will purify the earth and consume all the works of men's
pride, and all will be renewed: God will be served and glorified."
Melanie has been referred to as a Saint who has yet to be recognized, but
don't anticipate her being declared a Saint, as the events subsequent to
the Apparition of La Salette are far too conversial.
