ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 19th of September
THE MADONNA IN TEARS
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| Our Lady of La Salette |
Mary tried to help the world in 1830, in 1836 and in 1840. But the world paid little heed.
Some souls were led back to God through the Miraculous Medal, the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart and the Green Scapular. Some miracles of grace were worked, as in the case of Alphonse Rathisbonne. But the world as a whole ignored Mary’s message. Millions continued to pursue their goals of wealth, power and pleasure.
Men of science made new discoveries, and each such discovery seemed to thrust God farther into the background. Books attacking religion were coming off the presses in great numbers. The ranks of freethinkers, agnostics and atheists were swelling every day.
Any ordinary creature would have been tempted to leave the world to the fate it so richly deserved. But not Mary! She appeared on the earth again to make a new plea to mankind.
The persons whom she selected as her messengers this time were eleven-year-old Maximin Giraud and fifteen-year-old Melanie Mathieu. The children were tending cows on the slope of Mount Gargas which rises above the village of La Salette in southeastern France. The day Mary chose for her appearance was September 19, 1846, close to the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.
The first thing the children saw was a globe of dazzling light. While they gazed in wonderment, the globe opened and they saw a woman seated on some stones which surrounded the bed of a spring. The spring was dry at the time. The Lady’s elbows rested on her knees, her face was buried in her hands, and she was weeping.
SHE WAS WEEPING
The children were afraid. Melanie had been holding a stick, but she let it fall.
“Keep your stick,” said Maximin. “If it does anything, I’ll give it a good clout.”
The Lady rose, crossed her arms, and in the sweetest of tones said: “Come near, my children; do not be afraid. I am here to tell you important news.”
The children crossed the little stream and walked towards her. She stood between them. Her face was beautiful, though her eyes were filled with tears. She wore white shoes encircled by roses. Her apron was golden and descended to the bottom of her full white robe. Her arms were concealed within broad straight sleeves which reached beyond her finger tips. A white cape bordered with roses was over her shoulders. She wore a thin chain upon which hung a crucifix. Her headdress was white, and above it was a royal diadem wreathed with roses of many hues. Her beauty was so radiant, so dazzling, that the children could scarcely look at her. Nothing that they saw afterwards could begin to compare with her beauty, they said later.
The Lady spoke again in a voice sweeter than the sweetest melodies. Tears fell from her eyes as she spoke.
“If my people will not submit,” she said, “I shall be forced to let go the hand of my Son. It is so strong, so heavy, that I can no longer withhold it.”
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| The area where the apparition took place |
HOW LONG A TIME DO I SUFFER FOR YOU!
“How long a time do I suffer for you!” the Lady continued. “If I would not have my Son abandon you, I am compelled to pray to Him without ceasing. And, as to you, you take no heed to it.”
“However much you pray, however much you do, you will never recompense the pains I have taken for you.”
Maximin did not understand any of this, and Melanie understood it only slightly, but the words were engraved on their minds.
The words deserve very close study. They form the essential part of Mary’s message to the modern world.
The Lady continued. She named the desecration of the Sabbath and the taking of her Son’s name in vain as two of the sins which made the hand of her Son so heavy.
“If the harvest is spoiled, it is your fault. I gave you warning last year in the potatoes, but you did not heed it. On the contrary, when you found the potatoes spoiled you swore, you took the name of my Son in vain. They will continue to decay, so that by Christmas there will be none left.”
Here Mary made clear the fact that many of the calamities befalling the world are the result of sin. At La Salette, she foretold a failure of the potato crop if people did not reform. At Fatima, in 1917, she was to foretell even worse things that would befall the world if people did not change their lives and do penance for their sins. In retrospect, La Salette seems a forerunner of Fatima.
The Lady, up to this time, had been speaking in the noble French of the cultured classes. Melanie did not know the meaning of the word for potatoes. She turned to Maximin to ask what pommes de terre meant.
“Ah, my children,” the Lady said, “you do not understand. I will say it in a different way.”
Then she proceeded to speak in the patois of the district. “If you have wheat, it is no good to sow it; all that you sow the insects will eat. What comes up will fall into dust when you thresh it.
“There will come a great famine. Before the famine comes, the children under seven years of age will be seized with trembling and will die in the hands of those who hold them; and others will do penance by the famine.
“The walnuts will become worm-eaten; the grapes will rot.”
DO YOU SAY YOUR PRAYERS WELL?
The Lady then spoke separately to each of the children. Neither knew what she told the other.
The Lady made it clear that the terrible things she had prophesied would happen only if people persisted in their sins.
“If they are converted, the stones and the rocks will be changed into heaps of wheat, and potatoes will be self-sown.”
Becoming more personal, she asked, “Do you say your prayers well, my children?”
“Not very well, Madame,” they admitted.
“You must say them well, morning and evening. When you cannot do better say at least an Our Father and a Hail Mary. When you have time, say more.”
Once again she complained of the few people who attended Mass on Sunday.
When it was time to say goodbye, the Lady spoke pure French once more.
“Well, my children,” she said, “you will make this known to all the people.”
YOU WILL MAKE THIS KNOWN TO ALL THE PEOPLE
She crossed the little stream saying again, “Well, my children, you will make this known to all the people.”
Moving along the tips of the grass, she ascended the mountain for a short distance, then rose about a yard from the ground and remained in that position for a moment. She lifted her gaze towards heaven and then lowered it to the earth. Then she disappeared, but the light remained for another moment.
THE LIGHT REMAINED FOR ANOTHER MOMENT
Maximin had no idea who the Lady was. He had heard of sorceresses, and he thought that she might be one. When she spoke of the heavy arm of her Son, he thought she meant that her son had been beating her.
Melanie was not much better informed than Maximin, but she was older and more reflective. As the Lady disappeared the girl said, “Maybe she is a great saint.”
This was a new idea to Maximin. “If we had known she was a great saint, we would have asked her to take us with her,” he said.
“Oh, I wish she were still here,” exclaimed Melanie.
Maximin reached out to catch some of the light, but it was gone.
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| Stained glass window depicting the apparition - Église de Candé-sur-Beuvron |
I WISH SHE WERE STILL HERE…
Both children were rather slow of mind. Melanie was not judged by her sister to have sufficient knowledge to receive Holy Communion until she was seventeen, and Maximin was unable to remember the Our Father until he was fifteen. Yet when questioned about the apparition, they gave complete information. When they were questioned separately, their stories agreed in all the details.
People began flocking to La Salette. The spring where our Lady had appeared flowed again, and marvellous cures were worked through the application of its waters.
THE CALAMITIES FORETOLD TOOK PLACE
The calamities foretold by our Lady took place. The potato famine had already begun in 1845. In 1846 this famine became so severe in Ireland, that Queen Victoria had to appeal to Parliament for special funds. The wheat shortage was so severe in Europe that more than a million people died. A grape disease decimated the vineyards all over France. Babies died trembling in their mothers’ arms, as our Lady had foretold.
In 1848, the horrors of the “February Revolution,” the “March Revolution,” and then the “June Days” shook Paris. This was the same year that saw the beginning of Communism in France.
THE BEGINNING OF COMMUNISM IN FRANCE
The punishments would probably have been worse except for the fact that many people heeded the message of La Salette. They began attending church in large numbers. Cursing and swearing became less common. The shops were closed on Sunday, and the people stopped doing unnecessary work on that day.
A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION
The Bishop ordered a thorough investigation of the apparition and the cures. After examining all the testimony and evidence, he satisfied himself that the appearance had been authentic. He founded the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette to carry out her command: “You will make this known to all the people.”
Pope Pius IX approved the devotion of La Salette. His successor, Pope Leo XIII, built a great basilica on the mountain.
Five years after the apparition, Pope Pius IX said he would like to know the secrets. The children agreed to write them provided they would be placed in sealed envelopes and delivered directly to the Pontiff. Maximin wrote his four or five paragraphs quickly. Melanie took longer. While she was writing, she asked the meaning of the word “infallibility” and the spelling of “antichrist.”
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| Blessed Pope Pius IX |
The secrets were taken to Rome by two priests of the Grenoble diocese, Father Rousselot and Father Gerin. On July 18, 1851, the two priests were received in audience by Pope Pius IX. The Holy Father, seated at his desk, arose and gave them his ring to kiss. He took the sealed letters from their hands, opened them, and began to read that of Maximin. He smiled.
“Here,” he said, “is all the candour and simplicity of a child.”
MERCY AND CONSOLATION
The priests concluded that Maximin had been entrusted with a message of mercy and consolation. Then, that he might read more easily, he went over to a window and opened the shutter. He began to read Melanie’s letter. No smile now. The secret seemed to be longer and different in import. As he read, the Pope pressed his lips more tightly together and puffed out his cheeks.
“Calamities threaten France,” he said. “But she is not the only guilty nation. Germany, Italy, and all Europe are guilty and deserve punishment. I have less to fear from open impiety than from indifference and human respect. It is not without reason that the Church is called militant, and here,” touching his breast, “you see her leader.”
“IT IS NOT WITHOUT REASON THAT THE CHURCH IS CALLED MILITANT”
That is all that is known of the secrets except that years later the Pope said: “Do you wish to know the secret? This is it: Unless you do penance, you shall all perish.”
The two priests went out from the audience deeply moved.
The next day they visited Cardinal Fornari of the papal household. The Cardinal was familiar with the story of La Salette. He said: “I am terrified at these prodigies, we have everything that is needed in our religion for the conversion of sinners, and when heaven employs such means, the evil must be very great.”
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| A newspaper clipping from 1846 reporting the apparition |
The greater part of what is known about the secrets of La Salette has been fulfilled.
France, Germany, Italy, and all Europe have suffered from war, famine, and desolation. They must have suffered not once but many times since 1846.
The dogma of papal infallibility – the word that puzzled Melanie – was pronounced in 1870.
Many people believe there is a connection between Communism and antichrist. If so, it is interesting to note that the apparition of La Salette took place less than two years before Karl Marx published his Communist Manifesto.
Source: “The Woman Shall Conquer” by Don Sharkey, Prow Books/Franciscan Marytown Press, Libertyville, IL, 1954
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