“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow” (Lam 1:12). Jeremiah’s poignant words, piously attributed to the Sorrowful Mother at the foot of the Cross, could also be the most perfect description of the Virgin of La Salette.
On the French Alps, Mary Most Holy appeared as “Mater Lacrimosa”. It seemed that the sword of sorrow was once again piecing her soul
In the French Alps, the Blessed Virgin deigned to appear in the sorrowful guise of Mater Lacrimosa to two simple shepherd children from a village near Grenoble. Her majestic countenance did not conceal the abundant tears that flowed down to her knees, bursting into sparks of light. It even seemed as if the sword of sorrow that had been driven into the soul of the Queen of Martyrs during the Passion was piercing her heart again as She contemplated the cold-heartedness of countless children, manifested in the open violation of God’s Law, and the terrible punishment that would befall the sinful world. “Is there one who would not weep, whelmed in miseries so deep, Christ’s dear Mother to behold?” sings the Stabat Mater.
It would be an aberration in the order of nature for a child to be indifferent to the anguished plea of a good mother. The Holy Spirit himself admonishes us not to remain impassive in the face of a mother’s groans (cf. Ecclus 7:29). But when it comes to the Mother of mothers, what should our attitude be? “Would it be understandable to see a mother weep, and such a Mother, without using every imaginable means to console her, to change her sorrows into joy?”1 concluded Mélanie, the young seer.
To console the Heavenly Ambassadress! Was this the attitude of stray humanity when presented with the appeals contained in the message, and secrets She transmitted?
The Blessed Virgin appears over “paradise”
On the sunny morning of September 19, 1846, fourteen-year-old Mélanie Calvat and eleven-year-old Maximin Giraud were driving their cattle to the mountain pastures of La Salette. They could not have imagined that God had chosen them, despite being mere shepherds, to be spokespeople for the Queen of the Prophets before men!
Curiously, the two had only met the day before the apparition, when a local man had obtained authorization from Maximin’s father for him to replace one of his sick employees. Given his complete ignorance of this occupation, he was told to follow an experienced local shepherdess.
The boy soon made friends with the innocent Mélanie and, after taking care of the animals, asked to play. Their chosen diversion was to build a so-called “paradise”, which consisted of a little stone house covered in flowers. The Angelus sounded while the two of them piled up stones and picked multi-coloured wild plants so that, after a frugal meal, they could start work. It consisted of a ground floor reserved for the two of them and an upper floor full of flowers, garlands and branches, which was part they designated as “paradise”. This puerile construction took them a long time to complete, after which they fell asleep on the grass.
When Mélanie awoke, she first went to make sure that all was well with the herds. Reassured to see that they were safe and sound, she then turned to the little construction. At that moment, she saw it glowing with light and could only exclaim: “Maximin, do you see? Oh! My God!”
This was the pedestal chosen by the Sovereign of Heaven from which to transmit her celestial communications. It was late afternoon and at the same time the Church was celebrating, according to the liturgical calendar of the time, the first vespers of the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Supreme goodness and beauty
The beautiful Lady of the Alps appeared sitting with her head in her hands; her aspect was entirely supernatural. Mélanie describes her like this: “She had a sweet, penetrating gaze; her eyes seemed to talk to mine, but this dialogue came from a deep and lively feeling of love for that overwhelming beauty that fascinated me. The sweetness of her gaze, her air of unfathomable kindness, made me understand and feel that She was drawing me to her and wanted to give herself; it was an expression of love that cannot be transmitted with human language, or by the letters of the alphabet.”
She grieved at the open violation of God’s Law, and the terrible punishment that would befall the unrepentant world
Her silver-white dress was adorned by a golden-yellow apron; however, as the seer described, “there was nothing material about it: it was composed of light and glory.” The regal crown, made of celestial roses, diffused golden rays. Around her neck, attached to a chain, hung the symbol of the Redemption: a golden cross with Our Lord resplendent on it, who at times appeared to be dead; at others, He seemed to raise His head and open His eyes, as if wanting to speak. Flanking the crucifix were two instruments of the Passion: a hammer and tongs. She also had a longer chain made up of sparkling rays of glory and many other embroidered roses that adorned her dress.
“Come, my children, do not be afraid. I am here to announce great news to you.” These were the initial words with which the Blessed Virgin introduced her prophetic discourse, while She began to shed copious tears.
Sorrow for the sins of humanity
“If my people do not want to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of my Son’s hand. It is so heavy and weighs on me so much that I can no longer hold it back.”
With this lamentation, Our Lady revealed the need for her constant supplications to appease God’s wrath, but She was saddened that men took this with total indifference: “How long I have suffered for you! If I want to prevent my Son from abandoning you, I have to pray to Him constantly. And you do not care. No matter how much you pray, no matter what you do, you will never be able to make up for the hardships I have taken on for you.” And She denounced as the cause of divine indignation the violation of the Sunday precept and the sins of blasphemy into which the people carelessly relapsed.
“If the harvest is lost, it is your fault alone.” In fact, in those years the potatoes rotted and the wheat disintegrated after being harvested, causing immense harm to the peasants. But even after this severe sign of rebuke from Providence, there was no change in their lives. For this reason, new and greater chastisements would strike the population in the following years, pointing the way to contrition: “There will be a great famine. Before it arrives, children under the age of seven will suffer a tremor and die in the arms of those who carry them; the others will do penance by means of hunger. The nuts will go bad, the grapes will rot.”
These prophecies, addressed above all to the peasants of the time, were precisely fulfilled starting from that moment, from the loss of wheat, nuts and vineyards, to the death of thousands of children. All in all, these calamities were a sign of Mary’s power over events, inviting her children to believe in the predictions of universal scope that She would go on to make.
The crisis in the Church, the clergy and religious life
As Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ, Our Lady pours out upon it the treasures of her love and zeal, so that it may fulfil its mission of guiding the peoples towards the salvation won by the redeeming Blood. Her maternal Heart, comparable to a tabernacle where the light has never dimmed, or to a temple where disorder has never entered, suffers unspeakably to see the Holy Church plunged into a crisis without precedent in history.
Sealed by the promise of immortality, resplendent in the souls of the just and glorious in the heavenly Jerusalem, the harsh reality of her eclipse in the midst of human society draws groans of affliction from the Virgin Mary.
Turning to Maximin, Mary Most Holy then told him a secret. She predicted the advance of evil in all countries in the 19th century, in proportions never before seen, and the beginning of a great persecution of the Church, in which the good would atone with their sufferings for the evil they had done or had not opposed with the necessary firmness. At the end of many struggles, the one sole Religion would be established on earth: that of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Virgin foretold the unprecedented advance of evil in all nations and the beginning of a great persecution against the Church
The girl, who had not heard the words spoken to her companion, also began to receive a revelation: “Mélanie, what I want to tell you now will not always be a secret; you will be able to publish it in 1858.” Our Lady then went on to outline the picture of the decadence of the visible Church in the person of its priests and religious. This chosen flock, called to wield the torch of fervour among the faithful, would to a great extent betray its mission and would be responsible for the decadence of society as a whole.
Here are a few words from Our Lady: “Woe to the priests and the persons consecrated to God, who by their unfaithfulness and their bad lives crucify my Son once again! The sins of the people consecrated to God cry out to Heaven and implore vengeance, and behold, vengeance is at their gates, for there is no longer anyone to implore mercy and forgiveness for the people; there are no more generous souls, there are no more people worthy of offering the Immaculate Victim to the Eternal on behalf of the world.”
Still in a very serious tone, She pointed out the neglect of prayer and penance on the part of those who govern the Church and how the devil would be allowed to establish divisions in all societies and families. God would abandon mankind to itself, and there would be a steady loss of faith, even among religious people.
As a consequence, the downfall would extend from the spiritual to the temporal sphere: “All civil rulers will have the same objectives: to abolish and make every religious principle disappear in order to open the way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vices of every kind,” until the world is finally immersed in terrible chaos, in which “only murders, hatred, envy, lies and discord will be seen, with no love for country or family.”
Coming chastisements and a call to the apostles of the latter times
Some of the prophecies indicated the corresponding years, and concerned the 19th century itself. However, the Virgin of La Salette gradually left off setting them in a chronology and began to announce events more distant from that historical period, related to the previous ones and presented by her as their logical consequence. For this reason, the complete message is undoubtedly providentially relevant today.
Times will come, Our Lady said, when “the mountains and the whole earth will tremble with astonishment, because the disorders and crimes of men pierce the vault of heaven”; the world will be chastised with every manner of plagues, conflicts, natural catastrophes and the wicked will gather to govern it, while the generality of men, forgetting God, “will think only of enjoying themselves.” In this convulsive context, the Church will go through days of even more terrible trials. “The holy places are corrupted,” said Mary Most Holy, and even “Rome will lose its faith”…
“I address an urgent appeal to the earth. I summon my children, my true devotees whom I carry, those who live by my spirit”
In the midst of widespread desolation, She issued a summons to her chosen children of this time to preach the truth throughout the world: “I address an urgent appeal to the earth. I summon the true disciples of the living and reigning God in Heaven. […] I call my children, my true devotees, […] those whom, as it were, I carry in my arms; those who live by my spirit. Finally, I convoke the apostles of the latter times […]. Go and show yourselves to be my beloved children. I am with you and in you, as long as your faith is the light that illuminates you in these days of misfortune.” And after prophesying a definitive confrontation between the forces of light and darkness, in which St. Michael the Archangel would emerge victorious, She dictated a rule of life for the aforementioned apostles.
After these momentous admonitions, the Blessed Virgin turned to the children. She questioned them about their daily prayers and the state of the wheat in the region, which was already beginning to spoil. Her last words were an encouragement for Mélanie and Maximin to spread the message: “Well then, my children, you will pass this on to all my people.” She then walked a few steps away, looked at each of them at length and began to rise, gradually disappearing into the intense light that surrounded her.
Let us not despise her words!
The Lady so attracted the two children that they would have gladly abandoned everything to enjoy her company. But their mission to spread the prophecy had only just begun and would bring them the harshest calumnies, persecution and incomprehensible isolation throughout their lives.
“This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (Jn 6:60). Such was the reaction of several of Jesus’ disciples in Capernaum, when the sacrosanct mystery of the Eucharist was first revealed to them. At the risk of committing this same refusal, let us ask Our Lady of La Salette for the grace to be counted among the number of those who accept, console and accompany her during the days of the Passion of the Holy Church, awaiting with total fidelity her glorious resurrection! ◊
Notes
1 The commentaries by Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud cited here in quotation marks, as well as the descriptions of the apparition and Our Lady’s literal words, were taken from the official accounts made by the shepherds, transcribed in priest Michel Corteville’s famous doctoral thesis on La Salette: CORTEVILLE, Michel. La “Grande Nouvelle” des bergers de La Salette. Le plus grand amour, les plus fortes expressions. Doctoral thesis in Spiritual Theology. Pontificia Studiorum Universitas a Sancto Thoma Aquinate in Urbe. Rome, 2000, p.204; 230-241.
