The Holy Virgin appeared in France, in the remote village of La Salette, on September 19, 1846, to a 15 year old humble shepherdess named Melanie Calvat and her 12 year old shepherd friend Maximin Giraud. La Salette is a small village in the Alpes Dauphinoises at an altitude of 1800 meters in the south-east of France near Grenoble.
Melanie published her whole message in 1879 with the approval of the bishop, Zola (of the town of Lecce, Italy). Rome recognised it officially in June 6, 1922.
This document is from a little book “The message of La Salette” published by Pierre Tequi, 82 rue Bonaparte 75006 Paris.
On September 18th, the eve of the holy Apparition of the Blessed Virgin, I was alone, as always, watching the four cows of my masters. Around 11am, I saw a little boy coming towards me. I was frightened, because it seemed to me that everyone knew that I fled from all kinds of companies. This child came up to me and said: “Little one, I’m coming with you, I am also from Corps.” At these words, my evil nature emerged, and, stepping back, I said: “I do not want anybody, I want to be alone.” Then I walked away, but the kid followed me, saying, “Go, keep me with you, my master told me to keep my cows with yours, I am from Corps.”
I walked away from him, mentioning to him that I wanted nobody; and after moving away, I sat on the grass. There I was having my conversation with the little flowers of God.
A moment later, I look behind me, and find Maximin sitting close to me. He told me at once: “Keep me, I shall be very good.” But my evil nature did not hear reason. I got up hastily, and I ran away without him, and began to play with the flowers of God. A moment later, Maximin was there again to tell me that it would be good, he would not talk, that he would get bored alone, and that his master sent him to me, etc. … This time, I was sorry for him, I invited him to sit down, and I continued with the little flowers of God.
Maximin soon broke the silence. He laughed, (I think he was laughing at me) I looked at him, and he said: “Let’s have fun, lets play a game.” I did not answer, I was ignorant, I did not understand the game with another person, having always been alone. I only played with the flowers. Maximin, approaching towards me, laughed and told me that the flowers had no ears to hear, and that we should play together. But I had no inclination for the game he asked me to play. But I began to talk to him, and he told me that the ten days with his master would soon end, and then he would go back to his father in Corps etc. …
While he spoke, the bell of La Salette was heard, it was the Angelus, I signaled to Maximin to raise his soul towards God. He bowed his head and remained silent for a moment. Then I said: “Do you want dinner? – Yes, he said. Lets go. ” We sat down, I removed from my bag the provisions that were given to me by my masters. As usual, before starting to eat my bread roll, with the tip of my knife I made a cross on my bread, and in the middle a tiny hole, saying, “If the devil is in here, may he get out and if God is there, may He stay” and quickly, quickly I covered the small hole. Maximin burst into a hearty laugh, and kicked my bread, which escaped from my hands, rolled to the bottom of the mountain and was lost.
I had another piece of bread, we ate it together, then we played a game and realized that Maximin would need to eat, I showed him a side of the mountain covered with berries. I urged him to go and eat, which he did immediately, he ate and brought back his hat filled with berries. In the evening we went down the mountain together, and we promised to each other to return and watch our cows together.
The next day, September 19th, I found myself on my way with Maximin; we climbed the mountain together. I found that Maximin was very good, very simple, and that he spoke freely of what I meant and he was also very flexible, not holding on to his feelings; he was just a little curious, because when I moved away from him he stopped; when he saw me he ran quickly towards me again to see what I was doing, and to hear what I was saying to the flowers of God; and if he would not arrive on time, he would asked me what I had said. Maximin asked me to teach him a game. It was already late in the morning and I asked him to pick flowers for the “Paradise”.
We both got to work and we soon had a number of flowers of various colors. The Angelus was heard from the village, because the sky was beautiful without any clouds. After saying to God what we knew, I said to Maximin that we had to lead our cows onto a small plateau near the gully, where there would be stones to build the “Paradise”. We lead our cows to the place designated, and then we took our little meals, and we began to carry stones and build our little house, which consisted of a ground floor, which supposedly was our home, then a floor above which we believed was the “Paradise”.
This floor was covered with flowers of different colors, hung with wreaths of flowers held together with stems of flowers. This “Paradise” was covered by a single large stone, which we covered with flowers; we also hung wreaths all around. The “Paradise” completed, we watched it, we went to sleep, we walked away from it about two steps, and we fell asleep on the grass.
II
The beautiful lady sits on our “paradise” without bringing it down.
Waking up, and not seeing the cows, I called Maximin and I climbed the small hill. From there, I saw that the cows were lying down quietly, I went down and Maximin came up, when suddenly I saw a beautiful light, brighter than the sun, and scarcely could I say these words: “Maximin, look, look over there? Oh! my God! “At the same time I drop the stick I had in my hand. I did not know what was happening to me right at this moment but it was delicious, but I felt moved, I felt a great respect filled with love, and my heart wanted to run faster than me.
I looked intensely at that light which was stationary, and as if it had opened, I saw another light much brighter which was moving, and in this light I saw a very beautiful lady sitting on our “Paradise”, resting her head in her hands. This lovely Lady got up, she crossed her arms indifferently looking at us and telling us: “Come, my children, do not be afraid, I’m here to announce great news!” These soft and sweet words made me fly to her, and my heart wanted to be glued to her forever. Once very close to the beautiful Lady, in front of her, to her right, she began the speech, and tears began to drip from her lovely eyes.
“If my people will not abide, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and so heavy that I can no longer hold him back.
For so long I have suffered for you! If I want my son not to abandon you, I am asked to pray relentlessly. And for you, you do not make cases. However much you pray, do good, you can never make up for the pains I have taken upon myself for you people.
I gave you six days to work, I have reserved the seventh, and you do not want to grant it. This is what makes the arm of my Son so heavy.
Those who drive carts can not speak without saying the name of my Son. These are the two things that makes the arm of my Son so heavy
If the harvest is spoiled, it is only because of you.
I showed it to you last year with the potatoes, you gave no importance, on the contrary, when you found that they were spoiled, you swore, and you said the name of my Son . They will continue to deteriorate and at Christmas there will be no more.”
Here I sought to interpret the word: potatoes, it was my understanding that this meant apples. The beautiful and good lady, guessing my thoughts said:
“You do not understand me, my children? – I will tell you otherwise. ” (Melanie spoke a local dialect and did not understand French well)
The French translation is this:
“If the harvest is spoiled, it is because of you; and I showed it to you last year with the potatoes, and it did not matter to you, on the contrary, when you found out that they were spoiled, you swore, and you said the name of my Son. They will continue to deteriorate, and at Christmas there will be no more. If you have wheat, we must not sow it.
Everything you sow the beasts will eat, and what will come will fall into dust when you beat it. There will come a great famine. Before the famine comes, the little children under seven years old will die and a tremor will shake the hands of people who hold them, others will do penance through hunger. The nuts will become bad, the grapes will rot.”
Here, the beautiful Lady who enchanted me, stood for a moment to be heard. I saw, however that she continued speaking and moving gracefully her kind lips. Maximin was receiving his secret at that moment. Then, turning to me, the Blessed Virgin spoke to me and gave me a secret in French. The secret here, is in its entirety, and that is how she gave it to me:
III
The Virgin Mary :
“Mélanie, 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 honours and pleasures, the priests have become gutters of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to priests and 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 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 the greatest 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 in 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 the 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 to say, the souls of the damned. All these souls will appear as if fixed to their bodies.
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 of 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 governors 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 a desecration of holy places. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself 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.
Then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshipped and glorified. Love will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the holy Church, which will be strong, humble, 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 the faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ, and man will live in fear of God.
This peace 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 Savior of the world. He will shed much blood and will want to annihilate the worship of God to make himself be looked upon as 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 fullness of years.
Nature is asking for vengeance because of man and 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 religious Hebrew woman, a false virgin, who will communicate with the old serpent, the master of impurity, his father will be Bishop. 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, 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 air, 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 the peoples of all the 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, who became a man, the only Savior 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 End of Times, 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 with you and within you, provided that your faith is the light which shines upon you in these unfortunate 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 an 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 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 from animals. There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities. Earthquakes will swallow up countries. Voices will be heard in the air. Men will beat their head 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 the prayers of the righteous, will get God to 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 led astray because they have not worshipped 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 Savior of the world. He will rise proudly into the air up to the sky. 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 its fiery bowels, and he will be plunged for 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.
And so, my children, you will pass this on to all my people.”
IV
Then the Blessed Virgin gave me too in French, the Rule of a new Order. After giving me the Rule of this new religious Order, the Blessed Virgin continued the speech:
“If they convert, stones and rocks will change into wheat, and potatoes will be found sown onto the land. Are you saying your prayers, my children?”
We both answered: “Oh no, madam, not much.”
“Oh! my children, you have to do it, night and morning. When you can not do better, say a Pater and an Ave Maria, and when you have time and you can do better, you say more. Only the older women go to Mass, the others are working all summer on Sundays; and in the winter, when they do not know what to do, they go to Mass only to mock religion. During Lent, they go to the slaughterhouse like dogs.
Have you not seen spoiled wheat, my children?”
Both of us said, “Oh! no, madam.”
The Blessed Virgin speaking to Maximin: “But you, my child, you must have seen it around the corner, with your father. The man in the room said to your father: “Come see, my wheat is spoiled. You went. Your father took two or three ears in his hand, he rubbed them, and they fell to dust. Then, turning around when you were only half an hour away from the Body, your father gave you a piece of bread and said: Here my child, eat this year, because I do not know who will eat next year, if the wheat gets spoiled like that.”
Maximin replied: “It’s true, Madam, I do not remember that.”
The Very Blessed Virgin ended her speech in French, “Well! my children, you shall transmit it to all my people. ”
The beautiful Lady crossed the creek and close to the creek, without turning toward us who followed her (because she attracted us to her by her brilliance and her goodness that intoxicated me and melted my heart), she then said: “Well! my children, you shall transmit it to all my people.”
Then she continued to walk to where the cows were. Her feet only touched the tip of the grass without bending it. Arriving on the top, the beautiful Lady stopped. I quickly stood before her to look at her and to try to find out which way she was going, I had forgotten my cows and my masters whom I was serving. I was tied forever and unconditionally to my Lady, yes, I would never, ever leave her, I followed her without a second thought , and was available to serve her while I lived.
With My Lady I thought I had forgotten the paradise, I only wanted to be of service to her, and I thought I could do all she would have told me to do, because it seemed that She had a lot of power. She looked at me with loving-kindness which drew me to Her. I would have liked to throw myself into her arms with my eyes closed. She did not give me the time to do it. She rose gradually from the ground to about one meter or more, and thus remained suspended in the air for a brief moment . My beautiful lady looked at the sky and then at earth, to her right and left, then she looked at me with eyes so soft, so kind and so good, I thought that She drew me into her, and it seemed that my heart opened to hers.
And while my heart melted away in a mild expansion, the beautiful face of my good Lady disappeared little by little, it seemed to me that the light in motion multiplied or condensed around the Blessed Virgin, to prevent me from seeing her any longer. Thus the light took the place of the body parts that disappeared in front my eyes, or else it seemed that the body of my Lady turned to light. Thus the light in the shape of a globe rose gently towards the right.
I can not say whether the amount of light was decreasing, or if it was caused by the distance, that I saw the light diminish as it was. What I know is that I stood looking up and staring at the light, even after this light, which was going away and decreasing in intensity, had finally disappeared.
My eyes detached from the sky, I look around me and I see Maximin looking at me, I said: “Memin, it must be the God of my father, or the Virgin Mary, or some great saint.” Maximin throwing his hands in the air said, “Oh I wish I had known!”
V
On the evening of September 19th, we retired earlier than usual. With my masters, I worked to tie my cows and put everything in order in the stable. I had not yet finished, when my mistress came to me in tears and said, “Why, my child, you did not tell me what happened to you on the mountain?”
(Maximin had not found his masters, who had not yet finished their work, had come to mine, and had told all he had seen and heard). I replied: “I wanted to tell you, but I wanted to finish my work first.” A moment later, I went into the house, and my mistress said, “Tell me what you saw, the shepherd of Bruite (this was the nickname of Peter Selme, Maximin’s master) told me everything.”
I started and halfway through the story came my masters from their fields; my mistress, who wept when they heard the complaints and threats of our loving Mother, said: “Ah! you wanted to go pick up the wheat tomorrow, keep yourself well, come hear what happened to this child and to the Selme shepherd. ” And turning to me, she said, “Repeat everything you’ve told me.” I started and when I finished, my master said: “This is the Blessed Virgin, or a great saint, who came from the good God, but it is as if God Himself had come Himself: we must do everything that this holy saint has said. How will you be able to say this to all his people? “I replied,” You tell me how I should do it, and I will do it.” Then he added, looking at his mother, his wife and his brother: “You have to think about it.” Then everyone went back to their business.
It was after dinner. Maximin and his masters came home to tell my people what Maximin had told them, and to know what had to be done: “For, they said, it seems that this is the Virgin Mary who was sent by God, the words she said made it believable. And She told them to pass it on to all his people, it may seem that these children will travel the world to publicize the need for everyone to observe the Commandments of God, if not, great calamities are coming onto us. ” After a moment of silence, my master said, turning to Maximin and me: “Do you know what you need to do, my children? Tomorrow, get up early, both of you go to the parish priest, and tell him everything you saw and heard. Tell him exactly how the thing happened: he will tell you what you have to do.”
On September 20th, the day after the apparition, I left early with Maximin. We went to see the priest, we knocked on the door. The housekeeper of the parish priest came to the door, and asked what we wanted. I told her (in French, which I had never spoken):
“We would like to talk to the Father”. – “We want to tell him, Miss that yesterday we went to take care of our cows on the mountain des Baisses, and after dinner, etc.., etc..” We told her much of the speech of the Blessed Virgin. Then the church bell rang: it was the last stroke of the Mass. Mr. the Abbey Perrin, pastor of La Salette, who had heard us, opened his door with a bang: he wept, he beat his chest, he says, “My children, we are lost, God will punish us. Ah! my God, it is the Blessed Virgin who appeared to you! “And he went to say the Mass. We looked at each other the housekeeper and Maximin, then Maximin said: “I am going to my father, to Corps.” And we parted.
Not having received any orders from my teachers to retire soon after speaking to Mr. Priest, I thought that it would not hurt to attend Mass. So I was at church. Mass begins, and after the first Gospel, the Father turns to the people, and tries to tell his parishioners that the apparition had taken place the day before, on one of their mountains, and urges them to not work on Sundays: his voice was broken up by sobs, and all the people were moved. After Mass, I retired and went back to my masters. Mr. Peytard, who still today is the mayor of La Salette, came to me to question the fact of the apparition and after ascertaining the truth of what I told him, he was convinced and he retired.
I continued to stay in the service of my masters until the feast of All Saints. Then I was put as a boarder at the Sisters of Providence, in my country, in Corps.
VI
The Blessed Virgin was very tall and well proportioned; She seemed so light that with a breath she could be moved, yet She was motionless and well put. Her countenance was majestic, imposing, but not like the majesties of this world. She imposed respect. At the same time that Her Majesty imposed respect with love, she attracted to Herself. Her eyes were soft and penetrating, her eyes seemed to speak with mine, but the conversation came to a deep and strong feeling of love for this ravishing beauty who melted me away. The sweetness of her look, her air of incomprehensible goodness that She did understand and made one feel attracted to her. She wanted to give, it was an expression of love that can not be expressed with the language of flesh and with the letters of the alphabet.
The clothing of the Blessed Virgin was silvery white and shining, and there was nothing made of material: it was composed of light and glory, moving and scintillating. Nothing like it on earth.
The Holy Virgin was beautiful and made of love. I longed to melt in her. Her attire and her person, both breathed the majesty, the splendor, the magnificence of an incomparable Queen. She looked beautiful, white, immaculate, crystallized, dazzling, heavenly, fresh, fresh as a virgin and it seemed that the word Love escaped from her lips, all pure silver. She seemed like a good Mother, full of goodness, kindness, love for us, compassion and mercy.
The crown of roses on her head was so beautiful, so bright. Hard to imaginethat so many roses of various colors were possible on this earth. A meeting of flowers surrounded the head of the Blessed Virgin Mary-shaped crown.The roses were changed or replaced, then from the heart of every rose came a light so beautiful, delightful, that the beautiful roses look brilliant. The crown of roses stood like branches of gold, and a host of other small flowers mixed with sparkles.
The whole formed a beautiful diadem, shining alone more than our sun from the earth.
Our Lady had a very nice Cross hanging from her neck. This Cross seemed golden, golden not like a gold plate, for I have sometimes seen gilded objects with various shades of gold, which was to me a much more beautiful effect than a simple gold plate. On this beautiful brilliant Cross with light was a Christ, our Lord was, arms outstretched on the Cross. Almost at both ends of the cross on one side there was a hammer, on the other side a pair of pliers. Christ was the natural color of flesh, but he shone with great brilliancy and light coming out of all His body seemed like very bright darts, which I pierced through my heart with the desire to blend in Him. Christ sometimes appeared to be dead: His head was bowed, and the body was slumped, as if to fall and if not retained by the nails that kept him on The Cross.
I had great compassion, and I wanted to reiterate to the world the unknown love. And seep into the souls of mortals that love felt with the deepest gratitude towards a God who had no need of us to be who he is, what He was and what He will always be. Yet, O Love incomprehensible to man! He became man, and he wanted to die, yes die to write in our souls and in our memory the great love He has for us! Oh! I am unhappy to find myself so poor with the wrong expression for love, yes, the love of our Savior good for us! But, on the other hand, we are so happy to feel better that we can express!
At other times Christ appeared alive His head straight, His eyes open, and seemed to be on the Cross by His own will. He also sometimes seemed to speak: He seemed to show that He was on the Cross for us, for our sake, to draw us to His love, He has always a new love for us, that His love of the beginning and the Year 33 is still the one of today and forever.
The Virgin was crying nearly all the time while She spoke to me. Her tears flowed slowly down one after the other towards her knees like sparks of light, then disappeared. They were bright and full of love. I wanted to comfort her, so that she did not weep anymore. But it seemed to me that She needed to show her tears, to better show her love forgotten by men. I wanted to throw myself into her arms and tell her: “My Good Mother, do not weep! I want you to love for all people on this earth. ” But it seemed to me that She told me: “There are so many who do not know me!”
I was between death and life, seeing on one hand so much love, so much desire to be loved, and on the other hand so much coldness, so much indifference … Oh! Mother, Mother so beautiful and kind, my love, Heart of my heart! …
The tears of our loving Mother, far from lessening her air of majesty, the Queen and Mistress, seemed on the contrary to embellish it, make her more pleasant, more beautiful, more powerful, more full of love, more maternal, more lovely. I would have eaten her tears, that made my heart jump of compassion and love. To see a mother cry and such a Mother, without taking every possible means to comfort her, to change her pain into joy, is this understandable? O Mother more than good! You were formed with all the prerogatives God is capable of, as you have exhausted the power of God, then you are good and good of the goodness of God himself, God has grown in you, forming His heavenly and earthly masterpiece.
The Very Blessed Virgin had a yellow apron on. What am I saying, yellow? She had an apron brighter than many sunsets. It was not of a fabric material, it was a compound of glory, and glory was scintillating, and ravishingly beautiful. Everything in the Blessed Virgin carried me strongly, and I was like slipping into worshiping and loving my Jesus in every state of his mortal life.
The Blessed Virgin had two chains, one slightly larger than the other. At the narrowest one hung the Cross which I mentioned above. These chains (since we must give the name chains) were like rays of glory with a great burst ranging and scintillating.
The shoes (shoes since they must be named) were white, but a silvery white, shiny with roses all around. These roses were stunningly beautiful, and from the heart of each rose a flame of light coming, all so beautiful and very pleasant to see. On the shoes there was a gold buckle, not in gold of the earth, but the gold of Paradise.
The sight of the Blessed Virgin was herself an accomplished paradise. She had everything that could please, because the earth was forgotten.
The Blessed Virgin was surrounded by two lights. The first light, closer to the Blessed Virgin, reached us, it shone with a brilliance and beautiful sparkle. The second lumen extending a little more around the Beautiful Lady, and we were in this one, she was immobile (that is to say, she does not glittered), but much more brilliant than our poor sun of earth. All these lights did not hurt the eyes, and blur the view.
Besides all these lights, all this splendor, came out groups of lights, beams or rays of light out of the Body of the Blessed Virgin, out of her clothes and of everywhere.
The voice of the Beautiful Lady was soft and she delighted, delighted, felt good in the heart: she satiated, leveled all obstacles, soothed, softened. It seemed that I always wanted to eat her beautiful voice, and my heart seemed to dance or want to meet her to liquefy myself in her.
The eyes of the Blessed Virgin, our loving Mother, can not be described by human language. To talk about it, it would take a seraph; there should be more, there should be the language of God Himself, the God who formed the Immaculate Virgin, the masterpiece of His omnipotence.
The eyes of the blessed Mary seemed a thousand times more beautiful than the bright diamonds and precious stones.They shone like two suns, they were sweet gentleness, clear as a mirror. In her eyes you could see the Paradise they attracted to her, it seemed that She wanted to give and attract. The more I looked, the more I wanted to see Her The more I see The more I wanted to love Her, and the more I loved Her with all my strength.
The eyes of the beautiful Immaculate were like God’s door, where you could see all that can intoxicate the soul. When my eyes met with those of the Mother of God, I felt within me a happy revolution of love and protest to love and melt with love.
Looking at each other, our eyes were talking their language. I loved her so much that I wanted to kiss her in the midst of her eyes which softened my soul, and seemed to attract and melt it away with her own . Her eyes planted in me a mild tremor through my whole being, I was afraid to make any movement that might be disagreeable to her ever so slightly.
The mere sight of the eyes of the purest of Virgins would have been enough to be a blessed heaven, would have sufficed to bring a soul in the fullness of the will of the Almighty among all the events that happen in this mortal lifetime. This would have been enough to make this soul offer continual acts of praise, thanksgiving, reparation and atonement. This view focuses only into God’s soul and makes it like a living dead, not looking at all the earthly things, even things that seem the most serious like thing to the amusements of children. She would only want to hear about God and what concerns His glory.
Sin is the only evil She sees on earth, She would die of grief if God did not sustain her. Amen.
CASTELLAMMARE, November 21, 1878
MARY OF THE CROSS, Victim of Jesus, born Melanie Calvat, Shepherdess of La Salette.
Nihil obstat : imprimatur.
Datura Lycii former Curia EPLI 15 Nov. 1879
Vicarius Generalis, CARMELUS ARCH’ COSMA