top of page
Search

Our Lady of La Salette- part 2

Writer's picture: AhmedAhmed

In an earlier post we wrote about La Salette and the history behind the popularity of one of the most curious Marian Apparitions.


Why curious? Well, read on.


The story begins in 1846 in a tiny hamlet in Isére, the beautiful but remote hilly region near the Italian border. Its not too far from the large city of Grenoble.




Actually the story starts well before that- 1789 during the French revolution. After the execution of the King Louis XVI the first heir to the throne was his young son Louis. Only four years old at the time of the revolution, Louis XVII was placed in the care of the state and essentially kept in prison. He died in somewhat mysterious circumstances not long after, aged 10 and was interred in an unmarked grave. After came Napoleon and his wars across Europe and then his fall. Since then many people have claimed to be the missing Dauphin, and especially after the restoration of the monarchy in1814 there was was a near continual queue of people claiming to be the lost Louis and rightful heir the the throne of France. This was a period of conservative reaction to the revolution but even so its spirit lived on in many quarters in outright atheism, republicanism, support for liberal democracy and often in anti-clericism and hostility to the institution of the church in France.



Louis XVIII (here called Ludwig) returns to Paris. German print in he US Library of Congress


Back to 1846: Melanie, 15 and Maximin aged 11 were two shepherds. They reported back one evening that they had had a meeting with a beautiful but very sad lady who had spoken to them at length. Believing they may have seen the Virgin Mary, they were urged to tell the village priest. Tearful with emotion, he took notes and on Sunday morning he reported what has been witnessed to the congregation. That evening the priest put together the first document amalgamating all the notes and verbal accounts. 


The Virgin's speech was very unlike previous apparitions. According the children Mary spoke of the lack of belief in France and how this will be punished by famine, starvation and dying children. The Virgin Mary also spoke of a secret which she told each child and told them never to repeat.


Over the next few weeks Maximin and Melanie's accounts were "harmonized" and the stories repeated around La Salette. By November 1846 the Bishop Of Grenoble was involved and he commissioned investigators who confirmed the stories with some inquiétude over the "harmonization".


By 1847 anti-church newspapers were viciously attacking the apparition as nothing more than peasant superstition. Nevertheless belief was strong within the deeply religious South East and La Salette was becoming a major pilgrimage site. At this point you might think this is a story about faith and persecution. It may not be. 


By 1850 Maximin was considering a life in the church. Knowledge of the "secret" he held was widespread to an extent that supporters of Baron de Richemont, one of the claimants to the French throne, sponsored him in his endeavours hoping that the secret would one day help him. Maximin decided to consult the Curé or Ars, John Vianney, a popular preacher known for his devotion to Mary.



John Vianney, Curé d'Ars, statue by Emilien Cabuchet



After extensive interviews the Curé announced to a shocked France that Maximin had retraced his testimony. Maximin responded that the Curé had been mumbling or deaf and he had responded 'yes' and 'no' to what he thought the questions were about. The Curé responded that there was nothing wrong with his hearing or speech and that Maximin had indeed confessed that the whole story had been made up, and had persisted in the lie when he saw its good effects.


The Bishop of Grenoble disagreed, stating that Maximin had spoken in good faith and the apparition was real. Incredibly the Curé found a middle position: even if Maximin had seen nothing, the apparition may still have been authentic and in any case, its teachings were good for the Church.


So 1851 the Bishop of Grenoble declared the apparition authentic and authorized the cult of Our Lady of La Salette, founding the Mission. When he resigned in 1852 however, the new bishop, seeking support from anti-royalists, attacked the apparition and dismissed it as a fraud. The new bishop was himself promoted to a new job the next year and his successor reverted the official position back to "polite acceptance".



(Notre Dame de La Salette, Wikipedia)


By 1852 the Mission began construction of a basilica at La Salette . By 1858 the priest assigned to look after the basilica and revelation site formed a religious community with its own constitution. Now referring to themselves as the Missionaries of La Salette the community grew and by 1890 the community had become approved by Rome as a religious community of Pontifical Right. It was members of this community which eventually settled in Hartford Connecticut and began the modern mission.


What of the secret the Virgin told the children? The children of La Salette adamantly refused to disclose the “secret” messages, until finally, in 1851, they were persuaded to write the secrets and send them to the Pope for his eyes only. Thereafter, Maximin found he was unable to settle as a teenager or adult. He was disinterested in profiting from for his fame and spent much of his life wandering, dying near his birthplace in 1870, not even 40 years old.


Melanie seemed unable to keep her secret. She joined a convent but her behaviour became increasingly erratic, including inventing further miraculous stories of her childhood, having Jesus as her secret friend, her belief in her command over animals and her continued articulation that Freemasonry and secularism would destroy France. Although still young, her words had enough power to  put her at odds with supporters of Napoleon III now Emperor of a republican government. Not knowing what to do with the famous but controversial young nun she was packed off to Darlington, England in 1855 where she was expressly forbidden from speaking in public.



Darlington at this time was the centre of the British railway industry which imported workers from far and wide. There were churches and institutions for multiple denominations from the Church of England, Methodist and Baptist as well as a Roman Catholic. What Melanie made of this is unrecorded but in 1860 she was moved to a convent in Marseille and then on to Italy.


In 1879 she published an expanded version of her "secret" with the support of the Bishop of Lecce (near Naples) This tract was apocalyptic and brimful of grim warnings. This was widely denounced in France and by 1880 the Vatican placed it on the Index of Prohibited Books. She briefly settled in France again and in 1894 a sympathetic priest helped her publish another book "The Great Coup and Its Probable Dates" which was anti-Bonaparte and pro-Bourbon. It too was banned. Melanie eventually passed away in 1902.


The original secrets were eventually published in 1999 and are now widely available online




Through her life Melanie had been used by people who wanted her prophecies to support various political ends, as well as other groups we would today call "grifters" who made a business from spurious prophecies. This is not to say Melanie herself wasn't complicit- she very early on began to blame the cabinet of Napoleon III for the evils she saw about to befall France, and viewed the Franco-Prussian War as a judgment from God. Nevertheless, the core of this story is the apparition itself, and this remains popular. Why? well part of it is a story of unrelenting faith in the face of extreme skepticism. Part is the stunning natural beauty of La Salette itself. And part is the apparition itself.


(Our lady of Salette at Saint James the Apostle Parish Church of Paete, Laguna via Wikipedia)


Mary, according to the children, was weeping. The iconography creates a major religious figure in tears for the world. She is often depicted with a hammer and pincers. The hammer was the tool used to drive the nails into Christ’s flesh. It symbolizes sin. The pincers were the pliers-like tool used to remove the nails when Jesus was taken down from the cross. They symbolize prayer and penance and reconciliation.


The message is one of keeping faith in the face of disaster and a mother's plea to respect her son. This is perhaps why the Mary of Salette, always weeping, continues to fascinate and hold our attention.

9 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

留言


bottom of page