La Salette, France — 19 September 1846
Brilliant light and apparition
Two cowherds, an eleven year old boy, Maximin, and a fourteen year old girl, Melanie Calvat, saw a sudden flash of light. She testified: “I could see our cows grazing peacefully and I was on my way down, with Maximin on his way up, when all at once I saw a beautiful light shining more brightly than the sun. ‘Maximim, do you see what is over there? Oh! My God!’ At the same moment, I dropped the stick I was holding. Something inconceivably fantastic passed through me in that moment, and I felt myself being drawn. I felt great respect, full of love, and my heart beat faster. I kept my eyes firmly fixed on this light, which was static, and as if it had opened up, I caught sight of another, much more brilliant light which was moving, and in this light I saw a most beautiful lady. ” The “lady” was dressed in white and gold, with a cap of roses on her head. She was surrounded by a brilliant light and was weeping. The lady complained that Sunday was being desecrated and the peasants were blaspheming the saints in swearing. (The Cure d’Ars and other clergy were complaining about these very sins in their sermons). If there was no amendment, there would be great disaster, the harvest would fail and people would starve The parish priest declared the lady to be the Blessed Virgin; the apparitions were later approved by the Bishop of Grenoble, and pilgrimages began. Melanie became a nun and continued to receive revelations. Maximin tried unsuccessfully to become a priest but
Source: Melanie wrote down her testimony in 1878. On 15 Nov. 1879 it was published with the “Imprimatur” of the Bishop of Lecce. In 1904, a few weeks before her death, it was reprinted “ne varietur” at Lyon. 436. Case: W389