Our Lady of La Salette, La Salette, France (1846)
Title: Our Lady of La Salette, Reconciler of Sinners
Feast Day: September 19
Investigated: 1846~1851
First Apparition: September 19, 1846
Approved: May 19, 1851 (Bishop Philibert de Bruillard, Diocese of Grenoble)
Last Apparition: September 19, 1846 (one-time event)
Visionaries: Maximin Giraud (11), Mélanie Calvat (15)
Number of Apparitions: 1
Miracles & Signs: Conversion of sinners, miraculous healings, and reports of heavenly signs
Summary: Six thousand feet up in the French Alps, the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have come to 11-year-old Maximin Giraud and 14-year-old Melanie Calvat-Mathieu while they tended sheep. Her appearance in sorrow and tears called for conversion and penance for sins.
Timeline
Nov 7, 1831
Melanie Calvat-Mathieu is born in Corps, France.
Aug 26, 1835
Maximin Giraud is born in Corps, France.
Sept 19, 1846
Melanie and Maximin are out tending sheep and encounter a glowing globe of light. A beautiful weeping woman wearing a high headdress of roses, a silver robe, a gold aprn, white shoes, and a golden crucifix hanging from a chain around her neck, appears sitting on a rock and she relates how the offenses of men such as not reverencing the name of God and work on Sundays will result in calamities, including a potato famine in 1846-7 and disease. The woman entrusts each child with a secret and encourages them to pray and then ascends the hill and disappears.
Sept 1846
The bishop of the diocese, Mgr Philibert de Bruillard of Grenoble, begins the official inquiry into the phenomenon.
Oct 1846
The prophecies of La Salette are widely circulated.
August 1848
Father Rousselot, Vicar General of Grenoble, and appointed reporter on the apparitions, answers twelve objections to the truth of the events in his report entitled "The Truth about the event of La Salette" was addressed to Pope Pius IX
July 3, 1851
Cardinal Boland, archbishop of Lyon, remained skeptical and Maximin and Melanie were made to record the secret given to each of them in the presence of Church officials and deliver their statement to the Bishop. [ Read Maximin's Secret | Read Melanie's Secret ]
July 6, 1851
Melanie rewrites the Secret to fix a chronological error she identified in her original and re-submits her statement to the Bishop.
July 18,1851
The documentary letters are transmitted to Pope Pius IX by two accredited messengers, MM. Rousselot and Gérin. The secret is placed in the archives of the Vatican.
Sept 19, 1851
Mgr de Bruillard publishes a pastoral letter for the fifth anniversary of the Apparition in which he affirmed that the apparition "has within itself all the characteristics of the truth, and that the faithful are justified in believing it beyond doubt and for certain"
1851
Melanie became a nun taking the name Sister Mary of the Cross with the Sisters of Providence and then transferred to the Sisters of Charity.
May 1, 1852
Mgr de Bruillard announces in a pastoral letter the erection of a shrine on the mountain of the Apparition and the institution of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, commissioned to serve the shrine.
May 25, 1852
The first stone of The Shrine of La Salette was blessed by Mgr de Bruillard. The Shrine was built near the location of the apparition at the center of a mountain ring formed by the Gargas and the Chamoux.
May 1853
Mgr Ginoulhiac, is appointed bishop of Grenoble after the reisgnation of Mgr de Bruillard.
Nov 4, 1854
The Bishop issues a pastoral letter which condemned a memorandum published in Grenoble addressed to the Pope against the judgement of 1851. Ginoulhiac additionally renews his predecessor’s doctrinal judgement in a more explicit and this time definitive way.
1855
Melanie was allowed to transfer to an English Carmelite convent.
1860
The local bishop forbade her from speaking publicly so she returned to France to join a convent at Marseille.
1867
Her identity was discovered and she left for Naples. In Naples, she wrote down the secret for theOrder of the Apostles of the Last Days (men) and Order of the Mother of God (women).
Dec 26, 1870
Melanie’s writes a *letter to Fr Bliard.
* Excerpt from Melanie’s letter to Fr Bliard, 26 December 1870
The Blessed Virgin pronounced these words, either about the secrets or rules, but at the time I was only able to guess at the meaning of the what was behind these words. Then a large veil was lifted and my eyes and imagination rediscovered the events as she pronounced these words. A wide panorama opened in front of me, I could now see these events and changes upon the earth through the eyes of the Eternal God in His glory as He watched the Blessed Virgin lowering herself to speak with two shepherds (...)
Some people have not approved of the fact the fact that Mary spoke to us in such length. It is such a pity that these people feel so miserly towards a poor shepherdess who has no other hope with all her heart that the whole world could have seen and heard all that she herself saw and heard during that half an hour, because everyone would have converted..
The Blessed Virgin pronounced these words, either about the secrets or rules, but at the time I was only able to guess at the meaning of the what was behind these words. Then a large veil was lifted and my eyes and imagination rediscovered the events as she pronounced these words. A wide panorama opened in front of me, I could now see these events and changes upon the earth through the eyes of the Eternal God in His glory as He watched the Blessed Virgin lowering herself to speak with two shepherds (...)
Some people have not approved of the fact the fact that Mary spoke to us in such length. It is such a pity that these people feel so miserly towards a poor shepherdess who has no other hope with all her heart that the whole world could have seen and heard all that she herself saw and heard during that half an hour, because everyone would have converted.
Told by Fr Laurentin and Fr Corteville in The Secret of La Salette Discovered - Fayard 2002
(“Découverte du Secret de La Salette”)
Aug 18,1872
700 pilgrims from Paris, later joined by other groups from Dijon, Ars and Lyons, participate in France's First National Pilgrimage and travel to La Salette.
March 1, 1875
Death of Maximin. He had entered the seminary but never reached ordination.
Nov 15, 1879
Last manuscript of the secret of La Salette written by Melanie in 1873 and published in 1879 as a booklet with the imprimatur of Bishop Salvtore Luigi Zola entitled Apparition of the Blessed Virgin on the Mountain of La Salette. This version of the secret is much longer and contains more detail. It also predicted the future apostacy of Rome.
1879
The completed basilica was consecrated.
Dec 15, 1904
Death of Melanie in Naples
1923
Melanie's secret of 1879 was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books
October 1999
Melanie's 1851 secret was rediscovered by Fr Michel Corteville in the Vatican Archives.
La Salette, France 1846
"Come to me, my children. Do not be afraid. I am here to tell you something of the greatest importance. If my people will not obey, I shall be compelled to loose my Son's arm. It is so heavy, so pressing that I can no longer restrain it."
"How long I have suffered for you! If my Son is not to cast you off, I am obliged to entreat Him without ceasing. But you take no least notice of that. No matter how well you pray in future, no matter how well you act, you will never be able to make up to me what I have endured for your sake."
" 'I have appointed for you six days for working. The sevent h I have reserved for myself. And no one will give it to me.' This is what causes the weight of my Son's arm to be so crushing."
"The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my Son's name. These are two things that make my Son's arm so burdensome. If the harvest is spoiled it is your fault. I warned you last year (1845) by means of the potatoes. You paid no heed. Quite the reverse, when you discovered that the potatoes had rotted, you swore, you abused my Son's name. They will continue to rot and by Christmas this year there will be none left."
"If you have grain, it will do you no good to sow it, for what you sow the beasts will devour, and any part of it that springs up will crumble into dust when you thresh it. A great famine is coming. But before that happens, the children under seven years of age will be seized with trembling and die in their parents' arms. The grownups will pay for their sins by hunger. The grapes will rot and the walnuts will turn bad...."
"If people are converted, the rocks will become piles of wheat, and it will be found that the potatoes have sown themselves....
"Only a few rather old women go to Mass in the summer. All the rest work every Sunday throughout the summer. And in winter, when they don't know what to do with themselves, they go to Mass only to poke fun at religion. During Lent they flock to the butcher shops, like dogs.....My children, you will make this known to all people."
La Salette, France 1846 (Continued)
The Priests, the 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 honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and those dedicated to God who by their infidelity and their wicked lives are crucifying My Son again! The sins of those consecrated 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 generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless sacrifice to the Eternal on behalf 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 altogether."
"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 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 the gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of wrath from God."
"May the vicar of my Son, Pope Pius IX never leave Rome again after 1859; may he, however, be steadfast and noble, may he fight with his 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, soon God will draw back from him. He is the eagle who, always wanting to rise higher, 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 in 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 in hell; several religious institutes will lose all faith and lose many souls. "
"Evil books will be abundant on earth, and the spirit 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 (spiritually) 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 occasion, 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 have 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 Jesus Christ, denying the existence of Heaven; that is to say, the souls of the damned. All these souls will appear as if united with their bodies.)
"In places there will be extraordinary wonders, because true faith has died and a false light shines on the world. Woe to the Princes of the Church whose only occupation will be to heap wealth upon more wealth, and to preserve their authority and proud domination!"
"The vicar of my Son will have much to suffer, as, for a time, the Church will be the victim of great prosecution: this will be a time of darkness. The Church will suffer a terrible crisis.
"As the holy Faith of God is forgotten, every individual will wish to be his own guide and superior to his fellow man. Civil and ecclesiastical authority will be abolished. All order and justice will be trampled underfoot. Nothing will be seen but murder, hatred, jealousy, falsehood and discord without love for the mother country or the family. The Holy Father will suffer greatly. I will be by His side to the end in order to receive his sacrifice. The wicked will make several attempts on his life, but they cannot harm Him. But neither he nor his successor will live to see the triumph of the Church of God.
"All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vices of all kinds.
"In the year 1865, there will be desecration of holy places. In convents, the flower of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the King of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to induce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the earth.
La Salette, France 1846 (Continued 2)
"France, Italy, Spain and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchmen will fight Frenchmen, 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 of Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the heavens. Paris will burn and Marselles will be engulfed. 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 penance 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 be desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped and glorified. Charity 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 imitations of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for their will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God.
"This peace among men will be short-lived. Twenty-five years of plentiful harvest 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 a God."
"The earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds (in addition to plague and famine which will be widespread). 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 the 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 will fight on their side until they reach a fullness of years."
"Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she 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 ground of Asmodeus and his like. It will be during this time that the Antichrist will be born of a Hebrew nun, a false virgin who will communicate with the old serpent, the master of impurity, his father will be a 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 to themselves by the gallant victories they have won; soon they will 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 reflect only 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 atmosphere, 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 people of all nations will get to know the truth.
"I make an appeal to the earth. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven; 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 according to My spirit. Finally I call on the Apostles of the last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and 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 reveals yourselves as My cherished children. I am on your side and within you, provided your faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you hungry for the glory and the honor 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 eclipse, the world will be in dismay. But now Enoch and Elijah will come, filled with the spirit of God. They will preach with the might of God, and men of goodwill will believe in God, and many souls will be comforted. They will make great strides forward through the virtue of the Holy Spirit, and will condemn the diabolic errors 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 of animals. There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries. Voices will be heard in the air. Men will beat their heads against walls, call for death, and on the other hand death will be their torment. Blood will flow on all sides. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the duration of the test? At the blood, the tears and the prayers of the righteous, God will relent. Enoch and Elijah 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 worshiped 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 in the air to go to Heaven. He will be smothered by the breath of the Archangel Saint Michael. He will fall, and the earth, which will have been in a continual series of evolutions for three days, will open up 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 work's of men's pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified."
Miracles and Signs
During interrogations from the local authorities, the children were taken to the site of the apparition. A man broke off a piece of rock at the spot of the Virgin's appearance and uncovered a spring. The spring was found to have healing powers which inspired the bishop to begin an official inquiry. Twenty-three cures were attributed to the mountain spring in the first year after the apparition.
Additionally, hundreds of miraculous cures have also been reported at the Basilica of La Salette.
Prophecies
In December 1846, most of the popular crops were disease stricken, and in 1847 a famine hit Europe which resulted in the loss of approximately one million lives, including one hundred thousand in France alone.
Cholera became prevalent in various parts of France and claimed the lives of many children.
Description of the Virgin
"The clothing of the Most Holy Virgin was silver white and quite brillliant. It was quite intangible. It was made up of light and glory, sparkling and dazzling. There is no expression nor comparison to be found on earth. The most Holy Virgin had a yellow pinafore.
"What am I saying, yellow? She had a pinafore more brilliant than several suns put together. It was not a tangible material; it was composed of glory, and the glory was scintillating, and ravishingly beautiful.
"The crown of roses which she placed on her head was so beautiful, so brilliant, that it defies imagination. The different colored roses were not of this earth; it was a joining together of flowers which crowned the Most Holy Virgin.
"The Most Holy Virgin was tall and well proportioned. She seemed so light that a mere breath could have stirred her, yet she was motionless and perfectly balanced. Her face was majestic, imposing. The voice of the Beautiful Lady was soft. It was enchanting, ravishing, warming to the ears.
"The eyes of the majestic Mary appeared thousands of times more beautiful than the rarest brilliants, diamonds, aand precious stones. They shone like two suns; but they were soft, softness itself, as clear as a mirror.
"The Holy Virgin had a most pretty cross hanging around her neck.
"The Holy Virgin was crying nearly the whole time she was speaking to us. Her tears flowed gently, one by one, down to her knees, then, like sparks of light they disappeared. They were glittering and full of love. I would have liked to comfort her and stop her tears."
- Melanie Mathieu (1851)
The Secret of La Salette
The secret was given during the second stage of the apparition, when the Virgin Mary was standing upright and talked to the children. The secret has been written down in several versions and is the subject of much controversy.
There are at least eight preserved writings of the Secret of La Salette (3 by Maximin and 5 by Melanie) including the originals written in 1851 and the final version written in 1879. The final version has received the imprimatur of Salvatore Count Zola C.R.L., Bishop Zola of Lecce, Italy. There is one lost version written by Melanie in 1861.
In 1880 Pierre-Louis-Marie Cortet, bishop of Troyes, denounced the Lecce-imprimatured book to the Holy Office, and in turn Prospero Cardinal Caterini, secretary of the Congregation of the Holy Office, wrote back to him, to Vincenzo Maria Sarnelli, bishop of Castellammare di Stabia and to Pierre Archier M.S., superior general of the Missionaries of La Salette. The controversy ensues.
The two writings of July 1851 agree on the essential, but differ in their developments and even their tonality: the secret of Maximin is shorter, simpler, and less serious. Mélanie is concerned to be understood by the recipient, and 'not to cause him too much sorrow', as she said, but this did not prevent the tears of Bishop de Bruillard.
Maximin initially wrote his Secret at the palace of Bishop de Bruillard on the evening of July 3, 1851. He was asked to rewrite it again because of spots of ink. The soiled autograph was burnt.The Bishop affixed his own seal to it and to send it to the pope. The sealed envelope was countersigned by two witnesses at 7:00 pm.
Melanie wrote the Secret a first time, on July 3, in Corenc, at the Sisters of Providence. She sealed it at 10:00 am, and it was carried at the Bishop's House. She chose to rewrite the secret on July 6 because she believed she misrepresented the chronology of events. After Melanie hand delivered the document, Bishop of Bruillard read the document before sealing it.
Below is the text of the secret as written for written for Pius IX in July 1851 and discovered by Fr. Michel Corteville in the Vatican Archives in October 1999. Please note that this is not the final version of the secret written in 1879.
The Secret of La Salette
Written Statement by Maximin Giraud on July 3rd, 1851
On September 19, 1846, we saw a beautiful Lady. We never said that this lady was the Blessed Virgin but we always said that it was a beautiful Lady.
I do not know if it is the Blessed Virgin or another person. As for me, I believe today that it is the Blessed Virgin. Here is what this Lady said to me:
"If my people continue, what I will say to you will arrive earlier, if it changes a little, it will be a little later.
France has corrupted the universe, one day it will be punished. The faith will die out in France: three quarters of France will not practice religion anymore, or almost no more, the other part will practice it without really practicing it. Then, after [that], nations will convert, the faith will be rekindled everywhere.
A great country, now Protestant, in the north of Europe, will be converted; by the support of this country all the other nations of the world will be converted.
Before all that arrives, great disorders will arrive, in the Church, and everywhere. Then, after [that], our Holy Father the Pope will be persecuted. His successor will be a pontiff that nobody expects.
Then, after [that], a great peace will come, but it will not last a long time. A monster will come to disturb it.
All that I tell you here will arrive in the other century, at the latest in the year two thousand."
Maximin Giraud
(She told me to say it some time before.)
My Most Holy Father, your holy blessing to one of your sheep.
Grenoble, July 3,1851.
The Secret of La Salette
Written Statement by Melanie Mathieu on July 6th, 1851
J.M.J.
secret which the Blessed Virgin gave me on the Mountain of La Salette on September 19, 1846
Secr[e]t.
Mélanie, I will say something to you which you will not say to anybody:
The time of the God's wrath has arrived!
If, when you say to the people what I have said to you so far, and what I will still ask you to say, if, after that, they do not convert, (if they do not do penance, and they do not cease working on Sunday, and if they continue to blaspheme the Holy Name of God), in a word, if the face of the earth does not change, God will be avenged against the people ungrateful and slave of the demon.
My Son will make his power manifest! Paris, this city soiled by all kinds of crimes, will perish infallibly. Marseilles will be destroyed in a little time. When these things arrive, the disorder will be complete on the earth, the world will be given up to its impious passions.
The pope will be persecuted from all sides, they will shoot at him, they will want to put him to death, but no one will not be able to do it, the Vicar of God will triumph again this time.
The priests and the Sisters, and the true servants of my Son will be persecuted, and several will die for the faith of Jesus-Christ.
A famine will reign at the same time.
After all these will have arrived, many will recognize the hand of God on them, they will convert, and do penance for their sins.
A great king will go up on the throne, and will reign a few years. Religion will re-flourish and spread all over the world, and there will be a great abundance, the world, glad not to be lacking nothing, will fall again in its disorders, will give up God, and will be prone to its criminal passions.
[Among] God's ministers, and the Spouses of Jesus-Christ, there will be some who will go astray, and that will be the most terrible.
Lastly, hell will reign on earth. It will be then that the Antichrist will be born of a Sister, but woe to her! Many will believe in him, because he will claim to have come from heaven, woe to those who will believe in him!
That time is not far away, twice 50 years will not go by.
My child, you will not say what I have just said to you. (You will not say it to anybody, you will not say if you must say it one day, you will not say what that it concerns), finally you will say nothing anymore until I tell you to say it!
I pray to Our Holy Father the Pope to give me his holy blessing.
Mélanie Mathieu, Shepherdess of La Salette, Grenoble, July 6, 1851.
J.M.J.+
Secret of Our Lady of La Salette to Melanie (1879 Version)
Melanie, what I am about to tell you will not laways be a secret. You may make it public in 1858.
The Priests, the 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 honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and those dedicated to God who by their infidelity and their wicked lives are crucifying My Son again! The sins of those consecrated 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 generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless sacrifice to the Eternal on behalf 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 altogether."
"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 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 the gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of wrath from God."
"May the vicar of my Son, Pope Pius IX never leave Rome again after 1859; may he, however, be steadfast and noble, may he fight with his 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, soon God will draw back from him. He is the eagle who, always wanting to rise higher, 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 in 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 in hell; several religious institutes will lose all faith and lose many souls. "
"Evil books will be abundant on earth, and the spirit 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 (spiritually) 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 occasion, 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 have 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 Jesus Christ, denying the existence of Heaven; that is to say, the souls of the damned. All these souls will appear as if united with their bodies.)
"In places there will be extraordinary wonders, because true faith has died and a false light shines on the world. Woe to the Princes of the Church whose only occupation will be to heap wealth upon more wealth, and to preserve their authority and proud domination!"
"The vicar of my Son will have much to suffer, as, for a time, the Church will be the victim of great prosecution: this will be a time of darkness. The Church will suffer a terrible crisis.
"As the holy Faith of God is forgotten, every individual will wish to be his own guide and superior to his fellow man. Civil and ecclesiastical authority will be abolished. All order and justice will be trampled underfoot. Nothing will be seen but murder, hatred, jealousy, falsehood and discord without love for the mother country or the family. The Holy Father will suffer greatly. I will be by His side to the end in order to receive his sacrifice. The wicked will make several attempts on his life, but they cannot harm Him. But neither he nor his successor will live to see the triumph of the Church of God.
"All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vices of all kinds.
"In the year 1865, there will be desecration of holy places. In convents, the flower of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the King of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to induce 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. Frenchmen will fight Frenchmen, 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 of Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the heavens. Paris will burn and Marselles will be engulfed. 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 penance 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 be desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped and glorified. Charity 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 imitations of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for their will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God.
"This peace among men will be short-lived. Twenty-five years of plentiful harvest 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 a God."
"The earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds (in addition to plague and famine which will be widespread). 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 the 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 will fight on their side until they reach a fullness of years."
"Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she 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 ground of Asmodeus and his like. It will be during this time that the Antichrist will be born of a Hebrew nun, a false virgin who will communicate with the old serpent, the master of impurity, his father will be a 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 to themselves by the gallant victories they have won; soon they will 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 reflect only 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 atmosphere, 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 people of all nations will get to know the truth.
"I make an appeal to the earth. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven; 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 according to My spirit. Finally I call on the Apostles of the last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and 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 reveals yourselves as My cherished children. I am on your side and within you, provided your faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you hungry for the glory and the honor 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 eclipse, the world will be in dismay. But now Enoch and Elijah will come, filled with the spirit of God. They will preach with the might of God, and men of goodwill will believe in God, and many souls will be comforted. They will make great strides forward through the virtue of the Holy Spirit, and will condemn the diabolic errors 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 of animals. There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries. Voices will be heard in the air. Men will beat their heads against walls, call for death, and on the other hand death will be their torment. Blood will flow on all sides. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the duration of the test? At the blood, the tears and the prayers of the righteous, God will relent. Enoch and Elijah 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 worshiped 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 in the air to go to Heaven. He will be smothered by the breath of the Archangel Saint Michael. He will fall, and the earth, which will have been in a continual series of evolutions for three days, will open up 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 work's of men's pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified."
Church Approval
Mgr de Bruillard published a pastoral letter Sept 19, 1851 for the fifth anniversary of the Apparition in which he affirmed:
"We judge that the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin to the two cowherds on the 19th of September, 1846, on a mountain of the chain of Alps, situated in the parish of LaSalette, in the archpresbytery of Corps, bears within Itself all the characteristics of truth, and that the faithful have grounds for believing it Indubitable and certain."
On November 4th, 1854, Mgr de Ginoulhiac issued a pastoral letter which condemned a memorandum published in Grenoble addressed to the Pope against the judgement of 1851. He additionally renews his predecessor’s doctrinal judgement in a more explicit and this time definitive way.
Prayers
PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE
Remember, dear Lady of La Salette, true Mother of Sorrows, the tears which thou didst shed for me on Calvary; be mindful also of the unceasing care which thou dost exercise to shield me from the justice of God; and consider whether thou canst now abandon thy child, for whom thou hast done so much. Inspired by this consoling thought, I come to cast myself at thy feet, in spite of my infidelity and ingratitude. Reject not my prayer, 0 Virgin of reconciliation, convert me, obtain for me the grace to love Jesus Christ above all things and to console thee too by living a holy life, in order that one day I may be able to see thee in Heaven. Amen
SOURCE: MiracleHunter.com