Our Lady appeared at La Salette in 1846, just 16 years after Our Lady appeared at the Chapel of the Visitation, Rue du Bac, in Paris where she gave the world the Miraculous Medal. 

La Salette is in the stunningly beautiful French Alps.  It was there that Our Lady gave a message of such great importance for France and for the world.  She appeared to two young shepherds, who, up to this point, had not even known each other.  Divine Providence bought them together at the site where Our Lady appeared. 

It was on Saturday, September 19, 1846, that a “Beautiful Lady” appeared to two children, both from Corps, in France Alps: Maximin GIRAUD, eleven year old, and Mélanie CALVAT, almost fifteen, who were watching their herds 

on the slope of Mont Planeau (alt. approx 6,000 ft.), not far from the village of La Salette. In a little hollow, the suddenly noticed a globe of fire - “as though the sun had fallen on the spot.” Within the dazzling light they gradually perceived a woman, seated, her elbows resting on her knees and her face buried in her hands. 

The Beautiful Lady rose, and said to the children in French: 

“Come closer, my children; don’t be afraid. I am here to tell you great news.” 

 

She took a few steps towards them. Maximin and Mélanie, reassured, ran down to her and stood very close to her. The Beautiful Lady wept all the time she spoke. She was tall, and everything abouther radiated light. She wore the typical garb of the women of the area: a long dress, and apron around her waist, a shawl crossed over her breast and tied behind her back, and a close-fitting bonnet. Along the hem of her shawl she wore a broad, flat chain, and from a smaller chain around her neck there hung a large crucifix. Under the arms of the cross there were, to the left of the figure of Christ, a hammer, and, to the right, pincers. The radiance of the entire apparition seemed to emanate from this crucifix, and shone like a brilliant crown upon the Beautiful Lady’s head. She wore garlands of roses on her head, around the edge of her shawl, and around her feet. The Beautiful Lady spoke to the two shepherds.

The times in which they were living were not unlike that of our own time.  Our Lady noted to them the few who were attending Church, the mocking of the sacred, the sins that were being committed.  She came with a message calling for individual and collective repentance. 

On September 19, 1851, after “a precise and rigorous investigation” of the event, the witnesses, the content of the message, and its repercussions, Philibert de Bruillard, Bishop of Grenoble, pronounced his judgment in a pastoral letter of instruction. He declared that “the apparition of the Blessed Virgin to two shepherds, September 19, 1846, on a mountain in the Alps, located in the parish of La Salette,....bears within itself all the characteristics of truth and that the faithful have grounds for believing it to be indubitable and certain.”

 

On this beautiful occasion we will be sharing with you some of the prophetic message that Our Lady delivered through this famous and greatly loved apparition.