Description
A story and message giving warning to the Church and society of the evil forthcoming that we had to face up to. On the evening of Saturday, 19 September 1846, Maximin Giraud and Mélanie Calvat (called Mathieu[2]) returned from the mountain where they had been minding cows and reported seeing “a beautiful lady” on Mount Sous-Les Baisses, weeping bitterly. They described her as sitting with her elbows resting on her knees and her face buried in her hands. She was clothed in a white robe studded with pearls; and a gold colored apron; white shoes and roses about her feet and high headdress. Around her neck she wore a crucifix suspended from a small chain.[3] According to their account, she continued to weep even as she spoke to them, first in French, then in their own dialect[4] of Occitan.[5] After giving a secret to each child, the apparition walked up a hill and vanished. On 19 September 1851, Pope Pius IX formally approved the public devotion and prayers to Our Lady of La Salette, referring to its messages of apparition as “secrets”. On 24 August 1852, Pope Pius IX once again mentioned the construction of the altar to La Salette. The same papal bull granted the foundation of the Association of Our Lady of La Salette, formalised on 7 September. On 21 August 1879, Pope Leo XIII formally granted a Canonical Coronation to the image at the Basilica of Our Lady of La Salette. A Russian style tiara was granted to the image, instead of the solar-type tiara used in its traditional depictions of Virgin Mary during her apparitions. There is also a sanctuary in Porto Metropolitan Area (Portugal), specifically in Oliveira de Azeméis, and a shrine in Attleboro, Massachusetts, known for its Christmas lights. If the warning of Our Lady of La Salette had been taken more seriously, it might have avoided a lot of evil that has occurred since.
