Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The written heaven of Pontmain: 'But pray, my children'"

Pontmain, Mayenne (France) (1871)

In January 1871 France was defeated and Prussian troops were moving westward; many men were Pontmain, a village of Mayenne, were mobilized on the front. The people lived in distress and prayed without rest for their soldiers. The afternoon of 17 January 1871upon leaving the family stable, Eugène Barbadette, de doce años, miró al cielo y vio «una hermosa señora» suspendida sobre las casas: vestido azul oscuro sembrado de estrellas doradas, velo negro, corona de oro y una sonrisa muy dulce.

He called his brother Joseph, and then other children - Françoise Richer, Jeanne- Marie Lebossé and the very small Augustin Boitin, about two years old - who also saw her. The adults, on the other hand, saw nothing, but observed the children's consistent reaction and prayed with them under the snow, led by the parish priest and the religious. Then the most amazing thing happened: a message began to be written, letter to letter, in luminous characters under the feet of the Virginthat the children were spelling out aloud as the people continued to pray.

The apparition lasted about three hours. As the people sang the Magnificat and prayed, the Lady's face changed, and a small red cross appeared upon her heart. Pontmain is, at its very core, a school of prayer: la Virgen no habla con la voz, sino que hace rezar; cuando el pueblo ora, el mensaje avanza. Por eso, aunque el texto no menciona literalmente la palabra «Rosario», esta aparición se inscribe de lleno en la gran llamada mariana del siglo XIX en Francia —La Salette, Lourdes— a la oración perseverante y al Rosario por la paz.

Es documented the date, the place, the names of the seers, the essential content of the message and the ecclesiastical approval: the Bishop of Laval, Monsignor Wicart, declared the apparitions authentic on 2 February 1872, and Pius XI later granted his own mass and office. It's very deep-rooted pious traditionon the other hand, the exact coincidence between the time of apparition and the order received by Prussian General von Schmidt not to move forward, or the safe and sound return of the thirty-eight soldiers of the people: no consta the military documentation to verify it one by one. It is historic that the armistice was signed eleven days later, on January 28, 1871, and that the region was not invaded.