Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The beautiful Lady of La Salette: the Virgin who wept on the mountain"

La Salette (France) (1846)

On September 19, 1846, on a high slope of the French Alps near the village of La Salette, two shepherd children were tending their flocks: Mélanie Calvat, about fourteen years old, and Maximin Giraud, eleven. That afternoon they saw a great glow in a ravine and, within it, a Lady sitting and weeping with her face in her hands.

The Lady rose and gently called them. She spoke to them at length, mingling tenderness and reproach: she lamented their neglect of prayer, their profanation of the Lord's Day, and their blasphemy, and she asked them to convert. She also entrusted each child with a secret. What remained most vividly in the memory of the witnesses was her weeping: the Virgin appeared shedding tears, a sign of her Motherly sorrow for her children.

The apparition was investigated by the Church, and on September 19, 1851, the Bishop of Grenoble, Monsignor Philibert de Bruillard, officially recognized the authenticity of the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette. A large basilica was built on the site, now a destination for pilgrimages, and the devotion spread throughout the world under the title of "Reconciler of Sinners."

It is important to distinguish carefully. The apparition recounted by the two visionaries, the canonical investigation, and the episcopal recognition of 1851 are documented facts. The message of conversion is documented; however, the so-called "secrets" of La Salette and their subsequent versions underwent additions and controversies. Therefore, it is advisable to adhere to what has been approved by the Church and consider anything beyond the recognized message as tradition or disputed material. The exact details of the words are transmitted according to the visionaries' testimonies.