France in January 1871: the abyss of defeat

The winter of 1870-1871 was the darkest in the history of France since Waterloo. On September 2, 1870, Emperor Napoleon III had fallen prisoner of the Prussians in the battle of Sedan, in one of the most humiliating military disasters in European history. Since then, the Prussian army has controlled two thirds of the country. Paris was besieged since September 19. Hunger and cold hit the capital. All over France, men were taken to the front; those left in the villages were the old, the women, the children.

In January 1871, the Prussian armies moved from the east to Britain, the north-western region of France. The strategic objective was Laval, the most important city of Mayenne, and from there to the Atlantic. Prussian general Konstantin von Voigts-Rhetz had orders to complete the occupation of the region before France finally surrendered. The inhabitants of the Breton peoples knew what the arrival of the Prussians meant: looting, begging, humiliation.

In Pontmain, a village of less than 500 inhabitants, Father Guerin had gathered his parishioners for a night rosary for peace and for the soldiers. It was the only weapon they had left: to pray.

The visionaries of Pontmain

The main protagonists were the brothers Eugène Barbedette (12 years) and Joseph Barbedette (10 years old), children of a local farmer, Auguste Barbedette. That afternoon, while helping his father in the stable, Eugène looked to the starry sky and saw something that made him stop: a figure of a woman of supernatural size, floating in the air between the stars, dressed in dark blue splashed with golden stars.

Joseph saw her, too. They called his father: Auguste Barbedette came out, looked to the place the children pointed out, and saw nothing. The same happened to the adults who were coming: the seer Jeanette Détais, 11, arrived a little later and also saw the figure. Françoise Richer, 11, too. But none of the adults present - including the children's own father, Father Guerin and several religious sisters - saw anything. The figure was invisible to the elderly and visible to children.

The night of January 17: the apparition hour by hour

The apparition lasted several hours, from approximately 17: 30 until 21: 00. During that time, the figure was changed and completed, while the children described what they saw aloud and the adults listened and prayed.

At first she was only a young woman, about 18 years old according to the children, in a dark blue dress sown with golden stars that were appearing as the minutes passed. He had a black veil on his head and a gold crown. His arms were extended in a welcome gesture, as in the images of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

As people prayed the rosary, the children saw the figure smile with each oatmeal. When other prayers were being prayed, the figure seemed less luminous. It was an involuntary but significant observation: the Virgin responded to the rosary.

The message that appeared letter to letter

The most extraordinary moment of Pontmain's apparition was the apparition of a written text. Eugène was the first to see it: under the feet of the figure began to appear letters, one by one, as if an invisible hand were writing them in a scroll that spread in the air.

The children were reading them out loud as they appeared. The full text, which took several minutes to complete, read in French:

"But pray to my children. God will hear from you shortly. My Son is being touched."

"But pray, my children. God will listen to you in no time. My Son is moved."

This message, of an extraordinary evangelical simplicity, contained a concrete promise: prayer would be heard. And not in an indefinite time, but "in a short time."

The apparition is complete: the cross and silence

After the text appeared complete, the scene continued to evolve. A great cross appeared in the hands of the Virgin, with the body of Christ upon her. The figure, which had been smiling throughout the apparition, adopted an expression of deep sadness contemplating the cross.

Then, gradually, the image began to be covered with a white veil rising from the feet. When the veil reached the crown, the figure disappeared. The apparition was over. The kids started crying.

• January 17, ~ 17: 30 Eugène Barbedette sees the luminous figure while in the stable with his father. Joseph sees her, too. The adults present see nothing.
• 17 January, ~ 18: 00 Jeanette Détais and Françoise Richer arrive, who also see the figure. Father Guerin starts the collective rosary. The figure smiles with each oatmeal.
• January 17, ~ 19: 00 The letters of the message appear, one by one. The children spell them out loud. Father Guerin confirms that they form phrases in correct French.
• 17 January, ~ 20: 00 The great cross appears. The figure looks at the crucifix with sadness.
• 17 January, ~ 21: 00 A white veil goes up and covers the figure. The apparition ends. The children cry.
• 17 January, night That same night, Prussian general Konstantin von Voigts-Rhetz was ordered to stop the advance. His troops, which were a few hours from Laval, are no longer moving.
• 28 January 1871 Eleven days after the apparition, France and Prussia sign the armistice in Versailles. The war is over.
• 2 February 1872 The Bishop of Laval, Monseigneur Wicart, officially approves the apparitions. It is one of the fastest approvals in modern Marian history: just 13 months.

Prussians stop: the promise fulfilled

On the night of January 17, 1871, while in Pontmain the children looked at the luminous figure and Father Guerin led the rosary, the Prussian army heading towards Laval - a few kilometres away - received unexpected orders to stop the advance. General Voigts-Rhetz, who had the free route to Laval and Brittany, found no military resistance to justify the stop. But his troops did not advance.

Eleven days later, on January 28, 1871, France signed the armistice. The war that had devastated the country was over. The corridor to Brittany was never taken. Mayenne soldiers who had gone to war began to return to their homes.

When the news of the armistice came to Pontmain and the villagers knew that no soldier in their municipality had died in the war, the connection with the apparition of January 17 was immediate. Father Guerin wrote to the bishop: "What the Virgin promised that night has been fulfilled."

The record approval: 13 months

The Bishop of Laval, Monseigneur Wicart, went to Pontmain on January 18, 1871, the day after the apparition, to personally question the children. He was deeply impressed by the consistency of his independent testimonies and the conduct of the seers: without exaltation, without dramatism, describing what he saw with a simplicity that was more convincing than any eloquence.

On February 2, 1872, just 13 months after the apparition, Bishop Wicart issued the decree of approval. This speed was not neglect: the bishop had meticulously investigated. But the clarity of the facts and the coincidence of the armistice made the delay unjustifiable.

The approval of Pontmain in 1872 is one of the fastest in modern Marian history and contrasts, for example, with the fifty-eight years that took Lourdes to receive the formal approval of the Vatican (although the episcopal approval came in 1862). This episcopal speed speaks of the strength of the facts.

The seer children: their silent fidelity

Eugène and Joseph Barbedette, the two brothers who began the apparition, took different paths in their adult life. Eugène entered the seminary and was ordained a priest in 1878. He lived as a diocesan priest until his death in 1927. Joseph also became a priest, even a bishop, of the Foreign Missions of Paris. The two young seers, Jeanette Détais and Françoise Richer, became religious.

This circumstance - that four of the seers chose religious life - was considered by Bishop Wicart a sign of authenticity. Not as direct proof, but as life coherence: those who had seen something extraordinary had directed their entire existence accordingly, without drawing attention, without seeking recognition.

Pontmain and the rosary: the prayer that moved to heaven

The apparition of Pontmain contains one of the clearest testimonies of all Marian history about the power of the rosary. It was not a special rosary, celebrated in a large basilica: it was the rosary of a small peasant community, gathered on the cold street of January, praying for their children in the war and for the peace of their country.

The figure's answer to that rosary - smiling with each oatmeal - and the message he left behind - "But pray, my children. God will hear you" - form one of the most direct statements of the informal Marian Magisterium about the prayer of the rosary as an instrument of effective intercession.

Eleven days after that rosary in the snow, the war ended.

The shrine of Pontmain today

In the place of apparition a chapel was first built, and then the Basilica of Our Lady of Hope, consecrated in 1900. The Pontmain shrine is today one of France's main pilgrimage centers, especially visited from the western regions (Brittany, Pays de la Loire, Normandy) and from northern Spain.

The advocation of Our Lady of Hope, which synthesizes the message of Pontmain, resounds especially in times of crisis. This was understood by the French military chaplains of the First and Second World War, who spread devotion to Our Lady of Pontmain among the soldiers as a promise that prayer would also be heard in those wars.

"But pray, my children. God will listen to you in no time. My Son is moved."
- Message of Our Lady of Pontmain, January 17, 1871