la salette apparition september 1846

Take a Tour of La Compagnie's All-Business Airbus A321LR

La Compagnie has made a name for itself with unbelievable (and very frequent) business-class sales between the East Coast and Europe. But, until a few weeks ago, the carrier's product was lackluster — to say the least .

At the end of May, one of the carrier's daily round-trips between Newark (EWR) and Paris (ORY) got a massive upgrade , in the form of a brand-new Airbus A321LR with true lie-flat seats, on-demand entertainment and speedy ViaSat Wi-Fi . I was able to take a tour of the aircraft on the ground at the Paris Air Show. Here's what I saw:

This is the first A321 with an exclusively business-class configuration — 76 seats in total, in a 2-2 arrangement.

La Compagnie opted to install B/E Aerospace's Diamond seat, the same model you'll find on narrow-body American , Delta and United jets used primarily for transcon and transatlantic flights.

With a total of 19 rows, it is a very large cabin.

There are two lavatories at the rear of the cabin, along with one upfront, just behind the cockpit.

Most rows are more or less identical, but seats at row 9 have a bit of extra room due to the over-wing exit. Rows 15 and 16 are missing one window.

Passengers at the window seats will need to step over their neighbor to get out; while direct aisle access would certainly have been a plus, it's not practical for a single-aisle plane.

Forward storage is limited to a shelf beneath the 15.6-inch display, in addition to a compartment beneath the ottoman that's large enough to accommodate a small bag.

You can store loose items to the side of the seat, which is also where you'll find noise-canceling headphones, a headphone connector and USB charging port.

My only real complaint is that the windows are obstructed by (what I imagine was well-intentioned) art. Fortunately, it's only temporary — some windows are already clear, and unobstructed views are coming to the rest soon!

If you've been avoiding La Compagnie because of the carrier's dated Boeing 757 and angle-flat seats, you now have a really great reason to fly. While this is hardly an industry-leading product, the all-business cabin is fun and unique, and the carrier's sale fares cannot be beat .

La Compagnie has just one Airbus A321LR at this point, though the carrier expects to take delivery of a second in September, at which point it'll retire one of its two Boeing 757s. Both lie-flat A321s should be used for both daily Newark-Paris flights shortly after, with an angle-flat 757 remaining on the sole Newark-Nice flight, which may be extended beyond the fall.

Do note that substitutions are possible in the meantime, though, and it's not yet clear whether or not the company will re-accommodate passengers facing a Boeing 757 swap.

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How to Get Rid of Sugar Ants: DIY Sugar Ant Killer Guide (2023)

Sean Donnelly

Staff Writer

Sean Donnelly works to inform, engage, and motivate homeowners to take the reigns in making key decisions concerning homeownership and relocation. He is a content producer covering provider reviews, the homeownership and rental experience, real estate, and all things moving for Today’s Homeowner. Sean leverages his own experience within the moving industry to improve the consumer experience. He studied English literature and creative writing at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Senior Editor

Lora Novak meticulously proofreads and edits all commercial content for Today’s Homeowner to guarantee that it contains the most up-to-date information. Lora brings over 12 years of writing, editing, and digital marketing expertise. She’s worked on thousands of articles related to heating, air conditioning, ventilation, roofing, plumbing, lawn/garden, pest control, insurance, and other general homeownership topics.

April 26, 2023

Black Ants searching for food, Mircro-Nikkor 55mm on Nikon D300

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Come springtime, sugar ants will begin to invade homes in search of food and water. Though these ants aren’t dangerous to humans, they’re rather annoying pests that can be difficult to control. Here’s everything you need to know about getting rid of sugar ants — from which  natural remedies  and chemical solutions are best to prevention methods that keep these ants from coming back.

What Are Sugar Ants?

Sugar ants, or  banded sugar ants , are small black ants native to Australia and exclusive to that part of the world. When we think of the term sugar ants, we’re probably thinking of pavement ants or pharaoh ants—both common household ants. Pavement ants are black or reddish brown with pale legs while pharaoh ants are yellow or light brown.

These ants are attracted to sweets and all varieties of sugary foods and scraps. They also eat fats, proteins (obtained from eating other insects), and plant pollen. Once they find a food source, they’ll haul food back to their nest for the rest of the colony.

Types of Sugar Ants

There are several types of sugar ants, including those that live outdoors and come indoors to eat, as well as others that prefer to live and feed inside your home. Outdoor sugar ants can include acrobat ants, false honey ants, or rover ants. Some common indoor sugar ants are carpenter ants, pavement ants, and pharaoh ants.

Where Do Sugar Ants Come From?

Most sugar ants come from outside your home. They have about four to five times more odor receptors than other insects and can smell food and follow scent trails through cracks, crevices, vents, and other openings in your home and foundation. Only one ant needs to find an entry point. Once an ant finds a food or water supply, it lays a pheromone trail—a basic scent trail—for other ants to follow.

Sugar ants also come from existing nests inside your home. Their nests are typically in undisturbed spaces, such as inside walls or basements.

How To Get Rid of Sugar Ants

Before getting rid of sugar ants, first locate and then follow their visible trail as far as you can—this will help you determine their entry point into your home and give you a starting point for remediation. After locating the trail and entry point, decide which type of natural or chemical method you want to use. Here are a few different forms of ant control:

Natural Methods To Get Rid of Sugar Ants

If you want to stay away from harsh chemicals when treating a sugar ant infestation, try the following natural home remedies:

• Use a vinegar solution to remove the sugar ant trail — Mix one part vinegar and one part water and pour the mixture into a spray bottle. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which removes the scent of an ant trail and acts as a deterrent against these pests. After finding the ants’ entry point, spray along baseboards and all possible entrance paths and trails to prevent ants from traveling along these routes. Wipe up the dead ants with a paper towel and discard them once they’ve been sprayed. To maximize this home remedy, spray in the morning or late afternoon when ants are most active.
• Place used coffee grounds around your home — Ants hate the smell and acidity of coffee because it burns them. Spread used coffee grounds  around pet bowls and other areas where you want to repel ants. You can also sprinkle coffee grounds outside your home to prevent ants from entering.
• Lay out whole cloves or bay leaves — The compounds that produce the strong smell in cloves and bay leaves do a great job of repelling sugar ants. Lay out whole cloves along baseboards and place bay leaves under countertops to deter ants.
• Hang garlic in your pantry — Similar to cloves and bay leaves, garlic has a strong odor that confuses ants and throws off their scent trail. Tie garlic on strings and hang them from your pantry door knobs and shelves.
• Make a homemade insect repellent — Mix one part water with a few drops of lavender or peppermint essential oil and pour the solution into a spray bottle. Spray the solution on your kitchen island and on pantry shelves to deter ants from manifesting in those areas.
• Lay out a homemade ant trap — Set out honey or corn syrup on a plastic plate. The ants will be attracted to the bait and get stuck in the gooey substance. Once the ants are dead, throw away the plate and remove the trash from your home.
• Sprinkle food-grade diatomaceous earth around your home — Diatomaceous earth  is a fine white powder made from the crushed remains of marine phytoplankton. Food-grade diatomaceous earth is completely non-toxic for humans and pets but deadly for insects. Diatomaceous earth kills ants by getting into the their digestive systems, killing them from the inside out. Sprinkle the powder along ant trails and wipe up the substance after a month.
• Use organic commercial products — Solutions like Orange Guard or  EcoSMART Organic Ant & Roach Killer  are organic solutions that do a great job of killing sugar ants. Orange Guard is an all-natural spray that includes orange peel extract to kill ants and the EcoSMART Organic Ant & Roach Killer is an organic and non-toxic liquid made with plant extract to prevent ants from coming back.

Chemical Methods To Get Rid of Sugar Ants

For other ant control methods, try the following chemical solutions. Before using these methods, make sure you read the instructions and take necessary safety precautions to protect yourself from harmful chemicals. Additionally, be sure to keep chemical solutions away from pets and children.

• Set out an ant bait | Sugar Ant Killers  — The idea behind using ant baits to get rid of a sugar ant infestation is that the black ants will take the bait back to their ant colonies as food. Once the other ants have ingested the poisonous bait, they’ll slowly begin to die. Most ant baits (sweet baits) will contain boric acid or Borax, a slow-acting poison that kills the ants. Try  Terro liquid ant baits — these ant killers are extremely effective against common household ants.
• Wipe down kitchen countertops with an all-purpose cleaner every night — Not only will this help sanitize your kitchen, but it will also break down the pheromones that ants use to follow each other.

How To Remove Sugar Ant Nests

If you notice sugar ant nests outside your home, take steps to get rid of them immediately to prevent them from entering your home. A sugar ant nest resembles a mini volcano—a little mound with a small hole on top. To remove one of these nests, follow these tips:

• Flood the nest with running water from a garden hose for 5–10 minutes or pour boiling water over the nest.
• Dump a cup of bleach down the nest hole to kill the ant colony.
• Sprinkle baking soda down the hole and around the entire nest.

How To Prevent Sugar Ants From Invading Your Home

Since these black ants are most prevalent between March and September, take countermeasures throughout the year to prevent them from entering your home.

• Wipe up any sugary messes — Sugar ants feed on all kinds of sugar and sugar-filled products, like honey, jam, cake, candy, fruit, and soft drinks, so be sure to remove these items from your kitchen and wipe up any residue they leave behind.
• Look for damp areas — Most ants are attracted to dark and damp environments like bathrooms, garbage disposals, and kitchen sinks. Wipe away excess water with a dry towel and fix any plumbing leaks to prevent ants from forming a nest in these areas.
• Routinely clean your sink — Thoroughly rinse dirty dishes and drain the sink of any standing water. After the sink is cleared of all dishes, wipe down the sink in its entirety with a dry paper towel and make sure you haven’t left any residual food or moisture behind. A garbage disposal may also be a big draw for sugar ants. To destroy their pheromones, pour a little bleach into the garbage disposal every few days—this should destroy any ant attractants.
• Sweep or vacuum your kitchen floor after meals — Even trace amounts of food left behind on counters or floors are enough to lure a trail of ants into your home. Sweep or vacuum at least once a night during the summer to make sure any pheromone trails aren’t left for other ants to follow.
• Take the trash out regularly — Holes in garbage bags can attract sugar ants to discarded food and lead them straight to your trash. Use strong garbage bags to prevent holes from forming and take the trash out every time it gets full (once or twice a week).
• Seal holes in entryways — Since ants typically enter your home through cracks and crevices, inspect your doors and windows for holes. Seal any existing holes and cracks with caulk.
• Set out herbs in your kitchen — Peppermint, sage, and tansy have strong scents that can help keep ants away. Lay these herbs around your kitchen as an additional preventive measure against sugar ants.
• Treat the exterior of your home with pesticide — As another defense, spray your foundation with a natural pesticide to prevent sugar ants from invading your home.
• Call an exterminator — If none of the listed methods are working for you, we recommend calling a  pest control company  to evaluate the problem, offer remediation methods, and eradicate the existing ants.

Sugar Ants FAQs

How did i get a sugar ant infestation.

Most sugar ants come from outside your home and follow scent trails through openings in your home and foundation. Once a single ant makes it into your house, it lays a scent trail for other ants to follow.

How do I keep sugar ants out of the kitchen?

To keep sugar ants out of the kitchen, make sure to wipe up any sugary spills as soon as they happen, take out the trash as soon as it’s full, clean your sink regularly, and lay out cloves or bay leaves.

How do I get rid of these ants?

Some natural methods to get rid of sugar ants including sprinkling diatomaceous earth around your house or using a vinegar solution to get rid of the ant trail. Some chemical solutions include setting out an ant bait or wiping down your countertops with an all-purpose cleaner every night.

Can sugar ants damage my home?

Though these black ants aren’t harmful, they can be a nuisance once inside your home. They can chew through paper, cardboard, and thin plastic to get to their food source and attract other pests into your home.

What is the fastest way to get rid of sugar ants?

For most sugar ant-related issues, hiring a professional won’t be needed for elimination. Once you’ve observed a trail of sugar ants heading to a food source, you can eliminate the scent trails the ants have left with a solution of equal parts water and white vinegar. Either spraying or wiping the solution over the affected area should suffice. Once you’ve sealed off the ants’ point of entry, simple ant killers should take care of the rest. We recommend using Terro liquid ant bait.

Where do sugar ants nest?

Sugar ants generally prefer warmer, humid environments. This is why the onset of the late spring and summer months often coincides with their appearance in any home. They prefer to nest in holes in wood when outdoors, and will be attracted to wet areas once they’ve made their way inside your home.

Will sugar ants go away on their own?

No. Sugar ants will not go away on their own. Once they’ve identified a main food source and laid down a pheromone trail to it, you’ll typically have to go through a progression of a few steps to get rid of them. The first step should always be elimination of the pheromone trail within your home.

How to get rid of sugar ants outside?

The most widely-known outdoor ant extermination technique is to pour boiling water into the nest. An even easier solution could be to pour a full liter of white vinegar into the nest once you’ve found it. This is totally non-toxic to surrounding plants and soil but will kill the ants on contact.

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The Message of La Salette

• Frs. Marcel Schlewer, MS and Maurice Sublet, MS

La Salette: The Message And Its Meaning

A globe of fire.

The Beautiful Lady

The message.

The Great News Spreads

The judgment.

The Meaning of the Message

To see and understand (mt 13:13), listen and put into practice (luke 6:46 f; 8:21; 11:28; james 1:21-25).

“Be not afraid!”

“if my people will not submit...”, “you will never recompense the pains i have taken for you.” .

“Do you say your prayers well, my children?” “Not very well, Madam”, they replied.

"during the summer only a few aged women go to mass...", “during lent they go to the meat market like dogs...”.

"Well, my children, you will make this known to all my people".

"well, my children, you will make this well known to all my people".

Copyright © 2022 -  La Salette Missionaries, Province of Mary, Mother of the Americas. 947  Park St. - Attleboro MA, 02703 1-508-222-5410

The La Salette Story

THE La Salette story traces its beginnings to September 19, 1846.

This was when the Blessed Mother appeared to two shepherd children at La Salette, a small hamlet in the French Alps. Through the children she gave her message of "Reconciliation" to the world. She insisted that this message be made known to all her people. Consequently in 1852 the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette were founded to serve as a "perpetual remembrance of Mary's merciful Apparition."  In 1892 two La Salette Missionaries arrived to explore possible settlement in the New World and ultimately settled in Hartford, Connecticut. Since then the United States presence has grown nationwide. Our province is known as the Province of Mary, Mother of the Americas. We are an Apostolic, religious community. We witness to the Kingdom of God as we seek to mend relationships in need of healing. Inspired by the event of La Salette and supported by our community life, we are strengthened by the Eucharist, prayer and faith sharing. 

In 1942 the La Salette Missionaries bought the Attleboro, Massachusetts property as a major seminary and in 1952 the construction of the Shrine was announced. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1953, marked the official opening of the Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro. From this beginning to today we have united our gifts and talents with those of the laity. Looking at Mary as our model, we discern new opportunities to make known Her message of hope and reconciliation.  

To read Mary's full message to Maxamin and Melanie, click here.

What is the story of Our Lady of La Salette?

By adminanswers

On Saturday afternoon, September 19, 1846, two children– Maximin Guiraud (age 11) and Melanie Calvat (age 14)– were tending sheep for their employers near La Salette in the French Alps.  The effects of the French Revolution which had terrorized the Church, the blood spilt during the reign of Napoleon, the increasing secularization of social thought, and the rising political turmoil enveloping Europe had taken a serious toll on the faith of the people.  In the parish of La Salette, fewer and fewer people attended Mass and the sacraments were neglected.  Cursing had overtaken praying; licentiousness, purity; and greed and self-indulgence, piety and sacrifice.

Melanie, one of eight children, came from a poor family and began working at age seven.  She had no schooling, knew only bits of the Catechism, infrequently attended Mass, and could hardly recite the Our Father or the Hail Mary.  Similarly, Maximin, whose mother had died and who did not like his stepmother, had little religious education and no schooling.

While they were tending their sheep, they saw a brilliant light, brighter than the sun.  As they approached, they noticed a “Beautiful Lady” seated on a rock and crying, with her face in her hands.  In tears, she stood and spoke to them in their local French dialect.  She wore a headdress topped by a lucent crown with a band of roses, a dress with beams of light, and slippers edged with roses.  Around her neck hung a golden crucifix: on one end of the cross beam was a hammer and nails, and on the other, a pincher.  Over her shoulders was a heavy chain.

She said, “Come to me, my children.  Do not be afraid.  I am here to tell something of the greatest importance.”  She continued, “If my people will not obey, I shall be compelled to loose my Son’s arm.  It is so heavy, so pressing that I can no longer restrain it.  How long I have suffered for you!  If my Son is not to cast you off, I am obliged to entreat Him without ceasing.  But you take not the least notice of that.  No matter how well you pray in the future, no matter how well you act, you will never be able to make up to me what I have endured for your sake.

I have appointed you six days for working.  The seventh I have reserved for myself.  And no one will give it to me.  This it is which causes the weight of my Son’s arm to be crushing.  The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my Son’s name.  These are the two things which make my Son’s arms so burdensome.

If the harvest is spoiled, it is your own fault.  I warned you last year by means of the potatoes.  You paid no heed.  Quite the reverse, when you discovered that the potatoes had rotted, you swore, you abused my Son’s name.  They will continue to rot, and by Christmas this year there will be none left.

If you have grain, it will do no good to sow it, for what you sow the beasts will devour, and any part of it that springs up will crumble into dust when you thresh it.

A great famine is coming.  But before that happens, the children under seven years of age will be seized with trembling and die in their parent’s arms.  The grownups will pay for their sins by hunger.  The grapes will rot, and the walnuts will turn bad.”

Truly a sobering message!  Then Our Lady said, “If people are converted, the rocks will become piles of wheat, and it will be found that the potatoes have sown themselves.”  She then asked the children, “Do you say your prayers well, my children?”  “No, we hardly say them at all,” they mumbled.  “Ah, my children, it is very important to say them, at night and in the morning.  When you don’t have time, at least say an Our Father and a Hail Mary.  And when you can, say more.”

Our Lady then returned to her chastisement of the people:  “Only a few rather old women go to Mass in the Summer.  All the rest work every Sunday throughout the Summer.  And in Winter, when they don’t know what to do with themselves, they go to Mass only to poke fun at religion.  During Lent they flock to the butcher shops, like dogs.”  She concluded saying, “My children, you will make this known to all my people.”   She then walked away, up a steep path, and disappeared in a bright light.

The children repeated the story to each of their employers.  When the people ascertained that the stories matched, and several pious people concluded this had been an apparition of the Blessed Mother, the children were sent to the parish priest of La Salette.  The priest recounted the children’s story at Mass.  The government officials began an investigation, and the children maintained their story despite threats of imprisonment.  Once when investigating the site, someone broke off a piece of the rock on which Our Lady had sat; a spring of water emerged in a place that was dry except for when the snows were melting.  The spring flowed steadily and abundantly.  Some of the water was given to a woman suffering from a long-term serious illness; she drank a little of the water each day as she prayed a novena, and on the ninth day, she was cured.

The case was then submitted to Bishop Bruillard of Grenoble, who initiated a thorough investigation of the apparition.  Meanwhile, more miraculous cures occurred.  The greatest miracle was truly spiritual: people started to attend Mass faithfully and confess regularly, they stopped working on Sundays, and they returned to living a pious and devotional life.  Pilgrimages to the site became increasingly popular.  Five years later, on September 19, 1851, Bishop Bruillard determined that the apparition “bore in itself all the marks of truth and that the faithful are justified in believing it to be certain and indubitable.”  A real conversion of the people had taken place.

The following year, a new religious community was founded, the Missionaries of La Salette.  Also, Bishop Bruillard laid the cornerstone for a new basilica.  Pilgrims increasingly visited the site of the apparition, and Our Lady was referred to as “Reconcilatrix of sinners.”  Great saints have been devoted to Our Lady of La Salette, including St. John Bosco, St. John Vianney, and St. Madeleine Sophie Barat.

As we ponder this apparition, the message of our Blessed Mother is as pertinent now as then: How many people forsake Sunday Mass but take time for the newspaper, sports, or shopping?  How many have not been to Confession in years?  How many use our Lord’s name as a common profanity?  How many fail to pray each day?  How many entertain such blasphemies as The DaVinci Code ?  Oh yes, the message still resounds.  The world and each of us is in need of conversion.  Let us turn to Our Lady of La Salette, and offer her Memorare:

Remember, Our Lady of La Salette, true mother of Sorrows, the tears you shed for us on Calvary.  Remember also the care you have taken to keep us faithful to Christ, your Son.  Having done so much for your children, you will not now abandon us.  Comforted by this consoling thought, we come to you pleading, despite our infidelities and ingratitude.  Virgin of Reconciliation, do not reject our prayers, but intercede for us, obtain for us the grace to love Jesus above all else.  May we console you by living a holy life and so come to share the eternal life Christ gained by His cross.  Amen.

(The dialogue recorded here was taken from “The Lady in Tears,” by Msgr. John S. Kennedy in A Woman Clothed with the Sun .)

The Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette

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 Melanie, 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 about her radiated light.  She wore the typical garb of the women of the area: a long dress, an 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, first in French, in these words;

“If my people refuse to submit,

I will be forced to let go the arm of my Son.

It is so strong and heavy.

I can no longer hold it back.

How long a time I have suffered for you!

If I want my son not to abandon you,

I am obliged to plead with him constantly.

And as for you, you pay no heed!

However much you pray,

However much you do,

You will never be able to recompense the pains

I have taken for you.

  I gave you six days to work;

I kept the seventh for myself, and no one will give it to me.

This is what makes the arm of my Son so heavy.

And then, those who drive the carts cannot swear without

Throwing in my Son’s name. 

These are the two things that make the arm of my Son so heavy.

  If the harvest is ruined, it is only on account of yourselves.

I warned you last year with the potatoes.

You paid no heed.

Instead, when you found the potatoes spoiled, you swore, and threw in my Son’s name.

They are going to continue to spoil, and by Christmas this year,    

there will be none left.

Melanie was intrigued by the expression, pommes de terre.  In the local dialect, potatoes were called las truffas.  She looked inquiringly at Maximin, but the Beautiful Lady anticipated her question.

“Don’t you understand, my children?  Let me find another way to  say it.”

Using dialect, she repeated what she had said about the harvest, and then went on:

“If you have wheat, you must not sow it.

Anything you sow the vermin will eat, and whatever does grow     

will fall into dust when you thresh it.

  A great famine is coming.

Before the famine comes, children under seven will be seized with trembling and die in the arms of the persons who hold them . The rest will do penance through the famine.

The walnuts will become worm-eaten:  the grapes will rot.”

At this point the Beautiful Lady confided a secret to Maximin, and then to Melanie.  Then she went on:

“If they are converted, rocks and stones will turn into heaps of wheat, and potatoes will be self-sown in the fields.”

“Do you say your prayers well, my children?

  Hardly ever Madam , the two shepherds answered candidly.

“Ah, my children, you should say them well, at night and in the morning, even if you say only an Our Father and a Hail Mary when you can’t do better; when you can do better, say more.

In the summer, only a few elderly women go to Mass.

The rest work on Sundays all summer long.

In the winter, when they don’t know what to do,

they go to mass just to make fun of religion.

In Lent they go the butchers shops like dogs.

  Have you ever seen wheat gone bad, my children?”

They answered, “ No Madam .”

The Beautiful Lady then spoke to Maximin.

But you, my child, surely you must have seen some,

once, at Coin, with your father. The owner of the field told your father to go and see his spoiled wheat.  And then you went on, and you took two or three ears of wheat in your hands, you rubbed them together, and it all crumbled into dust.

  While you were on your way back and you were no more than a half hour away from Corps, your father gave you a piece of  bread and said to you:  “Here my child, eat some while we still have it this year; because I don’t know who will eat any next year if the wheat keeps up like that.”

  Oh, yes, answered Maximin, “ now I remember.  Just then, I didn’t remember it. ”

The Beautiful Lady then concluded, not in dialect but in French:

“Well, my children, you will make this known to all my people.”

The vision climbed the steep path which wound its way towards the Collet (little neck).  Then she rose into the air as the children caught up to her.

She looked up the sky, then down to the earth.  Facing southeast, “she melted into the light.”  The light itself then disappeared.

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 the faithful have grounds for believing it to be indubitable and certain.”

  In another pastoral letter, dated May 1, 1852, the Bishop of Grenoble announced the construction of a Shrine on the mountain of the apparition, and went on to add:

“However important the erection of a Shrine may be, there is something still more important,  namely the ministers of religion destined to look after it,  to receive the pious pilgrims,  to  preach  the  word  of  God  to  them,  to  exercise  towards  them the           ministry of reconciliation, to administer the Holy Sacrament of the altar, and to be, to all the faithful dispensers of the mysteries of God and the spiritual treasures of  the Church.”

“ These priests shall be called  Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette;  their institution and existence shall be like the Shrine itself, an eternal monument, a perpetual remembrance, of Mary’s merciful apparition .”

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La Salette Apparition

• All About Mary

Q: What happened at La Salette and what is the spirit of that event?

A:  La Salette, a French town located in the Alps, was the place at which a Marian apparition occurred in the nineteenth century. On September 19, 1846, Maximin Giraud (eleven years old) and Melanie Calvat (fourteen years old) experienced an encounter with what they called a "Beautiful Lady." The two children were grazing sheep at La Salette, when they saw that this woman was seated and was crying. Upon seeing them, the "Lady" stood up and while crying, spoke in French and in the local dialect. After that, the woman walked up a steep path and vanished into a bright light. According to the children, the light emanated from a crucifix on the woman's chest. Soon after this event, word spread, and pilgrims crowded the rough paths leading up to the site where the apparition occurred.

There soon arose, a basilica and the first units for lodging. In 1851, the local bishop Bruillard of Grenoble affirmed the supernatural character of the apparition of La Salette. He based his decision upon a thorough inquiry of the event, complete with interviews of witnesses, and an examination of the apparition's message to the seers. Bishop Bruillard wished to encourage the faith expression (prayer and devotion) practiced by pilgrims to La Salette.

The message of the visionaries of La Salette focuses on the conversion of all humanity to Christ. The "Beautiful Lady" of La Salette implores all people who would listen to "be reconciled to God." This conversion requires daily prayer and frequent reception of the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. The woman (the Virgin Mary) was in tears because she recognized the tremendous responsibility that free will places upon each person to lead a moral life and follow God's will. The message of La Salette traces the "narrow road that leads to life" (Matthew 7:14), like the steep and narrow path the "Beautiful Lady" climbed before melting away in the light.

After the visionaries' experience at La Salette, a Christian renewal transformed the region. In 1872, nationwide pilgrimages began to be formed across France. For roughly 150 years, La Salette's spirit has been embodied in a movement that has gained convents, monasteries, congregations, and arch-confraternities. Christians everywhere saw or felt its influence. Saints (for example, John Vianney), pastors (such as Don Bosco), and religious writers (like J.K. Huysmans) have all been influenced by La Salette.

Though La Salette's message is embedded in the bygone environment of the nineteenth century, rural France, it has had a tremendous impact on the modern world. The spirit of La Salette is one of prayer, conversion, and commitment.

Castel, R. "La Salette," Dictionary of Mary. New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1985.

All About Mary includes a variety of content, much of which reflects the expertise, interpretations and opinions of the individual authors and not necessarily of the Marian Library or the University of Dayton. Please share feedback or suggestions with [email protected] .

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The Authentic Message of La Salette

Daniel j. castellano.

1. The Public Message 2. Maximin’s Secret 3. Melanie’s Secret 4. False Version of Melanie’s Secret Conclusion

The apparition of the Virgin Mary witnessed by Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat at La Salette on 19 September 1846 has been one of the more controversial ecclesiastically approved private revelations, in part because there is so much misinformation regarding the content of the message imparted to the children. Some of this misinformation was propagated by Melanie herself in her later years, most infamously in an 1879 tract that was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books, yet still enjoys popularity among traditionalist publishers misled by the imprimatur of the bishop of Lecce. Those who have only casual knowledge of the story of La Salette may easily mistake this extravagantly embellished apocalyptic narrative as the true content of the revelation, leading some to believe in a false apocalypse, while others understandably reject La Salette altogether as unworthy of belief.

To correct these common misunderstandings of the message of La Salette, it is essential to return to the original accounts, in their various versions, and distinguish the primitive version from later embellishments. This has become possible for the first time in over a century, thanks to the rediscovery of the original secrets submitted by the children directly to Pope Pius IX in 1851. We will compare these authentic secrets to other versions that appeared over the years, and explain the relationship of these to the originals, thereby constructing a documentary history of the revelations of La Salette.

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1. The Public Message

The first part of the seers’ account finds nearly universal agreement in all sources, as it does not pertain to the “secret” messages imparted to each child. These words of the apparition of the beautiful, weeping lady were recorded by ecclesiastical officials in 1847, and they appear in substantially the same form in Melanie’s 1879 account, though embedded in a more detailed narrative. The “public message” of the Lady of La Salette was as follows:

Come near, my children, be not afraid; I am here to tell you great news. If my people will not submit, I shall be forced to let fall the arm of my Son. It is so strong, so heavy, that I can no longer withhold it. For how long a time do I suffer for you! If I would not have my Son abandon you, I am compelled to pray to him without ceasing; and as to you, you take not heed of it. However much you pray, however much you do, you will never recompense the pains I have taken for you. “Six days I have given you to labor, the seventh I had kept for myself; and they will not give it to me.” It is this which makes the arm of my Son so heavy. Those who drive the carts cannot swear without introducing the name of my Son. These are the two things which makes the arm of my Son so heavy. If the harvest is spoilt, it is all on your account. I gave you warning last year with the potatoes ( pommes de terre ) but you did not heed it. On the contrary, when you found the potatoes spoilt, you swore, you took the name of my Son in vain. They will continue to decay, so that by Christmas there will be none left. The French term pommes de terre puzzled Melanie, since in patois , the word for potatoes was truffas whereas pommes meant “apple” exclusively. Ah, my children, do you not understand? Well, wait, I shall say it otherwise. The Lady repeated her previous statement in patois , and continued in the same dialect: If you have wheat, it is no good to sow it; all you sow the insects will eat, and what comes up will fall into dust when you thresh it. There will come a great famine. Before the famine comes, the children under seven years of age will be seized with trembling and will die in the hands of those who hold them; the others will do penance by the famine. The walnuts will become bad, and the grapes will rot. Here the Beautiful Lady addressed the children separately, confiding to each a secret. She spoke first to Maximin, and though the little shepherd did not perceive that her tone of voice had changed, Melanie at his side could not hear a word, though she still saw the Beautiful Lady’s lips moving. Then came Melanie’s turn to receive her secret under similar conditions. Both secrets were given in French. Again speaking in patois , the Lady continued: If they are converted, the stones and rocks will change into mounds of wheat, and the potatoes will be self-sown in the land. Do you say your prayers well, my children? Both answered, “Not very well, Madam.” Ah, my children, you must be sure to say them well morning and evening. When you cannot do better, say at least an Our Father and a Hail Mary. When you have time, say more. There are none who go to Mass except a few aged women. The rest work on Sunday all summer; then in the winter, when they know not what to do, they go to Mass only to mock at religion. During Lent, they go to the meat-market like dogs. Have you never seen wheat that is spoilt, my children? “No, Madam,” they replied. But you, my child, you must surely have seen some once when you were at the farm of Coin with your father. The owner of the field told your father to go and see his ruined wheat. You went together. You took two or three ears of wheat into your hands and rubbed them, and they fell to dust. Then you continued home. When you were still half and hour’s distance from Corps, your father gave you a piece of bread and said to you: “Here, my child, eat some bread this year at least; I don’t know who will eat any next year, if the wheat goes on like that.” Confronted with such precise details, Maximin eagerly replied, “Oh yes, Madam, I remember now; just at this moment I did not remember.” Then the Lady, again speaking French as the beginning of her discourse and when giving the secrets, said to them: Well, my children, you will make this known to all my people. [ James P. O’Reilly, trans. Miracle of the Rosary Mission website (2007 - archived) . See also: Abp. William B. Ullathorne, The Holy Mountain of La Salette: A Pilgrimage of the Year 1854 , pp. 38-46.]

The Lady of La Salette is obviously the Blessed Virgin Mary, as indicated by reference to her Son, whose justice is delayed only by her intercession, to give opportunity for repentance among the irreligious French.

The Blessed Virgin speaks a message of penance in agricultural language that peasant children can understand, that of famine and abundant harvest. If the people do not repent of their ways, there will be famine, but if they convert, there will be miraculous abundance. The great potato famine that plagued Europe the previous year was a warning and a call to penance that was ignored, so now the Blessed Virgin has appeared in person.

The Blessed Virgin’s use of French provides an occasion for the children to give evidence of the authenticity of the apparition, due to their limited understanding of that language. The secret messages were composed entirely in French.

The threatened famine never occurred, as the apparition of La Salette became the occasion of a great movement in popular Catholic devotion, assisted by the endorsement of the Curé d’Ars and Pope Pius IX. This Catholic revival would be eclipsed by the even greater pilgrimages to Lourdes after the apparitions of Our Lady there in 1858.

2. Maximin’s Secret

The children of La Salette adamantly refused to disclose the “secret” messages, until finally, in 1851, they were persuaded to write the secrets and send them to the Pope for his eyes only. Maximin wrote his secret in July, but several weeks later, at the behest of his friend M. Dausse, he wrote a prophetic fantasy which Dausse took to be authentic. Maximin often took this approach to those who would pester him with requests for prophecies, and he insisted that the “secret” given to Dausse was such a fiction. This unfortunate practice of the boy had the dual effect of propagating a false apocalypse that to this day is ascribed to Maximin, as well as perhaps damaging the seer’s credibility regarding his authentic revelation. Against this latter possibility, we should count the consistent testimony of M. Dausse and all others who knew the Maximin throughout his life, and attested to his unassuming simplicity and guilelessness.

This youthful innocence exudes throughout the simple narrative of the authentic “secret” to Maximin, recovered from the Vatican archives in 1999:

The entire secret is written in the simple diction of a peasant boy. The interpretation of the secret is far from simple, however. Assuming that all that was prophesied should have occurred by the year 2000, we should be able to match the events in the secret with actual history.

That France has corrupted the world ( l’univers in Maximin’s imprecise French) is obvious in the sense that France is the philosophical birthplace of liberalism and secularism, as well as one of the most aggressive promoters of those ideologies from the Napoleonic era onward. It has also been at the cutting edge of artistic and cultural decadence, especially at the fin de siècle . France’s punishment may be seen either in its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War or in its surrender to the Nazis. The extinction of real faith in three quarters of the French has certainly happened by now, though it is practically impossible to fix the date when that occurred.

The apostasy of France is followed by a rekindling of faith throughout the world, led by a “great country, now Protestant.” The most obvious candidate would be Great Britain, which ironically became the most religiously conservative of the European powers in the early twentieth century, not only in comparison with the anti-clericalism and secularism of the Continent, but by virtue of an English and Irish Catholic revival which intellectually informed and strengthened the Church throughout the world. Practically all the great English-language contributions to the defense of the faith come from this period.

The chronology of the prophecy becomes confusing, as it is unclear whether the “great disorders” in the Church precede the apostasy of France, or exactly when the Pope is to be persecuted. The most likely Pope intended would have been Pius IX, who became a prisoner in the Vatican. His successor, Pope Leo XIII, became a candidate for the papacy only by virtue of filling the post of Cardinal de Angelis, who died just months before the death of Pope Pius.

After all the foregoing, a great peace will last briefly, until a monster disturbs it. The natural identification of the monster would be Hitler, who ended Europe’s brief peace and would send chastisement upon France.

The above is the entire content of the secret revealed to Maximin. In 1871, a more elaborate apocalypse was published in his name, but Maximin vehemently disavowed the authenticity of this in 1872, as well as other prophecies attributed to him. To this day, many such embellishments are widely circulated and inaccurately attributed to Maximin. The most common false secret contains ten parts (sometimes the last three are omitted), and is most misleading because it also contains elements of the authentic secret, which may have been leaked by Maximin or a church official.

3. Melanie’s Secret

The secret to Melanie was also relatively short and simple in its original form, though containing a bit more detail in some parts than Maximin’s narrative. It was also recovered from the Vatican archives in 1999, and reads as follows:

Melanie’s secret has more detail than Maximin’s, complementing his message as well as the public message given to both children. As with Maximin’s secret, all that is prophesied is supposed to occur within 100 years, meaning we should now be able to match the prophecy with past history.

The secret message contains the detailed consequences of failure to adhere to the public message of penance and piety. Unlike Maximin’s secret, this is a conditional prophecy, so we need not expect all that is related to occur if the people repent, as did the Ninevites in the book of Jonah.

The judgments against Paris and Marseilles may be found in some form in actual history. France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, perhaps in fitting retribution for Napoleon III’s abandonment of Pope Pius IX, allowing Rome to fall to Victor Immanuel. The 1870 Siege of Paris was followed by widespread destruction in the city, during which much of its historical heritage was lost, culminating in the short-lived revolutionary commune of 1871.

The text we have above is actually the second version of Melanie’s secret. She corrected the first version, written a few days earlier, in order to clarify that the judgments against Paris and Marseilles were not simultaneous, but completely distinct events. This scrupulous distinction proves to have been with merit, as Marseilles did not receive its chastisement until World War II, when the occupying Germans systematically destroyed the old industrial sector and port of Marseilles in 1944.

Pope Pius IX, though beset from all sides with revolution, war, intrigue, and assassinations, survived until his natural death as a sovereign, if only of the Vatican, and having definitively affirmed the Pope’s supreme authority and infallibility on dogmatic matters at the Vatican Council of 1870.

Waves of anticlerical persecution persisted through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries throughout the continent. Melanie’s secret says nothing about the extent of the persecution and the apostasy of the religious.

The only famine that occurred in Europe after the Irish Potato Famine (ended 1849) was that in the Netherlands and other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944.

The timing of the famine and the destruction of Marseilles would make World War II the end of Melanie’s prophesied age of persecution, in agreement with our identification of Maximin’s “monster” as Hitler. Thus the remainder of Melanie’s secret deals with the post-World War II era, which is not discussed by Maximin.

The people repent of their evils after the time of wrath has ended, as perhaps evidenced by the revival of moral and religious conservatism in the 1950s. The “great king” who reigns a few years is likely Charles de Gaulle, a practicing Catholic reviled by the leftist political establishment in France. A period of moral revival and material prosperity continues through the 1950s and early 1960s, though not of course to the exclusion of the perennial moral and material problems that plague mankind.

Yet it is this selfsame material prosperity that tempts mankind to abandon religion and morality, returning to its worst inclinations. We can hardly fail to see that this is exactly what happened in the postwar era, especially after the upheavals of 1968 that ended de Gaulle’s presidency and ushered in an era of moral relativism and irreligion unprecedented in Christian Europe and America.

The last element of the prophecy is a prediction that the Antichrist will be born of a nun and be worshipped as a heavenly figure. “That time… not far away” could refer to the birth of the Antichrist or his public manifestation. Since far more than a hundred years have passed, we must conclude either that the birth of the Antichrist was intended, in which case he lives today, or, more soberly, that this final calamity has been deferred to a time known only to the Father, consistent with Christian revelation on such matters.

One hundred years after the La Salette apparition brings us to 1946. By that time, the great political and religious upheavals of the modern era had all been realized, culminating in World War II. The remainder of Melanie’s secret, strictly speaking, would fall outside the 100-year limit, though we may keep in mind the general principle that God is free to defer His judgments in reward for penitence, as mentioned in Maximin’s secret.

There are obviously many other viable interpretations of these secrets, and some may be unimpressed with their correspondence to the facts of history. As with all private revelations, we can at best have a human faith in the veracity of these prophecies, and Catholics are free to believe or disbelieve according to their inclinations and standards of plausibility. The apparition of La Salette has been upheld by the Church as “worthy of belief,” so we should be generous in our assessment of its message, rather than spurn it on minor grounds.

4. False Version of Melanie’s Secret

Unfortunately, Melanie was not content to let her prophetic legacy remain in the Vatican archives. Although her personal conduct was generally exemplary, she later found it difficult to comply with cloistered life, and was heavily influenced by lurid apocalyptic writings, as well as less than scrupulous advisors who wished to coax the secret out of her.

After years of moving from convent to convent, and never progressing beyond the novitiate, Melanie stayed in Castellamare from 1867 onward. When new religious orders were being formed at La Salette in 1878, Melanie claimed she was authorized to provide their rules and habits. This request was denied by the bishop and by the Pope himself in an interview with Melanie.

It is in reaction to this thorough rejection by the Church hierarchy that Melanie wrote her new tract, full of bitter invective against a supposedly faithless clergy. Not contrary to faith and morals in the narrow sense, it received an imprimatur, but in 1880 the Holy Office forbade her to write further tracts. Few copies of the 1879 tract were circulated, and it was published again more widely in 1904. A third printing in 1922, with a new imprimatur, finally resulted in Rome’s placing of the tract on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1923. The decree of the Holy Office reads:

DAMNATUR OPUSCULUM: “L’APPARITION DE LA TRÉS SAINTE VIERGE DE LA SALETTE” DECRETUM Feria IV, die 9 maii 1923 In generali consessu Supremae Sacrae Congregationis S. Officii Emi ac Rmi Domini Cardinales fidei et moribus tutandis praepositi proscripserunt atque damnaverunt opusculum: L’apparition de la trés Sainte Vierge sur la montague de la Salette le samedi septembre 1846.—Simple réimpression du texte intégral publié par Mélanie, etc. Societé Saint-Augustin, Paris-Rome-Bruges, 1922; [ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1923) {PDF}, pp. 287-288. See also related decrees of the Holy Office. ]

Note that the condemned 1922 version ( damnatur opusculum , “condemned minor work”) is nothing more than a simple reprinting of Melanie’s original text of 1879, so Melanie’s original text is what is being condemned. This judgment naturally supersedes the imprimatur of any local bishop, and as Cardinal Ratzinger has stated , the Index retains its moral force for Catholics, notwithstanding the fact that the list is no longer updated.

To this day, this condemned tract is widely reprinted (often with thirty-three numbered paragraphs), ironically among the most devout and traditional Catholics. Relying on the authority of the imprimatur and on the status of La Salette as an approved apparition, many well-meaning Catholics have come to believe that this anticlerical diatribe is actually endorsed by the Church. Schismatically-oriented traditionalists find in it vindication of their belief that Rome has in fact lost the faith, as have most of the world’s bishops. Others take seriously the fantastic apocalyptic details concocted by Melanie’s feverish imagination. Sober-minded people may recoil from the booklet’s wild claims, and, mistaking this for the authentic message of La Salette, may come to disbelieve in La Salette, and in Marian apparitions more generally.

It is my hope that a restoration of the original secrets of La Salette will help restore the proper dignity of this oft-maligned, much-misinterpreted Marian apparition. While it is true that Melanie’s subsequent fantasies may serve to diminish the credibility of even the 1851 version of her story, we may note the latter’s consistency with the secret given to Maximin, who lived a sober and exemplary life, neither boasting of his experience, nor desirous of new ecstasies. He defended the veracity of the apparition even on his deathbed. He did not worry about the particulars of the prophecy’s fulfillment, as he never claimed to have much understanding of them. In his own words, “We were but a channel, like parrots that repeat what they have heard. We were stupid before the apparition, we were stupid after the apparition and we shall be stupid all our lives.” This rustic humility is as great a guarantee of truth as we can expect on a matter of merely human faith.

See also: Historiography of Guadalupe | Dark Night of the Soul

© 2007, 2012 Daniel J. Castellano. All rights reserved. http://www.arcaneknowledge.org

La Salette (France) 1846

Let us dry Her tears

Feastday: September 19

The children were amazed to see that The Lady looked very sad and had tears streaming down her cheeks. She folded her arms over her breast. At first she spoke to the children in French but quickly started to speak to them in their own local dialect. Our Blessed Lady spoke over people swearing, not keeping the Sunday has a day of rest and disobeying Gods laws. Her words were very important and impressive: “If My people do not obey God, I shall be forced to let go of My Sons Hand”. This statement points to the last days of the world. Our Blessed Lady's sad expression, her tears and words show us Her very real care for and sympathy with all people. “……. you’ll never be able to repay Me for what I have done for you. Our Lady asked us to pray a lot to save the world. She asked us all to confess our sins, turn away from our evil ways, do penance and pray. In La Salette Mary pointed out the great blessings and mercy of the holy rosary and begged us: “be reconciled with God”. During the period of time when she was appearing to both of the children, they were each individually given a secret. Maximin received his secret first and then Our Lady told a secret to Melanie. Whilst Our Blessed Lady was talking to Maximin, Melanie saw her lips moving, but could not understand what She was saying. 

Melanie says that both secrets were written down and were handed to Pope Pius 1X in 1851. Maximin never published the secret given to him, as he died before so doing. Cardinal Antonelli did give a copy of this secret to the Countess of Clermont-Tonnerre. A. Peladin in the “Annales du Surnaturel” published it in 1888.

Below you can read some of this secret:

• three quarters of the population of France shall lose their Faith
• a protestant nation in the North will repent and proclaim their Faith. Because of this other nations shall return to God in faith.
• the Church shall grow and bloom once more:
• after this peace will be greatly disturbed by the ‘monster’! The (great) monster shall come at the end of the 19th century or at the latest at the beginning of the 20th century. 

What about the secrets given to Melanie in La Salette? The Blessed Virgin had said to her, “Melanie, what I am going to tell you now does not have to remain a secret. You may tell it in 1858” (this is the year that Our Lady appeared in Lourdes). These secrets told to Melanie have caused a lot of unrest and disagreement. Among other things Our Lady told of the coming attempt to murder the Pope, which would not shorten his life. 

The prophetic language used by Our Blessed Mother, the painful truths She told and her announcement of Godly righteousness pending. People took these things very much to heart. Mary warned that faith would be lost on a large scale, leaving room for materialism, false teaching (Karl Marx published his communist manifest in 1848), spiritualism and many other sins. She continues: “all those who persecute the Church of Jesus Christ and all those people who have surrendered themselves to sin, will die and the earth will be like a desert. Then there shall be Peace, the reconciliation between God and man” (thus there will be people alive). 

Whilst these apparition of Our Lady took place 153 years ago, these words are extremely relevant today. The given secrets are important to the entire development of the Church and the world until the end of the period of time. She asked the children to pray morning and night and if time was a problem, to at least say an Our Father and a Hail Mary. Finally Our Lady said;” you’ll tell this to all my people”. This She repeated again. 

When Our Blessed Lady talks of Her people, She means everybody in the entire world who believes in Jesus Christ, Her Son. She spoke has The Queen of the World/ Queen of all Nations. Maximin tells us that the Lady was beautiful, great, a wonderful shining brilliant light, she wore a white cloak, a bright yellow apron and her white shoes were decorated with roses of many colours. Roses were also clearly visible on Her crown. Around Her neck She wore a chain on which was hanging a large cross with a hammer and pliers on the cross bar. 

Maximin also describes how they saw The Lady disappear. First she was elevated to about one and a half metre high and then She faded and vanished before our eyes. Melanie said: “She must be a great Saint, if we had known that we would have ask her to take us with her”. The children were horribly victimized, with threats, teasing, bribes and very mean tricks. But despite all this their stories remained exactly the same time and again. Finally after a long and stringent examination of the facts, the Bishops formally recognized that Our Blessed Mother did appear to the children in La Salette. This was in 1851. 

Maximin died on the first of March 1875 at just 40 years of age. Melanie lived for many years in various convents in France, England and Italy. She died 15 December 1904 and was put to rest in Altamura (Italy).

The Real Meaning of the Messages of La Salette:

Having told us the reasons for God’s anger, all our sins, disobedience, impurities, materialism and pride. (St Maria Goretti is an example of purity), Our Lady implores us to change our ways and turn from sin to GOD.

"This apparition in La Salette is fully approved by the Holy See: November 16th, 1851" 

July 22, 2007

July 22, 2007 - 26 Polish Catholic pilgrims killed in France bus crash. They were returning from the shrine of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette. Polish people pray for the vicitms of the accident and for their families. In all Polish catholic churches are said Holy Masses for them.

Memorare to Our Lady of La Salette

Remember, Our Lady of La Salette, true Mother of Sorrows, the tears you shed for us on Calvary. Remember also the care you have taken to keep us faithful to Christ, your Son. Having done so much for your children, you will not now abandon us. Comforted by this consoling thought, we come to you pleading, despite our infidelities and ingratitude. Virgin of Reconciliation, do not reject our prayers, but intercede for us, obtain for us the grace to love Jesus above all else. May we console you by a holy life and so come to share the eternal life Christ gained by his cross. Amen.

Twelve years later, in 1858 The Holy Virgin appeared once more. In Lourdes this time

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Apparition of the Blessed Virgin on the Mountain of La Salette the 19th of September, 1846

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La Salette :  The La Salette tells the story of Our Lady’s appearance to Melanie Calvat September 19, 1846, in La Salette, France. The original text of the Message and Secret of La Salette, approved by the Catholic Church, are published in their entirety here for the first time in the English Language.

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Lepanto by G. K. Chesterton

The Battleground: Syria and Palestine, the Seed Plot of Religion

Each year the Church presents us with the testimony given by Jesus during His Passion (1 Tim 6) as a reminder that we should never “sell” our dignity. The power of the resurrection is among us, working and making us sons and daughters of God. Therefore, we should never allow falsehood, error, injustice, riches or power to compromise ourselves or our integrity. We no longer live like dogs, but all our being and our goods are for the will of the Father. In the Farm of "Coins" (Jer 23:24; Hosea 6:1; Mt 28:20; Lk 24:29; 2Cor 6:16) The beautiful Lady mentioned to Maximino an event seemingly of little importance: A small favor given to his father. For a long time, Mr. Giraud didn’t attend Church and was indifferent to religion. On September 20th when he heard the narration on the apparitions, he reacted by prohibiting his son from repeating such nonsense. Days later, bothered by the people coming and going, trying to see Maximino and ask him questions, he threatened to punish him severely if it continued. “But, Papa She spoke to me about you,” the boy exclaimed. He reminded his father of the episode of the ruined wheat in the farm of Coins. In this instant, his father had been worried that his son would have nothing to eat because the crop of wheat had been ruined. However, on Maximino’s trip back home to Corps, someone had given Maximino some bread. Maximino had forgotten the incident, the same way his father had forgotten. Mr. Giraud was surprised; he believed that he had expelled God out of his life. With this incident, he realized that that God never ceases, not even for an instant, to hear the hopes and anxieties of His children, even the fear of not having bread to give to his son. This discovery was the beginning of an authentic conversion, which intensified later with the miraculous healing of his chronic asthma. We can ask ourselves if we are really conscience of the presence of God wherever we go. When we share our bread with others in need, anywhere in our lives, the Father in heaven is there, for He is the fountain of life.

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