twice in French: "Well! my children,
you will make this known to my people."

"She then ascended the mountain," says
Maximin, in his account of the affair, "about
fifteen paces, sliding along the grass as if she
was suspended or being pushed, her feet
hardly touching the earth. We followed her
to an elevation, Melanie passing before her,
and myself walking by her side. Before
disappearing, this beautiful lady raised herself
up as high as a metre and a half from the
ground, remaining thus suspended in the
air for a moment; we then successively lost
sight of her head, her arms, and the rest of
her body. She seemed to melt away like
butter in soup. A great light remained,
which I tried to catch in my hand, as well as
the flowers which she wore upon her feet,
but they all vanished together.

"Melanie said to me, 'She must be a great
saint,' and I replied, 'If we had known she
was a great saint, we would have asked her
to take us with her.'"

The costume worn by the lady, as described
by the shepherds, was as strange as her
language. It consisted of a white dress
trimmed with a garland of silver flowers; a
yellow silk apron edged with silver fringe;
yellow stockings; white satin shoes ornamented
with a tiny garland of flowers; a scarf
also trimmed with roses; a rosary made of
red coral beads; a gracefully put-on veil,
attached by a wreath of roses; a chain bearing
a crucifix; and hanging to her waist a
hammer and pair of pincers, which are
believed by French Catholics to be instruments
used in the torture of Jesus Christ.

Great excitement prevailed in the little
village of La Salette on Sunday the
twentieth of September, when Monsieur
the Curé had announced from the pulpit the
event of the preceding day. Soon the news,
flying from department to department, spread
all over France and the Catholic world: and
pilgrims rushed in crowds to the holy mountain,
to drink the water of the formerly
dried-up, but now miraculously abundant
fountain, standing near the scene of the
apparition.

On the nineteenth of July, eighteen hundred
and forty-seven, the Bishop of Grenoble
instructed Monsieur Rousselot, his vicaire-
général, and Orcel, the superior of the grand
seminary, to proceed to an investigation of
the event of La Salette. After spending two
months in visiting the mountain, questioning
the children, and examining the persons who
had first heard their story, as well as those who
pretended to have been miraculously cured
by using the water of the fountain, these two
gentlemen made a report, in which they came
to the conclusion that the apparition was
supernatural, and that it was the Holy Virgin
who appeared and spoke to Maximin and
Melanie. This report having been submitted
to a commission composed of sixty canons,
curés, and vicaires of Grenoble, and presided
over by the bishop himself, was adopted after
eight sittings.

About the month of July, eighteen hundred
and fifty-one, the Pope, having been informed
that the little shepherds wished to divulge
to him the secrets they had received from the
Holy Virgin, his holiness requested
Monseigneur de Bonald, the Cardinal Archbishop
of Lyons and Metropolitan of Grenoble, to go
and question the children, and receive from
them, in his name, their so-called secrets.
Arriving on the twelfth of the month,
according to appointment, the archbishop was
received by all the clergy of the diocese,
except the curé of the cathedral, who, worn
out, he was informed, with the fatigues of
his ministry, had gone to the country to take
a few days' rest. His lordship was also told
that the children, declining to confide to him
their secrets, intended to send them direct to
the Pope. Meanwhile, Monsieur Rousselot and
Monsieur Gérin, the curé of the cathedral,
had started six days before for Rome, carrying
with them the secrets, which had been put
into writing by the children, and carefully
packed and sealed in presence of witnesses.
The archbishop, doubtless, feeling hurt by
this proceeding, on his return to his own
diocese protested against the growing belief
in the apparition.

Nevertheless, upon the nineteenth of
September, following the fifth anniversary of
the apparition, the Bishop of Grenoble issued
a doctrinal charge to his clergy, in which he
stated his opinion as follows:

We deem that the apparition of the Holy Virgin to
two shepherds, on the nineteenth of September,1846,
upon one of the mountains of the Alpine chain,
situated in the parish of La Salette, bears in itself all
the appearances of truth, and that the faithful are
authorised in believing it to be indubitably certain.
We believe that this fact acquires a new degree of
certainty from the immense spontaneous concourse of
faithful to the site of the apparition, as well as from
the wonderful results of the said event, a great number
of which cannot be questioned without violating the
rules of human testimony. On this account, to testify
to God and the glorious Virgin Mary our lively
gratitude, we authorise the worship of Our Lady of
La Salette. We expressly forbid the priests and the
faithful of our diocese from ever speaking or writing
publicly against the fact which we proclaim today, and
which henceforth commands respect from all.

The worship of La Salette, after the
appearance of this document, assumed gigantic
proportions. Pioneers were employed to cut
a road in the steep and precipitous mountain,
which had already been marked out with
crosses by devout pilgrims. The bare tableland
of the mountain entirely changed its
aspect, becoming covered with houses in
which missionaries of Salette took up
their abode. The sheep and cattle
disappeared from their green pastures, while
sisters of charity arrived in flocks to provide
for the wants of the pilgrims. The miraculous
water, sold at four shillings a bottle,