Sighting

Extract from the source:


Our first case involves an apparition which occurred on a
hillside near the village of LaSalette, France, on September 19,
1846. According to devotional accounts, this apparition was
seen by two children, a girl named Melanie Mathieu (who was
nearly 15 at the time) and a boy named Maximin Giraud (who was
11). Each child had been hired
by a local farmer to herd cattle, and on that day the children
had decided to herd their cattle together. Although the families
of both children lived in the nearby town of Corps, Melanie and
Mathieu had met for the first time only a few days earlier
Herding for Melanie was a routine activity, since she had been
hired out to local farmers since she was nine It was, however, a
quite novel experience for Maximin, since he had been hired out,
apparently for the first time, only within the preceding week.

According to the report later given by the children, they took a
nap on that afternoon. When they awoke, they found the cattle
gone. In searching for the cattle (which they found), they came
on a bright light that seemed to be hovering above a boulder on a
nearby hillside. On closer inspection, they perceived in the
midst of this bright light a lady who was seated on the boulder
and who was crying. The lady then arose and addressed the
children. She initially spoke in French, but after delivering
what turned out to be about half of her eventual message, she
perceived that the children were having difficulty understanding
her, and so switched to the local patois.

The message delivered
by the woman at LaSalette has quite properly been described as
"apocalyptic" (Turner & Turner, 1982: 156-64). She warned of the
terrible punishments that would soon befall France as a result of
the sinful ways into which the people had fallen. The following
passages are typical

If the harvest is spoilt, you yourselves
are the only cause of it. I made you feel this last year in the
potatoes [referring to the potato famine], but you took no
account of it, on the contrary you swore, and you took the name
of my son in vain. There will come a great famine and before the
famine the children under the age of seven will be seized with a
trembling and will fall in the hands of those that hold them, the
rest will do penance by the famine. The walnuts will become had
the grapes will rot (Northcote, 1875 237-238).

[...]

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