To the far Horizons of the World

La Salette is not a household name, but you hear it preached in Bolivia and the Philippines, in Angola and Madagascar, in southernmost India and in Poland, In Byelorussia and in Indonesia. And in a small alpine village, where it was first heard.

Two Congregations bear the name of La Salette. Some others are linked to it. All over the world, pilgrims, saints, writers have sung its praises and continue to make it known : Salette, Saletinski, Saleta, Saletiner... You can see it over entrances, in parishes, spiritual centers and cooperatives; at shelters for lepers and their families; you see it in humble places where the handicapped work, and you see it at high mountain shrine.

An unknown Village

Before the apparition La Salette was an unknown hamlet lost in one of those giant crevices of the French Alps. A dozen tiny villages clung to the low regions of a ring of mountains that rise over seven thousand feet. Spring torrents rushing down these heights run through dark, winding passes and exit below  the market  town of Corps,  where the highway junction  joins it to the rest of the world. No one could have seen fame in the offing.

On September 19, 1846, two shepherds, a boy and a girl, each urging  on their four cows, climb the barren slopes that rise above the village of La Salette. After an uneventful morning, they meet within this solitude a woman more beautiful than creation; she appears within a light that is brighter than the sun.

Through her tears she converses with them. She finished her discourse and, having climbed a narrow path, disappeared in her halo of light. That evening the children speak of this to their respective employers, and the very next morning rumors are running. The young boy, Maximin Giraud, skittish and carefree,   is eleven years old and has replaced a shepherd that week. Melanie Calvat is nearing fifteen years of age. For five years she has been performing odd jobs in the neighboring farms; she is timid and withdrawn. Simply, but with great precision, the two children answer the questions put to them. Their testimonies agree. The whole world takes hold of their story: the curios, the believers, the official investigators and the journalists, religious and civil authorities. Detractors attack it, visionaries hallucinate over it, creating serious and lasting delusions. Missionaries and pilgrims will make this echo of the Good News known to all the world.