Our Lady’s Message at La Salette

Our Lady’s Message at La Salette

Compiled by CFN (Catholic Family News)

“And so, My children, you will pass this on to all My people.”
Words of Our Lady of La Salette to Melanie and Maximin - Sept. 19, 1846

Editor’s Note: We present for the purpose of wide distribution a portion of the message of Our Lady of La Salette. This is taken from the booklet “Apparition of the Blessed Virgin at La Salette” and carries the 1879 Imprimatur of Bishop Zola of Lecce. What follows is a transcript, without commentary, of the original 1879 edition.

“Melanie, what I am about to tell you now will not always be a secret. You may make it public in 1858.

“The priests, ministers of My Son, the priests by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the holy mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors - and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and now vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives are crucifying My Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call or vengeance, and now is at their door, for there no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one worthy of offering a stainless sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world.

“God will strike in an unprecedented way. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together.

“The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars, which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishment which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years.

“The Society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and gravest events. Men must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God.

“May the curate of My Son, Pope Pius IX never leave Rome again after 1859; may he, however be steadfast and noble, may he fight with the weapons of faith and love. I will be at his side. May he be on guard against Napoleon, he is two-faced and wishes to be Pope as well as Emperor, God will soon draw back from him. He is the mastermind who, always wanting to ascend further, will fall on the sword he wished to use to force his people to be raised up.

“Italy will be punished for her ambition in wanting to throw off the yoke of the Lord of Lords. And so she will be left to fight in war; blood will flow on all sides. Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die cruel death. Several will abandon the faith; and a great deal of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops.

“May the Pope guard against the performers of miracles. For the time has come when the most astonishing wonders will take place on the earth and in the air.

“In the year 1864, Lucifer together with a large number of demons will be unloosed from hell; they will put an end to faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of hell; several religious institutions will lose all faith and will lose many souls.

“Evil books will be abundant on the earth, and the spirits of darkness will spread a universal slackening in all that concerns the service of God. They will have great power over nature; there will be churches built to serve these spirits. People will be transported from one place to another by these evil spirits, even priests, for they have not been guided by the good spirit of the Gospel which is a spirit of humility, charity and zeal for the glory of God. On occasions, the dead and the righteous will be brought back to life.1

“Everywhere there will be extraordinary wonders, as the true Faith has faded and false light brightens the people. Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches to protect their authority and to dominate with pride.

“The Vicar of My Son will suffer a great deal, because for a while the Church will yield to large persecution and a time of darkness, and the Church will witness a frightful crisis.

“The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten, each individual will want to be on his own and be superior to people of the same identity, they will abolish civil rights as well as ecclesiastical, all order and justice will be trampled down under-foot and only homicides, hate, jealous, lies and dissension would be seen without love for country or family.

“The Holy Father will suffer a great deal. I will be with him until the end and receive his sacrifice.

“The mischievous would attempt his life several times to do harm and shorten his days but neither him nor his successor will see the triumph of the Church of God.

“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds.

"In the year 1865, there will be desecration of holy places. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself King of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the earth.

“France, Italy, Spain and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchmen will fight Frenchmen, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other even in their own homes.

“At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the heavens. Paris will burn and Marseille will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy.

“The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for My help and intercession. And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the church of Jesus Christ and all those given over to sin will perish and the earth will become desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious in It’s poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in the faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God.

“This peace among men will be short-lived. Twenty-five years of plentiful harvests will make them forget that the sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this earth.

“A forerunner of the Antichrist, with his troops gathered from several nations, will fight against the true Christ, the only Savoir of the world. He will shed much blood and will want to annihilate the worship of God to make himself looked upon as a God.

“The earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds (in addition to plague and famine which will be widespread). There will be a series of wars until the last war, which will then be fought by the ten Kings of the Antichrist, all of whom will have one and the same plan and will be the only rulers of the world. Before this comes to pass, there will be a kind of false peace in the world. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin. But the children of the holy Church, the children of My faith, My true followers, they will grow in their love of God and in all the virtues most precious to Me. Blessed are the souls humbly guided by the Holy Ghost! I shall fight at their side until they reach a fullness of years.

“Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles with dread at what must happen to the earth stained with crime. Tremble, earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves, tremble for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption. Many convents are no longer houses of God, but the gazing grounds of Asmodeas and his like. It will be during this time that the Antichrist will be born of a false Hebrew nun, a false virgin who will communicate with the old serpent, the master of impurity, his father will be B. At birth, he will spew out blasphemy; he will have teeth, in a word, he will be the devil incarnate. He will scream horribly, he will feed on nothing but impurity. He will have brothers who, although not devils incarnate like him, will be children of evil. At the age of twelve, they will draw attention upon themselves by the gallant victories they will have won; soon they will each lead armies, aided by the legions of hell.

“The seasons will be altered, the earth will produce nothing but bad fruit, the stars will lose their regular motions, the moon will only reflect a faint reddish glow. Water and fire will give the earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains, cities, etc…

“Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.

“The demons of the air together with the Antichrist will perform great wonders on earth and in the atmosphere, and men will become more and more perverted. God will take care of his faithful servants and men of good will. The Gospel will be preached everywhere, and all get to know the truth.

“I make an urgent appeal to the earth. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven; I call upon the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men; I call on My children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to Me so that I may lead them to My Divine Son, those whom I carry in My arms, so to speak, those who have lived on My spirit. Finally, I call upon the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world. It is time they came out and filled the world with light. Go and reveal yourselves to be My cherished children. I am at your side and within you, provided your faith is the light that shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ. Fight, children of the light, you, the few who can see. For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends.

“The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. But now Enoch and Eli will come, filled with the spirit of God. They will preach with the might of God, and men of good will will believe in God, and many souls will be comforted. They will make great steps forward through the virtue of the Holy Ghost and will condemn the devilish lapses of the Antichrist. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases. It will rain with a fearful hail of animals. There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities earthquakes which will swallow up countries. Voices will be heard in the air. Men will beat their heads against walls, call for their death, and on another side death will be their torment. Blood will flow on all sides. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test? All the blood, the tears and the prayers of the righteous, God will relent. Enoch and Eli will be put to death. Pagan Rome will disappear. The fire of Heaven will fall and consume three cities. All the universe will be struck with terror and many will let themselves be led astray because they have not worshipped the true Christ who lives among them. It is time; the sun is darkening; only faith will survive.

“Now is the time; the abyss is opening. Here is the King of Kings of darkness, here is the Beast with his subjects, calling himself the savior of the world. He will rise proudly into the air to go to heaven. He will be smothered by the breath of the Archangel Saint Michael. He will fall, and the earth, which will have been in a continuous series of evolutions for three days, will open up its fiery bowels; and he will have plunged for eternity with all his followers into the everlasting chasm of hell. And then the water and fire will purge the earth and consume all the works of men’s pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified.”

Note: 1. In a letter to Father Combe, dated October 7, 1899, Melanie corrects these words in parenthesis which are her own, she says, and which she judges to be unclear and inaccurate. “That it to say”, she writes, “that in those days, which only seem like twenty years ago, some perverted people (Italian: malvages) had given themselves over to devotion to the demon of magic. These people would cause to appear in the eyes of the curious, acquainted and theirs who had not led a Christian way of life. These supposedly resurrected individuals appeared in heavenly glory. People known to have lived in the fear of God appeared to be in horrible suffering and urged their friends and acquaintances not to follow in their footsteps, and they preached a Gospel opposed to that of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that these bizarre occurrences may be out down to the fashion for spiritualistic evocations and demoniac practices which no doubt will one day be brought to light through a thorough examination of Luciferian archives of Freemasonry.” - In the same letter, Melanie takes care to explain that where it is said that people will be transported from one place to another, it must be understood as to be in rare cases only.

St. Alexis

St. Alexis - Patron of Pilgrims and Beggars - July 17th

Alexis was the only son of a rich Roman senator. From his good Christian parents, he learned great charity for the poor and it made him very happy to give help to beggars. Alexis wanted to give up his wealth and honors but his parents had chosen a rich bride for him. Because it was their will, he married her. Yet right on his wedding day, he obtained her permission to leave her for God. Then, in disguise, he traveled to Syria in the East and lived in great poverty near a church of Our Lady.

One day, after seventeen years, a picture of our Blessed Mother spoke to tell the people that this beggar was very holy. She called him “the man of God.” Alexis became famous, and that was the last thing he wanted, so he fled back to Rome. He came as a beggar to his own home. His parents did not recognize him, but they were very kind to all poor people and so they let him stay there. In a corner under the stairs, Alexis lived for seventeen years. He used to go out only to pray in church and to teach little children about God. The servants were often very mean to him, and though he could have ended all these sufferings just by telling his father who he was, he chose to say nothing. What great courage and strength of will that took!

After Alexis died, his family found a note on his body which told them who he was and how he had lived his life of penance, from the day of his wedding until then, for the love of God.

If God asks you to leave your dear ones for Him, generously obey the call of our heavenly Father.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

- July 16th

Mt. Carmel is a mountain in Palestine. It became famous when the prophet Elias, who lived before Our Lord was born, worked a great miracle there. For many years there had been no rain in that land, and everything was dying. Elias went up Mt. Carmel to beg the Lord to send the rain, and his prayer was answered.


Much later, after Pentecost, some of the Jews who had become Christians decided to build a shrine on Mt. Carmel in honor of Mary, the Mother of God. There, several times a day, they went to pray together. For this reason the people started to call them “friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.” This was the way the Carmelite Order was begun.


Many, many years later, St. Simon Stock, an Englishmen, became Superior of all the Carmelites. Since they were bring persecuted, he prayed with great confidence to Our Lady. In her goodness, she appeared to St. Simon and gave him the brown scapular, promising her protection to all those who would wear the blessed habit. Many miracles proved her words.


St. Pius X said that the same blessings could be had by wearing the scapular medal, which has a picture of Our Lady of the Scapular on one side and the Sacred Heart on the other.


Let us wear the holy scapular or medal. We will be protected by Our Lady in life and helped by her in death. And after death, she will bring us to Heaven.

St. Henry the Emperor

St. Henry the Emperor - Patron of Benedictine Oblates - July 15th

Henry was Duke of Bavaria when one night he had an unusual vision. St. Wolfgang, who had been his beloved teacher when he was a boy, appeared to him and pointed to the words, “After six” written on the wall. What could that mean? Perhaps Henry was to die in six days? With that thought, he prayed with great fervor for six days, only to find himself alive and in perfect health. Perhaps it meant six month? The good Duke devoted himself to doing good more than ever. At the end of six months, he was healthier than before. So he decided he had six years to get ready for a holy death. But instead of dying after that time had passed, he was elected Emperor of Germany, and then he understood what the vision had meant.

As Emperor, Henry worked hard to keep his people happy and at peace. To defend justice he had to fight many wars, but he always won, since before every battle he prayed and made his soldiers pray. He preserved both his purity and his humility, even though as Emperor, he received great honor and power. He and his wife, St. Cunegundes, lived as brother and sister, and when they went to Rome to be crowned Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, it is said that Jesus rewarded Henry for his purity and justice with a wonderful vision. The Saint was praying in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, when he saw Our Lord Himself, Jesus the Eternal Priest, offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!

Even when we are very busy, we should stop a few minutes now and then, to say a prayer for the salvation of our souls.

St. Ignatius of Laconi

St. Ignatius of Laconi - May 11th

Ignatius was the son of a poor farmer in Sardinia. Though he was a sickly boy, he worked hard in the fields to help support the family of eleven. When he was about seventeen, he fell ill, and promised to become a Franciscan if he should get better. But when the illness left him, his father said, “We did not promise to do anything in a hurry. It’s the same whether you keep your promise today or next year.” A couple of years later, Ignatius was almost killed when he lost control of his horse. Suddenly, however, the horse stopped and trotted on quietly. Ignatius was convinced, then, that God had saved his life, and he made up his mind to become a religious at once.

Brother Ignatius never had any important position in the Franciscan Order. For fifteen years he worked in the weaving shed of one monastery and then for forty years, until he died at the age of eighty, he was out on the road as a begging friar. Sometimes doors were slammed in his face, sometimes the weather was bad, and always, there were miles and miles to be walked. Yet Ignatius held himself erect, kept calm and cheerful, and did good everywhere he went. He visited the sick, made peace between enemies, converted sinners, and advised people in trouble. He especially loved children, and they loved him so much.

There was one house from which Brother Ignatius never begged anything. The owner was a rich moneylender who made the poor pay back much, much more than they could afford. This man felt humiliated because Ignatius never came to beg from him, and he complained to the Superior of the monastery. The Superior ordered Brother Ignatius to go to that house, because he did not know what kind of man the moneylender was. The Saint obeyed and brought back a large sack of food. It was then that God worked a miracle, for when the sack was emptied, blood dripped out! ‘This is the blood of the poor,” explained the Saint. “That is why I never ask for anything at that house.”

The seventh commandment of God is: “Thou shalt not steal.” Let us be honest and keep our conscience clean, not only when it is a matter of big things, but even small things, such as stealing apples from a neighbor’s tree or by cheating on a test in school.

St. Bonaventure

St. Bonaventure - July 14th

Bonaventure’s name means “good luck”, and it is said that St. Francis of Assisi gave it to him when he was a baby, after curing him from a serious sickness. Bonaventure became a Franciscan and left his own country of Italy to study at the University of Paris. He became a learned writer and such a great lover of God that he was called the “Seraphic Doctor.”

One of Bonaventure’s famous friends was St. Thomas Aquinas. Thomas asked him one day where he got all the beautiful things he wrote. St. Bonaventure took his friend by the hand and led him to his desk. Pointing to the large crucifix which always stood on the desk, he said, “Look! It is He Who tells me everything. He is my only Teacher.” Another time, when Bonaventure was writing the life of St. Francis of Assisi, he was so full of fervor that St. Thomas exclaimed: “Let us leave a Saint to write the Saint!”

St. Bonaventure always kept himself humble, even though his books made him famous. The Pope wanted him to become an Archbishop, but Bonaventure begged to be excused from the honor. He did accept the office of Superior of the Franciscans because he knew it was God’s will. Then, later on, another Pope commanded him to become a Cardinal, and he sent two messengers to present him with the red hat that is given only to Cardinals. The Pope’s messengers found the Saint washing dishes in one of the monasteries! Since his hands were greasy, he asked them to hang the hat on a tree branch, and to be patient with him until he finished the dishes. Then he dried his hands and sorrowfully went out to accept the new honor. As a Cardinal, St. Bonaventure was a great help to the Pope, Blessed Gregory X. It was said, “No one ever saw Bonaventure without feeling great respect and affection for him, because he was gentle, polite, humble, pleasing to all, prudent, pure, and virtuous in every way.”

“Jesus is my only Teacher,” said St. Bonaventure. We, too, should have a crucifix on our desk, or in our own room and turn often to Jesus for light and for strength.

St. Francis Solano

St. Francis Solano - Patron of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru - July 13th

Francis was born in Spain. Even as a young boy, he was a wonderful peacemaker. Once he threw himself between two fighting boys and took blows from both of them without moving. In that way, he forced them to stop, because neither wanted to hit him.

When he was twenty, Francis became a Franciscan. His desire to be a missionary was satisfied when he was sent to Peru in South America. On the way, he preached the Faith to many Negro slaves. When their ship was wrecked in a storm, the captain ordered everyone, except the slaves, to save themselves in a lifeboat. But Francis refused to leave the slaves alone on the sinking ship. He stayed with them, prayed with them and baptized them. Right afterwards, half the ship went down. Francis and the rest of the slaves were rescued, and he got safely to Peru.

There the Saint learned the many Indian languages, traveled far and wide preaching, and baptized great numbers. He worked so many miracles that he was called the “Wonder-worker of the New World.” Yet he was so simple that in his great love for Our Lady, he loved to play his flute and sing in front of her altar.

The courage of St. Francis Solano was amazing. Once when some Indians planned to massacre a great number of Christians, he went out alone to try to talk them out of it. And he spoke so beautifully of how Jesus suffered and died for us that on that very day, many of those men accepted the Faith and were baptized!

The way to please God the most is to do something good for our neighbor every time we can, and to do it for the love of God. At the judgment, Jesus will tell us, “What you did to other, you did to Me.” And He will reward us.

St. John Gualbert

St. John Gualbert - July 12th

St. John was the son of an Italian nobleman. He and his father were heartbroken when the only other brother, Hugh, was murdered by a man who was supposed to be his friend. Urged on by his father and by his own anger, John began looking for a way to avenge his brother’s death. He felt that his personal honor depended on it.

One Good Friday, he came face to face with the murderer in a narrow passageway. John drew his sword and started toward the man, who fell upon his knees and crossed his arms on his chest, imploring forgiveness, in the name of Our Lord’s holy Passion and Death. At that moment, John remembered how Jesus forgave His murderers as He was dying on the cross. With a tremendous effort, he dropped his sword, embraced his enemy and moved on down the road.

When he came to a monastery church, he went and knelt before the crucifix and asked for forgiveness for his sins. Then a miracle happened! Christ on the cross bowed his head three times, as if to tell John that He was pleased with him for forgiving his enemy and that his own sins were forgiven. Such a change came over John that he went straight to the Abbot of that monastery and asked if he could join the monks.

When John’s father heard about it, he said he would burn the whole monastery if his son did not come out. The monks did not know what to do, but John solved the problem by cutting off his hair himself and borrowing a habit from one of the monks. Even his father was moved at that, and so he let him remain.

St. John later went off to live a stricter life and to start his own Community of monks. He became a model to all for his great love for poverty and for the poor, and by his humility. God granted him the power to work miracles and cure the sick who came to him for help.

Even the greatest offenses can be forgiven with the help of God. If we forgive those who do wrong to us, God will also forgive us our offenses to Him.

St. Oliver Plunkett

St. Oliver Plunkett - July 11th

Oliver was an Irishman who went to Rome when he was sixteen to become a priest. After he was ordained, he could not go back to Ireland because of the persecution there, so he became a teacher of theology in Rome. For twelve years, he led a busy and virtuous life until the Pope made him Archbishop of the most important diocese in Ireland.

St. Oliver was able to labor for his people only two years before a new persecution forced him to go into hiding. But in those two years he put new fervor and love of God into the hearts of the Catholics in Ireland. He converted many desperate bandits; he made peace between disagreeing groups; he corrected wrong practices, and he won the love and respect even of the Church’s enemies.

This holy Archbishop was inclined to be touchy and hot-tempered, but his humility and charity kept his temper under control. In fact, he defended a bishop who had had disagreement with him and even cared for him tenderly when the bishop lay dying in prison.

St. Oliver was put to death for the Faith, after spending nine months in jail himself. Always cheerful and kind, he prayed for his enemies before he died.

Those who truly love God also love their neighbors, and willingly sacrifice themselves for them.

St. Felicity and Her Seven Sons

St. Felicity and Her Seven Sons - July 10th

Felicity was a noble Christian women of Rome. After her husband’s death, she served God and employed herself in prayer and works of charity. Her good example led others to embrace the faith. This angered the pagan priests, who complained to Antoninus Pius, the Emperor. They said she was an enemy of the state because she was making the gods angry. So the Emperor ordered Felicity arrested along with her seven sons. She came, calm and unafraid. The governor took her aside and tried in vain to make her sacrifice to the gods. He ended with the words, “Unhappy women, if you wish to die, die! But do not destroy your children!”

“My children,” she said, “will live forever if, like me, they scorn the idols and die for their God.”

This holy mother was forced to watch her sons being put to death. One was scourged, two were beaten with clubs, three beheaded and another drowned. Four months later, she, too, was beheaded. Her strength came from knowing that in Heaven she would be with God and her sons forever in perfect happiness.

St. Felicity, we may say, was martyred eight different times, because she had to watch each of her sons die before she too gave up her life for Jesus. What courage and faith!

Let us pray every day that God will bless our family and friends and that we will all meet again in Heaven.