The Virgin Mary is said to have…

The Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to two children in La Salette, France, on September 19, 1846

In 1846 the village of La Salette consists of eight or nine scattered hamlets.

The population is about eight hundred, principally small farmers with their families and dependents.

On the evening of Saturday,  September 19, 1846, Maximin Giraud and Mélanie Calvat (called Mathieu) return from the mountain where they had been minding cows and reported seeing "a beautiful lady" on Mount Sous-Les Baisses, weeping bitterly.

They describe her as sitting with her elbows resting on her knees and her face buried in her hands.

She is clothed in a white robe studded with pearls; and a gold colored apron; white shoes and roses about her feet and high headdress.

Around her neck she wears a crucifix suspended from a small chain.

According to their account, she continued to weep even as she spoke to them, first in French, then in their own dialect of Occitan.

After giving a secret to each child, the apparition walks up a hill and vanishes.

Sensation about Our Lady of La Salette arises  when Mélanie and Maximin made their message public, which causes the bishop of Grenoble to investigate the apparition.

During the investigation, a number of accusations will b made against the visionaries, including the assertion that the apparition was actually just a middle-aged woman named La Merlière.

No mention of secrets is made in the children's first accounts, presumably out of fear they would be compelled to disclose them.

The children will later report that the Blessed Virgin had confided a special secret to each of them.

These two secrets, which neither Mélanie nor Maximin will ever make known to each other, will be sent by them in 1851 to Pope Pius IX on the advice of Mgr. de Bruillard.

It is assumed that these secrets were of a personal nature.

After five years of investigation, the Bishop of Grenoble, Philibert de Bruillard, will announce in 1851 that the apparition was likely to be a true revelation and authorize the commencement of the following of Our Lady of La Salette.

This determination will later be confirmed by his successor, Bishop Ginoulhiac.

According to the children's account, the Virgin invited people to respect the repose of the seventh day, and to respect the name of God.

She sorrowfully threatened punishment, in particular a scarcity of potatoes, which would rot.

The context of these punishments places the warning just prior to the winter of 1846–1847, which is in Europe, and especially in France and in Ireland, a period of famine in the months that follow the apparition.

This is one of the factors of the apparition's popular appeal.
The message of the visionaries of La Salette focuses on the conversion of all humanity to Christ.

John Vianney, John Bosco, and writer Joris-Karl Huysmans will all be influenced by La Salette.

The spirit of La Salette is said to be one of prayer, conversion, and commitment.