Our Lady of Pontmain

Pontmain Pontmain Village in the Mayenne department where the Marian apparition took place in 1871. is a small village in the Mayenne, in the diocese of Laval, six kilometers from the town of Landivy. It has five hundred inhabitants. Like all Breton villages, it still retains that biblical and Christian physiognomy, which contrasts so happily with our hamlets, as the modern spirit has made them, or rather unmade them. Here in this humble corner of land lost in the vastness, every family kneels piously morning and evening and addresses its innocent prayers to God. The father, in a grave voice, head uncovered, says the Our Father; the mother and the older children continue with the Ave Maria, which all the little ones try to repeat with adorable gasps. And God, who turns away from the cities that, in their pride, believe they direct the world, descends toward these holy souls, sets them ablaze, so to speak, and from this mysterious conflagration is born the preservation of the human race. On Sunday, all work ceases. This day is truly the Lord's day here. Among the families that make up the parish of Pontmain, there is one that stands out, above all others, for its piety and the honor of its life. It is the Barbedette family. The Barbedette spouses have three children, three boys. At the time of the miraculous event that we are about to recount, the eldest was in the army as a mobile guard. The middle one, n amed E Eugène One of the two main child visionaries of the apparition. ugène, is twelve y ears o Joseph Brother of Eugène and second visionary of the apparition. ld, and Joseph, the youngest, is ten. The life of these children is spent at the paternal home, where they take care of the livestock, at the school which is located some distance from their dwelling, and at the church where they serve Mass every day, and where they rarely fail to make the Stations of the Cross, especially since their eldest brother has been in the army. Eugène and Joseph spent the day of January 17 like the previous days. After morning prayer, they recited the rosary by the corner of the vast fireplace of the paternal home, went to the church where they made the Stations of the Cross while waiting for Mass, and from there to school where they remained until five-thirty. At five-thirty, they rejoined their father who was crushing gorse in the barn adjacent to the house. They helped him in this work, illuminated by a resin candle, until the moment when a woman named Jeannette Détais, the undertaker of Pontmain, entered through the small door of the barn and began to chat with the father of the Barbedette family.

Work being interrupted by this conversation, Eugène put do Eugène One of the two main child visionaries of the apparition. wn his crushing hammer and stood at the door of the barn. Night, one of those clear and cold January nights, had come. In the immensity of the deep heavens, thousands of stars shone, whose twinkling was reflected by the snow covering the earth. At the sight of this divine spectacle, the child was seized with religious admiration. But a much more beautiful and astonishing spectacle was reserved for him! Insensibly lowering his gaze in the direction of a house located opposite the barn, he saw in a blue circle, about twenty feet above the roof of the said house, a beautiful and tall Lady. She was dressed in a blue robe without a belt, like an alb, and sprinkled with gold stars. The sleeves were wide and hanging like those of ancient surplices. Her shoes, blue like the robe, were adorned with a gold ribbon rosette. Her face was framed by a black veil, the folds of which floated over her shoulders. A gold crown, flaring with the grace of lily petals, and around which a red line was drawn, symbol of the divine blood with which Mary was flooded at the foot of the cross, adorned her head. Her face, of an ideal whiteness, was so beautiful that the children, contemplating it a little later, exclaimed in their rapture: "Never has anything like it been seen in person or in an image." With arms outstretched and lowered, hands affectionately open, she smiled with all her beautiful face at the little peasant who was watching her. Eugène remained in ecstasy before this marvelous apparition until the moment when Jeannette Détais, the undertaker of Pontmain, having finished her conversation with Father Barbedette, came out of the barn. Then the child stopped her and asked her if she saw anything above the house of Augustin Guidenoq. Jeannette looked in the direction indicated by Eugène and replied: "But no, my poor Eugène, I see nothing at all."

The emotion-filled tone with which Eugène had questioned Jeannette immediately attracted his father and his younger brother; but the father, urgently asked to look above the house, gave the same answer as Jeannette: he saw only a few stars. "And you, Joseph," said Eugène, "do you see nothing?" "I see a beautiful and tall Lady," replied Joseph. And he began to descri be the Joseph Brother of Eugène and second visionary of the apparition. costume as exactly as his brother had done. Hearing this, his father began to look with even more attention than the first time, but without any more success. He could discover nothing.

On the order of Father Barbedette, the children had returned to the barn, and Jeannette, to whom he had recommended silence, had withdrawn. They began to grind gorse again with reverence, Father Barbedette lost in thought, and the children looking toward the door. A few minutes had barely passed when Father Barbedette, moved by a secret inspiration, ordered Eugène to go and see if the beautiful Lady was still above the Grecconq house. Upon his child's joyfully affirmative answer, he sent him to fetch his mother. But the mother, despite the repeated urgings of her two boys, looked in vain; she was no more favored than her husband or Jeannette. However, the children, more and more delighted and amazed, did not cease to cry out while clapping their hands: "Oh! How beautiful it is! Oh! How beautiful it is!" Truth has a power and a light that impose themselves, especially when it has innocence as its organ. Father and Mother Barbedette felt this well in these circumstances. Their emotion said loudly enough that their doubts were vanishing little by little in the presence of these naive affirmations of their dear children. This beautiful Lady can only be the Blessed Virgin, said the mother. And at a sign from her, everyone knelt at the door of the barn and recited five Paters and five Aves in honor of Mary. After which the children, placed once again in the presence of the vision, began to shout cries of admiration even louder than the previous ones. And Victoire, their mother, who even with her excellent glasses had been able to discover nothing, had to, perhaps for the first time, use her authority to tear her sons away from their contemplation and take them home. Their rest was short. They ate their soup standing up, so impatient were they to go and see if it was still visible. At about a quarter past six, they were both at their first place in front of the barn. The apparition was still shining in the blue of the sky. After reciting five Paters and five Aves again, following the command their mother had given them, they returned home and told their parents that nothing had changed, and that the Lady was as tall as Sister Vitaline. At the name of Sister Vitaline, an inspiration came to Victoire Barbedette: it was to go and warn the sisters of what was happening.

The first of the nuns she met was Sister Vitaline. Informed of the event, she interrupted the reading of her office, went in front of the barn, and after looking into the part of the sky indicated, declared that she did not see the beautiful Lady there. The children, surprised and saddened by this declaration, insisted more vividly than ever. They could not explain why the good Sister Vitaline did not distinguish anything of what they saw so clearly. But they tried in vain, insisted in vain, and described the apparition in vain; Sister Vitaline answered all their questions by saying that she saw absolutely nothing.

After which she left, accompanied by Victoire Barbedette. Three little girls were still at school. The good sister, to whom the things of God were known, had a happy inspiration. She called the three little girls, and without telling them anything about the vision of the Barbedette children, she led them in front of the barn. Another nun, Sister Marie-Édouard, as well as Victoire, accompanied them. The little girls had no sooner arrived in front of the barn door than two of them cried out: "We see a beautiful tall Lady." And they described the apparition in the same terms as the Barbedette children. Struck by this consensus, the nuns notified the parish priest. The venerable pastor, upon learning this news, was struck with a religious terror and moved to tears. A naive, innocent, humble, and pure so ul, the le curé Parish priest of Pontmain at the time of the apparition. thought of a divine manifestation threw him into a holy dread, softened, however, by a deep feeling of gratitude. For some time motionless under the weight of the emotion that overwhelmed him, the old servant of Jesus Christ finally managed to gather his strength and head toward the Barbedette house. He arrived there with many other people from his parish, for the rumor of the marvelous event was already making the rounds of the hamlet. But neither the venerable pastor, nor the nuns, nor any of the adults present saw anything; only the children immediately saw the beautiful Lady. One of them, Eugène Friseau, aged six, declared he saw everything that the little boys and little girls we have spoken of did not tire of admiring. Another, a very small little girl, who was in her third year and whom her mother held in her arms, entered into a charming ecstasy at the sight of the beautiful Lady whom she called "the Jesus," in memory of the beautiful portrait her mother had made for her of the divine Child. She could not take her eyes off her, and as a sign of joy and happiness, she flapped her little pink hands, as a little bird does with its wings at the approach of its mother. Then the children saw an oval circle of dark blue take shape around the apparition. Four candles, two on each side, were fixed inside the blue circle. They also saw a red cross appear on the Lady's chest. By all these marks, by all these characteristics described in a manner always concordant and always invariable by the children, the venerable pastor of Pontmain knew that the beautiful Lady was none other than the Blessed Virgin.

However, the inhabitants of Pontmain, gathered in great numbers, discussed the event. As always happens, some believed in the miracle on the faith of the children, and others were incredulous. There were even some budding free-thinkers who attributed the inability to see to a lack of glasses or silk handkerchiefs, no doubt likening a miraculous apparition to a lunar eclipse.

— Why, said M. Renan one day, why does God not perform miracles in the presence of the members of the Institute? — Why, said in turn a little village Renan, do I not see as these boys do? If I had a silk handkerchief, I would surely discover the phenomenon. — Oh! do not let that stop you, replied Victoire Barbadette; I happen to have a silk handkerchief: here it is, take it and look. The little scholar took the handkerchief, held it before his eyes, and tried to see through it; but despite his optical instrument, he confessed he discovered nothing. His disappointment provoked a great burst of laughter among the ever-growing crowd, and instead of the importance he thought he was gaining, he received only jokes. As this scene dragged on, and some of the assistants continued to laugh, joke, and also doubt, the children noticed that the expression of the beautiful Lady was changing, and that the ineffable smile with which she looked at them was succeeded by an expression of profound sadness. Then one of the nuns, Sister Marie-Édouard, asked the venerable pastor to speak to the Blessed Virgin. Him! Speak to the Blessed Virgin, he would neither dare nor be able to. And filled with a religious emotion, he sank to his knees, murmuring: "Let us pray, my children!" This truly priestly soul had understood that one does not speak to the Blessed Virgin, but that one prays to her. This sentiment, which overflowed from the person of the old priest and transfigured him, reached all hearts and melted all doubts. The men, women, and children knelt, their faces turned toward the place of the apparition, and in the solemn silence of that beautiful night, a clear voice, trembling with humility, rose: it was that of Sister Marie-Édouard beginning the rosary, to which the whole assembly responded devoutly. What a sublime scene in its simplicity! In the foreground, on the threshold of the barn, were the children, hands joined, eyes wide open, receiving into their very hearts the mysterious light that sprang from the apparition and was reflected by their naive faces. In the second plane, inside the open barn, was the group of men, women, and nuns, and in the middle of this group, the venerable pastor of Pontmain prostrated to the ground. And further away, in the shadows, Barbedette's cattle ruminated in silence. Did one not feel transported to that memorable night when the shepherds of Galilee, warned by angels surrounded by a divine light, came to adore Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem!

Then, as if it were undergoing the expansive force of prayer, the beautiful Lady grew and rose higher in the sky. As she rose, the stars first moved away with respect, then slowly inclined in the azure vault, and came two by two to settle under her feet. The children counted forty. At the same time, their eyes were almost dazzled at the sight of the sparkling stars that swarmed, at that moment, on the blue tunic of the Blessed Virgin. At this account from the children, Sister Marie-Édouard intoned the Magnificat, that admirable canticle that came from the very heart and lips of Mary, and which was wonderfully appropriate to the circumstance. The assistants were about to respond with the second verse when the children stopped them with the announcement of a new wonder. A large sign, white as the snow that covered the earth, had unfolded under Mary's feet, and on this sign appeared successively large and beautiful golden letters, which the children named and then spelled out with a common voice. The simultaneity that these little children demonstrated, their spontaneity, their accent full of liveliness and animation, left no room for the slightest doubt. One was visibly in the presence of a miraculous fact. The first word traced on the white page and spelled by the children was this: But. This strange conjunction, this conditional *but*, shone alone for a few minutes. Then came the following words: Pray, my children. In the interval it took for each word to appear, the assembly continued the singing of the Magnificat. The children then noticed that the Lady's eyes were becoming tenderly smiling again. At the request of the good parish priest, and that of the assistants, the seers spelled the letters and assembled the words several times, and always fluently, without hesitation, and without any of them making the slightest mistake.

The venerable Father Guérin ordered the continuation of the sacred chants with the litanies of the Blessed Virgin; but Sister Marie-Édouard had barely finished the first invocation when the children, more and more attentive, cried out again: "There is someth Le vénérable abbé Guérin Parish priest of Pontmain at the time of the apparition. ing else happening! There are more letters!" And interrupting the singing of the litanies at uneven intervals, they named successively and with a common voice the letters composing the following words, traced on the same line as the previous ones: *God will answer you in a short time*. A luminous point of the same size as the letters ended the sentence. The children compared it to a sun.

A sun punctuating the divine word! What an image! The prophets could not have found a more satisfying or more grandiose one. Might this image not also be a symbol, the symbol of the word of God illuminating the universe, the symbol of the second *Fiat lux* pronounced by Jesus Christ on the plains and mountains of Judea? A new smile from Mary, a smile even sweeter, more heavenly, more divine than the previous ones, accompanied and illuminated this promise. There was so much charm, so much attraction, so much abandonment, so much maternal love in this smile that the moved hearts of the children responded with another smile. Smile of Mary descending to earth, smile of the children of Pontmain rising to the heavens, why did I not see you with my own eyes, at the moment of your ineffable embrace in the heart of Jesus! While the assembly sang the *Inviolata* and the *Salve Regina*, the mysterious hand slowly traced other letters on the sign, but below the previous ones. These letters, pronounced and spelled by the children as they appeared, gave the following sentence:

*My Son lets Himself be touched.*

Let us note here an important detail that well proves the unshakable assurance of the little readers: Between the word *lets* and *touched*, there was a fairly long interval, which led Sister Vitaline to assume that the sentence was finished. But in that case, these words: *My Son lets*, had no meaning. So she told the children that they were mistaken, that they were reading poorly, and that instead of *lets*, it was undoubtedly *tires* that was there. No, no, the children replied all together, it is not *tires*, there is an *i*. And the appearance of the word *touched* came to prove to Sister Vitaline that they were right. There is in this resistance of the children to the opinion of a person in whom they usually believed blindly, a whole revelation. It is the strongest test their sincerity had to undergo.

Here is the promise as the children read and reread it more than a hundred times on the sign:

*BUT PRAY, MY CHILDREN, GOD WILL ANSWER YOU IN A SHORT TIME MY SON LETS HIMSELF BE TOUCHED.*

There is in this *but* which begins the words of the Virgin, something very remarkable. Could it not be the continuation of the words of La Salette? The promise after the threats; forgiveness after the misfortunes and the punishment... like the continuation, in a word, of an interrupted sentence!!

Then, Sister Marie-Édouard, setting aside the somewhat too personal and too local concerns of the assembly, broadened the sphere of the prayers. With a voice that emotion made tremble, she sang:

Mother of hope Whose name is so sweet, *Protect our France,* Pray, pray for us!

As the nun sang, the Blessed Virgin, raising her hands, joined in by beating time. Her face was so beautiful and her smile so sweetly luminous that, under this celestial charm, the little girls and one of the little boys tried with a leap to fly toward her.

The hymn finished, the golden letters faded and the sign disappeared. On the face of the Blessed Virgin, the sweet smile faded and sadness appeared. A little below her feet, the children saw a red cross on which stood out a Christ, also red. The Blessed Virgin bowed piously, took the crucifix in her superimposed hands, and tilted it toward the children. It was surmounted by a sign where these words were written in red letters: *Jesus Christ*. They continued to pray with more fervor than ever. And the whole attitude of Mary testified that she was praying too. After a few moments during which the assembly sang the *Domine, exaudi*, and the *Ave maris stella*, the red Christ vanished; the bowed Blessed Virgin straightened up, and on each of her shoulders formed a small white cross. One of the stars which, at the beginning, had come to line up under the feet of the beautiful lady, rose, went around the blue circle whose torches it sharpened, and went to fix itself above the head of Mary, whose face, from sad as it was when she held the red cross, became smiling and radiant again. The symbolism of this last part of the apparition was transparent to the whole assembly. It was, if we may be permitted the expression, an illustrated commentary on the words traced on the sign. The bloody Christ said that the sins of France had once again crucified the Savior and drawn upon us the wrath of God. Hence the war with the foreigner and with our own fellow citizens. Any people that strikes Christ strikes itself. Deicide has as a fatal backlash homicide. The river of blood that waters the earth goes, increasing or decreasing, in proportion to our crimes. A nation entirely guilty and irrevocably fixed in evil would exterminate itself with its own hands. But nations are curable by prayer, repentance, and expiation. And this is what the Blessed Virgin was saying by presenting the red Christ to the children and inviting them to pray to the adorable Trinity by her example and through her intercession. I say through her intercession, for her whole attitude in this touching scene clearly demonstrates that she wishes to be a mediatrix between her Son and men; that if the latter consent to pray in her, through her, and with her, mercy will triumph over justice. This triumph of mercy, this assurance of forgiveness and consequently of peace are admirably signified by the change of the bloody crucifix into these two small white crosses which reappeared on Mary's shoulders. The color white is the poetic symbol of purity, regeneration, innocence, and peace. And the Blessed Virgin then passing from sadness to joy, and these torches lit by a star in the blue circle, and this star coming to fix itself and sparkle above the head of the beautiful lady, what do these things say, if not that the Son of Mary allows himself to be touched, and that the prayers of the Saints, enlightened and strengthened by those of Mary, have once again saved France. After this glorification where the prayers of the earth joined the weakened tasks of heaven, the apparition faded under a sort of white veil which itself vanished into the blue of the firmament. The inhabitants of the village who had rushed in a crowd withdrew gravely. Not a doubt arose among them. The sincerity of the children was evident, but the virtue that escapes from divine things was even more evident. It is above all through the heart, it is by its deep emotion, by its spontaneous recollection, by the religious terror it experiences, that man feels the approach and the presence of God.

But, one might ask, why were the little children the only ones to see the apparition? This is what one of the inhabitants of Pontmain, Jean Guidecoq, the brother of the postmaster, also asked. "You see, boy," he said to Eugène; "why should I not see, too?" Listen to the answer, Jean Guidecoq of all lands.

One day when Jesus was announcing the good news in Galilee, "the disciples came to him and said: Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Jesus, having called a little child, set him in their midst and said to them: "I tell you truly, unless you convert and become like this little child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

Another time, says the sacred account, "they were also bringing little children to Jesus so that he might touch them; seeing this, his disciples rebuked them with harsh words." But Jesus, calling these children to him, said to his disciples: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them. I tell you truly: Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it."

Well! Do you understand now? The Blessed Virgin did at Pontmain what Our Lord had done in Judea. She called little children to her and manifested herself to them, for she knew that sin had not yet distorted their sight; she knew that the rectitude, sincerity, breadth, and depth of the gaze come from innocence and purity of heart. A single sin intercepts God from the soul, just as a black spot intercepts the sun from our gaze. Every deviation, every deformation of the mind and heart, of reason and feelings, has the immediate effect of clouding the sight, and this to such a point that we are capable of denying the day at high noon. "Your eye is the lamp of your body," said the Savior in the Sermon on the Mount, "if your eye is simple, your whole body will be luminous; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark." Now, to manifest herself to men, the Blessed Virgin, who knows her Gospel and more than her Gospel, chose simple eyes, that is to say, capable of seeing her and bearing witness to her. Like troubled waters, sinful souls would have poorly reflected her celestial image!

Mr. Léon Guillier, secretary of the bishopric of Laval, had the kindness to send us, on February 10, 1872, the following note: "The Bishop of Laval has just published a pastoral letter bearing judgment on the apparition of the Most Holy Virgin in the village of Pontmain. The pilgrimage is already very well attended. The gathering of the faithful has not ceased, for a year, to increase every day. Everything leads one to believe that the sanctuary which will soon rise on the site of the apparition will become one of the most venerated places." Here are the terms in which the venera ble Bishop of Laval, Mgr Casimir Mgr Casimir-Alexis-Joseph Wicart Bishop of Laval who recognized the authenticity of the apparition. -Alexis-Joseph Wicart, concludes the pastoral letter bearing judgment on the apparition which took place at Pontmain on January 17, 1871, and which he published on February 2, 1872, more than a year after the event. "Having seen the minutes of the two commissions successively charged with inquiring into the fact of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Pontmain, and those of the supplementary investigations made on January 19 and the 20th and 21st of the same month; "Having seen the written testimony of the Doctors of Medicine called to give their judgment on the circumstances which are in the domain of medical and physiological science; "Having seen the report and the opinion of the commission of theologians charged with studying the aforementioned fact from the point of view of theology, philosophical certainty, and legal forms; "Considering that the apparition cannot be attributed to fraud or imposture, nor to a diseased state of the organs of sight in the children, nor to an optical illusion, nor to a hallucination; "Considering that the fact exceeds the powers of man and those of all corporeal and visible nature; that therefore it belongs to the order of supernatural or at least post-supernatural facts; "Considering that it cannot be explained either by the action of diabolical powers; "Considering moreover that it bears, either in itself or in the set of circumstances which accompanied and followed it, the character of a fact of the supernatural and divine order; "WE HAVE DECLARED AND DECLARE THE FOLLOWING: "Art. 1. We judge that the IMMACULATE VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, truly appeared, on January 1 7, 1871, to Eugè Françoise Richer One of the young girls who witnessed the apparition. ne B arbedette, Joseph Ba Jeanne-Marie Lebossé One of the young girls who witnessed the apparition. rbedette, Françoise Richer, and Jeanne-Marie Lebossé, in the hamlet of Pontmain. "We submit, in all humility and obedi ence, this judgment to Saint-Siège apostolique Papal authority that approved the cult of Aemilian. the supreme judgment of the Apostolic Holy See, center of unity, and infallible organ of truth in the whole Church. "Art. 2. We authorize in our diocese the cult of the Blessed Virgi n Mary, under the title of OUR LAD NOTRE-DAME D'ESPÉRANCE DE PONTMAIN Title under which the Virgin Mary is honored at Pontmain. Y OF HOPE OF PONTMAIN. "Art. 4. Responding to the wishes which have been expressed to us from all sides, we have formed the plan to raise a sanctuary in honor of Mary on the very ground above which She deigned to appear." Finally, on February 14, 1872, the secretary of the bishopric of Laval sent us the following lines, for which we thank him here very cordially: "I have no observation to make on the account of the event of Pontmain that you propose to publish in the work of which you sent me a proof. All these details are in conformity with the brochure written by Father Richard, and printed with the permission of the Bishop of Laval."