This book not only tells much of the message of LaSalette, but includes many of the little known events in the lives of the children, and, what happened to them after they saw the Light on the Mountain within which sat a Lady who was radiant, as if she were made of light.   She sat on the roof of the ‘Paradise House’ which they had built out of stones with a flat rock on the top covered with flowers.  The light was so brilliant that they had to shade their eyes at first but Melanie could see that the Lady was weeping.  “I could see her tears falling” she said later.

Melanie was the first girl born in a family of two boys.  The happiness of Julie Calvat at having a little girl to dress quickly dissipated as Melanie grew.  She was a little baby who couldn’t stand noise.  As she grew she would scream with terror in a crowd of Julie’s sociable friends.  Julie came to dislike her child.  Pierre Calvat, her father, was more patient and loving and told her the story of Jesus who had died on the Cross in order to save men from their sins.

One day when Melanie was scarcely three years old and Julie found her too trying, she picked her up, shook her saying “I’ve had enough of you.  I will not be a Mother to a child like you.  Do not call me Mama anymore”  She shoved the child out the back door and told her to go live in the woods.  Melanie ran towards the woods crying her little heart out.  She sat down under a tree and cried herself to sleep.  She had a dream  She saw a little boy about her age who was beautiful and kind.  She had seen Him before, but this time he spoke to her and told her not to cry and that he was her brother.  It is recorded that she “saw him nearly every day” before the dream but he had never spoken to her .

Melanie saw Him frequently.  She didn’t know for a long time that it was the Child Jesus.  Once she asked Him to sit in a chair.  He sat in the chair for her.  It is true.  The chair is in the museum of the Basillica of LaSalette.

Maximin Giraud was also a  child of poverty.  He was eleven, and, frightened of the cows which both children tended.  The children had never met before the day on which the apparition occurred.  They were both tending their cows and Melanie had shown Maximin how to build a Paradise House.  Melanie dozed off and when she awakened she couldn’t see the cows.  She called Maximin and he came running down the steep mountain as Melanie ran up.

She paused because she saw a great light on the mountain.   “Look Maximin … do you see that light?”  He told her to be careful and if it was something bad he would “give it a good whack” with his stout stick.

They approached the light and saw the incomprehensible beauty of Mary.  Melanie wrote “Our eyes spoke to each other.”  “Do not be afraid my children.  I have come to give you great news.”  Each child was given a secret.  Maximin’s has never been revealed.  Melanie received the famous “Secret of LaSalette” which was a source of great trial for her all through her life.

“Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo XII thoroughly approved the secret and wanted it promulgated.  Through devious twists and turns of Vatican politics at that time, a letter from the Holy Office … unknown to the Pope … was issued.  It forbade the people to read the Secret which Melanie herself had written and promulgated. The people were told to destroy it if they had it.   It was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books.  Through another set of circumstances, the Secret was inadvertently released when Pope Paul VI dismantled the Index of Forbidden Books”  Information from CD’s by  Doctor Peter Chojnowski 

The author, Mary Alice Dennis, gives the following beautiful description of Mary from Melanie.

“Our Lady’s dress was silver white, brilliant and dazzling. Her sleeves were long and wide. They covered the tips of her fingers rather like those of a nun’s habit.  Her apron was the color of brilliant gold and was as long as the hem of her skirt.  Her white kerchief was bordered with roses of all colors.  Beside the border of roses lay a flat band of gold braid.  Then around her neck hung a golden chain which had a Crucifix on it, also of gold.  Upon the Cross were pliers on one end and a hammer on the other end  (the instruments of the Crucifixion) 

The figure of Christ on the Cross was even more luminous than the Cross itself.

She wore a high headdress of white, much like the ladies’ bonnets.  This bonnet had a crown of roses on it.  The crown encircled the bonnet, but did not seem to touch it.  The roses were small and of all different colors.  They kept changing and they shimmered with lights.  This made a sparkling diadem of light and color.

Her shoes were silvery white with gold buckles.  They had a garland of roses around the sole.  The whole outfit was white and gold with the sparkling roses adding extra touches of color.”

Melanie died at the age of 72 … broken hearted.  The letter from the Holy Office which prohibited the promulgation of the Secret had ruined her life.  “I couldn’t do what Our Blessed Mother asked me to do.” she stated often.  The mysterious letter had  put a terrible doubt into her mind about what to do.

 Maximin died in his forties.  His secret was for him personally.  It is believed to be somewhere in the Vatican archives. 

Melanie’s secret was inadvertently released in the wake of Vatican II when Pope Paul VI dismantled the Index of Forbidden books.

Information from the CD’s of Doctor Peter Chojnowski 

The Secret of LaSalette concerns us.  It is apocalyptic. It is For Us !!  It is important and  It is available to hear and to read.  It has traveled the same route as the Third Secret of Fatima … which is not available for us.

 

From:  The Secret of Lasalette by Dr. Peter Chojnowski    CD available from Oltyn Library Services   http://www.oltyn.org   (this CD presents the entire Secret and is well researched)

Our Lady of LaSalette by Dr. Peter Chojnowski  CD available from isoc.com@charter.net      (In the Spirit of Chartres Committee, Inc)

Melanie And the Story of Our Lady of LaSalette by Mary Alice Dennis                             Book available from Amazon