September 20

Spiritual Bouquet: We preach Christ crucified -- to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishness. I Cor. 1:23

BLESSED MAXIMIN GIRAUD
Visionary of La Salette
(1835-1875)

Yesterday was the Feast of the great Apparition of the Mother of God at La Salette in the Alps of eastern France. The Prophetess and Mother of the Latter Times, sent from Heaven, chose for one of Her auditors a young boy eleven years old, Blessed Maximin Giraud, who was a child like all the rest until he saw and heard the Lady in the circle of light. Later he himself wrote a description of Her apparition, in a brochure entitled “My Profession of Faith concerning the Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette.” Maximin became a papal guard or zouave for a certain time, then undertook studies in medicine, but decided he could do greater good for souls by remaining at the disposition of those who were asking him to come and relate his story, to narrate the remarkable day of 1846 when he saw and heard “the Lady more brilliant than the light” which surrounded Her.

“If My people refuse to obey,” She said to the children, “I will be forced to release the hand of My Son.” By these words She made Herself known as the Mother of God. Maximin’s account of the episode is lengthy, but we will reproduce a portion of it as the best introduction to its author, who after many trials and hardships, including extreme poverty, would finally die in 1875, in Corps, France, near the mountain of the Apparition, which he could see from his window.

With Melanie Calvat, a young shepherdess four years older than himself, Maximin had taken his herd to the extreme heights of a mountain near Corps, in the diocese of Grenoble. After their lunch the young shepherds went to watch their animals for a moment, on the far slope of a hill. Maximin wrote that as they were returning:

“Melanie stopped, her staff fell from her hands. Frightened, she turned to me and said, ‘Do you see that great light over there?’ ‘Yes, I see it,’ I answered; ‘but pick up your staff.’ And then I brandished mine, threatening, ‘If it touches me I will give it a good blow!’ This light, before which that of the sun seemed to pale, then appeared to open up, and we saw within it the form of a Lady more brilliant yet. She had a white headdress, brilliant, silvery, like transparent gold, high and round at the top, slightly inclined in front... The features of Mary were pronounced and Her face heavenly, of an admirable whiteness and beauty, expressing gentleness and kindness, and bright with a marvelous light...”

They heard Her voice from more than 50 feet away, telling them to come forward and not be afraid; She was there to announce great news to them. The public message of La Salette foretold chastisements for France “if Her people did not cease to profane the Day of the Lord, to take His Name in vain and mock religion.” All of those chastisements were realized in the following years: The potatoes turned to dust, the nuts were bad, and the grapes spoiled. And worst of all, little children died in the arms of their parents of a sickness which caused them to tremble — a sickness never before seen.

Maximin then tells how, when the Lady gave each of them a secret, the other visionary became deaf and heard nothing at all. She finally spoke again to both of them, saying that if the people were converted, the very stones and rocks would become wheat, and potatoes would be found sown in the ground. And She asked them if they said their prayers well. She had other reproaches to make for the impiety of the people, and told them to pass Her message to all Her people. He narrates that when he talked of this to the lady who employed Melanie, “My words — a second sun and the Lady on fire — made her think I had lost my mind.”

The two visionaries did not see each other again for three months but continued to narrate individually what they had seen. Maximin, in the succeeding days and years, was severely questioned, without ever becoming angry or revealing his secret to the curious who used every imaginable means to try to obtain it. “Aren’t you afraid of forgetting the secret?” he was asked. “If I forget it, the Blessed Virgin will be able to make me remember it again,” said Maximin. “The Lady you saw was just a luminous, bright cloud.” “But a cloud does not speak,” he answered. “Sir, people today mock La Salette, but it is like a flower that in winter we cover with fertilizer and mud, and which, in the spring or in summer, comes up again from the ground, more beautiful.”

The history of La Salette and its secrets is not yet complete. Blessed Melanie published her Secret in 1858; by it the Blessed Virgin calls for the Apostles of the Latter Times to assemble, foretelling great chastisements before a time of peace can arrive with and through the renewal of the Church.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 11; Maximin Giraud, Berger de La Salette, by Henri Dion (Éditions Résiac: Montsurs, 1988).

SAINT EUSTACHIUS
and HIS FAMILY
Martyrs
(† ca. 118)

The remarkable story of Saint Eustachius, named Placidus before his conversion, is a lesson given by God Himself on the marvels of His Divine Providence. He was a distinguished and very wealthy officer of the Roman army under the Emperor Trajan, in the beginning of the second century. He practiced generous charity to the poor, although he had not yet perceived the errors of idolatry.

One day, while this distinguished officer was vainly pursuing a deer, the animal suddenly stood immobile before him in the light of a hilltop, and he perceived between its horns a luminous cross. On the cross was the image of the crucified Saviour, and a voice said to him, “I am the Christ whom you honor without knowing it; the alms you give to the poor have reached Me.” Like Saint Paul, he fell from his horse and remained inert for a time. Coming to himself, he said interiorly, “What is this voice I have heard? You who speak to me, who are you, that I may believe in you?” And the Lord told him interiorly that He was the Creator of the light, of the seasons, of man and all things visible, that he had suffered to save the human race, died and been buried, but had risen the third day.

This was sufficient, and the officer went home to fulfill the prescription he had received to be baptized with his wife and two young sons. His spouse had received a similar revelation at the same time as himself, and they all went to the Christian authority of the region in secret, to be baptized the same night.

In a short time he lost all his possessions through natural catastrophes and robbers. But he had been advised beforehand that the Lord wanted to make of him another Job, that already the ancient enemy had plotted against him, and that he was not to allow any thought of blasphemy to arise in his heart amid the sufferings that were awaiting him. He prayed for strength, and retired from the region after the calamities, with his wife and children. When by unforeseeable and extraordinary accidents, his wife and children were also taken from him, and he believed the children dead, he was close to despair and wished his life might end; but the warning of the Lord returned to his mind, and he entered into the service of a land-owner of a village called Badyssus, to tend the fields. He remained for fifteen years in this occupation. During this time his loved ones were well and safe, all spared in the perilous circumstances which had removed them from his sight, but separated, each one like himself, from the three others.

In those days the empire was suffering greatly from the ravages of barbarians, and was sinking under the assaults. The emperor Trajan had Eustachius sought out, and when he was found, had him clothed in splendid garments to give him command over the troops he intended to send against the invaders. During the celebration that accompanied his return, he related to the emperor all that had occurred to him. When the troops were being assembled, his own sons were conscripted. Seeing them, he noticed them as young men taller than most and of great nobility of bearing and countenance, and kept them near him without yet recognizing them. One of the two, while on bivouac near the very house of his own mother, who like Eustachius had taken employment in the garden of a landowner, related the confused memories of his childhood to his companion. Suddenly, the two brothers recognized one another and embraced in an effusion of joy.

Their mother, by a delicate attention of Providence, had chanced to overhear them, and reflecting on what she heard, became certain they were her own sons. She went to the captain of the campaign to inquire about them, and immediately recognized him. Not wishing to startle him, she began to relate her story, identifying herself as the wife of a certain Placidus, and saying she believed she was now in the presence of her two sons from whom she had been separated, and whom she had not seen for long years. One must imagine the sentiments of the captain on hearing this narration, the reunion which followed, and the prayers of thanksgiving sent up to God by the family and also the troops, who joined them in their joy and prayers.

Returning to Rome victorious, Eustachius was received in triumph and greatly honored, but when commanded to sacrifice during the celebration to the false gods, refused. The infuriated emperor Adrian — for Trajan had died — ordered him with his wife and children to be exposed to a starved lion. But instead of harming these servants of God, the beast came up to them, lowered its head as if in homage, and left the arena. The emperor, more furious still, caused the martyrs to be shut up inside a brazen bull, under which a fire was to be kindled, that they might be roasted to death. Saint Eustachius prayed aloud and thanked God, asking Him who had reunited them to cause that their lives end at the same time, so they might be received together by Him into the happiness of His presence. They expired, but neither their bodies nor even their hair was injured. They were found entire the next day, and at first it was believed they were still alive. Many believed in Christ through this final miracle, which to us today seems perhaps less miraculous than the story of their existence while alive. A church in honor of the martyrs still exists in Rome: Saint-Eustachius in Thermis.

Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 11.