[ LA SALETTE.]
This place, formerly a dreary and desolate mountain plateau, is now visited by thousands of pilgrims, especially on the great feast-day of Notre Dame de la Salette, sanctioned by Pio IX. himself. [The church], a handsome and substantial edifice, built in 1860, of unpolished marble, is 146 ft. long and 49 ft. wide, and 60 ft. high, inside measure. Eighteen columns surround the nave and choir, while attached pillars support the walls, all covered with votive offerings. The pulpit was a gift from Belgian votaries. The façade, with three doorways, has on each corner a handsome square tower. The expenses, which were very great in a region of such difficult access, and where winter lasts six months, were defrayed by spontaneous contributions. Opposite the façade are well-executed colossal figures in bronze, the gift of a Spaniard, representing the events of the story. On the south side of the choir
a door opens into the large and spacious building occupied by the nuns, and on the north side another door opens into a similar building occupied by the monks. The hotel accommodation in each is exactly the same. The pension price, including wine and everything else, is 5½ frs. per day. Visitors can have a good meat breakfast for 1½ fr., dinner 2½ frs., supper 2 frs., a bowl of café au lait ½ fr., a cup of café noir 25 c. Both the monks and the nuns are very obliging. Books approved of by the bishop of Grenoble are sold in the “magasin” of the establishment, giving the history of the apparition, from which the following is extracted:— “On the 19th of September 1846, at 2.30 P.M., was seen by a girl and a boy in the place where the statue now is, a figure seated on a stone shedding tears so copiously that they caused a dried-up spring, about 2 ft. in diameter and 2½ ft. deep, a little to her left, to flow forth freely. Since then it has been fed by a pipe, and has been called the miraculous fountain. The girl’s name was Fraçoise-Melanie Calvat Mathieu, 15 years old, and the boy’s Pierre-Maximin Giraud, 11 years old, both employed as cowherds, and both so ignorant that they could neither read nor write. They understood only the patois, and had such frail memories that the girl had as yet been hardly able to remember a few lines of the catechism, while it had taken the boy three years to learn the Pater Noster and the Avé Maria. The statues of the children in the path between the railings indicate the place where they were standing when they first saw the figure. When the apparition became aware of their presence it arose, and calling them to her, said in French, shedding tears abundantly all the time, ‘If my people will not submit, I shall be obliged to let loose the arm of my son; it is so heavy and weighty that I cannot retain it any longer. You may pray and do what you like, you will never be able to recompense the labour I have taken for you. I have given you six days for work, and have reserved for myself the seventh, but they will not grant me it; it is that that makes the arm of my son so heavy. Those who drive carts cannot swear without using (inserting) the name of my son. These are the two things which make the arm of my son so burdensome.’ She continued a little longer in French till, observing the children did not understand her, she added in patois a long harangue in the same strain, a diatribe on the blasphemy of the age and the desecration of the Sabbath— ‘only some old women go to mass.’ After her speech, and having twice charged the children to make known her discourse, ‘a tout mon peuple,’ she glided up the path between the railings, followed by the children, to the eminence where the colossal statue stands with the statues of the children before it, and, having ascended 5 ft., she disappeared, looking to the S.E.” That this being was really Mary was acknowledged by Pio IX., who sanctioned the institution of a feast-day in her honour, and several plenary indulgences for pilgrimages and other acts of devotion, to Notre Dame de la Salette. On the 6th August 1867 the worship (culte) of her was publicly established in Rome. The first stone of the church, up on the mountain near the site where Mary appeared to the children,
was laid by Bruillard, bishop of Grenoble, on 25th May 1852, assisted by Chatrousse, bishop of Valence, in the presence of 15,000 pilgrims. In the churches all over France and in many of those in Belgium are pictures representing N. D. de la Salette addressing the children. In the litany addressed to Mary of Salette she is appealed to as “the tower of David,” “the gate of heaven,” “the morning star,” “the refuge of sinners,” “the queen conceived without sin,” “the healer of diseases,” “thou by whose supplications the arm of the irritated Lord against us is held back,” “thou who hast said, If my people will not submit I shall be forced to let go the arm of my son,” “thou who continually beseechest thy divine son to have mercy upon us, pray for us.”
The lad, Pierre Maximin, after serving his time in the army, kept a shop at Corps, upon which was written, “Objets de Piété vendus par Maximin Giraud.” He died about the year 1880. Melanie, the girl, was sent to a nunnery at Naples. A priest is said to have affirmed that the pretended Mary was an eccentric lady called Mlle. Lamerlière, born near Saint-Marcellin, Isère.
From Corps either return to Grenoble or take the diligence to Gap, 22½ m. S. (See [p. 333], and [map p. 304].)
Gières. Domene. Goncelin.
PARIS
MODANE 398 78 [GIÈRES]. At this station omnibuses await passengers for the baths of Uriage, 4 m. N., and 1358 ft. Hotels: Grand Hôtel; Cercle; Ancien Hôtel; Des Bains; Du Rocher. The bathing establishment is comfortable and commodious, and is pleasantly situated in a narrow wooded valley, about 400 ft. higher than Grenoble. The water contains common salt, sulphates of magnesia and soda, and carbonate of lime, and rises in a deep valley at the junction of granite and lias, which is, however, concealed for some way by an immense mass of detritus, through which the spring forces itself. It is conveyed 700 yards in a subterraneous conduit to the establishment, whence it issues with a temp. of 71° Fahr.
PARIS
MODANE 401 75 [DOMENE], pop. 2000. Inn: Hôtel du Commerce. From this village is generally made the laborious ascent of the Pic de Belledonne, 9780 ft. above the sea-level. Guides necessary. The first night is generally spent at the village of Revel. Two days required.
PARIS
MODANE 412 64 [GONCELIN], pop. 1600. Station for Allevard-les Bains, 6¼ m. distant by an excellent road through a beautiful country, in comfortable omnibuses awaiting passengers at the station, fare 2 frs. Here also a coach awaits passengers for Tourettes, pop. 400, in the opposite direction, upon the right bank of the Isére.