LA SALETTE - A CHRONOLOGY

1846, Sept. 19 Apparition of the BVM at La Salette
Donal Foley at Theotokos claims that "La Salette too is an example of an apparition where very little was actually said."

1847 1846 version of the Secret recorded in 1847

1848, Aug. The report, The Truth about the event of La Salette, by Fr. Rousselot, Vicar General to Mgr. Philibert de Bruillard, Bishop of Grenoble, was forwarded to Pope Pius IX.

1850, Sep. 24/5 Maximin visited the Curé d'Ars.

1850, Oct. Mélanie entered as a postulant the convent at Corenc. Here she fell into "story-telling."

1851 Mélanie took the habit under the name of Sister Mary of the Cross. She had a passion for reading mystical writings and revelations of varying authenticity.

1851, July 3 Maximin wrote down his secret for the Pope in the bishop's palace.

1851, July 6 Mélanie wrote down her secret for the Pope. Mgr. De Bruillard reads both secrets, seals the envelopes.
She claims (in the 1876 version - which became the "Indexed" so-called "Secret of La Salette") that Our Lady foretold that the Antichrist would appear in 1865 - an event which obviously did not occur!
'In the year 1865, the abomination will be seen in holy places; in convents, the flowers of the Church will be decayed and the demon will make himself as the king of hearts. May those who are at the head of religious communities keep themselves on guard for persons whom they must receive, because the demon will use of all his malice in order to introduce into religious orders persons devoted to sin, for disorders and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread by all the earth.'
Comment: It didn't happen! Nor did "...Paris will be burned and Marseilles engulfed; ..." happen! Nor did the following:

'It will be during this time that the antichrist will be born of a Hebrew religious, of a false Virgin who will have communication with the old serpent, the master of impurity; his father will be Bishop; at birth, he will vomit blasphemies, he will have teeth; in a word, this will be the devil incarnate; he will let out frightening cries, he will perform wonders, he will nourish himself only on impurities. He will have brothers who, although they will not be like him demons incarnate, will be children of evil; at 12 years, they will make themselves noticed by their brilliant victories which they will win; soon, they will each be at the head of armies, assisted by the legions of hell.' "...antichrist will be [...] the devil incarnate;"
Comment: Pardon me? The only incarnation that (I believe) is/was possible was that of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity!

Our Lady is also claimed to have predicted of the Holy Father:
"The wicked will make an attempt several times on his life without power to do harm to his days; but neither he, nor his successor [who will not reign long,] will see the triumph of the Church of God." (Refuge of Sinners - see footnotes.]
Comment:
Let us examine just that one prophetic phrase "who will not reign long."
The alleged "Secret" (as per the 1876 version) was given on September 19, 1846;
The pope of the time was Pope Pius IX; Pope Leo XIII was his successor; therefore, "Our Lady" must have been referring to Pope Leo XIII!
The facts are that:
Pope Pius IX reigned from 16 June 1846 to 7 Feb. 1878 - 31 years and 7 months;
Pope Leo XIII reigned from 20 Feb. 1878 to 20 July 1903 - 25 years!!!

1851, July 18 Mgr de Bruillard's envoys, MM Rousselot and Gérin, place them [the 1851 written "secrets"] in Pope Pius IX's hands. Pius IX revealed nothing concerning any Order and a supposedly inspired Rule to be put into application after 1858!

1851, Sep. 19 Mgr. de Bruillard published a pastoral letter "we authorize the devotion to Our Lady of La Salette."

1852, May 1 Mgr. de Bruillard published another pastoral letter announcing the erection of a shrine and the institution of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette.

1852 June 4 A translation of Mgr de Bruillard's pastoral letter appeared in L'Osservatore Romano.

1853, May Mgr. Ginoulhiac elected Bishop of Grenoble.

1854, Nov. 4 Mgr. Ginoulhiac, in a pastoral letter to his clergy, stated: "...we believe it to be our duty to refuse to admit her [Mélanie] to the yearly vows..." Mélanie refused to accept the required year's probation.

"Unfortunately, Mélanie then took to lending a willing ear to 'troubled and sick individuals,' to people whose minds were obsessed with popular prophecies, pseudo-apocalyptic and pseudo-mystical theories. This would affect her for the rest of her life."

1854, Nov. 4 Mgr. Ginoulhiac renewed his predecessor's doctrinal judgement explicitly and definitively.

1854, Dec. 8 Mgr. Ginoulhiac went to Rome to hear Pope Pius IX define the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

1855, Feb. 23 The Bishop of Hexham took her under his wing, and ultimately, she went to a Carmelite convent in Darlington where she received the habit on this day. She refused to make her profession and sought to leave the convent. It was here, and later in France, that she first began to divulge snatches of the "Secret".

1855, Sep. 19 Mgr. Ginoulhiac declared: "The mission of the shepherds is ended; that of the Church begins."

1858 Feb. Our Lady appears eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous. Lourdes would far-and-away eclipse Mélanie and La Salette.

1860-67 Mélanie left Darlington in 1860. She was taken in as a boarder under the name of Sister Zénaïde in the Compassion Order's mother house in Marseille She contravened an order not to reveal her identity, and was obliged to leave the congregation, the habit, and Marseilles.

1862-63 More pieces from the secret written surreptitiously to Fr. Calage, in disobedience to orders from the Bishop of Marseilles.

1864 & 65 Mélanie, daughter of eve, is a mythomaniac, disobedient and unbalanced - which excuses her in part - her "prophecies" were invalidated by events: the years 1864 and 1865 did not mark the unchaining of the forces of evil.

1867-85 An Italian prelate, Mgr. Petagna installed her with a sister of the Compassion order. She attempted to found the Order of the Sons of the Mother of God on the fringes of the regular 1852 foundation of the Missionaries of La Salette.

1869-70 More pieces from the "secret" to Mgr. Zola, and Abbé Felician Bliard.

1870-75 Various versions, each a little more explicit.

1871 Eugene Barbedette and some of his friends saw the BVM at Pontmain.

1871, Dec. "The secrets of La Salette and their importance. Latest revelations of forthcoming events" by M. Girard appeared in bookshops. It claimed to reveal the true text of Maximin's secret. However, "Maximin himself never released an authorized version of his secret."

1872, Feb. 2 Maximin denied the text in vigorous terms.

1872 C. R. Girard published the Mélanie's document to date in his book "The Secrets of La Salette and Their Import." It was the first of five by the same author.

1873 April 30 Fr. Bliard published the document received from Mélanie in 1869 in a brochure he called "Letters to a Friend about the Secret of the Shepherdess of La Salette." It received the approval of Cardinal Sixtus Riario Sforza, Archbishop of Naples.

1873 "After the Council of the Vatican, Melanie publicly contradicted in 1873 the Council's Decree Pastor Aeternus by claiming that Our Lady had confided in her that "Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist", a line, according to Unity Publishing and other sources [see footnote 11 below], most likely was borrowed from Martin Luther who first uttered it in opposition to the Catholic Church in 1540.

Following this, the Church privately warned her and banned this new message, forbidding Catholics from entertaining or discussing it. cf AngelQueen

1876 Estelle Faguette had several visons at Pellevoisin, near Tours.

1878, Nov. Mgr. Fava, the new Bishop of Grenoble, accompanied by a La salette Father went to Rome to request the crowning and title of basilica for the shrine, and at the same time approval of the Missionaries' rule.

1879, Jan. 5 Mélanie's "The Rule of the Mother of God" was handed to Pope Leo XIII.

1879 Summoned to Rome, accused by Mgr. Fava, Bishop of Grenoble, supported, she claimed by Leo XIII, she left without, in the end, winning her case, but not without writing a new version of the famous "Secret". Her protector died, and the community dispersed.

1879 Mélanie's 1879 version of "The Secret of La Salette" was published with the imprimatur of the Bishop of Lecce, Italy. Titled: "Total Account of the apparition of the Most Blessed Virgin on the Mountainside of La Salette."

1879 In the "Secret" she attributes to the Blessed Virgin, in 1879, there is not a single allusion to the glories of the declaration of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, and the apparitions of Lourdes in 1858. Still worse, she attempts to overshadow Lourdes by inventing the story that her "Secret" - Mélanie's - should have been published in 1858! The following attribution to the BVM is NOT in the 1847 version: "Mélanie, what I am about to tell you now will not always be a secret,you may publish it in 1858."

1879 Aug. 21 Our Lady appeared at Knock, Ireland. She said - not a single word!

1885-92 Mélanie became caught up in a legal case against the Bishop of Chalon - which she lost. Her spiritual father, Mgr. Zola wrote of her: "Sister Mary of the Cross had a quarrel with a French bishop. She showed very little submission towards her superiors in these circumstances, maybe through lack of guidance or of light, or for both reasons."

1892-1904 Wandering with the Abbé Combe - "a priest much taken up with politico-religious prophecies.".

1899 Mélanie, on the insistence of Abbé Combe, who was infatuated with her, returned to France. Stormy relations with this priest made her flee to Italy again.

1900 Mélanie published her "contrived 'Autobiography' wherein she created an extraordinary childhood enriched with pseudo-mystical wanderings, her own imagination and the chimera provided by her correspondents. The message Mélanie attempts to link to La Salette during this period has nothing whatever in common with the testimony she gave about the Apparition in the early years." The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IX.

1901 Index Librorvm Prohibitorvm [ 6] - (as per the 1948 Index)

"Combe, Gilbert-Joseph-Emile
Le grand coup avec sa date probable, c'est-à-dire le grand châtiment du monde et le triomphe universel de l'Eglise; étude sur le secret de la Salette, augmentée de la brochure de Mélanie et autres pièces justificatives." [ 7]

1904 On leaving, Mélanie and Abbé Combe told each other a piece of their mind.

1904 Ronald Conte claims "I have based [my] new translation on a copy of the original manuscript of the 1904 edition of Le Secret De Mélanie, handwritten (in French) by Abbé Combe, Curé of Diou (Allier), published in Lyons, France. He obtained from Mélanie a copy of her secret 'entirely written by her hand' and which conformed to the text of the secret originally printed in 1879, at Lecce, France (Le Secret of Mélanie, p.7)"

Comment: Of course, this is the same Abbé Combe whose prior and later writings on Mélanie Calvat's "Secret of La Salette" were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books!

1904, Dec. 14 Mélanie dies. R.I.P.

1907 "Index Librorvm Prohibitorvm - (as per the 1948 Index)

Combe, Gilbert-Joseph-Emile
"Le secret de Mélanie, bergère de la Salette, et la crise actuelle." [ 8]

1910 October 10 The Catholic Encyclopedia's article on "La Salette" was Imprimatured on this date, copy-righted and printed in Volume IX. NO FURTHER INFORMATION regarding the so-called "Secret of La Salette" and the Indexing was recorded therein - but time did NOT stand still; further condemnations were forthcoming!

1915 Rome, under Benedict XV in 1915, set out to stop any further controversy being stirred up by Mélanie's "great Secret" by settling the matter bluntly...:

"...The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office orders all the faithful, whatever country they may belong to, to abstain from dealing with or discussing the matter in question..." (Le Hidec, p. 123)

1915, July 1 Cardinal de Cabrières, Bishop of Montpellier wrote:
"It is this secret, already several times printed, distributed, commented on and recommended by various authors, both ecclesiastical and lay, that M. Mariavi [see 1916 below] has thought fit to give to the public, presenting it as "The Gospel of the Virgin Mary", to accompany and complement the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

"In order to answer your question Monseigneur, I have just read the two pamphlets concerning which you desire to know my opinion. It is absolutely unfavourable. The authors of previous publications, to do with this secret, were condemned, if not because of the secret itself, at least because of the scope and the consequences they gave it. A similar fate awaits this present publication.

" I. - It seems, in fact, that we do not have here the secret handed by the Bishop of Grenoble's envoys to HH Pope Pius IX in 1851. In its present form, it was written by Milanie Calvat, but on various occasions and in successive fragments, and seems rather to be the result of a personal composition than an exact repetition of the original text given to Pius IX, and which is said to be no longer in the Vatican.

[...]

1915, Dec. 21 "The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office Gives a Decree
"...Concerning the Commonly called 'SECRET OF La Salette' ...Moreover, let people be subject to the sanctions given both by Pope Leo XIII ...and by Urban VIII through the decree 'Sanctissimus Dominus Noster' given on 13th March 1625 against those who publish asserted revelations without the permission of ordinaries. However, this decree does not forbid devotion towards the Blessed Virgin under the title of Reconciliatrix commonly of La Salette."

1916 "Index Librorvm Prohibitorvm" - (as per the 1948 Index)
Mariavé, Henri
"La leçon de l'hôpital Notre-Dame, d'Ypres; exégèse du secret de la Salette. [ 9]"

1916, April 13 "The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office

The Supreme CONGREGATION OF THE HOLY OFFICE
Declaration Concerning a Certain Work
In a general session of this Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office of the eminent and very reverend Lord Cardinals, Inquisitors General, in affairs of faith and morals declared the work to which the title "The Lesson about the Hospital of Notre Dame Explained about the Secret of La Salette" by Henry Mariave, from the general rules handed down in the Constitution of Offices and Responsibilities has been condemned and proscribed."

1916, June 6 "The Sacred Congregation of the Index DECREE
"The Sacred Congregation .., do condemn and have condemned, have proscribed and will proscribe and order and have ordered that the works which follow or have at another time been condemned and proscribed be referred into the .Index of Prohibited Books:

Dr. HENRY MARIAVÉ, The Lesson of the Notre Dame Hospital of Ypres - Interpretation of the Secret of La Salette, Volume I, Paris, 1915; Volume II, Appendices, Montpellier, 1915,
(Holy Office Decree. 12th day of April 1916).

And so let nobody of whatever rank or condition dare either to publish aforementioned works which have been condemned and proscribed in whatever place or whatever reason, or to read or retain published things under penalties indicated in the Index of Forbidden Books..."

1923, May 23 "The Little Work Is Condemned: 'The Apparition Of The Very Holy Virgin Of La Salette'

"DECREE
"In a General Session of the Supreme Holy Congregation of the Holy Office, proscribed and condemned the little work The Apparition of the Most Holy Virgin on the Holy mountain of La Salette, Saturday 19 September 1845. - Simple Reprinting of the entire public text by Mélanie, etc. Society Saint-Augustine, Paris-Rome-Bruges, 1922; ordering those to whom it looks to take care to withdraw examples of the condemned book from the hands of the faithful. "[10]

Chronology extracted from:

"About La Salette" etc., by Solange Hertz

"Brother Michael Dimond ... like a man in the grip of a dream", by Br. Thomas Mary Sennot
"...I had just finished re-reading for the third time Chesterton's St. Thomas Aquinas, and I realized that I had at hand the perfect rebuttal. But let me dispose of two points first. Our Lady at La Salette did not say, 'Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of Antichrist.' The message of La Salette was against working on Sundays and the profanation of the Holy Name of Jesus. Our Lady at this time gave a secret to each of the two seers, Maximin Giraud and Melanie Mathieu, which they were forbidden to reveal. They later wrote them out to be read only by Pope Pius IX. Despite this prohibition, Melanie, much later, decided to publish what purported to be her 'secret' on her own, which was so sensational that it brought great discredit to the apparition itself. On December 21, 1915 the Holy Office forbade further publication or discussion of Melanie's revelations (for more on this see article at http://freespace.virgin.net/crc.english/salette.htm) The caption on this tract, 'Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of Antichrist,' is actually by Martin Luther, and was developed at great length by one of his first disciples, Flacius Illyricus, in his 'Centuries of Magdeburg.' This preposterous theory was ably refuted by St. Peter Canisius, Baronius, and others."

Catholic Encyclopedia, The, Vol. IX.

Diocese of San Bernardino, California

INDEX LIBRORVM PROHIBITORVM -- 1948 - do searches to find "salette," "combe." and "mariave."

   Combe 1901: HERE

   Combe 1907: HERE

   Mariavi 1916: HERE

   "L'apparition de la Tres Sainte Vierge de la Salette" 1923: HERE

Secrets of La Salette, The - Mélanie's Secret, at Refuge of Sinners

Theotokos, Donal Foley

Truth About The Secret of La Salette, The etc. and

Roman Congregation Decrees Prohibiting Certain Works Relative To Messages Attributed To The Blessed Virgin Mary At La Salette Including: "Rome Will Lose The Faith And Become The Seat Of Antichrist"

"Steve" at "Catholic Answers" wrote an interesting comment in respect of Fr. René Laurentin:

"You should be careful about using the word 'scholarship' with reference to Fr. Laurentin. Before Medjugorje he was a respected theologian, but his books on Medjugorje are not reliable work. "It is well known that he has doctored the transcripts of the early tape recordings of the 'seers'. Both the work of Ivo Sivric and other researchers, who have no vested interest in the 'apparitions', have compared the original transcripts with what Fr. Laurentin chose to publish, and have noticed many discrepancies. Fr. Laurentin has sold at least 10 books on the subject, and is on record as having asked the local bishop to suppress information Laurentin thought unfavourable to the credibility of the apparitions. This is the current 'status' of Fr. Laurentin's 'scholarship.'"
Bishop Zanic, then the local Ordinary is recorded saying"
"3. The Marian theologian Rene Laurentin behaves in the same manner. He came to visit me around Christmas 1983, and I offered him dinner. When he asked me why I did not believe in the apparitions, I told him that according to the diary of Vicka and the words of the other 'seers' this 'Lady' has been speaking against the bishop. Laurentin quickly responded: 'Don't publish that, because there are so many pilgrims and converts here.' I was scandalized by this statement of this well-known Mariologist! Unfortunately this has remained Laurentin's position: to hide the truth and defend falsehoods... The 'seers' and defenders of Medjugorje led by Laurentin from the very outset have seen that the modern believer in a communist country very quickly believes in something 'miraculous,' in apparent miraculous healings and apparent messages from 'Our Lady.'

4...."Fifty miraculous healings have been mentioned, then 150, 200, 300, and so on. Laurentin chose 56 dossiers and sent them to the 'Bureau medical de Lourdes.' Dr. Mangiapan responded in their Bulletin, April '84, that these dossiers have no practical value, and they cannot be used or considered as serious proofs of the apparitions in Medjugorje. Much has been written about the healing of Diane Basile. I sent the dossier to Dr. Mangiapan who studied the case and then took the position 'opinion plus que reservée'. It is a case of multiple sclerosis. More will be written about this later in a book.

16...."Two members of the first Commission, Dr. M. Zovkic and Dr. Z. Puljic (now bishop of Dubrovnik), went to visit Ivan in Visoko. They gave him a sheet of paper which was somewhat greenish in color with questions typed out on it. Ivan wrote down the content of the 'sign,' dated the document and signed it in their presence without a word or any sign of fear. A few years later, Laurentin wrote that Ivan told him personally that he wrote absolutely nothing down on that sheet of paper and that he tricked the two members of the Commission.

"On March 7, 1985, three members of the Commission went to ask Ivan if what Laurentin wrote were true. Ivan said it was true and that they could freely go ahead and open the envelope in the Chancery office because in it they would only find a white sheet of paper. They came back to Mostar where the Commission was having a meeting and before all the members, they opened the envelope. In the envelope on a greenish sheet of paper they found written the content of the sign: 'Our Lady said that she would leave a sign. The content of this sign I reveal to your trust. The sign is that there will be a great shrine in Medjugorje in honor of my apparitions, a shrine to my image. When will this occur? The sign will occur in June.'"

Extracts from: Bishop Zanic: February 1990: Statement of Bishop Zanic
Bottom line comment:: If one can believe that Fr. René Laurentin is not "kosher" on Medjugorje - how can one THEN hold a position that he is "kosher" on La Salette? That is, is it O.K. to accept his speculations in regard to La Salette purely and simply because those speculations may "fit" OUR pet theory about La Salette? Finally, I will give a little parallel in respect of "moving-on" and "letting-go" of pet theories:

The great St Thomas Aquinas held an opinion against The Immaculate Conception. Today, his opinion would be in total conformity with the Definition of the Church on the matter.

However, at NO point of time has any private revelation been required to be believed by Catholics. Prudence in accepting what the Church (local Bishop or Pope) declares to be "worthy of credence" (belief) is another thing entirely. In the case of La Salette - both local bishop and pope have declared that the apparitions ARE worthy of credence, but have not only NOT declared the so-called "Secrets" to be worthy of credence - but have made very positive negative decisions about them and about writings in favor of them.

"Cheat Sheet on The SOCIETY OF ST PIUS X (SSPX)
See "Annals Australasia's Un-official Home Page
What's New? at Sean Ó Lachtnáin's Home Page
Sean Ó Lachtnáin's Home Page

1846, Sept. 19	Apparition of the BVM at La Salette Donal Foley at Theotokos claims that "La Salette too is an example of an apparition where very little was actually said."
1847	1846 version of the Secret recorded in 1847
1848, Aug.	The report, The Truth about the event of La Salette, by Fr. Rousselot, Vicar General to Mgr. Philibert de Bruillard, Bishop of Grenoble, was forwarded to Pope Pius IX.
1850, Sep. 24/5	Maximin visited the Curé d'Ars.
1850, Oct.	Mélanie entered as a postulant the convent at Corenc. Here she fell into "story-telling."
1851	Mélanie took the habit under the name of Sister Mary of the Cross. She had a passion for reading mystical writings and revelations of varying authenticity.
1851, July 3	Maximin wrote down his secret for the Pope in the bishop's palace.
1851, July 6	Mélanie wrote down her secret for the Pope. Mgr. De Bruillard reads both secrets, seals the envelopes. She claims (in the 1876 version - which became the "Indexed" so-called "Secret of La Salette") that Our Lady foretold that the Antichrist would appear in 1865 - an event which obviously did not occur! 'In the year 1865, the abomination will be seen in holy places; in convents, the flowers of the Church will be decayed and the demon will make himself as the king of hearts. May those who are at the head of religious communities keep themselves on guard for persons whom they must receive, because the demon will use of all his malice in order to introduce into religious orders persons devoted to sin, for disorders and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread by all the earth.' Comment: It didn't happen! Nor did "...Paris will be burned and Marseilles engulfed; ..." happen! Nor did the following: 'It will be during this time that the antichrist will be born of a Hebrew religious, of a false Virgin who will have communication with the old serpent, the master of impurity; his father will be Bishop; at birth, he will vomit blasphemies, he will have teeth; in a word, this will be the devil incarnate; he will let out frightening cries, he will perform wonders, he will nourish himself only on impurities. He will have brothers who, although they will not be like him demons incarnate, will be children of evil; at 12 years, they will make themselves noticed by their brilliant victories which they will win; soon, they will each be at the head of armies, assisted by the legions of hell.' "...antichrist will be [...] the devil incarnate;" Comment: Pardon me? The only incarnation that (I believe) is/was possible was that of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity! Our Lady is also claimed to have predicted of the Holy Father: "The wicked will make an attempt several times on his life without power to do harm to his days; but neither he, nor his successor [who will not reign long,] will see the triumph of the Church of God." (Refuge of Sinners - see footnotes.] Comment: Let us examine just that one prophetic phrase "who will not reign long." The alleged "Secret" (as per the 1876 version) was given on September 19, 1846; The pope of the time was Pope Pius IX; Pope Leo XIII was his successor; therefore, "Our Lady" must have been referring to Pope Leo XIII! The facts are that: Pope Pius IX reigned from 16 June 1846 to 7 Feb. 1878 - 31 years and 7 months; Pope Leo XIII reigned from 20 Feb. 1878 to 20 July 1903 - 25 years!!!
1851, July 18	Mgr de Bruillard's envoys, MM Rousselot and Gérin, place them [the 1851 written "secrets"] in Pope Pius IX's hands. Pius IX revealed nothing concerning any Order and a supposedly inspired Rule to be put into application after 1858!
1851, Sep. 19	Mgr. de Bruillard published a pastoral letter "we authorize the devotion to Our Lady of La Salette."
1852, May 1	Mgr. de Bruillard published another pastoral letter announcing the erection of a shrine and the institution of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette.
1852 June 4	A translation of Mgr de Bruillard's pastoral letter appeared in L'Osservatore Romano.
1853, May	Mgr. Ginoulhiac elected Bishop of Grenoble.
1854, Nov. 4	Mgr. Ginoulhiac, in a pastoral letter to his clergy, stated: "...we believe it to be our duty to refuse to admit her [Mélanie] to the yearly vows..." Mélanie refused to accept the required year's probation. "Unfortunately, Mélanie then took to lending a willing ear to 'troubled and sick individuals,' to people whose minds were obsessed with popular prophecies, pseudo-apocalyptic and pseudo-mystical theories. This would affect her for the rest of her life."
1854, Nov. 4	Mgr. Ginoulhiac renewed his predecessor's doctrinal judgement explicitly and definitively.
1854, Dec. 8	Mgr. Ginoulhiac went to Rome to hear Pope Pius IX define the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
1855, Feb. 23	The Bishop of Hexham took her under his wing, and ultimately, she went to a Carmelite convent in Darlington where she received the habit on this day. She refused to make her profession and sought to leave the convent. It was here, and later in France, that she first began to divulge snatches of the "Secret".
1855, Sep. 19	Mgr. Ginoulhiac declared: "The mission of the shepherds is ended; that of the Church begins."
1858 Feb.	Our Lady appears eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous. Lourdes would far-and-away eclipse Mélanie and La Salette.
1860-67	Mélanie left Darlington in 1860. She was taken in as a boarder under the name of Sister Zénaïde in the Compassion Order's mother house in Marseille She contravened an order not to reveal her identity, and was obliged to leave the congregation, the habit, and Marseilles.
1862-63	More pieces from the secret written surreptitiously to Fr. Calage, in disobedience to orders from the Bishop of Marseilles.
1864 & 65	Mélanie, daughter of eve, is a mythomaniac, disobedient and unbalanced - which excuses her in part - her "prophecies" were invalidated by events: the years 1864 and 1865 did not mark the unchaining of the forces of evil.
1867-85	An Italian prelate, Mgr. Petagna installed her with a sister of the Compassion order. She attempted to found the Order of the Sons of the Mother of God on the fringes of the regular 1852 foundation of the Missionaries of La Salette.
1869-70	More pieces from the "secret" to Mgr. Zola, and Abbé Felician Bliard.
1870-75	Various versions, each a little more explicit.
1871	Eugene Barbedette and some of his friends saw the BVM at Pontmain.
1871, Dec.	"The secrets of La Salette and their importance. Latest revelations of forthcoming events" by M. Girard appeared in bookshops. It claimed to reveal the true text of Maximin's secret. However, "Maximin himself never released an authorized version of his secret."
1872, Feb. 2	Maximin denied the text in vigorous terms.
1872	C. R. Girard published the Mélanie's document to date in his book "The Secrets of La Salette and Their Import." It was the first of five by the same author.
1873 April 30	Fr. Bliard published the document received from Mélanie in 1869 in a brochure he called "Letters to a Friend about the Secret of the Shepherdess of La Salette." It received the approval of Cardinal Sixtus Riario Sforza, Archbishop of Naples.
1873	"After the Council of the Vatican, Melanie publicly contradicted in 1873 the Council's Decree Pastor Aeternus by claiming that Our Lady had confided in her that "Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist", a line, according to Unity Publishing and other sources [see footnote 11 below], most likely was borrowed from Martin Luther who first uttered it in opposition to the Catholic Church in 1540. Following this, the Church privately warned her and banned this new message, forbidding Catholics from entertaining or discussing it. cf AngelQueen
1876	Estelle Faguette had several visons at Pellevoisin, near Tours.
1878, Nov.	Mgr. Fava, the new Bishop of Grenoble, accompanied by a La salette Father went to Rome to request the crowning and title of basilica for the shrine, and at the same time approval of the Missionaries' rule.
1879, Jan. 5	Mélanie's "The Rule of the Mother of God" was handed to Pope Leo XIII.
1879	Summoned to Rome, accused by Mgr. Fava, Bishop of Grenoble, supported, she claimed by Leo XIII, she left without, in the end, winning her case, but not without writing a new version of the famous "Secret". Her protector died, and the community dispersed.
1879	Mélanie's 1879 version of "The Secret of La Salette" was published with the imprimatur of the Bishop of Lecce, Italy. Titled: "Total Account of the apparition of the Most Blessed Virgin on the Mountainside of La Salette."
1879	In the "Secret" she attributes to the Blessed Virgin, in 1879, there is not a single allusion to the glories of the declaration of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, and the apparitions of Lourdes in 1858. Still worse, she attempts to overshadow Lourdes by inventing the story that her "Secret" - Mélanie's - should have been published in 1858! The following attribution to the BVM is NOT in the 1847 version: "Mélanie, what I am about to tell you now will not always be a secret,you may publish it in 1858."
1879 Aug. 21	Our Lady appeared at Knock, Ireland. She said - not a single word!
1885-92	Mélanie became caught up in a legal case against the Bishop of Chalon - which she lost. Her spiritual father, Mgr. Zola wrote of her: "Sister Mary of the Cross had a quarrel with a French bishop. She showed very little submission towards her superiors in these circumstances, maybe through lack of guidance or of light, or for both reasons."
1892-1904	Wandering with the Abbé Combe - "a priest much taken up with politico-religious prophecies.".
1899	Mélanie, on the insistence of Abbé Combe, who was infatuated with her, returned to France. Stormy relations with this priest made her flee to Italy again.
1900	Mélanie published her "contrived 'Autobiography' wherein she created an extraordinary childhood enriched with pseudo-mystical wanderings, her own imagination and the chimera provided by her correspondents. The message Mélanie attempts to link to La Salette during this period has nothing whatever in common with the testimony she gave about the Apparition in the early years." The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IX.
1901	Index Librorvm Prohibitorvm [ 6] - (as per the 1948 Index) "Combe, Gilbert-Joseph-Emile Le grand coup avec sa date probable, c'est-à-dire le grand châtiment du monde et le triomphe universel de l'Eglise; étude sur le secret de la Salette, augmentée de la brochure de Mélanie et autres pièces justificatives." [ 7]
1904	On leaving, Mélanie and Abbé Combe told each other a piece of their mind.
1904	Ronald Conte claims "I have based [my] new translation on a copy of the original manuscript of the 1904 edition of Le Secret De Mélanie, handwritten (in French) by Abbé Combe, Curé of Diou (Allier), published in Lyons, France. He obtained from Mélanie a copy of her secret 'entirely written by her hand' and which conformed to the text of the secret originally printed in 1879, at Lecce, France (Le Secret of Mélanie, p.7)" Comment: Of course, this is the same Abbé Combe whose prior and later writings on Mélanie Calvat's "Secret of La Salette" were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books!
1904, Dec. 14	Mélanie dies. R.I.P.
1907	"Index Librorvm Prohibitorvm - (as per the 1948 Index) Combe, Gilbert-Joseph-Emile "Le secret de Mélanie, bergère de la Salette, et la crise actuelle." [ 8]
1910 October 10	The Catholic Encyclopedia's article on "La Salette" was Imprimatured on this date, copy-righted and printed in Volume IX. NO FURTHER INFORMATION regarding the so-called "Secret of La Salette" and the Indexing was recorded therein - but time did NOT stand still; further condemnations were forthcoming!
1915	Rome, under Benedict XV in 1915, set out to stop any further controversy being stirred up by Mélanie's "great Secret" by settling the matter bluntly...: "...The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office orders all the faithful, whatever country they may belong to, to abstain from dealing with or discussing the matter in question..." (Le Hidec, p. 123)
1915, July 1	Cardinal de Cabrières, Bishop of Montpellier wrote: "It is this secret, already several times printed, distributed, commented on and recommended by various authors, both ecclesiastical and lay, that M. Mariavi [see 1916 below] has thought fit to give to the public, presenting it as "The Gospel of the Virgin Mary", to accompany and complement the Gospel of Jesus Christ! "In order to answer your question Monseigneur, I have just read the two pamphlets concerning which you desire to know my opinion. It is absolutely unfavourable. The authors of previous publications, to do with this secret, were condemned, if not because of the secret itself, at least because of the scope and the consequences they gave it. A similar fate awaits this present publication. " I. - It seems, in fact, that we do not have here the secret handed by the Bishop of Grenoble's envoys to HH Pope Pius IX in 1851. In its present form, it was written by Milanie Calvat, but on various occasions and in successive fragments, and seems rather to be the result of a personal composition than an exact repetition of the original text given to Pius IX, and which is said to be no longer in the Vatican. [...]
1915, Dec. 21	"The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office Gives a Decree "...Concerning the Commonly called 'SECRET OF La Salette' ...Moreover, let people be subject to the sanctions given both by Pope Leo XIII ...and by Urban VIII through the decree 'Sanctissimus Dominus Noster' given on 13th March 1625 against those who publish asserted revelations without the permission of ordinaries. However, this decree does not forbid devotion towards the Blessed Virgin under the title of Reconciliatrix commonly of La Salette."
1916	"Index Librorvm Prohibitorvm" - (as per the 1948 Index) Mariavé, Henri "La leçon de l'hôpital Notre-Dame, d'Ypres; exégèse du secret de la Salette. [ 9]"
1916, April 13	"The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office The Supreme CONGREGATION OF THE HOLY OFFICE Declaration Concerning a Certain Work In a general session of this Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office of the eminent and very reverend Lord Cardinals, Inquisitors General, in affairs of faith and morals declared the work to which the title "The Lesson about the Hospital of Notre Dame Explained about the Secret of La Salette" by Henry Mariave, from the general rules handed down in the Constitution of Offices and Responsibilities has been condemned and proscribed."
1916, June 6	"The Sacred Congregation of the Index DECREE "The Sacred Congregation .., do condemn and have condemned, have proscribed and will proscribe and order and have ordered that the works which follow or have at another time been condemned and proscribed be referred into the .Index of Prohibited Books: Dr. HENRY MARIAVÉ, The Lesson of the Notre Dame Hospital of Ypres - Interpretation of the Secret of La Salette, Volume I, Paris, 1915; Volume II, Appendices, Montpellier, 1915, (Holy Office Decree. 12th day of April 1916). And so let nobody of whatever rank or condition dare either to publish aforementioned works which have been condemned and proscribed in whatever place or whatever reason, or to read or retain published things under penalties indicated in the Index of Forbidden Books..."
1923, May 23	"The Little Work Is Condemned: 'The Apparition Of The Very Holy Virgin Of La Salette' "DECREE "In a General Session of the Supreme Holy Congregation of the Holy Office, proscribed and condemned the little work The Apparition of the Most Holy Virgin on the Holy mountain of La Salette, Saturday 19 September 1845. - Simple Reprinting of the entire public text by Mélanie, etc. Society Saint-Augustine, Paris-Rome-Bruges, 1922; ordering those to whom it looks to take care to withdraw examples of the condemned book from the hands of the faithful. "[10]