Mélanie Calvat's childhood

Bibliography:
L'enfance de Mélanie, Bergère de la Salette, written by herself.
Document given by Abbé Combe, spiritual director, to Léon Bloy.

Mobirise


November 30, 19OO
My father was a native of Corps, county town in the Isère department, and his name was Pierre Calvat. He was a simple mason and pit sawyer, but a good Christian.
My mother, Julie Barnaud, was a native of Séchilienne / My parents lived in Corps; they were very poor, and my father was obliged to work far away to feed his family, often spending months at a time outside the home. It was partly because of this that I was put to work for employers as soon as I could work, before the age of seven.

My parents had ten children, six boys and four girls.
My father was a very serious man, loved by the whole country; he loved work and so did all his children. He often urged us to live in the holy fear of God, to be honest and docile. Whenever he was in the family, he always made sure we said our prayers before going to bed, and as I was still too young to kneel, he would sit me on his lap and teach me to make the sign of the cross, then put a crucifix in my hands, talk to me about the good Lord and explain to me in his own way the great mystery of the Redemption, Christ who was so willing to suffer and die to open the gates of paradise to us.

Mélanie's mother
She loved parties. One day, she took her daughter to a party. I remember that every time she took me to a party or a comedy show, as soon as I saw the crowd, I'd cry and hide my face on her shoulders while continuing to cry loudly, so that the audience couldn't hear what was being said, and my mother had to carry me outside.

Desire to suffer for Christ.
When he told me that it was our sins that had caused Our Lord Jesus Christ to die, I'd say to him: ~Oh, I never want to do sins, since they made my good God suffer so much. Oh, poor good God, I always want to think of you, and I never want to displease you. When I can walk on my own, I'll do as you did, I'll go into solitude, I'll think of you; and then, when I'm grown up, I'll go and say to the wicked men and women: make me die on a cross so I can erase your sins, otherwise you'll never get into heaven.

Mother's exasperation
These words exasperated my mother to no end; she could no longer see me before her eyes; instead of being her consolation, I was the object of all her sorrows; she nicknamed me the mute:
I forbid," she said, "my two children to call her by her name; I forbid anyone to give her food, and I forbid anyone to pay any attention to her; leave her on the floor; since she wants to do everything God made her to do, let her do it: God didn't need anyone to teach him to walk, nor to hold him when he was little. God lay on the ground, he even asked for his bread, but I forbid him to ask either now or later for anything. ~ So I dragged myself as best I could on my hands and knees, and spent the days and sometimes the whole nights in a corner or under a bed. There, I thought of the Child Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, and of the sufferings of Our Lord. Months went by like this. Finally, my mother got bored of seeing me stay under a bed in a room, all alone, and I earned the punishment of being chased out of the house in the evening.

In the morning, I wanted to go home to my dear mother, and by a just judgement of God, I was sent away as incorrigible and obstinate. Not knowing where to go, I took the path that led to a wood a few minutes from the house (...) I was about three years old. The first time I remember being kissed by my mother was around 1851, when I took the habit with the Sisters of Providence in Corence.



Melanie sees Jesus

I had been in the woods for three or four days without seeing or hearing anyone. I couldn't walk any more, I kept falling, and I was plunged into a deep sadness when I thought of how much my Jesus was being offended (...).

Mobirise

Suddenly, I saw a tiny, beautiful child coming towards me, dressed in brilliant white with a pretty crown on his head. As soon as this little child was near the savage, he said to her: ~Hello, sister, why are you crying? I've come to console you. ~ I'm crying because I'd like to know everything my Jesus did to save the world, so that I could do as He did without missing anything; then what the world did to make my Jesus Christ die; then I'd like to have a mother; I have no one. Sister," said the little boy, "tell me Brother, I'm your good Brother, I watch over you; we have a mother. Our mother is everywhere with her children; love her well, this good mother; she is always with those who show themselves to be her children. Soon I will take you to see our mother (...) Love silence and you will hear the voice of the God of heaven who will speak to your heart; do not form a bond with anyone and God will be your all.

Jesus comes every day
My little brother came almost every day. We always talked about the passion or the hidden life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If I fell down the rock-filled path, he'd come at once to pick me up; we walked holding hands. (...) My Brother was my age (he's always been my height), his hair was light brown and curly....The first time he was dressed in white, with a crown of white roses on his head, but he wasn't always dressed like that. He came with a crown only the first three times; and sometimes he had a blue robe and a white belt, other times a silver-pink robe cinched at the belt with a gold ribbon. Jesus reveals himself I must say that my beloved Brother, for more than twenty years, let me ignore that he was Jesus, and that I had simply believed that he was my brother, as he himself had assured me.

True wisdom
My kind Brother tells me that true wisdom lies in knowing our Creator and loving the cross for God's sake; that we must love the Redeemer for Himself, not so much for His gifts, not so much for the heaven of heavens He mercifully gives to His servants.

Stigmata
As soon as I was touched by the blessed hand of my Brother in the manner I have just described, I felt great pain in those parts of my body, especially on Fridays, and sometimes blood flowed from the sores which formed there of their own accord without leaving any trace. These sores lasted about three hours, from two in the afternoon until half past four. On some Fridays, they began on Thursday evening and remained open until Friday evening; on others, they were open for the whole of Lent.
Mélanie quitte la maison pour travailler.

In the year 1841, a woman from the mountains came to Corps looking for a child to take care of a little creature; and as I was always giving my dear mother a hard time, I was immediately handed over to her, and left with her. On the way, my Mistress asked me if I could get used to living in her isolated house in the middle of the mountains, without ever seeing anyone. After about two hours' walking, we arrived at this truly solitary house. The family consisted of four people: the old mother, who had come to fetch me, her daughter aged between 20 and 25, a son aged about 12, and the tiny child I was supposed to look after, who was my mistress's town child; but I was often sent to look after the cows, of which there were many, and to graze them.
On her way home, Melanie met her guardian angel. Once a month, Melanie went to visit her parents. One day, in the woods, she hesitated between two paths. She prayed to the Virgin. She heard a very gentle voice saying: ~Take the path on your right~. Amazed, she saw a very nice child standing next to her, but taller than her. 

Purity of Spirit.
Jesus made her understand that ~in the clergy the purity of the spirit is the guardian of the purity of the body, that there is no chastity of the body in the absence of the constant purity of the spirit, and that the spirit and the senses will not keep their purity unless they are crucified with Jesus Christ.

Vision of purgatory.
One day, as she was tending the cows and praying, she suddenly found herself face to face with her guardian angel, who said to her: ~ Sister, come, I will make you souls of God who love him very much, without being able to see him, other than through a faith incomparably more lively and persuasive than that of mortals, nor to enjoy his glory, since they are stained by venial faults and the remains of more serious faults not expiated during life. When you offer them to the Eternal Father, in the holy Name of Jesus Christ, the blood and merits of the Savior's Passion, their stains will be washed away, erased, and, adorned, they will fly to unite with their God.

Immediately, we found ourselves near purgatory in the bowels of the earth, and he showed me the various pains suffered by these holy souls. What horror! What a terrifying scene, this gathering of all sorts of pains and torments, these flames mingled with liquid fire, not to mention the hunger, thirst and desires that torment each soul according to its stains! The angel pointed out several things to me that I know, but cannot explain. of the tongue, of the ears I'll give a small example: had a person sinned with his eyes, his eyes were like a hearth of liquid fire; had he sinned with his hands, his hands were like burning, liquid torches; it should be noted that the fire subsists only on the stains and through the stains, which are the fuel feeding this terrible fire. As the stain disappears, and the place where it was purified, the fire is extinguished like a flash of lightning. It may be objected that since the soul has no feet, hands, etc., being a spirit, we do not see how it can suffer in its feet... Yet it is the soul that had sensation and gave it to the body during its earthly life: now that the soul has been in the whole body, in all the parts of the body, condemned to purgatory, it suffers in its parts that have prevaricated, just as the three powers of the soul will each suffer its share of sorrow, or will each have its share of glory. I did not see two souls in whom the sorrows were similar. I could no longer bear such a lamentable sight: I prayed and prayed for all these holy and resigned souls, that the God of mercies would give them all a sensible relief through the Passion and death of Jesus Christ, and deliver seventy-two of them for the love of Mary, Virgin and Mother, cooperator of our redemption.

Purgatory continued
I saw the Angel of God having in his hand a chalice filled with the most precious blood of the Lamb who erases the sins of the world: he poured it on these ardent flames which immediately diminished in volume and intensity; then on the souls who were waiting for the charity of the sacrifice of the Mass and the prayers, penances and sacrifices of Christians to fly into the bosom of God. (...) I saw that these souls had barely been saved from eternal punishment. Not all souls were purified by fire: I saw some who suffered from languor, despondency, sadness; not sadness at being in this place of purgation, for these souls, if it were possible for them to have an increase in sorrow, they would desire it in order to unite themselves sooner with their center, which is God. All these souls have charity; they know that after their purification, they will have consummate love and will enjoy it throughout eternity.

If God, by impossibility, were to admit a soul with venial faults into heaven, that soul would at first be dazzled, unable to bear the brilliance of eternal light, let alone see itself in the presence of the Holy of Holies, the very Holiness for which it would ask its angel in grace to take it to purgatory to wash away every last vestige of its stains. God's mercies are eternal.

Mélanie's vision
Some were led in gangs, tied with their hands behind their backs, to a square to be shot. One day, my senses suspended, my intelligence had seen the world in thick darkness, fires everywhere, and I heard these cries like the cries of ferocious beasts: ~Live anarchy, down with the cap and the fanatics! kill, kill; shoot, stab, let's purge the earth! ~ Old men, women and children were drowned to make things go faster; blood flowed, houses closed, but these bloodthirsty men broke down doors and slaughtered all those who fell into their hands: many priests and nuns were put to death - women were as cruel, if not more so, than these enraged men. This work, this punishment willed by the evil Christians, took place, more or less appallingly, in every town and village, and began at the same hour, at the signal given by the chiefs. Under the name of anarchy lurked the infernal sect led by the first revolutionary rebel, Lucifer. Churches were plundered and desecrated, and the people who had made their brothers turn and shoot their leaders. The communities prayed, the humble and the poor prayed, and it was the latter who were answered, but not before the number of innocent victims was complete. This harvest of divine justice, in which many thousands of priests perished, lasted two or three days. The men of practical faith, though few in number, aided by their guardian angels, were victorious.


Vision of a soul in purgatory

One day, as I entered the church, I saw a priest praying very humbly at the foot of the high altar. I noticed that his vestments were dirty and torn; his face was distressed, extremely sad, but placid, humble and resigned; he said to me:

Mobirise

Blessed be forever the God of justice and infinite mercy!
More than thirty years ago I was justly condemned to purgatory, for not having celebrated with faith and respect the sacrifice of the continuation of the mystery of the Redemption, and for not having taken full care, as was my duty, of the souls entrusted to my solicitude. The promise of my release has been made to me for the day and hour that you will hear Holy Mass for me here, in reparation for my guilty lukewarmness. I pray you now for my soul thirty three genuflections, offering them to the Eternal Father, in the most holy adorable Name of Jesus Christ and by the merits of his life.... ~ The same day I saw the holy priest in new clothes, all strewn with stars and sparkles. His senses, which had previously been petrified, were healthy, full of vivacity and brilliance. (....) After the Holy Sacrifice, I saw the soul transformed, all beautiful, all resplendent with glory, enter heaven in the heavens. 

God's love
God does not forbid us to love our neighbor; on the contrary, he commands us to do so; we must love our neighbor, whoever he may be, friend or foe, for the pure love of God, as his image. We must love God first, above all else, with all our heart, with all our strength; and after inner worship move on to the outer worship of our holy religion: observing the Ten Commandments, attending church with respect, praying with humility. 

St. Joseph
St. Joseph fell asleep in his Lord's arms three years before the crucifixion; he was in Limbo to hear the salutary news of the coming Redemption. When our most loving Saviour died on the cross, Saint Joseph was resurrected with his body, but invisible to the public; and on Ascension Day, he entered the glory of the blessed with our Victor Jesus Christ. There's no need for me to say that all the souls who were in Limbo, having come out of it, remained on earth as a procession for Our Lord during the forty days he still spent on earth to strengthen the faith among the Apostles, the disciples and the small number of believers: everyone knows that. I forgot to mention that Saint Joseph practised all the virtues in their heroism; that he is the patron saint of the good death, and that he is always heard by the One who was his Son.

Vision of the creation of angels

I understood and saw in this endless light the creation of the innumerable angels, their trial, the rebellion of many in the nine choirs, the creation of Adam and Eve and their fall.

Mobirise

On the first day, in creating the heavens and the earth, God created light and at the same time the Angels; that is to say, God created light in a single point, and from this light came forth multitudes of Angels filled with the highest infused science and natural gifts proportionate to the mission, and to the supernatural greatness of each choir. All loved God with all their power according to their capacity, and swam in the most perfect happiness; the glory they had, even before enjoying the sight of the Divine Essence, is incomprehensible to mortals; so that the glory of the least of them, its light, its splendor would have obscured the brilliance of our sun.

After creating them, God made them understand that he intended them to be his court in the heaven of heavens. But the Most High in his mysterious wisdom had resolved not to give his eternal glory to any intelligent creature unless it had first shown its submission and fidelity by obeying him; so he did not allow the Angels to see his divine Essence, otherwise they would have been impeccable. Therefore, since God had not manifested Himself to the angels in all the fullness of His glory (as He did after the dazzling Victory of the good angels), all the angels knew perfectly the High Majesty of the only one, uncreated, eternal God, and all His inaccessible and eternal attributes, because they all proceed from the Eternal Most High. All had clear knowledge of the future hypostatic union of the Word of God with (unfallen) human nature. The test: God, leaving the angels for a few moments with their free will in the darkness of Faith (faith about the hypostatic union), then declared this to them and gave them this command: ~ A day will come when my Word will take on a human body (they had already seen Adam's body formed with silt, though it was not yet created), and under this nature you must all worship him.~

Lucifer's revolt
At this command of the Almighty there were a great number of angels of all Hierarchies who refused obedience to their Creator; and the first to revolt and give the signal of rebellion was Lucifer, the most beautiful and the most elevated in glory and authority having under him all the angelic choirs; in his pride he said: ~ Shall I worship the Word under human nature, I who have my throne above all the spirits coming out of the hands of the Almighty? Ah, I'll never do that, I'll never debase my high dignity! There was a minute's silence: silence of stupefaction....Lucifer in intellectual language manifested his firm, well-considered resolution and directed his blasphemous thoughts at all the holy Angels.

Saint-Michel
For his part, Michael spoke of God with divine eloquence, inviting the celestial intelligences to humble themselves before the uncreated Being, to acknowledge his supremacy, etc... Their weapons were the diversity of their sentiments: the perverse and the holy: to the bold and rebellious response of the proud Lucifer, many angels had acquiesced. Then the Sovereign Lord, just in his judgments, said to them: ~To preserve your honor, your dignity and your glory you have disobeyed your God your Creator, you will lose everything and I will kindle in you a fire that will burn you alive forever.
Saint Michael had been the first to acclaim the just wisdom of the Almighty and the command given, saying: ~Who is like God?~ and all the faithful angels repeated in chorus: ~Who is like God? ~ To reward the love, fidelity, zeal and obedience of the Archangel Saint Michael, God gave him the honorary position of Lucifer, made him even more beautiful and glorious than the rebellious first revolutionary, and established him (leader) of the angelic army of heaven.

In the meantime, Lucifer and the adherents of his blind pride and rebellion were petrified, enraged, hateful and filled with the despair that was never to leave them: in an instant, they lost the attributes of angels, were stripped of grace and all their privileges, and could no longer contemplate or even see the light of the Majesty of the Most High. At God's command, the Archangel St. Michael inflicted on the rebels the punishment each had deserved. The faithful and glorious captain condemned Lucifer along with a great number of angels to the depths of the abyss (it is they who, out of vengeance, torment in a thousand ways the souls who have damned themselves), others on earth, where they tempt men; others in the air, where they stir up storms, raise the seas, sow infections, plagues and often diseases, etc. The diversity of the rebellious angels' punishments corresponds to the diverse knowledge each had, although all were filled with glory and a high intelligence and profound knowledge of the highest mysteries, but each according to his capacity. Lucifer, having been the most beautiful and enlightened, was the most guilty and consequently the most severely punished.

Creation of Adam
After God had formed Adam's perfect body, he breathed on his face, and this luminous breath of the Almighty gave him life - it was his soul. Adam was created with infused science, he was good and adorned with all the privileges of magnificence in his soul and body; he was innocent and perfect in every way. God had made him king and ruler over all animate creatures below him. He had manifested to him His various attributes, His immortal, eternal, all-powerful Being governing all by His eternal wisdom, His supreme dominion over all created things, and many other mysteries; finally how He is everywhere and that all things are in Him. And had made known to him that his Word would take on his nature and come in this human form as his Lord, his Master, to teach men the practice of worship, respect and obedience due to God their Creator.

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