By Bernard St John
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart from Pellevoisin
Introductory Remarks:
Here we resume with the second part of our series on the reported Apparitions of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
These are taken from a 1904 book by Bernard St John – who, in fact, personally knew Estelle Faguette, the visionary at Pellevoisin.
For more about the sources of this series here, please see our first part here, which also contains some introductory notes regarding the Apparitions of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, said to have happened at Pellevoisin.
For now, let us simply remark that four words in particular have long been particularly associated with the events at Pellevoisin: “I am all-merciful”.
And here we resume our series with the fifth Apparition in which Estelle Faguette recounted hearing these words from the lips of the Blessed Virgin – RB.
From Bernard St John:
It is in connection with the vision of the next night that the words: “I am all-merciful” occur.
Concerning the fifth Apparition, Estelle Faguette says: ‘She remained a long time silent and motionless, standing – in the midst of the soft light. She was smiling.
When she spoke she reminded me of my promises: If you wish to serve me,” she said, “Be simple and let your actions correspond with your words.
Snares will be laid for you; you will be treated as a visionary; but pay no attention to all that.
Be faithful to me and I will help you.”
To quote from Estelle’s account, written immediately after her recovery and as an act of religious obedience: ’I gazed upon her for a long time.
Never had I seen anything so beautiful. By degrees she vanished, till only the soft light surrounding her remained.
This, too, soon faded away. I was in great pain, but I remember that I was holding my rosary in my left hand, as I had lost the use of my right.
I offered my sufferings to God, not knowing that they were to be the last of my illness.’
The voyante tells us that almost immediately afterwards she suddenly felt quite well.
She asked what o’clock it was, and was told that it was half-past twelve.
“I felt that I was restored to health,” she says, “with the exception of my right arm, the use of which I did not recover until I had received Holy Communion the following morning.”
The thread of the Apparitions, interrupted at the time of the miraculous cure, was resumed five months later.
It was on July 1st, and at half-past ten o’clock at night, that Estelle again saw the celestial being of her visions of the preceding February.
She was in the room in which her cure had been effected, and on her knees with a book in her hand.
A shadow falling over the book was, we have heard from her own lips, the first intimation she had that the Apparition was near.
A quotation from her narrative, written the following morning in the church of Pellevoisin after she had communicated, will best give an idea of what happened.
She says: “I was on my knees in front of the fireplace, when suddenly the Blessed Virgin appeared before me in the midst of a soft light.
This time I saw her whole figure. She was in white. Her arms were extended, and from her hands fell what seemed like plenteous drops of rain.
She looked at something fixedly; then, taking one of the tassels of her girdle, she raised it to her breast. She crossed her hands on her breast.
Then, smiling and looking at me, she said: “Be calm, have patience. You will have trials, but I shall be near you.”
The tassel she held fell from her hand. I could not speak; I felt too happy.
The Blessed Virgin stayed a little longer, and then said: “Have courage; I will come again. After that she slowly disappeared.”
There was another Apparition the following night.
As before, Estelle was on her knees in her room. She had said the first half of an Ave Maria, when the radiant figure was before her.
The figure was the same; yet with this difference, that it was surrounded by a garland of multi-coloured roses outlined against the luminous background.
The drops like rain seemed to be falling from the out stretched hands.
In this vision, the celestial figure, crossing her hands on her breast and looking fixedly at Estelle said: “You have already proclaimed my glory. Continue to do so.”
She added, after a moment or two; “My Son has also some souls especially devoted to Him. His Heart has so much love for me that He cannot refuse my requests. Through me He will touch the most hardened hearts. I have come especially for the conversion of sinners.”
“While the Blessed Virgin was speaking,” says Estelle, in her narrative, “I was thinking of the various ways in which she might show her power.
She replied to my thoughts by saying: “It will be seen later on.”
She remained with me some time longer, and then slowly disappeared. The garland of roses remained a little while after she was gone and then faded away, together with the surrounding light.
Next: Pellevoisin and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart – Part III: The Scapular of the Heart of Jesus
