Marian apparition reported by two children at La Salette-Fallavaux

Background. La Salette-Fallavaux was a small village in the Isère department, consisting of scattered hamlets in 1846. The event occurred on a mountain near this village. The two seers, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, were young shepherds. Calvat had worked for a local farmer in the hamlet of Les Ablandins prior to the event. The location is associated with a sanctuary built later, but the event itself took place on the mountain.

The Apparition. On Saturday, 19 September 1846, around 3 p.m., the two children saw a beautiful lady in a resplendent light. The lady was said to have confided a personal secret to each child. The first draft of the account, titled 'Letter dictated by the Blessed Virgin', was written on 20 September 1846. The children were described as uneducated.

Documentation and Reception. The parish priest noted the story in October 1846. The bishop of Grenoble, Philibert de Bruillard, was convinced of the reality from November 1846. A process of harmonization between the children's statements occurred in February–March 1847. The story was well received by the population, though an anticlerical newspaper attacked it in May 1847.

Later Interpretations. In 1928, Hippolyte Delehaye, president of the Bollandist Society, expressed an opinion similar to that of François-Joseph regarding the 'fact of La Salette'. He observed that the first draft was titled 'Letter dictated by the Blessed Virgin to two children on the mountain of La Salette-Fallavaux', and noted a phrase that, pronounced by the Virgin, no longer made sense. Separately, the bishop of Grenoble judged the apparition to carry all the characteristics of truth.