Monday, September 22, 2008

The La Salette crucifix.


As I mentioned in a post from Friday [The apparition of Our Lady of La Salette] I've only just learned of that particular apparition of the Virgin Mary. I receive daily email from A Moment with Mary and this is where I first learned of the two children who claimed to have seen the Blessed Mother in 1846.
After a number of investigations, the Catholic Church found the claims to be credible.

Of course,like with all apparitions of the Virgin, there were those who doubted the claims of the two shepard children. At one point, there was a group who claimed that the lady the children saw and spoke to that day was not Mary but, "a lunatic nun named Constance Lamerliere" dressed in the strange costume.

This was also the first time I had seen a "La Salette crucifix" which the children say Mary was wearing around her neck. Seeing this crucifix leads me to ask a few questions.

Was there any use of this crucifix in the Catholic Church prior to the La Salette apparition? If this was a hitherto unknown crucifix, how could a "lunatic nun" have designed and crafted one? I'm not buying the "lunatic nun" claim.
If the children were lying about the apparition, where did the idea for the crucifix come from?

According to a wikipedia article,
"The La Salette crucifix, worn by the Virgin Mary, was unusual because it has added features, a hammer, a pincer and a skull and crossbones.
The hammer symbolizes the sinner nailing Jesus on the cross by his sins and the pincer represents all of us trying to remove the nails from the cross by our virtuous life and fidelity to Jesus. The skull and crossbones represent in general death, which is inevitably for human beings, as reminder of the necessity of personal salvation."

Are those who doubt the apparition saying, then, that the La Salette crucifix is the design of a fourteen year old girl and eleven year old boy?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not buying the "lunatic nun" claim. How about you might buy a "lunatic Children" claim. This stuff is heresy.

Robert Simms said...

I won't take seriously your idea of heresy because you post anonymously.

Anonymous said...

you took it seriously enough to respond.

Robert Simms said...

It's not like I had to put forth a lot of effort to respond. I get email notifications when someone leaves a comment and it's just a click away. I still don't take you comment seriously; I'm not losing sleep over it.

Anonymous said...

I think you should possibly read more into the later life of Melanie Calvat as well. This is one of the least convincing of all the sanctioned apparitions.
Kindest

Denise said...

I belong to Our Lady of LaSalette parish in Sulphur, La.
Our priests are LaSalette Priests, who came to SW La. as missionaries, quite possibly as long ago as 100 years.
I first heard of LaSalette forty years ago, I was married in this church, my children & grandchildren were all baptized there, my children were all married there & my husband's funeral was held there, so I have great ties with Our Lady of LaSalette. Today the 19th of September is her first day.
the message of LaSalette is a Beautiful message of reconcilliation.
Thanks Denise

Denise said...

Sorry sept 19 is Our Lady's FEAST day