A Jefferson City Pastor’s Impressions of the Holy Mountain

Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph A. Vogelweid, then-pastor of St. Peter's Church, Jefferson City, Missouri

Editor: The following letter was sent to the parishioners of St. Peter's Church, Jefferson City, Missouri, by their pastor, Right Reverend Monsignor Joseph A. Vogelweid. Visiting Europe in the summer of 1949 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain of La Salette and gives his impressions of the Shrine from his visit. He was an influential friend of La Salette and instrumental in allowing the La Salette Missionaries to establish their seminary in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Up to the Holy Mountain...

After an interesting and most edifying visit with the French stigmatic, Martha Robin, we returned to Grenoble, from which we boarded a bus to Corps, the nearest town to La Salette. The ride through the French Alps was very scenic It was still daylight when we started out for the La Salette Sanctuary, a distance of about ten miles, but as we went on, the sun gradually gave way to the moon so that the rugged mountains and hamlets showed up even more beautifully in the soft, silver glimmer of the queen of the firmament.

Dangerous as the road appeared to us at the time, we would certainly not have ventured to make this trip without an experienced driver, such as operate these cars. After a most thorough shake-up, provided by the rough roads and the fears that took hold of us at the perilous curves and very narrow lanes, we breathed a sigh of relief when we finally stepped out of the bus at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of La Salette.

Hidden as it is in the mountains we saw the lighted Basilica, where the pilgrims were gathered for evening worship, only a very short distance away. This sacred place of pilgrimage, made holy by the apparition of Our Blessed Mother Mary to two humble children, Maximin and Melanie, in the very year our St. Peter’s Parish in Jefferson City, Missouri was organized (1846), impressed me most of all by its simplicity and lack of all artificiality.

A place of pure, undistracted piety and faith

Interior of the La Salette Basilica with its walls adorned with ex voto
(memorial) plaques of cures received It is sometimes remarked that some famous places of pilgrimage are tainted with a kind of commercialism. At least, to reach them it is necessary to pass through long lines of vendors of religious articles and novelties, who distract pilgrims by their efforts to make a sale. But there is none of this at La Salette, just plain, simple, untainted devotion. Off to one side there is a store, where cards and such like can be procured, but not forced upon the pilgrims. The entire atmosphere at La Salette is purest, undistracted piety.

The pilgrims come in a spirit of penance to pray and to honor Our Blessed Mother, Mary. It seems to me that they come to give rather than to receive, although there are hundreds of tablets of thanksgiving on the walls of the Basilica, for favors received. I mean, to give their love to Mary, for many of the pilgrims apparently do not possess much of earthly value to give.

The basics – food and lodging

Many bring their own humble victuals with them — long loaves of bread and a bottle of wine. For board and lodging for a day only about a dollar in American money is expected at the hospice, which offers about 700 beds. There is nothing elaborate or very modern about the accommodations, but one feels the unspoiled sacredness of the place. Things material are reduced to a necessary minimum. Quite a few scouts, boys as well as girls, have pitched their tents nearby. In fact, there are many boy and girl scouts among the pilgrims.

Scouts pitch their tents in front of the Basilica on the Holy Mountain in 1946 for the Centennial Celebration of the ApparitionI was also deeply impressed by the cheerfulness of the pilgrims. They sang as they came and as they left. The descent over the narrow road with its hair-pin curves was even more perilous. But the trip was worth it.

I have not seen any place of pilgrimage more beautifully situated in the midst of nature’s grandest beauties than is the La Salette Shrine in the French Alps, untouched by any ugly modernities, lifted high above all worldliness.

The mountains immediately adjacent to the Basilica assume a gentler form than the surrounding bulks of stone, as if they were touched by Mary’s transforming hand when she selected this spot for a haven of peace, a sanctuary of piety, a fountain of grace for her devoted children. The words of St. Peter came to my mind, uttered of course on another occasion, “O Lord, it is good for us to be here” (Matthew 17:4).

I have never before breathed purer mountain air nor inhaled a purer atmosphere of devotion. The rugged mountain scenery spoke to us most eloquently of love that penetrates the trials and sufferings of this world and dwells in the heights of divine love and proves itself by penance — the very message of Our Lady of La Salette.

And the soft green mantle that the Creator threw over these mountain sides spoke to us of hope — hope notwithstanding the hardships and disappointments of this life, hope, through Mary, inspired anew by her La Salette message. Such love and such hope I asked Mary to obtain for you from her divine Son, Jesus, in all abundance. "Our Lady of La Salette, pray for us.”
A panoramic view of the La Salette Shrine on the Holy Mountain from atop nearby Mount Gargas

(Reprinted from the La Salette publication, Our Lady’s Missionary, In the Alps: An American’s Impression of the Holy Mountain, October, 1949, pg. 27)