The Marian apparition at La Salette in the French Alps on September 19 in 1846 included two primary versions of the secret written by seer Mélanie Calvat. Below is an English translation summarizing the main text of the secret, followed by historical context regarding its versions.

The 1879 Published Text (1858 Version)

The most widely known version of the secret is the text Mélanie published in 1879 with the imprimatur of the Bishop of Lecce, which she stated was revealed to her in 1846 for publication in 1858:

“Mélanie, what I am going to tell you now will not always be secret; you may publish it in 1858.

Priests, ministers of my Son, by their evil life, their irreverences, and their impiety in celebrating the holy mysteries, by love of money, honor, and pleasures, have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, priests call for vengeance, and vengeance is suspended over their heads. Woe to priests and to persons consecrated to God, who by their infidelities and their bad life crucify my Son anew! The sins of consecrated persons cry to heaven and call down vengeance, and see, vengeance is at their doors, for there is no longer anyone to implore mercy and forgiveness for the people.

God is going to strike in an unprecedented manner. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God is going to exhaust His wrath, and no one will be able to escape so many combined afflictions. The leaders and guides of the people of God have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has darkened their intelligence; they have become wandering stars dragged along by the old devil’s tail to make them perish.

God will permit the old serpent to place divisions among rulers, in all societies and in all families. Physical and moral sufferings will be endured. God will abandon men to themselves and send punishments that will follow one after another for over thirty-five years. Society is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and greatest events.

May the Vicar of my Son, Pope Pius IX, not leave Rome after 1859; let him be firm and generous, fighting with the weapons of faith and love; I will be with him. Let him beware of Napoleon; his heart is double, and when he wishes to be both Pope and Emperor, God will withdraw from him.

Italy will be punished for her ambition in wishing to shake off the yoke of the Lord of Lords; she will be delivered over to war, and blood will flow on all sides. Churches will be closed or desecrated; priests and religious will be hunted down and put to a cruel death. Many will abandon the faith.

In the year 1864, Lucifer with a great number of demons will be unleashed from hell. They will abolish faith little by little, even in persons consecrated to God. Astonishing wonders will take place on the earth and in the air.

Civil and ecclesiastical authority will be abolished, and all order and justice will be trampled underfoot. Nothing will be seen but murder, hatred, jealousy, falsehood, and discord. Civil governments will all have the same plan: to abolish every religious principle and make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism, and vices of all kinds.

France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. A general war will follow that will be appalling. Paris will burn and Marseille will be engulfed. The earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds. There will be a series of wars until the last war, fought by the ten kings of the Antichrist.

A precursor of the Antichrist will arrive, and the Antichrist himself will be born of a Hebrew nun, a false virgin who will have communication with the ancient serpent. At birth, he will spew blasphemies and perform strange wonders.

The seasons will be altered, the earth will produce bad fruit, stars will lose their regular motion, and the moon will reflect only a faint reddish glow. Water and fire will give the earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes.

Finally, the abyss will open. The king of darkness will appear with his followers, but he will be smothered by the breath of Saint Michael the Archangel and struck down. The earth will open its bosom of fire, swallowing him and his followers forever. Then water and fire will purify the earth, all will be renewed, and God will be served and glorified.”

The 1851 Vatican Secret

In July 1851, under the direction of local church authorities, Mélanie wrote down the original, shorter version of the secret to be hand-delivered directly to Pope Pius IX. Rediscovered in the Vatican Secret Archives in 1999, this original version is significantly shorter:

“Mélanie, I am going to tell you something which you will not tell to anyone:

If my people continue, what I am going to tell you will happen sooner; if they change a little, it will happen a little later.

France has corrupted the universe; one day she will be punished. The faith will be extinguished in France: three-fourths of France will no longer practice religion, or almost no longer, and the other part will practice it without practicing it well. Afterwards, nations will convert, and the faith will be rekindled everywhere.

A great country in the north of Europe, now Protestant, will be converted; by the support of this country all the other nations of the world will be converted.

Before all this arrives, great troubles will arrive in the Church and everywhere. Then, after our Holy Father the Pope will be persecuted. His successor will be a pontiff whom nobody expects.

Then a great peace will come, but it will not last long. A monster will come to disturb it.

All that I tell you here will happen in another century.”