Warn the People to Change Their Lives (I)

In 1686, a curious happening shook up the village of Celles in the region of Ariege, near Foix: four women violently beat a priest. The priest took the case to court and obtained justice. On May 28, 1686, between eight and nine o'clock in the morning, a young peasant boy named John Courdil was coming back from the fields reciting the rosary. He suddenly saw a white pigeon in front of him. As the bird got closer to the boy's farm, near a fountain, it changed into "a six or seven-year old girl dressed in white" (statement of July 21, 1686). In his second statement (July 28, 1686), John said that he first saw the pigeon "three times in front of him," then the girl just "five or six feet from him." John was afraid and he tried to flee. "Do not be afraid, my child," he heard a voice say, "I am the Holy Virgin." He knelt down, the apparition did the same. "Warn the people to change their lives and make eight processions so that the people convert. Otherwise, all is lost [...]. Continue to serve your father and your mother as you have always done."