My Name is Lady Mary (III)

In September 1665, an investigation into the apparitions in The Laus was undertaken by the vicar-general of Embrun, Father Antoine Lambert. After having finished questioning the seer, he celebrated Mass. That morning, a woman with a serious nervous disease was present, which caused her to bend her legs in such a way that her heels touched the lower part of her back. Her parents had tried everything to cure her, but in vain. She had been taken to The Laus to do a novena to Our Lady. During the night following the end of the novena, she managed to stretch out her legs, and felt cured. In the morning, she had herself carried to the chapel just as the vicar-general was concluding Mass. Everyone exclaimed, "It's a miracle!" When Mass had ended, the priest questioned the woman who had been miraculously cured, as well as some of the witnesses, then affirmed, "The hand of God is here." Thus, on September 18, 1665, for Benoite's eighteenth birthday, the apparitions and the pilgrimage were officially recognized by the diocesan authority and construction was soon begun on a church large enough to accommodate pilgrims who were becoming more and more numerous. Our Lady revealed herself in The Laus as the Reconciler and the Refuge of sinners. She also gave signs in order to convince sinners of the need to convert. She also told Benoite that oil from the lamp in the chapel (burning near the Blessed Sacrament), would cure the sick who applied it on themselves, if they turned to her intercession with faith. In fact, many cures were recorded in a short period of time: a child recovered the use of an eye; a person was cured of an ulcer in his hand. Even today miracles, both physical and spiritual, happen to those who are confident in the intercession of Our Lady and use the oil from The Laus with devotion.