"I am a forgotten mother"

Anne-Marie Coste (1861-1924) grew up in a poor neighborhood in Lyon, France. The eldest of ten children, she was ill from adolescence, suffering from cervical arthritis and excruciating pain, but never complained.

On November 6, 1882, she was admitted to a hospital. The young woman prayed unceasingly. Suddenly, she heard an unfamiliar, gentle female voice say to her: "Anne-Marie, Anne-Marie!" She raised her head with some effort and saw, two meters away, in an extraordinary glow, a person whose features she could barely make out. First she saw something like a shadow, then the shadow became a woman. The Virgin Mary stood before her and said: "I appear to you in the form in which you most like to pray to me! " "Our Lady of Fourvière!" exclaimed the young patient.

Mary left her a prophetic message: Lyon would suffer severe punishment if its inhabitants did not convert. When the Mother of God disappeared, Anne-Marie felt an unusual warmth in her body: she had just been cured of her arthritis.

Other apparitions followed, including one on January 2, 1883, in the loft of Anne-Marie's small apartment. Mary came with the same mysterious light, the same supernatural sweetness, and the same royal vestments... "I am a forgotten Mother! I am a forgotten Mother", Mary said in a sad voice, then in a firm tone: "What causes me sorrow is the ingratitude of my people. Please have people pray novenas in every parish and religious community."

In 1883, Mary appeared sixteen more times. Healings were reported, such as a blind man who regained his sight after praying with Anne-Marie. Mary was sometimes accompanied by the Child Jesus, and she asked that a medal bearing her effigy be struck, as she did with the Miraculous Medal.

The diocesan clergy were open and attentive, and communicated this information to Archbishop Louis Caverot, who decided not to carry out a canonical investigation - which in no way implied a negative opinion - but to appoint a spiritual director for Anne-Marie. She now knew what she had to do: serve God by becoming a nun. She entered the convent in 1891.

Patrick Sbalchiero

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