La Salette-Fallavaux, a commune of less than 100 people located at about 80km south of Grenoble, was the site of apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1846, reported by two children. After five years of investigation, Pope Pius IX formally approved the public devotion and prayers to Our Lady of La Salette, referring to its messages of apparition as "secrets". In 1852, Pope Pius IX once again mentioned the construction of the altar to La Salette. The same papal bull granted the foundation of the Association of Our Lady of La Salette, formalised on 7 September.
In 1879, Pope Leo XIII formally granted a Canonical Coronation to the image at the Basilica of Our Lady of La Salette. A Russian style tiara was granted to the image, instead of the solar-type tiara used in its traditional depictions of Virgin Mary during her apparitions. The shrine of La Salette is located in a high alpine pasture at an altitude of about 1800m, about 14km from the nearest settlement. The Basilica of Our Lady of La Salette was begun in 1852, completed in 1865, and designated a basilica in 1879. It is a large, rather austere church, with a facade flanked by two strong towers.
Inside, the basilica's nave is bordered by two rows of Byzantine columns supporting the Romanesque vaulted ceilings. A mosaic of Christ crowns the apse. The transept has three medallions representing the stages of the apparition (the weeping, the message, and the departure). The basilica also includes a small museum documenting the history of La Salette. Pilgrims can take a walking path leading to the apparition site, the "Valley of the Apparition." Bronze statues erected in 1864 depict the three stages of the apparition.
About the stamps
The stamp belong to the definitive series Marianne de la jeunesse, about which I wrote here.
References
Our Lady of La Salette - Wikipedia
Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette - Sacred Destinations
Sender: Soliloque
Sent from La Salette-Fallavaux (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes / France), on 03.11.2015
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