nd du laus 6

July 7, 1673...

Benoîte sees the bloodied Christ, fixed to the Cross...

and she felt inundated with His blood.

She recounts having heard these words: 'My daughter, I show myself in this state so that you may participate in the pains of my passion'.

After this date, for eleven years, every week, from Thursday 4pm to Saturday around 9am, the young shepherdess relived the passion of Christ from 1673 to 1684.

Finding herself suddenly stiffened, every week in the pose of the crucifixion, and remaining thus from Thursday to Saturday, without being able to make a move.

She was amazed, in her humility, by the general attention that this prodigy drew to her, and asked that other, less visible sufferings be granted to her.

It was from 1689 on, that she suffered nightly abuse... 

and fought the demon spiritually every night... 

until her death.

The Savoyard invasion in August 1692...

forces Benoîte to leave Laus.

She took refuge in Marseilles for two months.

From 1692...

Benoîte suffered persecutions from Jansenist priests... 

appointed to Laus, as well as from the new vicar general of the diocese.

These priests who had a rigorous conception of a salvation reserved for a few, were shocked by the incessant confessions and frequent communions of pilgrims.

They denigrated Benoîte, hindered pilgrimages and influenced the bishop of the diocese, Mgr de Genlis, to whom these priests told that the shepherdess of Laus was a 'dangerous visionary'.

August 15, 1698...

the Virgin appeared to her surrounded by angels... 

who carried Benoîte up to heaven, and then brought her back to her hamlet.

Reading souls, she brought sinners back to good, telling them the number and gravity of faults, they thought were unknown to anyone. She also urged women to be modest.

In Marseilles, she showed M. de Coulonge, then vicar general, that she knew his thoughts, and the doubts he harbored when listening to her.

So many people came to ask her advice, that she had to attend mass through a small window in the gallery of the Church, to escape the crowds who sought to overwhelm her. 

Numerous physical healings have been associated with the site... 

especially when oil from a lamp is applied on the wounds... 

according to the directives the Virgin Mary gave to Rencurel.

In 1712, the bishop entrusted the sanctuary to a new congregation, the Fathers of Sainte-Garde.

Their arrival brought a renewal of the pilgrimage... 

and Benoîte could live her last years in peace.

She died on December 28, 1718, on the feast of the Holy Innocents. 

Benoîte was first buried in the Laus cemetery, which then adjoined the church. 

Her body was then deposited in the current vault in the very choir of the basilica.

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