It is during the war with Germany and things were bot going well for France. The Germans marched to Laval. All the people were suffering from the effects of incorrect steps taken by Napoleon III. In the village of Pontmain, 30 kilometres to the north of Laval, a farmer was working in his barn with his little boys Eugene and Joseph aged 12 and 10.
After dark on 17th January, Eugene went outside to have a look at the time on the old church clock. It is six thirty. He looks up at the sky and sees a large portion of the heavens were starless. Suddenly above Guidecoqs house he sees, in the middle of the roof, a beautiful lady She looks at him with a look of sympathic kindness and goodness When he calls Joseph joins him as does their father.

Their father sees nothing, except three large bright stars forming a triangle in the sky.
But Joseph also sees the lady. She is wearing a long blue cloak strewn with golden stars; a black veil and a golden crown about 20cm wide with a red stripe in the middle. She is also wearing blue shoes and her hands reach out slightly to the side as on the Miraculous Medal.

The Blessed Virgin smiled constantly and remained motionless in the same position until 9 p.m.The children, parish priest and a lot of parishioners have gathered together, Father Guerin commences to pray with the parishioners.Of course the first prayer is the rosary. At this moment the Lady becomes larger and the stars on Her cloak multiple and a lighted banner is unfurled under her feet.

The parish priest starts to pray the Magnificent and golden letters appear on the banner, one by one and as If they were being written by an invisible hand. The village children say the letters one by one and when complete they read:

BUT PLEASE PRAY MY CHILDREN

The parish priest says,” we must pray to the Blessed Virgin, making Her will known” the people now pray The litany of The Blessed Virgin Mother. More words appear as they did earlier.

GOD WILL SOON HEAR YOUR PRAYERS

The fourth pray is the “Invoilota” When they get to the words “O Mater Alma, Christi Carissima”, The following words appear.

"MY SON"

All present are now very sure that it is The Virgin Mary and they pray the fifth prayer: "Slave Regina” Whilst singing this the sentence is finished off:

"MY SON IS WAITING FOR YOU"

These words are underlined. The sixth prayer is then sung. It is a traditional favourite of Pontmain, “Mother of Hope” and the people love to sing it loud and clear. This well loved title is part, of the prayer.
‘Mother of Hope protect our Frances ’Pray, Pray for us! Then Mary’s smile just glows with love and She lifts Her hands to Her shoulders whilst pointing to the little Red Cross which She wears by Her heart.


The seventh prayer is “My Sweet Jesus” at this point forgiveness of all sins will be granted to those who with contrite hearts have first prayed the “Parce Domine”. An expression of suffering and pain appears on The Blessed Virgins Face and a crucifix is formed which She holds with both of Her hands.
Both the cross and Jesus are red, above the crucifix is a small beam on which appears “JESUS CHRIST’ In letters of blood.whilst Our Lady’s deep sorrow radiates out over the crowd. A star breaks loose from The sky and extinguishes the four candles which surround The Blessed Virgin. She never takes Her eyes off the Crucifix When the parish priest commences the “Ave Maria Stella” the crucifix vanishes and Our Lady returns to Her original pose. Two small white crosses now appear on Her shoulders where they seem to be inplanted. Slowly a large white veil floats upwards, to finally cover the apparition completely.
The apparition then disappears totally.

The Germans start to retreat and on the 20th of January general van Schmidt finally surrenders and on the 28th of January, just eleven days after the apparition, the peace agreement is signed.
The message of Pontmain very clearly shows us the effect of the prayers of even a small Parish community.
One should turn to prayer, especially in times of trails.