CHAPTER IX.'
AFFAIRS AT ST. MARY'S 1841-2.
Miraculous apparition to Flathead youth on Christmas eve--Point's hardships on the buffalo hunt - Visitors from the Blackfeet - Fame of the Flatheads growing - Their modesty.
On my return, the 8th of December, I continued instructing those of the Flatheads who had not been baptized. On Christmas day I added i 5o new baptisms to those of the 3d of December, and thirty-two rehabilitations of marriage; so that the Flatheads, some sooner and others later, but all, with very few exceptions, had, in the space of three months, complied with everything necessary to merit the glorious title of true children of God. Accordingly on Christmas eve, a few hours before the midnight mass, the village of St. Mary was deemed worthy
of a special mark of heaven's favor. The Blessed Virgin appeared to a little orphan boy named Paul, in the but of an aged and truly pious woman. The youth, piety and sincerity of this child, joined to the nature of the fact which he related, forbade us to doubt the truth of his statement. The following is what he recounted to the with his own innocent lips: " L POn entering John's but, whither I had gone to learn my prayers, which I did not know, I saw some one who was very beautiful - her feet did not touch the earth, her garments were as white as snow; she had a star over her head, a serpent under her feet; and near the serpent was a fruit which I did not recognize. I could see her heart, from which rays of light burst forth and
I This chapter and that following are taken from Book II of the Letters and Sketches, purporting to have been written to a Father of the Society from the Madison Forks, August 15, 1842.