Paranormal record / 1873
Sunday, 8 June 1873. Trinity Sunday. In a vineyard outside Saint-Bauzille-de-la-Sylve, the vine-grower Auguste Arnaud looked up from his work. A young woman stood a metre or two away. She was dressed entirely in white, a tall crown like a bishop's mitre on her head. He asked who she was. She answered in Occitan. I am the Holy Virgin. Do not be afraid. She promised to return in a month. On 8 July, some 400 to 600 people came to watch. Only Arnaud saw her. What the crowd saw was Arnaud himself, carried about 40 metres toward the cross, raised above the vines. Witnesses said he seemed to swim.
Hérault, 1873. Saint-Bauzille-de-la-Sylve was a small wine village near Gignac. Auguste Arnaud worked the vines there as a labourer and kept a few plots of his own. He was about 30, married, with two children. Several accounts describe him as a lax Catholic who worked on Sundays instead of going to Mass.