The Espis Apparitions, Moissac, 1946

The hamlet of Espis lies north of Moissac, in the Tarn-et-Garonne department and the diocese of Montauban. Its isolated church, Notre-Dame-des-Pins, bears an inscription dating a first consecration to 1201. Beside it, the Bois d'Espis runs along the road from Moissac to Cahors.

August 22, 1946. Claudine and Nadine Combalbert were minding geese at the edge of the wood. Nadine was 7, by one account. She came home frightened and told her mother she had seen the Virgin. The girls described a lady dressed in black. Her dress was decorated with daisies. She wore several crowns. Other early accounts speak of a beautiful lady in a white dress, with a bright diadem.

The next day, with a third child present, the Lady reportedly appeared again. On August 31, a man of about forty began having visions. He saw Saint Michael. He saw balls of fire and signs in the sky. He said the Virgin told him: "Je suis l'Immaculée Conception." I am the Immaculate Conception. More seers followed, among them Mme Maury of Moissac. She said she spoke with the Virgin in the wood on the 13th of each month.

By July 1947, regional papers claimed 15,000 pilgrims. Louis Pauwels was there for the newspaper Combat on August 12 and 13. At night, about 100 women and a few men sang in the wood. In the morning, about 2,000 walked in procession. The crowd grew to 5,000, then 6,000.

Some reported a disc spinning in front of the sun. Rose petals falling from the sky. Red points floating over the trees. During the outdoor Mass, organisers gave a running commentary over loudspeakers. "La Vierge est à droite de l'autel." Then: "Elle vient de passer à gauche." Then the sky darkened. The speakers called it a warning. A violent storm broke over the wood, and the crowd scattered.

Bishop Pierre-Marie Théas had already decided. On December 12, 1946, he wrote privately: "Mon sentiment est très net : les apparitions ne sont pas vraies." On May 4, 1947, he ruled publicly. Any priest who said Mass at Espis faced suspension. In 1950, a commission under Bishop Louis de Courrèges d'Ustou found autosuggestion and hallucinations, and no supernatural origin.

Pauwels was sceptical. None of the claimed healings could be checked, and no doctor was present at the healing claimed on August 13. Stalls sold rosaries, candles, lemonade, ice cream and melons. Land beside the wood reportedly rose tenfold in price within six months. A churchman close to the Tarbes archbishopric spoke of "collective psychosis" fed by commercial interests.

On October 13, 1947, a small boy named Gilles Bouhours came to Espis for the first time. His visions had begun that September in Arcachon. They ran until 1958. On May 1, 1950, he met Pius XII in a private audience. He died at 15. In 2014, Archbishop Le Gall of Toulouse requested a diocesan inquiry with a view to his beatification. The gathering on the 13th of each month continues.