In May 1664, Bénoîte Rencurel, a poor seventeen-year-old shepherdess of the high Alpine valley of Saint-Étienne-le-Laus, saw the Blessed Virgin Mary for the first time while tending her flock. For the next fifty-four years — until Bénoîte's death in December 1718 — Mary appeared to her almost daily. The apparitions remain the longest sustained series in any Vatican-recognised case.
Mary's message at Laus was a call to repentance and to the conversion of sinners — particularly through the sacrament of confession. Bénoîte was told: 'I have asked my Son for the conversion of sinners through Laus and I have obtained it.' From the small chapel that Bénoîte built at Mary's direction (consecrated 1666), the site grew into one of the great penitential pilgrimages of France. The Sanctuary of Notre-Dame du Laus remains a major retreat and reconciliation centre, staffed by the Missionaries of Our Lady of Laus.
Bénoîte Rencurel was declared Venerable by Benedict XVI in 2009. The apparitions themselves were formally approved by Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco of Gap on May 4, 2008 — with the Holy See's confirmation — making Laus the first new Vatican-recognised Marian apparition since Banneux (1949).