Our priest mentioned this apparition at Mass.  I had never heard of it.  I found a French website that provides an explanation.  Website link: http://nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr/notre_dame_du_dimanche.htm

google translation:

Saint Bauzille de la Sylve

We are in 1873, June 8, Sunday of the Holy Trinity. Auguste Arnaud is working in his vineyard since 5am. Daily during the week, he works for him in his small vineyard, on Sunday, in order to meet all the needs of his family. Augustus thirty years he has been married for six years and has two children.

About seven o'clock in the morning, Augustus made a lunch break and smoke a pipe. Everything is quiet around, however Auguste is worried: phylloxera devastated the vineyards of the region; it has not yet reached Saint Bauzille, but the danger is there. If all goes well, the harvest will be good, and the bread will be provided for the family. If not...

It is 7:30. Augustus is about to light his pipe when suddenly one or two meters away from him, appears embedded in a great light, a medium-sized woman, dressed in white, her head topped by a sort of crown high "as the miter of a bishop ... A great white veil envelope to toe ... The hands are crossed over his chest." From a leap Augustus rises, and a dialogue begins, Occitan dialect:

- Who are you ?

- I am the Blessed Virgin ... Do not be afraid. You vine disease [1]

Following a reproach and some injunctions:

- You left Saint Bauzille (the saint of the parish, well then forgot). On Thursday, he will go in procession to St. Anthony and say mass. Today in fifteen, go in procession to Our Lady: whole canton of Gignac, Montpellier and Lodève.

Then Marie adds:

- You need to place a new cross and change the other. You will place a cross with the Virgin at the bottom of the vineyard, and there will the procession every year. Tell that to your father and the priest immediately.

The message is finished; the appearance gives another appointment.

- In a month I come to thank you.

And the Virgin rose into the sky ...

Auguste left his work and immediately went home, told his father what had happened. The two men immediately went to the rectory where they were received by the parish priest, Father Coste, who arrived in St. Bauzille for barely two months, did not yet know the Arnaud family. The priest listened Augustus hesitated ... He was, moreover, a well outraged Christian would dare desecrate Sunday ...

The interview lasted fifteen minutes. Finally Fr. Coste, filled with uncertainties, dismissed the two men urging them to keep silent on this matter. As he went, Auguste Arnaud told his parish priest:

"I do not force you to believe in everything I just told you. Lady who really appeared to me (and I know I'm seen since I saw her as I see you ... and I heard him talk to me like I hear you, talk to me) eh! Well, the Blessed Virgin told me to come tell you ... and I'm glad you have said. And if I do everything she told me to do, I know she'll come back to thank me as she has promised me. "

Immediately after the appearance Augustus applied himself to do what the Holy Virgin had asked her:

            - He did make a wooden cross he moved to the location indicated by Mary. But the priest refused to bless this cross.

            - Thursday, June 12, with some members of his family, Auguste Arnaud made a pilgrimage to the hermitage of Saint Anthony whose chapel was restored in 1867.

            - Sunday, June 22, he went again accompanied by some parents, Our Lady of Grace in Gignac.

            - Friday, July 4, he sealed on a hewn stone pedestal, an iron cross, gold and silver, which he had commanded in Montpellier, to replace the temporary wooden cross.

Augustus, having accomplished everything that the Blessed Virgin had asked her, had only to wait for the rendezvous to Tuesday, July 8.
On July 8, 1873

The new appearance of the Blessed Virgin, Saint Bauzille, was widespread: indeed, Auguste Arnaud is no secret, despite the silence of the recommendations of Abbe Coste. And 8 July approached, conversations were underway. Doubts settled: the Virgin she really come back? Only Auguste Arnaud remained calm. For this simple man, illiterate, the thing was certain: he had done everything that the Virgin had requested, it was absolutely certain, Marie would come.

On Tuesday, July 8, from half past four in the morning, Auguste was in his vineyard, and was digging his land. A large crowd (we talked about 6-800 people) happened gradually ... A witness, friend of Augustus, a man named Jalabert, asked if the Virgin really come. Auguste replied:

"Yes, I am sure to see her again. She promised ... As for the exact time, it has not fixed. But I hope it will be half past seven, but I'm not sure. In any case, I will work up to eight hours; if it does not come, I'll take back my lunch and I work until it comes. "And Augustus resumed his work while Jalabert would sit at the bottom of the vineyard, where he might see...

Augustus, who worked with zeal, came just ahead of Jalabert who says: "Half past seven went to ring ... The crowd was increasing by the minute ... ... Auguste still working with the same ardor ..." Soon it rose to take a "boucada" a breath of fresh air and went back to work. Jalabert always says: "Already his hand had seized the deck again to resume work. Suddenly the deck escapes him; again he is right, the high head, eyes wide open, set on high. His right hand forcefully grabbed his hat and threw it on the ground with some violence. At the same time his arms stood up, his face turned pale, very pale, his hands seem inordinately elongated me; his eyes wide open ... feel no eyelid movement; they are attached to an object which attracts it. "

As each time witnesses are telling a fact, the stories may differ slightly: this is normal. But the following was reported by all of the many witnesses. Suddenly, still in the same posture, arms and eyes raised, Auguste is brutally taken away in a special race of superhuman speed, lightning toward the cross located about thirty meters. "We were told that Augustus had arrived to the cross, "at the speed of lightning without having tripped on a single strain ... It seemed to swim ..."

For his part, seeing the realized anything; He later recalled: "Suddenly, two meters away from me, I saw again the person of the first appearance. No sooner had I seen that, quick as a flash, she was on the Cross, always finding myself in front of her, at the same distance of two meters. I do not know, I can not understand how I found myself there, or how I could cover the distance that separated me from where I was first, of the Cross, at the foot of which I then found myself . "

According to witness accounts, it seems that Auguste has levitated to a foot above the ground, for contemplation and prayer that lasted about ten minutes. These same witnesses saw nothing of the apparition. Some spoke of a vapor cloud, a white column of smoke, but nothing specific property. Some have seen the cross surmounted by a brilliant ball and full of sparks ... and lightning. Whatever ... What is more interesting is the teaching that the Virgin Mary had come to bring to his people. In this sense, on 8 July the full teaching of June 8

The appearance is placed at the top of the cross and said to Augustus, in the patois of the country:

"We should not work on Sunday," then she continued:

"Blessed is he who believes and unhappy one who will not believe. You must go to Our Lady of Gignac in procession. You will be happy with your whole family. "

Mary did then slide the rosary she wore on her left hand and blesses the crowd with his right hand, saying,

"Whether we sing songs of praise."

Then she disappeared. From Augustus came to, he asked his father: "Tell them to sing." The crowd sang the Magnificat.

Augustus, protected by his father and some friends, crowds rushing towards him to touch ... succeeds, somehow, to sneak and go home. But the excitement aroused by the event lasted all day.

There were miracles at the foot of the Cross became a place of pilgrimage.
Additional events

Some related phenomena accompanied the two apparitions of Our Lady of Sunday.

At the first appearance of the June 8, 1873

When the Blessed Virgin disappeared, a neighbor of Augustus, Hadrian Souchon, who worked as him in his vineyard, not far away, heard a rustling so violent that trembled and went immediately to the village. Louis Souchon, also returning from his land Vendémian on a cart, lives pass before him "with the speed of lightning, something like a big white bird everything ... It was about 7:30."
During the second apparition of July 8, 1873

What is most remarkable is the frightening race of Augustus to the Cross race which all witnesses spoke. Humanly speaking, such a race in the middle of a vineyard, at this time of the year, was absolutely impossible. Outside this race, witnesses saw nothing. A vapor cloud was spoken well, a column of smoke, a brilliant ball overcoming the Cross, but all kinds of natural explanations have been advanced to justify these facts.

After July 8, 1873

During the months that followed, there was talk of some extraordinary facts but how to prove it? Certainly, there were miracles, unexplainable healings, and especially conversions. But what remains the most remarkable is the conversion of Augustus.

Auguste Arnaud will live very simply after two appearances, and will not change his habits. However, soon after July 8, 1873, he will go to confession, something he had not done since his teens, as are most men in his day. From now on, he will live in exemplary Christian, will observe strict religious practice and communiera several times a year. [2]

Auguste Arnaud died February 8, 1936, at the age of 93.
The position of the Church

Portrait of Auguste Arnaul, around the age of 60 years

The priest of the country, Father Coste first remained extremely reserved. However he noted with satisfaction that his parishioners were transformed. He organized them even for two large processions ND Gignac and Saint Anthony, in the summer of 1874. Yet it still does not dare talk about events in his bishop, The Broker. However, following a mission preached by a diocesan missionary, the erection of the Cross was approved by the new Bishop of Cabrières. Later, after extensive investigation, Bishop de Cabrières continue to be interested in the case and allow, in 1879 the erection of a sanctuary in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

 

Paulette Leblanc

[1] can be two interpretations of the remarks of Mary:
- Your vine is ill, which does not seem to be the case despite the fears.
- It is you who are sick of the vine, you think only of her ...

[2] communion very infrequently at the time