The local Barbedette family consisted of father César, his wife, Victoire, their two sons Joseph and Eugène, aged ten and twelve, and another older boy who was away in the army.

On the evening of 17 January 1871, the two boys were helping their father in the barn when the elder, Eugène, walked over towards the door to look out.

She, like the boys’ parents, could also not see the apparition, and called for two girls, Françoise Richer and Jeanne-Marie Lebosse, aged nine and eleven, respectively.

Without any prior knowledge of the apparition, the girls looked into the night sky and began describing the vision in exactly the same detail as the Barbedette boys did.

As the people sang "Ave Maris Stella", the crucifix vanished and her smile returned, though with a touch of melancholy.

Years later, Joseph Barbadette, who later became a priest of the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, recounted: She was young and tall of stature, clad in a garment of deep blue, ...

On the head was a black veil half covering the forehead, concealing the hair and ears, and falling over the shoulders.

On the evening of 17 January 1871, the Commander of the Prussian forces, having taken up his quarters at the archiepiscopal palace of Le Mans, told Charles-Jean Fillion, bishop of that diocese:"By this time my troops are at Laval".On the same evening, the Prussian troops in sight of Laval stopped at half-past five o'clock, about the time when the apparition first appeared above Pontmain, a few miles away.

"The sudden stopping of the Prussian forces in sight of Laval, and their retirement the following morning, meant, together with the saving of Brittany, the turning back of the tide of conquering soldiery from that part of France.

Finally, on the Feast of the Purification, 2 February 1872, Casimir-Alexis-Joseph Wicart, Bishop of Laval, issued a pastoral letter giving canonical judgment on the apparition.

[7] Pope Pius XI gave a final decision regarding the Mass and Office in honor of Our Lady of Hope of Pontmain.

A final papal honour was given to Our Lady of Hope on 16 July 1932 by Cardinal Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII, by passing a decree from the Chapter of St. Peter's Basilica that the statue of the Blessed Lady, Mother of Hope, be solemnly honoured with the crown of gold.

The Lady then was crowned in the presence of bishops, priests, and the laity by Cardinal Verdier, Archbishop of Paris on 24 July 1934.

Our Lady of Hope is a parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Sainte Marie in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.