After the apparitions of 1876, Estelle’s life was obviously totally transformed. As the Virgin had announced to her in the 5th apparition: “You will have pitfalls, you will be called a visionary, exalted, mad; pay no attention to any of this, be faithful to me, I will help you”, all this was to come true.

On January 24, 1877, Monseigneur Sautereau, Vicar General, wrote a letter to Father Salmon, echoing rumours of misconduct passed on by Reverend Lèbre, parish priest in Buzançais. In October 1879, Estelle fell ill. The Countess freed her from her job and allowed her to stay in the little house where she had seen the apparitions, with her mother and niece, and a small annuity of 600 francs. Estelle lost her father on December 31, and was unable to attend the funeral. In 1886, the chapel was closed by Count Arthur de la Rochefoucauld, on the orders of Prefect Lépine. Estelle continued to admit pilgrims as if nothing had happened. In 1893, Estelle’s mother died. The Countess was then able to reclaim the site of the apparitions, just as she was planning to set up the convent, against Estelle’s advice. She had a small apartment built for Estelle at the end of the guesthouse building. Estelle wrote to the Duchesse of Estissac: “My life is – and will always be – one of sacrifice.” In May 1895, Estelle had to leave the house where she had seen the apparitions for good and move into the courtyard. It was then that Estelle’s family bought a small plot of land and had a house built, which in 1899 became the Villa Saint Jean – allowing Estelle to escape somewhat from the Countess’s invasive influence. As Sister Mary of the Holy Sacrament, member of the Congregation of Sisters of Saint Anne, testifies, “Mademoiselle Estelle was a very humble, well-balanced person. Above all, she was kind, very charitable, charitable in action. For example, she couldn’t stand people’s misery, whether it was little children or the poor. She would easily have shared her meal to feed the pilgrims who passed by with nothing. She preferred to deprive herself of the necessities and give what was needed, and for anyone. It was a quality. There was nothing extraordinary about her piety. There was nothing exaggerated about her demeanour in the chapel. She was very simple. You wouldn’t have thought she was privileged. When asked about the apparitions, she spoke quite simply. From the pulpit in church, Reverend Boulanger, parish priest of Pellevoisin appointed by Bishop Servonnet to replace Father Salmon in 1902, would rebuke her while she was present. She put up with it without complaining, without saying a word.”

In 1897, Bishop Servonnet was appointed to the episcopal see of Bourges. This marked the beginning of what could be called the “Ordeal of Pellevoisin” and “Estelle’s Ordeal”. It lasted 12 years, until the bishop’s death in 1909. And yet it all started well: on September 9, Bishop Servonnet was the first archbishop of Bourges to preside over the pilgrimage and wear the scapular. But the untimely interventions and imprudence of Reverend Bauron, parish priest of Saint Eucher and director of the Revue Mariale, and of Father Salmon, both ultra-monarchists, ended up warning the republican archbishop against the “hotheads” in his diocese. The first imprudence of Father Salmon and Reverend Bauron was to have implied to the bishop, in a letter dated December 4, that the secret entrusted to Estelle during the 7th apparition was of a political nature – which Estelle later denied, pointing out that this secret was above all personal and that she could only tell it in confession. In 1899, during the third canonical inquiry ordered by Bishop Servonnet, the slander of Abbé Lenoir’s housekeeper about Estelle’s “pregnancy” was repeated in Lenoir’s report to the commission.

The year 1900 marked the climax of the crisis. On January 30, Estelle, taken there by Bishop Touchet and the Duchess of Estissac, met Pope Leo XIII in Rome. Around February 11, Estelle met Father Joseph Lémius, Procurator General of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who proposed that Estelle and Father Salmon give his congregation (the Oblates of Mary Immaculate) the task of propagating the scapular. Estelle agreed, on condition that Pellevoisin remain the cradle of the scapular. A few days later, the same Father Lemius returned to submit to Estelle a letter concerning approval of the scapular, addressed to the Pope. There was no question, he said, of mentioning Pellevoisin, as “that would cause everything to fail”. Estelle asked the priest to at least add a mention of the All-Merciful Mother and – in the end – refused to sign. Lémius’s manoeuvre did however eventually succeed. May 19: a letter was sent from the Congregation of Rites to the Oblates modifying the scapular: “All merciful Mother” became “Mater Miséricordiae” and the delivery of the scapular was entrusted to the Oblates of Montmartre. This document gave the right of blessing, imposition and distribution to three churches: Paray-le-Monial, Montmartre, and Rome, with the power to delegate to others. On June 14, 1900, Cardinal Mazella wrote to the Duchess of Estissac that the Pope had asked that Pellevoisin no longer be officially mentioned. In December, after his trip to Rome, Bishop Servonnet wrote to Father Salmon to pass on Rome’s provisions regarding Pellevoisin: a) To pronounce no judgment – neither for nor against. b) To preserve the cult of the Blessed Virgin and make the archconfraternity flourish. c) To diminish and gradually make people forget both the visionary and her apparitions, as incidental goods, in the face of the honour, love and trust due to the Blessed Virgin, whom the Church calls Mother of Mercy. In 1902, Bishop Servonnet came to believe the terrible calumnies against Estelle. On February 24, Estelle underwent a virginity examination by Doctor Bucquoy and Doctor Guéniot of the Paris Faculty of Medicine, who concluded that she was a virgin. In October, Father Salmon was transferred to Massay by Bishop Servonnet and replaced by Abbé Boulanger, who became Estelle’s confessor. The chapel of the apparitions was closed by order of Bishop Servonnet, under pressure from the prefect, to prevent unrest. Camille Cartier, Estelle’s great-niece, would later testify in 1958 about her aunt: “A great trial took place in her soul, when her confessor and director had to leave the parish of Pellevoisin, he who had witnessed the great miracle of her healing, he who directed her in all the decisions to be taken, and at the same time raised her soul more and more towards God; but it was necessary to obey the decision of the archbishopric; it was also a great and cruel trial for the good Canon Salmon. Abbé Boulanger, sent to replace him, had the task of annihilating the supernatural facts of the apparitions; he did this well, even with violence, which caused double the suffering to the visionary; but the Blessed Virgin was there, and the words she had spoken to her comforted her”.