1803
The catechist Madurendira Annaviyar climbed up to the altar and wiped her face, and the tears came again, and would not stop. Then they rang the bell. It was not an hour at which the bell was ever rung, and the whole village came in from the fields and the houses to see why. They stood and looked, and then they wept and prayed, and sang the old penitential chant that is sung when a people is afraid: “Parce Domine, parce populo tuo.” Spare, O Lord, spare your people. And as they prayed, the statue and all the other images “resumed their customary aspect”, and the face above the altar was an ordinary carved face again.
What this source establishes
Besse’s typescript (Moumas, p.842): “Finally they rang the bell and the whole village summoned at this undue hour, could all see the marvel with their own eyes. Whilst they were weeping and praying the statue of the Virgin and those of the other Saints resumed their customary aspect.” In copyright: quoted, not reproduced.
This is as much of the book as this site prints. It is named in full in the bibliography below.