The children got together and tried hard to think of ways they could make sacrifices, as the Lady had asked them to, finally deciding to go without lunch and pray the full rosary. Francisco and Jacinta received full support from their parents whereas Lucia didn’t. The children had much to suffer, just as the Lady had told them.
13th June1917
Around fifty people turned up at the Cova da Iria on June 13th, as the three children gathered near the holmoak tree where the Lady had appeared. The children then saw a flash of light followed immediately by the apparition of Mary, as she spoke to Lucia: “I want you to come on the 13th of next month, to pray the Rosary everyday and learn to read. Later, I will tell you what I want.”
Lucia then asked Mary to heaven and was reassured with this answer; “I will take Jacinta and Francisco shortly; but you will stay here for some time to come. Jesus wants to use you to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart through the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it; these souls will be dear to God, like flowers put by me to adore his throne.”(This last
sentence is found in a letter from Sr. Lucia written in 1927 to her confessor.)
Lucia was sad at the first part of the reply, saying: “Am I to stay here alone?” Mary replied: “No, my daughter. Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” After saying this Mary departed.
13th July 1917
On 13th July the three children gathered, once again, at the Cova and again they saw the indescribably beautiful Lady over the holmoak. Lucia asked what she wanted, and Mary replied: “ I want you to come here on the13th day next month, to continue to pray the Rosary everyday in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of war, because only she can help you.”
Lucia then asked her who she was and for a miracle so everyone would believe: “ Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.”
Lucia also made some requests for sick people, to which Mary replied she would some but not all, and that all must say the rosary to obtain such graces, before continuing. “ Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice; O Jesus, is it for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
The vision of Hell
Lucia later revealed that as she spoke these words, Mary opened her hands and rays of light from them seemed to penetrate the earth so that they saw a terrifying vision of hell, full of demons and lost souls amidst indescribable horrors.
The vision of hell was the first part of the “secret” of Fatima, and was not revealed until much later. The children looked up to the sad face of the Blessed Virgin, who spoke to them kindly:
“You have seen hell where souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign give you by God that he is about to punish the world for it’s crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the church and of the Holy Father.
To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecution of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”
Mary specifically told Lucia not to tell anyone about the secret at this stage, apart from Francisco, continuing: “When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.” After assuring Lucia that there was nothing more, Mary disappeared off into the distance.
August1917
As August 13th approached rapidly, the story of the apparitions had reached the anti-religious secular press, and while this ensured that the whole country knew about Fatima, it also meant that many biased and negative reports were beginning. The Mayor of Villa Nova de Ourem, Arturo Santos, kidnapped the children on the morning of the 13th. They were interrogated about the secret; but despite his threats and promises of money, they refused to reveal it. In the afternoon they were moved to the local prison and threatened with death, but were sure that death was much better than revealing the secret.
On August 19th, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta were assembled at a place called Valinhos, near Fatima, late in the afternoon, when they again saw Mary who spoke to Lucia: “Go again to Cova da Iria on the 13th and continue to say the Rosary every day.” Mary also said she would perform a miracle, so all would finally believe, and that if they had not been kidnapped it would have been much better.
Looking very sad, Mary said to them: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.” With that she rose into the air and moved, as always, towards the east before disappearing.
By now the children had thoroughly taken in Mary’s plea for prayer and penance, and did everything they could to answer to it. They prayed for hours while laying face down on the ground and went as long as they could without drinking, in the burning heat of Portuguese summer. They also went without food, as a sacrifice for sinners; to save them from hell, the vision had terribly effected them. They even went as far as knotting some pieces of old rope around their waists during both night and day.
13th September 1917
On September 13th very large crowds began to approach on Fatima from all directions. Around noon the three children arrived, and after the customary flash of light, they saw Mary on the holmoak tree. She spoke Lucia: “Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October, Our Lord will come as well as Our Lady of Dolours and Our Lady of Carmel. Saint Joseph will appear with Jesus to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices. He does not want you to sleep with the rope on, but only wear it during the daytime.”
Lucia began to ask about the petitions of cures, only to be told: “Yes, I will cure some but not all. In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.” With that she rose up, moved slightly to the east and disappeared.
13th October 1917
The thought of a public miracle caused the most intense speculation throughout the whole of Portugal, and the journalist Avelino de Almeida, published a sarcastic article on the whole business in the anti-religious newspaper O Seculo. People from other parts of the country descended, in there tens of thousands, on the Cova, despite the terrible storm that had lashed the mountain country around Fatima on the eve of the 13th. Many pilgrims went barefooted, reciting the rosary on their way, all crowding into the area around the Cova, by midmorning the weather turned bad (again) and it began to rain very heavily.
The children reached the holmoak tree around noon, and then saw a flash of light as Mary appeared before them. For the last time, Lucia asked what she wanted: “I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honour. I’m the lady of the Rosary. Continue always to say the Rosary everyday. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.”
The Miracle of the Sun
At the same time the large crowd saw a true miracle. The black clouds parted, and the sun became visible, looking like a dull grey disc that could be looked at directly quite easily.
People then started asking each other what they had just seen. The majority admitted to having seen the trembling and dancing of the Sun; others affirmed that they saw the face of the blessed Virgin; others, again, swore that the Sun whirled on itself like a giant Catherine wheel and that it lowered itself to the earth as if to burn it with rays. Some said they saw it change colour successively.
Other people witnessed the solar miracle from a distance, which ruled out the possibility of ant type of hallucination. A final intriguing, and important point was that the heat of the sun, as it descended on the people, also had the effect of drying their clothes and the ground in about ten minutes!!!
The deaths of Jacinta and Francisco
An influenza epidemic swept Europe in autumn of 1919, just as the war ended. Both Jacinta and Francisco fell ill with it. Francisco recovered a little and there were hopes that he might become well, but he realised that he was destined to die young, as Our Lady had foretold, and his condition worsened again. He offered up all his sufferings as a way of consoling god for the sinfulness and ingratitude of mankind, becoming so weak that eventually he could not even pray. He received hi first Holy Communion, and on the next day, April 4th 1919, he died.
Jacinta too was bedridden during the long winter months, and although she recovered was struck down with bronchial pneumonia, while also developing a painful large lump full of puss in her chest. She was moved to the hospital in Ourem in July 1919, where she underwent the treatment she needed, but without much effect, returning home in August with an open wound in her side. It was decided that another attempt would be made to try and cure her, and so January 1920 she was taken to Lisbon, where she was diagnosed as having purulent pleurisy and diseased ribs.
Eventually in February she was taken into hospital, where she underwent another painful operation to remove two ribs; this left her with a large wound in her side that had to be dressed daily, causing her much agony. On the evening of February 20th the local was called and heard her Confession, but he insisted on waiting until the next day to bring her first Holy Communion, despite her protests that she felt worse, and as Mary had told her she died that night alone and far away from her family. Her body was returned to Fatima and buried next to her beloved brother, Francisco, until they were both later removed to the basilica built at the Cova da Iria.
Later apparitions to Sr. Lucia
The new bishop of the restored diocese of Leiria decided that it was best if Lucia was removed from Fatima, both to spare her from the continual questionings she had to endure, and to see what effect her absence would have on the numbers coming as pilgrims. Her mother agreed to her being sent away to school, and she left in May 1921, in great secrecy, for Porto, where a school run by the sisters of St. Dorothy was situated. Later she became a sister in this congregation, before joining the Carmelites.
On 10 December 1925, while at the convent in Pontevedra, Spain, Lucia saw another apparition, this time of Mary with the Child Jesus. Mary told Lucia to announce that she promised all the graces necessary for salvation to those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, confessed, received Holy Communion, recited five decades of the rosary, and meditated on the rosary for fifteen minutes, all with the intention of making reparation to her.
On 13 June 1929 Sr. Lucia, while at prayer in the convent chapel at Tuy, where she had moved, saw another apparition, this time a representation of the Trinity. She also heard Mary speak to her, asking that the Pope, in union with all the bishops of the world, make the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart that she had spoken of during the July 1917 apparition.
On 25 January 1938, a strange light filled the skies of northern Europe; it was described as a particularly brilliant display of the Aurora Borealis, but Sr. Lucia realised it was the "unknown light," also announced by Mary in the July apparition. It meant punishment for the world was close, principally through the Second World War, because it had not turned back to God.
Pope Pius XII consecrated the whole world to Mary's Immaculate Heart in 1942, and carried out a similar consecration of Russia in 1952, but neither of these fulfilled Mary's request at Fatima. This collegial consecration, in union with a "moral totality" of the world's bishops, was finally carried out by Pope John Paul II in 1984. Fatima received further Papal support when, on 13 May 1979, the Pope declared Jacinta and Francisco "venerable," the first stage in the process of their possible canonisation.
Pope John Paul has further emphasised the importance of Fatima by beatifying Jacinta and Francisco on 13 may 2000 during the Jubilee Year. At the same time he has announced that details of the third part of the Fatima secret will be revealed, while also entrusting the third millennium to Our Lady of Fatima.
The Bishop approves of Fatima
The Church, meanwhile, had maintained silence about the apparitions during the years from 1917, and it wasn't until May 1922 that Bishop Correia issued a pastoral letter on the subject, indicating that he would set up a commission of enquiry. In 1930 he issued another pastoral letter on the apparitions, which, after recounting the events at Fatima, contained the following brief but important statement.
"In virtue of considerations made known, and others which for reasons of brevity we omit; humbly invoking the Divine Spirit and placing ourselves under the protection of the most Holy Virgin, and after hearing the opinions of our Rev. Advisors in this diocese, we hereby: 1. Declare worthy of belief, the visions of the shepherd children in the Cova da Iria, parish of Fatima, in this diocese, from the 13th May to 13th October, 1917. 2. Permit officially the cult of Our Lady of Fatima."
