On May 13, 1917, 105 years ago today, in the midst of World War I, the Virgin Mary appeared in a village in central Portugal to three young shepherds: Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia. Between May and October of the same year, the children witnessed six apparitions during which Our Lady of Fatima transmitted an essential message that was quickly spread throughout the world.
In the small parish (200 inhabitants) of Fatima, named after an Arab Muslim who converted to Catholicism in the Middle Ages, 170 km north of Lisbon, the children spend more time with the flocks than at school. Among them were Lucia de Jesus dos Santos (born on March 22, 1907), her cousin Francisco Marto (born on June 11, 1908) and his sister Jacinta Marto (born on March 11, 1910), who often tended the sheep at the Cova da Iria.
First supernatural phenomena. As early as 1915, the children experienced apparitions. First Lucia, accompanied by two friends, saw a silent angel on the hill of Cabeço. The following year, the same angel appeared three times to Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. In the spring, he introduced himself as the “Angel of Peace” and taught them the following prayer: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love you. I ask your forgiveness for those who do not believe, who do not worship, who do not hope, who do not love you.” During the summer, near a well, he introduces himself as the “Angel of Portugal,” and asks the children to pray a lot and to practice many sacrifices for the reparation of sins and the conversion of those who commit them. Finally, in the autumn, the angel makes the children take communion miraculously before giving them the following prayer: “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I offer you the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Holy Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I ask you for the conversion of poor sinners.”
The first apparition (May 13). These first visits were intended to prepare the children for the apparitions of the Virgin Mary herself. Lucia was then 10 years old, Francisco was soon to be 9 and Jacinta was 7. On May 13, 1917, around noon, a light appeared in the sky, followed by a lady radiant with light, dressed in white, holding a rosary in her right hand. She warns of her peaceful intentions (“Don’t be afraid, I mean you no harm”), reveals that she comes from Heaven and asks the children to come back here six times in a row, every 13th of the month. Lucia asks questions and learns that all three of them will go to Heaven one day, but that Francisco will have to recite many rosaries first. Finally, the Lady teaches the children to offer themselves to God in reparation for sins and to suffer in reparation and for the conversion of sinners. In spite of her promise, Jacinta spoke of the apparition and drew the mockery of the villagers and the incredulity of the parish priest.
The second apparition (June 13). A month later, the Lady appeared. A great light appeared in front of 50 people who had come out of curiosity, according to Jacinta, but only the children saw the Blessed Virgin. She asked them to pray the rosary every day and announced that Lucia, who would have to learn to read and write, would have the mission of spreading devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, while Francisco and Jacinta would soon go to Heaven.
The third apparition (July 13). The crowd of onlookers grew to 4,000 as the Lady in White appeared once again to the children alone. This was the most important apparition. Our Lady recalls her recommendation to recite the rosary every day “to obtain peace in the world and an end to war, because only she can obtain them. She then shows the children Hell, and promises the end of the war and a miracle in October. A special three-part secret was also revealed to the children, in which it was said that there would be another war if they continued to offend God, and that Russia must be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to prevent her from spreading her errors throughout the world (the children did not know this country, and thought that Our Lady was probably talking about a very evil woman).
The fourth apparition (August 19). On August 13, 18,000 people were present at the usual apparition site, but nothing happened. The children were not there: they had been arrested by the anticlerical governor, who wanted to know the children’s secrets. In spite of the pressure, the children do not speak and are released two days later. On August 19, while guarding their flock as usual at the Cova da Iria, the children were visited by the Lady, who again asked them to pray and to build a chapel. She again promised a miracle on October 13.
The fifth apparition (September 13). A little less than a month later, nearly 30,000 people came to the apparition. The Lady again recommended the rosary and penances for the end of the war, but limited the austerities of the children who had decided to wear a rope around their waist 24 hours a day to mortify themselves: they would no longer have to wear it at night.
The last appearance (October 13). This is the most spectacular apparition. The Blessed Virgin, who gave her name to Our Lady of the Rosary, wanted a chapel to be built in her name and announced that the war would soon end. The “miracle of the sun” occurred, announced three times, awaited and observed by the 50,000 to 80,000 people present, including the anti-clerical journalist Avelino de Almeida. He published a sensational account in the newspaper O Seculo on October 15. The pouring rain suddenly stopped, the sun changed its appearance, swirled in the sky for ten minutes, and then seemed to run into the crowd, creating panic, before it returned to its normal position. At the end, when everyone was soaked to the skin, everyone was surprised to find their clothes and the ground absolutely dry. The Bishopric of Leira Fatima later collected thousands of testimonies, all of which agreed, from as far away as 40 km. This great miracle had a great impact on the country and made people talk about the apparitions, which then ceased for good.
Francisco and Jacinta, stricken with the Spanish flu, died in 1919 and 1920. They were beatified on May 13, 2000 by Pope John Paul II and canonized on May 13, 2017 by Pope Francis. As for Lucia, she quickly felt a religious vocation and entered the novitiate of the Sisters of St. Dorothy, and then the Carmel of Coimbra (Portugal), where she died on February 13, 2005, shortly before John Paul II. Through her writings, she contributed to the propagation and understanding of the importance of the apparitions of Fatima.
What can we learn from the events of Fatima?
First of all, we must emphasize the exceptional character of these apparitions. The content of the message is very rich: as early as 1915, it recalls the existence of angels, then the practice of the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity). He also insists on the necessity of prayer for the conversion of sinners, and on the value of sacrifices and sufferings offered; as well as the propitiatory value of the Mass (it brings salvation by actualizing the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross).
The Virgin Mary recalls the last ends by speaking of Heaven, Purgatory and Hell, she stresses the importance of the communion of saints (the prayer of the living can relieve the suffering of the souls waiting in Purgatory) and recommends the rosary as a preferred means of sanctification. The apparitions are also remarkable for the authentication of their divine origin, thanks to the miracle of the sun.
In addition to this miracle, inexplicable by science, they are confirmed by a series of prophecies announced by the Virgin and later verified, such as the rapid death of Francisco and Jacinta, the anticipated end of the war for Portugal (after the election of a new president in December, Portugal withdrew its troops from the battlefields in April 1918), the focus on Russia (which would not experience the communist revolution until November 1917) and its “errors” spread throughout the world or what Sister Lucia would reveal in the canonical investigation of 1930 and in her writings of 1941 of the first two secrets that mention the election of a Pope named Pius XI, the coming of a bright sign in the sky (a kind of aurora borealis visible in the night of January 25-26, 1938), shortly before the outbreak of a Second World War The richness of their content and the strength of their confirmation give the apparitions of Fatima a very special character.
Our Lady’s words mainly unfold in three registers: she shows, she announces, she asks. She shows Hell; she announces the errors of communism and the cataclysm of the Second World War; she asks God to organize devotion to her Immaculate Heart.
The message thus conveys the expression of a divine will that is of capital importance for our time. Our Lady of Fatima affirms the divine will that the Immaculate Heart of Mary be prayed to, known and loved more, for the greater glory of God, as St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort had already intuited. On June 13, she said that “Jesus wants”; on July 13, she insisted: “God wants. The essential object of this divine request is “to establish in the world” devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which complements that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus revealed at Paray-le-Monial, and which is accompanied by five specific practices:
– the daily recitation of the rosary ;
– the offering of penances and sacrifices encountered in the fulfillment of our state duty and in the observance of the law of God, in reparation for sins and for the conversion of sinners;
– Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays of the month;
– the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Russia, but also of the world, of individuals and communities (parishes, municipalities, countries, the world);
– the wearing of the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The Virgin Mary promises great benefits from this devotion. “To whoever embraces this devotion, I promise Salvation” (June 13, 1917, promise repeated to Lucia in very similar terms on December 10, 1925). Particular graces are provided for each practice:
– peace in the world for the daily recitation of the rosary ;
– the conversion of sinners for the offering of sacrifices and reparative communion;
– peace and conversion for those who are consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary;
– preservation from the pains of Hell for those who wear the scapular at the time of their death.
Translated from: Notre Histoire avec Marie
