Fatima, Portugal - 1917
On that day She appeared to three astonished little children, Lucia dos Santos, 10, Francisco Marto, 9, and Francisco's 7 year old sister, Jacinta. They were tending their flocks at the Cova da Iria (Cove of Irene), about a mile outside of Fatima. Our Lady was youthful, and beautiful beyond all description. Her vesture was of radiant white, and a white veil trimmed in gold covered her head and fell almost to Her feet.
She spoke kindly to the three shepherd children, told them not to be afraid, that She was from Heaven, and asked them to come to the same place on the 13th of the next five months. Our Lady asked them to pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world. Then She disappeared.
The children, fearing ridicule, determined to keep what they had all seen a complete secret. Jacinta, however, let the secret slip, and as they feared, they were ridiculed and punished for what was presumed to be a lie.
THE SECOND APPARITION
On June 13, they were again at the Cova, accompanied by a few curious onlookers. Our Lady returned as She had promised, and asked again for the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary. She also instructed them that after saying each Glory Be on the Rosary, that they were to add the following prayer:
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, and save us from the fires of Hell, Lead all souls to Heaven, Especially those in most need of Thy Mercy.
THE THIRD APPARITION
On July 13, five thousand people had assembled with the children in the Cova. The Virgin appeared again, and once more urged the daily praying of the Holy Rosary. She promised that on October 13, She would perform a wonderful Miracle for the people to see and be convinced of Her apparitions in Fatima.
On this occasion, She entreated the children to sacrifice themselves for sinners, and to tell mankind to cease offending God, because He was already deeply offended. Mary opened Her hands at this point, and rays of light poured from them to the ground. The three children watched in horror as they saw numerous people falling into a sea of fire, where hideous creatures began tormenting them.
"You see Hell," the Blessed Virgin explained with great sorrow, "where the souls of poor sinners go. To help save sinners from falling into Hell, God wants to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. Say the following prayer every time you make a sacrifice for sinners:
O my Jesus, I offer this for the love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary" The Virgin then made this promise: "I promise to help at the hour of death, with all the graces needed for their salvation, whosoever on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess and receive Holy Communion, recites five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to Me."
THE FOURTH APPARITION
During the month following the third apparition, opposition began to arise against the children. The masonic government, and the radical press vehemently demanded that all the publicity cease. The children were cross- examined repeatedly, but nothing could shake them.
When August 13 came around, however, the children were kidnapped, and held captive in the home of a bitter anti-Catholic Administrator of the district. No matter what threats he made to Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco, promising even death, the three shepherds stood staunchly by their story. He was finally obliged to release them to their frantic parents.
Because of the arrest, the children were unable to keep their monthly appointment with Our Lady in the Cova. But on August 19, the Virgin appeared to them in a different place, Valhinos, where they were playing. Mary expressed Her great displeasure at the actions of the Freemasons, and said that as a result, the Miracle She promised for October would not be as extraordinary as She originally desired. She pleaded with the three children to pray the Rosary everday, to do penance, and to make sacrifices for sinners.
THE FIFTH APPARITION
September 13 found 30,000 people pouring into Fatima. The whole crowd saw with the three children, a luminous ball of light float down from the eastern sky, and settle on the holm oak shrub where the seers explained She always standed. The people did not see the Virgin, however, Who made Herself visible only to the three shepherds, but the whole crowd witnessed a shower of silvery rose petals that fell from the heavens and then disappeared just before touching the ground.
The Virgin Mary insisted again on the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary, and the value of making sacrifices for sinners.
THE SIXTH APPARITION
On October 13, 1917, more than 70,000 people had gathered at the Cova from far and near. Anti- lericals, radicals, and haters of God, mingled with the devout and religious. But the Miracle the Blessed Virgin promised brought everyone to their knees.
First, Our Lady told the children Who She was, and that She was appearing at Fatima under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary. She insisted on the daily recitation of the Rosary, and promised the war (WW1) would end soon, and the soldiers would return to their homes. She concluded by saying, "Please do not offend God, Our Lord, anymore, for He is already deeply offended."
Mary opened her arms, palms facing upward. Streams of light from Her hands shot skyward to the sun directly overhead. The oldest seer, Lucia, pointed upward and shouted to the people, "LOOK AT THE SUN!" The sun changed in appearance and sent forth rays of colored light. Then it began to spin, and move around in the sky, and throwing off shards of multi-colored light like a pinwheel. It dived down towards the people, who were terror-stricken, thinking it was going to destroy them. But the sun stopped, taking up most of the sky, and it spun again, painting the people and the surrounding terrain with first one color and then another, as it changed repeatedly. Then it returned to its place in the sky, and repeated the whole display two more times. When it settled back into place for the final time, the sun turned to normal, and no one was able to look at it anymore. (And remember, this was a lesser Miracle than originally promised, thanks to the freemasons who kidnapped the children and prevented them from keeping their rendezvous with Our Lady on August 13.)
As for the three children, while the masses were watching the Miracle of the Sun, the seers watched a number of visions taking place in the sky. Our Lady appeared with Jesus, Her Son, as an adult, and they blessed the world. Then Our Lady appeared with Her chaste husband, St. Joseph, who carried Jesus as an infant in his arms. Both Jesus and St. Joseph blessed the people again. Finally, Our Lady appeared a final time, dressed under the title of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The infant Jesus was in Her arms, and She held out a Rosary and the Brown Scapular of Mt. Carmel, Her two greatest gifts to us, while the Infant Jesus blessed the crowd.
WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THE EVENTS OF FATIMA?
Our Lady's Message at Fatima is clear.
1). The daily recitation of the Holy Rosary
2). The practice of the Five First Saturdays in reparation
3). The announcement of God's Will of establishing devotion to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary
4). to urge, as She did at LOURDES, France, penance, penance, penance, for our own sins and the sins of others.
THE GREAT PROPHECY
In Her second apparition to the children, Our Lady told them a secret. Years later, Lucia was permitted to divulge a part of it. Especially to be noted are these words spoken by Mary directly to Lucia: "God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If people do what I have told you, many souls will be saved, The War (WW1) will end, AND THERE WILL BE PEACE. If My requests are ignored, another, and worse war will break out during the reign of the next Pope. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that that is the Sign that God gives you that it is too late, and the punishments will begin. "To prevent all this, I will come to ask for the consecration of the world to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion in reparation on the first Saturday of each month.
"If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If they are not heeded, Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, fomenting wars, famine, persecution of the Church, and the Holy Father, the Pope. The good will be martyred, and various nations will be annihilated. But in the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and a period of peace will be granted to humanity."
Obviously, Our Lady's instructions were almost completely ignored, and World War II, the worst war in the history of this world so far, happened as She had prophesied. In the course of this horrendous conflict, Russia, starting out as a poor country with no direction, became a formidable enemy, and eventually a super power, and spread her communist infection everywhere.
The Consecration of Russia (specifically Russia alone) has yet to take place, despite the fact that many Fatima researchers falsely claim that the Consecration was performed in 1984, and that Lucia agreed it was done right. The fact is, the Consecration of Russia, according to the exact formula provided by the Blessed Virgin Mary, has never taken place, and the whole issue has been swept under the Vatican rug, and Sister Lucy, today a nun in her 90's, has been completed silenced by the hierarchy. (UPDATE: The official word is that Sister Lucy finally passed away at the age of 97 on February 13, 2005. There is plenty of controversy, however, (and for good reason) claiming that the "Sister Lucy" who died was the Vatican's decoy for the real Sister Lucy, who was silenced by the Church in 1960 from speaking out against the party line being uttered by the clergy in charge of the demolition of the Roman Catholic Church. This complicated topic is covered under THE TWO SISTER LUCYS.)
To add insult to injury, when the Vatican released the famed THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA in the year 2000, what was actually published was the vision the three children had, but not the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary explaining the vision to the children. Pretending that Our Lady never said anything about the complex scenes the ignorant peasant children were viewing, the Vatican pre-empted Our Lady and gave its own "official" interpretation of the vision, summarily dismissing it as events already in the past, particularly the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, which is utter bunk. The leading proponent of the "Third Secret of (the Vatican)" is Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who published a complete book on the topic to "officially" end the controversy (in favor of the Vatican's public interpretation of the Secret), but in the best-selling books The Fourth Secret of Fatima, by Antonio Socci, and The Third Secret, Still Hidden by Christopher A. Ferrara, Cardinal Bertone's attempt to sweep Fatima back under the rug again is completely thwarted.
This devious behavior of several members of the Church hierarchy will be discussed in great depth in appending articles to this link. For a much more complete story about what happened at Fatima, please download the FREE ebook we have provided for you, entitled Our Lady of Fatima: The Mother of Christ Crusade. Also check out our large ARCHIVE of articles detailing the Church's conspiracy against the fulfillment of the Blessed Virgin's urgent requests to obtain true and lasting peace for the world.
