The story begins
in the village of Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 1917. On that fateful
day near that tiny village, The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
appeared to three young peasant children: Francisco, Jacinta, and
Lucia; ages 10, 9 and 7. As was the custom, these youngsters were
tending their family’s sheep when “a Lady all in white, more
brilliant than the sun… indescribably beautiful,” standing above a
bush, appeared to the youngsters. From May through October 1917, the
Lady appeared and spoke to the children on the 13th day of each
month.
News of these
apparitions began to spread throughout the region. The children
recounted that the Virgin told them that God had sent her with a
message for every man, woman, and child living in the century. She
promised that God would grant peace to the entire world if Her
requests for prayer, reparation and consecration were heard and
obeyed. While many people believed the children had actually seen the
Virgin, many others discounted the children’s story, subjecting them
to much derision and ridicule. When it became known the Lady would
visit the children for the last time on October 13, 1917, and had
promised a sign that would convince the world she had appeared, many
pilgrims made plans to attend.
Though the
region had been subjected to three days of torrential downpour,
nearly 70,000 people journeyed through the heavy rain and mud to the
place of the previous apparitions to witness the predicted miracle.
Many were scornful, unbelievers whose sole intent was to discredit
the children’s stories.
Suddenly the
“clouds separated…and the sun appeared between them in the clear
blue, like a disk of white fire.” The people could look at the sun
without blinking and while they gazed upward, the huge ball began to
“dance”. The huge fireball whirled rapidly with dizzy and sickening
speed, flinging out all sorts of brilliant colors that reflected on
the faces of the crowds. The fiery ball continued to gyrate in this
manner three times, then seemed to tremble and shudder, and plunge in
a mighty zigzag course toward the earth. The crowd was terrified,
fearing this was the end of the world.
However, the sun
reversed course and, retracing its zigzagging course, returned to its
normal place in the heavens. All of this transpired in approximately
ten minutes. After realizing they were not doomed, the crowd began
ecstatically laughing, crying, shouting and weeping. Many discovered
their previously drenched clothing to be perfectly
dry.
After this
“miracle,” the children were grilled many, many times, about what
they had seen and been told. Their story never changed. The heart of
Our Lady’s message to the world is contained in what has become known
as the “Secret,” which she confided to the children in July 1917. The
“Secret” actually consists of three parts. The first part of the
“Secret” was a frightening vision of hell, “where the souls of poor
sinners go,” and contained an urgent plea from Our Lady for acts of
prayer and sacrifice to save souls, with particular emphasis on
praying of the rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary.
The second part
of the “Secret” specifically prophesied the outbreak of World War II
and contained the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would
do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing
Communists’ totalitarianism.
The third part
was not revealed until 2000. Its revelation coincided with the
beatification of Francisco and Jacinta. It did not contain any
striking or cataclysmic prediction, but, instead, the vision
supported and affirmed the immense suffering endured by witnesses of
the faith in the last century of the second millennium. Sister Lucia,
the surviving member of the Fatima trio, confirmed that in the vision
“the Bishop clothed in white,” who prays for all the faithful, is the
Pope. As he makes his way with great difficulty towards the Cross
amid the corpses of those who were martyred (bishops, priests, men
and women religious and many lay people), he too falls to the ground,
apparently dead, under a hail of gunfire. It is possible that the
vision predicted the 1981 attack on Pope John Paul II’s life. The
Pope has always credited the Virgin for his survival. Or it may be a
portrayal of the Church’s continued struggle against secularism and
anti-Christian movements and a continuing call to prayer, sacrifice
and devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.
