Feast of Our Lady of Fatima


Today is the 91st anniversary of the first appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three shepherd children Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco in 1917. Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, the three children received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for: world peace, the end of World War I, for sinners, and for the conversion of Russia.

Here is a description of that event in Lucia's own words:

High up on the slope in the Cova da Ira, I was playing with Jacinta and Francisco at building a little stone wall around a clump of furze. Suddenly we saw what seemed to be a flash of lightning.

"We'd better go home," I said to my cousins, "that's lightning, we may have a thunderstorm."

"Yes, indeed!" they answered.

We began to go down the slope, hurrying the sheep towards the road. We were more or less halfway down the slope, and almost level with a large holmoak tree that stood there, when we saw another flash of lightning. We had only gone a few steps further when, there before us on a small holmoak, we beheld a lady all dressed in white. She was more brilliant than a crystal glass filled with sparkling water, when the rays of the burning sun shine through it.

We stopped astounded, before the apparition. We were so close, just a few feet from her that we were bathed in the light which surrounded her, or rather which radiated from her.

Then Our Lady spoke to us:

"Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm."

"Where are you from?"

"I am from heaven."

"What do you want of me?"

"I have come to ask you to come here for six months in succession, on the 13th day, at the same hour. Later on, I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterwards, I will yet return here a seventh time."

"Shall I go to heaven, too?"

"Yes, you will."

"And Jacinta?"

"She will go also."

"And Francisco?"

"He will go there, too, but he must say many rosaries."

Then I remembered to ask about two girls who had died recently. They were friends of mine and used to come to my home to learn weaving with my eldest sister.

"Is Maria Das Neves in heaven?" (I think she was about 16 years old.)

"Yes, she is."

"And Amelia?"

"She will be in purgatory until the end of the world." (It seems to me that she was between 18 and 20 years of age.")

"Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings he sends you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?"

"Yes, we are willing."

"Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort."

As she pronounced these last words "...the grace of God will be your comfort," Our Lady opened her hands for the first time, communicating to us a light so intense that, as it streamed from her hands, its rays penetrated our hearts and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in God, Who was that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors. Then, moved by an interior impulse that was also communicated to us, we fell on our knees, repeating in our hearts: O most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I love You in the most Blessed Sacrament!

After a few moments, Our Lady spoke again: "Pray the rosary everyday, in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war."

Then she began to rise serenely, going up towards the east, until she disappeared in the immensity of space. The light that surrounded her seemed to be open to a path before her in the firmament, and for this reason we sometimes said that we saw heaven opening."


~ Excerpted from The Message of Fatima: Lucia Speaks, 1997 Revised Edition

For more information on the Fatima apparitions, visit these links:

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