Every May 13 the Virgin of Fatima is remembered, rather, the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Cova da Iría, near the city of Fátima, in Portugal. The apparitions are considered by the Catholic Church private disclosures. In the catechism of the Catholic Church, in the first part of article 67 we read: “Throughout the centuries there have been so-called private revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. These, however, do not belong to the deposit of faith. yesIts function is not to improve or complete the definitive Revelation of Christ, but to help live it more fully at a certain time in history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the feeling of the faithful (sensus fidelium) knows how to discern and accept what in these revelations constitutes an authentic call of Christ or of his saints to the Church”.
The witnesses of this apparition were three little shepherds, in the year 1916. Lucía dos Santos, ten years old, and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marta, six and nine years old respectively, had experienced on three occasions, during the spring and summer of that year, an angelic presence while grazing their sheep. Twice it happened in Loca do Cabeço, in Valinhos, and another time in Pozo do Arneiro, at Lucía’s house, in Aljustrel. He presented himself to the children as the Angel of Portugal. They later considered it as a preparation for the visits of the Virgin Mary that they were going to have between May 13 and October 13, 1917.
One Sunday, May 13, 1917, the little shepherds headed with their sheep to Cova da Iria, near their town of Fátima in Portugal. Around noon, they heard a loud clap of thunder that filled them with fear, considering that the day was sunny and without a cloud. They believed that behind the hills a terrible storm was brewing, so they began to round up the sheep; again another noise shocked them, and there on a small oak, the children saw a woman suspended over the bush, who asked them to return to the same place for five months. Francisco could see the lady but not hear what she was saying. In this summary the dialogues are transcribed:
– And what do you want? Lucia asks.
– I came to ask you to come here, six months in a row, on the 13th at this very hour. Then I will say who I am and what I want. Then I will come back here a seventh time.
When the children arrived home, they told their parents what they had witnessed. Lucía’s parents didn’t believe her, but Jacinta’s and Francisco’s did.
On June 13 there were already about 50 people gathered in the place. There the lady says:
– What do you want? Lucia will ask again.
–I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, pray the rosary and learn to read. Then I’ll say what I want.
–I wanted to ask him to take us to Heaven (Lucía asks him).
-Yes; Jacinta and Francisco will take them to me shortly. But you stay here some more time. Jesus wants to use you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world.
So it was. Francisco and Jacinta Marta fell ill in December 1918. Francisco did not recover and died on April 4, 1919. Jacinta’s health somewhat improved, but soon after she developed purulent pleurisy and was admitted to the Vila Nova de Ourém hospital in the summer of 1919. Moved to Lisbon, she died on February 20, 1920. Instead, Lucía dos Santos lived to be 97 years old. He died on February 13, 2005. His life was devoted to religion. She eventually became Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart. She entered the school of the Dorotea sisters in Vilar, near Porto and she professed as a Dorotea nun in Tuy (Pontevedra), where the Virgin also appeared to her in 1925.. In 1946 she returned to Portugal and, two years later, she entered the Carmel of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she was confined in this convent, taking the habits of a Discalced Carmelite on May 31, 1949. There he wrote two volumes with his Memoirs and the Appeals of the Message of Fatima and in this place he died.
On July 13, the crowd was already overwhelming, in that apparition the Virgin told them:
–I wanted to ask you to tell us who you are, and to perform a miracle so that everyone believes that you appear to us– says Lucía.
–Keep coming here every month. In October I will say who I am, what I want, and I will perform a miracle that everyone will be able to see, to believe.
It was during this apparition that the Virgin transmitted to the children the so-called “secret of Fatima”, which was made known by the Holy See during the pontificate of John Paul II.
Each month the number of people increased and on the long-awaited day, October 13, 1917, in what was the last apparition of the lady in Fatima, there were about 50 thousand people. And the dialogue was as follows:
– What do you want?
– I want to tell you to build a chapel here in my honor, that I am the Lady of the Rosary, to always continue praying the Rosary every day. LThe war is going to end and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.
– I had many things to ask him: if he cured some sick people and if he converted some sinners, etc.
– Some yes, others no. It is necessary that they amend themselves, that they ask forgiveness for their sins.
And taking a sadder aspect:
– Do not offend Our Lord any more who is already very offended!”
And, opening his hands, he made them reflect on the Sun. And as he rose, he continued the reflection of his own light projecting on the Sun.
This moment was called the “Miracle of the Sun”, witnessed by 50,000 people who saw the sun “dance” or “zigzag”, turn towards the Earth or emit multicolored light and radiant colors. According to reports, these supposed events would have lasted about ten minutes. Secular reporters, government officials and skeptics were able to verify the phenomenon. That day it had rained torrentially on the Cova da Iría and at the end of this event everything was perfectly dry. Pope Pius XII had witnessed the miracle of the sun from the Vatican gardens.
After this miracle, on April 28, 1919, the construction of the chapel of the apparitions began; On October 13, 1921, Holy Mass was allowed for the first time. On October 13, 1930, the Bishop of Leiría declared the apparitions worthy of faith and authorized the cult of Our Lady of Fatima. On May 13, 2000, Pope John Paul II beatified Francisco and Jacinta and they were canonized on May 13, 2017 by Pope Francis.
The three secrets of Fatima
Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941, in a document written by Sr. Lucía, while for the third the bishop of Leiría ordered Lucía to put it in writing to present it to the Pope. The text of the third secret was revealed by Pope John Paul II on June 26, 2000.
The first secret: a vision of Hell. “Sunken in this fire all the demons and souls, as if they were transparent and black or tanned embers with human form, that floated in the fire carried by the flames that came out of them, together with clouds of smoke, falling to all sides , similar to falling from the sparks in great fires, without weight or balance, between screams and moans of pain and despair, which horrified and made one tremble with fear. The demons were distinguished by their horrible and disgusting forms of hideous and unknown animals, but transparent and black.
The Second Secret. How to save sinners from hell and pray for the conversion of Russia and the announcement of a new war. “If you do what I say, many souls will be saved and you will have peace. The war is going to end, but if they don’t stop offending God, another worse one will begin in the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God gives you that he is going to punish the world for his crimes, through war, famine and persecution of the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent it, I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and for communion of reparation on the first Saturdays. If you listen to my requests, Russia will be converted and you will have peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church, the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, several nations will be annihilated, finally my Immaculate Heart will triumph”.
The third secret. It was revealed by Pope John Paul II during the beatification ceremony for Francisco and Jacinta. He had announced it through his Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, that he would make the text of the third secret public. Sister Lucia participated in the ceremony. Months later, the text was released by the Holy See, along with an analysis of the meaning. The text says:
“And we saw in an immense light, which is God, something similar to how people look in the mirror, when a bishop dressed in white passed by. We had a feeling that he was the Holy Father. We saw several other bishops, priests, men and women religious climb a rugged mountain, on top of which was a large cross, with a rough trunk, as if it were cork oak like the bark. The Holy Father, before arriving there, passed through a great city, half in ruins and half in trembling, hesitantly walking, heavy with pain and sorrow. He was praying for the souls of the corpses that he found along the way. Arriving at the top of the mountain, prostrate, on his knees at the foot of the cross, he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired several shots and arrows at him, and in the same way the bishops, priests, religious men and women were dying one after another. and several lay people. Gentlemen and ladies of various classes and positions. Under the two arms of the cross were two angels. Each one with a glass jug in their hands, collecting in them the blood of the martyrs and with them irrigating the souls that approached God”.
For Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) no great mystery was revealed; the veil of the future has not been drawn. “We see the Church of the martyrs of the century that has just passed represented by a scene described with a symbolic language that is difficult to decipher,” he assured.
According to this account of the events that occurred in Cova da Iría-Fátima, everything is left to the faith of the believer. For those who believe, everything is possible; for whom he does not believe, everything is impossible.
The stories and dialogues included in this note are narrated by Sr. Lucia in: “Memorias da Irmã Lucia I. 14th ed. Fatima: Secretariat dos Pastorinhos, 2010, p. 172-173 (IV Memory); the section in parentheses belongs to the interrogation of the priest to the seers, on May 27, 1917; in Critical Documentation of Fatima”.
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