Lúcia instructed the other two children to keep this vision a secret. However, seven-year-old Jacinta later told all to her mother, who patiently listened but gave it little credence. Her brothers and sisters piped in with their questions and jokes. Quite touchingly, only her father accepted the story as true. He is memorialized as the first believer in Fatima.
The mother of Lúcia was not as believing. She worried that her daughter was lying and blaspheming. She demanded that Lúcia recant, and when she would not, she dragged Lúcia before their parish priest, Father Ferreira. Lúcia stood firm in her belief that a heavenly Lady in white had visited her.
Meanwhile the children prepared for their next appointment, on 13 June 1917.
The Second Apparition of Fatima
The Lady had told them to come to the holm oak tree at the same time on the thirteenth day of each month. The thirteenth of June fell on the feast of Portugal’s most famous saint, Anthony of Padua (who was born in Lisbon, Portugal, but died in Padua, Italy). Lúcia’s mother hoped that the parish festivities would distract the three children from the suspicious apparition scheduled for this day.
At noon, the children walked to the place where the Lady had appeared previously. There they found a small, curious crowd awaiting them. After praying the Rosary with Jacinta and Francisco and the other people who were present, the children saw again the lightning nearing them and then the Lady on the holm oak, exactly as in the previous month.
“Please tell me, Madam, what is it that you want of me?” Lúcia asked.
“I want you to come here on the thirteenth of next month. I want you to continue saying the Rosary every day. And after each one of the mysteries, my children, I want you to pray in this way: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.’ I want you to learn to read and write, and later I will tell you what else I want of you.”
“Will you take us to heaven?”
“Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart.”
“Must I remain in the world alone?”
“Not alone, my child, and you must not be sad. I will be with you always, and my Immaculate Heart will be your comfort and the way which will lead you to God.”
Lúcia explains what happened next:
The moment she said the last words, opening her hands, she transmitted to us, for the second time, the reflection of that intense light. In it we felt we were submerged in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light which was rising to Heaven, and I in the part spreading over the earth. In front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled with thorns, which appeared to pierce it. We understood it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary offended by the sins of mankind, craving reparation. Once again, the Lady departed to the east and disappeared into heaven. The people did not see the Lady, but some said they saw the light or lightning.
The Third Apparition and the Secret of Fatima
Now that the apparitions were being widely discussed, the local pastor of Fatima began to intervene and express his concern that the apparitions might in fact be demonic. Lúcia’s pastor’s disapproval discouraged her so much that she was reluctant to go for the third appointment on July 13. Nevertheless, she attended with Jacinta and Francisco at noon of that day, where a large crowd had gathered. They saw the flash of light, and the Lady appeared on the holm oak.
“Lúcia, speak,” Jacinta instructed. “Our Lady is talking to you.”
“Yes?” said Lúcia. She spoke humbly, asking pardon for her doubts with every gesture, and to the Lady: “What do you want of me?”
“I want you to come back here on the thirteenth of next month. Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain the peace of the world and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it.”
“Yes, yes. I would like to ask who you are, and if you will do a miracle so that everyone will know for certain that you have appeared to us.”
“You must come here every month, and in October I will tell you who I am and what I want. I will then perform a miracle so that all may believe.”
Thus assured, Lúcia began to place before the Lady the petitions for help that so many had entrusted to her. The Lady said gently that she would cure some, but others she would not cure.
“And the crippled son of Maria da Capelinha?”
“No, neither of his infirmity nor of his poverty would he be cured, and he must be certain to say the Rosary with his family every day.”
Another case recommended by Lúcia to the Lady’s assistance was a sick woman from Atouguia who asked to be taken to heaven.
“Tell her not to be in a hurry. Tell her I know very well when I shall come to fetch her. Make sacrifices for sinners, and say often, especially while making a sacrifice: ‘O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’ ”
As Our Lady spoke these words, she opened her hands once more, as she had during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me do). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly:
You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. It is to save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.
This war will end, but if men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light35 you will know it is the sign God gives you that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.
To prevent this, I shall come to the world to ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that on the first Saturday of every month Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world. If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and the world will enjoy a period of peace. In Portugal the faith will always be preserved.
The vision of hell and the consecration of Russia are the first and second parts of the secret of Fatima. The controversial third part, which followed, was so horrific and terrible that it could not be revealed until 1960. We shall return to the third part of the secret of Fatima at length, but for now we shall continue the narrative of 13 July as reported by Lúcia.
“Remember, you must not tell this to anyone except Francisco. When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.’ ”
“Is there anything more that you want of me?”
“No, I do not want anything more of y
ou today.”
As in previous months, the Lady rose toward the east into the sky.
The family, the neighbors, and the priest tried to get the three children to reveal the threefold secret of the Lady, but the children kept their promise to the Lady. For this reason, the apparition of 13 July 1917 continues to be the most controversial. Lúcia kept the Threefold Secret until 1941, when she wrote down the first and second parts. It is best to see the Secret of Fatima as one united secret with three interrelated parts, but, for convenience’s sake, we will refer to those parts as the First Secret, the Second Secret, and the Third Secret. So in 1941, Lúcia revealed the First Secret about the vision of Hell, and the Second Secret about the consecration and conversion of Russia to the Immaculate Heart.
In October 1943 the Bishop ordered Lúcia under obedience to put the Third Secret into writing, which she hesitated to do because of its shocking contents. On 2 January 1944, Our Lady of Fatima appeared to Lúcia and gave her permission to write down the Third Secret but to have it sealed until 1960, because “it will be clearer then.” Lúcia then wrote the secret down and sealed it in an envelope the next day. This sealed envelope would in 1955 be transferred to Rome and wait to be opened by Pope John XXIII in 1959. To this controversy we will return.
The Fourth Apparition of Fatima
By August, the three children were reaching celebrity status and gaining the negative attention of the clergy and politicians. On 11 August 1917, an intervention was staged to force the children to reveal their secret and fess up to lying. The children refused to recant. So the local mayor, Arturo Santos, a Freemason and anti-Catholic, devised a plot to take the children into custody.
Before the three children made their way to the Cova on the thirteenth of August, Santos offered them the prestigious favor of riding in his automobile to the site. The Ford Model T had debuted in America in 1908 with a limited release in Britain and France in 1911. Even by 1917, the sight of an automobile was still rare in rural Portugal. The mayor offered a ride in his automobile to transport the children safely through the crowds. These growing crowds testify to the enthusiastic regional interest in the Fatima visionaries by August 1917.
The three children took the bait and climbed into the Freemason’s automobile with their parents. Mayor Santos drove them to the church to visit the parish priest before driving to the Cova. Once at the church, Mayor Santos abandoned the parents and drove the three children to his district headquarters in Vila Nova de Ourém, nine miles away. Here he attempted to bribe the children, and when that didn’t succeed, he threatened to lock them away in prison with other criminals. Finally, he threatened them with death. Lúcia was ten years old. Francisco was nine, and Jacinta was seven. Despite their age, they stood firm against the mayor and his threats.
Meanwhile, back at the Cova, the lightning flashed as it had before, but, as before, the crowds did not see the Lady in white on the holm oak. Without the children present, the crowd dispersed in confusion. To the sorrow of their parents, the three children remained in custody for two days. They were released on the feast of the Assumption of Mary, August 15, when they were driven back to Fatima and dropped off on the steps of the church. Since it was a feast day, the church was full, and everyone saw that Mayor Santos had kidnapped the three children.
On the nineteenth of August, Lúcia, her brother John, and Francisco were tending sheep in a different area, where the Angel of Peace had appeared to them in 1916. Toward the end of the day, Lúcia sensed the presence of Our Lady. She bribed her brother John with some pennies to fetch Jacinta. When Jacinta finally arrived, the Lady in white appeared to them.
“What do you want of me?”
“Come again to the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of next month, my child, and continue to say the Rosary every day. In the last month I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.”
“What are we to do with the offerings of money that people leave at the Cova da Iria?”
“I want you to have two ardors [litters to carry statues] made, for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. I want you and Jacinta to carry one of them with two other girls. You will both dress in white. And then I want Francisco, with three boys helping him, to carry the other one. The boys, too, will be dressed in white. What is left over will help towards the construction of a chapel that is to be built here.”
Lúcia then asked for the cure of some sick people.
“Some I will cure during the year. Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell, because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice.” Having said that she departed to the east.
The Fifth Apparition of Fatima
By September of 1917, the national press had picked up the story of the three visionary children. The Freemasons and the secular press had conspired to ridicule the monthly visions as examples of Catholic ignorance. On 13 September, more than thirty thousand curious people gathered in the Cova to pray the Rosary and to wait for the Lady to appear to the three children.
“What do you want of me?” said Lúcia to the Lady, whom she could see but that the crowds could not.
The Lady answered her, “Continue the Rosary, my children. Say it every day that the war may end. In October, Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Saint Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices, but He does not want you to wear the cords to bed. Keep them on during the day.”
“I have the petitions of many for your help. Will you assist a little girl who is deaf and dumb?”
“She will improve within the year.”
“And the conversions that some have asked to have brought about? The cures of the sick ones?”
“Some I will cure, and some I will not. In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.”
The Lady rose and disappeared into the eastern heavens and Lúcia called out to the crowd, “If you wish to see her: Look! Look!”
The Sixth Apparition of Fatima
Rain poured all night and into the morning of the thirteenth of October. The ground was soaked, and curious pilgrims made their way to the Cova tramping through the mud. Fifty thousand to seventy thousand spectators came on foot, on animal, by carriage, and even by automobile to the Cova. By now, a trestle had been raised over the little holm oak where the Lady would stand and speak to the children. Six months ago, the three children received their first apparition there alone with their rosaries and sheep. Now they were surrounded by gawkers — both pious and skeptical. After the Rosary at noon, the Lady appeared.
Lúcia asked, “What do you want of me?”
“I want a chapel built here in my honor. I want you to continue saying the Rosary every day. The war will end soon, and the soldiers will return to their homes.”
“Yes. Yes. Will you tell me your name?”
“I am the Lady of the Rosary.”
“I have many petitions from many people. Will you grant them?”
“Some I shall grant, and others I must deny. People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend our Lord anymore, for He is already too much offended!”
“And is that all you have to ask?”
“There is nothing more.”
Lúcia then describes how the Lady rose toward the east and turned her palms toward the sky. The dark clouds blocking the sun’s rays opened, and light burst forth with the sun spinning like a disk of silver.
“Look at the sun!”
The 50,000 to 70,000 spectators observed the sun spinning and dancing in the sky.
Meanwhile, the three children saw a magnificent apparition in the sky that corresponded to the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. First, they beheld Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus seemed to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands. This is remarkable because it reveal
s Saint Joseph as having a priestly power of blessing, along with our High Priest, Jesus Christ.
This initial apparition disappeared, and the three children next saw a sign corresponding to the Sorrowful Mysteries. Lúcia said, “I saw Our Lord and Our Lady. It seemed to me to that it was Our Lady of Sorrows. Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as Saint Joseph had done.” This apparition then disappeared.
Last of all, Lúcia alone saw the Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The depiction of Our Lady of Mount Carmel signifies the glorious Queenship of Mary, since her devotees enroll as her visible subjects by wearing the Holy Scapular.
This public miracle for the crowds and the private apparitions for Lúcia, Francisco, and Jacinta brought the Fatima apparitions to an end, with one exception. Our Lady would return to the Cova for a seventh and final visit in 1920 before Lúcia left for boarding school. The Lady would come to urge her to dedicate herself wholly to God, which would later be fulfilled when Lúcia consecrated herself as a Carmelite nun.
Secular and Freemasonic newspapers published the fact of the Miracle of the Sun. Many were converted back to Christ in the Catholic Church. Numerous books have chronicled the articles and personal testimonies made by eyewitness accounts. All agree that everyone present saw the sun moving and spinning. Colors of yellow, red, blue, purple, and white, the rainbow, or mother-of-pearl were reported. Many explained that it seemed that the sun rose and then appeared to fall upon them. Many shouted, “We are going to die.” The muddy ground dried. The wet clothing of the people dried by a heat that lasted for ten minutes. The crowed cried out in joy and in fear. Some shouted, “A miracle! A miracle!”
Alfredo da Silva Santos of Lisbon was a firsthand witness to the Miracle of the Sun:
We made our arrangements and went in three motor cars on the early morning of the 13th. There was a thick mist, and the car which went in front mistook the way so that we were all lost for a time and only arrived at the Cova da Iria at midday by the sun. It was absolutely full of people, but for my part I felt devoid of any religious feeling. When Lúcia called out: “Look at the sun!” the whole multitude repeated: “Attention to the sun!” It was a day of incessant drizzle but a few moments before the miracle it stopped raining. I can hardly find words to describe what followed. The sun began to move, and at a certain moment appeared to be detached from the sky and about to hurtle upon us like a wheel of flame. My wife — we had been married only a short time — fainted, and I was too upset to attend to her, and my brother-in-law, João Vassalo, supported her on his arm. I fell on my knees, oblivious of everything, and when I got up, I don’t know what I said. I think I began to cry out like the others. An old man with a white beard began to attack the atheists aloud and challenged them to say whether something supernatural had occurred.36
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