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Chapter 2

Visits from Our Lady (May–September)

In central Portugal the terrain is rocky, and the soil is very poor. The summers are extremely dry, and it seldom rains. Olive oil is the chief marketable commodity for the farmers, so it is especially tragic when fire destroys large numbers of olive trees.

In June, the farmers harvest wheat; in early fall, corn and grapes. In August of each year, on the 13th, hundreds of farmers bring sacks of wheat to the basilica at the Cova da Iria, to donate for use in making flour for altar breads for the following year. These breads, the humble farmers know, will be consecrated into the Body of Christ and distributed at Masses celebrated during the coming year for the teeming pilgrims who will come to Fatima.

The Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary stands atop the hill where Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta played games while herding their sheep. It is there that they encountered Our Lady for the first time. As we recount the apparitions, imagine that you are one of the three shepherds on that hill, and Our Lady is appearing to you.

May Apparition

In spite of the Angel’s earlier apparitions, the three children never assumed that anything of great significance would happen again. They had the sheep up on the family property called the Cova da Iria and were playing as usual when all of a sudden it happened.

This is how Sister Lucia described that first appearance of Our Lady on May 13, 1917:

While playing with Jacinta and Francisco on the hilltop in the Cova da Iria, making a little stone wall around a furze-like clump called moita, suddenly we saw a flash of lightning. “There is a flash of lightning,” I said to my cousins, “a thunder-storm may come on. It would be better for us to go home.” “Oh yes, of course,” they said. And we began to descend the hill driving the sheep along towards the road. When we reached a large holm-oak about halfway down the slope the light flashed again. Then a few paces further on, we beheld a beautiful lady dressed in white, poised over a holm-oak sapling very near us. She was more brilliant than the sun, radiating a sparkling light. Struck with amazement, we halted before this vision. We were so near that we were bathed in the light that radiated from her person to a distance of about three feet.

Then the Lady said: “Do not be afraid; I will do you no harm.”

“Where are you from?” I asked.

“I am from heaven.”

“What do you want of me?”

“I came to ask you to come here for six successive months, on the 13th day at the same hour. Later I will tell what I want. And I will return here yet a seventh time.”

“And I, shall I go to heaven?”

“Yes, you will.”

“And Jacinta?”

“She will go also.”

“And Francisco?”

“He will go there too, but he must say many Rosaries first.”

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?”

“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.)¹⁶

“End of the world” is properly interpreted as a very long time. This was because people were not praying for her. In this moment, Our Lady confirmed the existence of purgatory. Her words to the children are a reminder to us that we should not forget to pray for the poor souls there. Sister Lucia continued with Mary’s words:

“Do you wish to offer up to God all the sufferings He desires to send you in reparation for the sins by which he is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Go then, for you will have much to suffer, but the grace of God will comfort you.”

While pronouncing the words “the grace of God,” Our Lady opened her hands for the first time, shedding on us a light so intense that it seemed as a reflex glancing from her hands and penetrating to the innermost recesses of our hearts, making us see ourselves in God, who was that Light, more clearly than we could see ourselves in a mirror. Then by an interior impulse, also communicated to us, we fell upon our knees, repeating in our hearts: “Oh, most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, my God, I love Thee in the most Blessed Sacrament!”¹⁷

This first apparition of Mary occurred on the Church’s Feast of Our Lady of the Eucharist, and already the Mother of God was drawing the children to adore our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. As our heavenly Mother, Mary desires to lead all her children closer to the Eucharistic heart of Jesus, our food for eternal life.

After a few moments, Our Lady spoke to the children again: “Say the Rosary every day in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.” Sister Lucia then describes the end of the apparition:

Then she began to ascend serenely, going up towards the east, the light that surrounded her seeming to open up a path before her, until she finally disappeared in the immensity of space, the reason why we sometimes said we saw heaven opening.¹⁸

On their way home after the apparition, the children decided not to tell anyone about the Lady they had seen. Jacinta was so impressed by the Lady’s beauty, however, that she was unable to keep quiet, and told her mother about their encounter with the Mother of God. News spread quickly through the small village. While some were predisposed to believe the children’s story, others immediately dismissed it as childish imagination, a bid for attention, or lies. Over the months that followed, many more people heard about what was happening in Fatima and the crowds grew.

The message of this first apparition was not only for three shepherd children in 1917; it is for all of us, even today. Mary’s message to the children at Fatima invites us to offer up our sufferings for the conversion of sinners. Every one of us has something to offer on a daily basis. Our Lady also asks us to pray the Rosary for peace. The response we give is up to each one of us.

June Apparition

Our Lady appeared to the three little shepherds for the second time on June 13, 1917. June is the month traditionally devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the June apparition, Mary urged that her Immaculate Heart be honored along with devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Lucia, the only one of the three children to speak directly with Mary, greeted the heavenly Lady each time, May through October, with the same words: “What do you want of me?”

Each time Our Lady emphasized: “I want you to pray the Rosary every day.”

During this second apparition, Lucia told Our Lady: “I want you to take us to heaven.”

The response was: “Yes, I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you must remain here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world.”

Lucia, saddened that her two cousins would die soon, asked, “Must I stay here alone?”

Our Blessed Mother replied: “Do not be disheartened. I will never leave you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” As Mary said these words, she opened her hands, and an immense light enveloped her. In this light, the three children saw themselves overwhelmed with the presence of God. Jacinta and Francisco were in the light focused on heaven. Lucia was in the light that beamed out over the earth. In front of the palm of Mary’s right hand was a heart encircled with thorns that pierced it. The children understood this to be the Immaculate Heart of Mary, grieved by the sins of humanity.

The meaning of Our Lady’s second apparition is timeless. Mary’s request of Lucia, to make devotion to her Immaculate Heart known to the world, is for us, too. Francisco and Jacinta died within a little more than two years’ time after the apparitions. Sister Lucia lived until February 13, 2005, and was nearly ninety-eight years of age. Her mind remained clear on the events surrounding the apparitions and the apparitions themselves, despite her age. For more than eighty-seven years after the apparitions, Jesus used her witness to establish devotion in the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. We in the Church today are called to make devotion to Mary part of how we live our faith and to share it in any way we can. Mary is the model of Christian discipleship, and of everything the Church is and hopes to become. Her Immaculate Heart reflects perfect faith, hope, and love, the virtues that make us most like Christ.

Sister Lucia spoke of the call to all Christians in the message at Fatima: “Through your prayers, your words, your example, your acts of self denial, your work and your charity, you will be able to help your brothers and sisters to get up again if they have fallen, to return to the right path if they have strayed away from it, and to draw close to God if they are estranged from Him.… Very often, people are overcome and fall because they have no one at their side willing to pray and to make sacrifices for them, stretching out a hand to them, and helping them to follow a better path.”¹⁹

The children kept the vision of Mary’s heart secret. As Lucia later explained, “This is what we referred to, when we said that Our Lady had told us a secret in June. Our Lady did not order us to keep it a secret on this occasion, but we felt moved to do so by God.”²⁰

July Apparition