Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, Portugal

Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima is the Marian title established by the 1917 apparitions at the Cova da Iria, Portugal. In each of the six apparitions, from May to October 1917, the Virgin revealed herself as “the Lady of the Rosary” and insistently asked for the daily recitation of the Rosary to obtain peace in the world and the conversion of sinners. The Basilica that bears her name, inaugurated in 1953 facing the site of the apparitions, has become one of the most visited centers of Marian pilgrimage in the world.

Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, Portugal

Fatima is a small town in central Portugal, north of Lisbon. The events narrated here did not take place in what was then the village itself, but in its surroundings, at a place called the Cova da Iria.

On May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared, presenting herself as Our Lady of the Rosary and as the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to three children: Lucia dos Santos, and Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged 10, 9, and 7 respectively. Their families, who worked in the fields, were humble. Our Lady appeared six times up to October, always on the 13th of each month, except for the month of August, when she appeared on the 19th, because the shepherd children were being interrogated at the time of the apparition.

Besides the Virgin Mary, they would also see heavenly presences and would have a vision of hell. The seers received messages and secrets of worldwide importance from Mary Most Holy. Among the Virgin’s requests, we find prayer and penance for the conversion of sinners, in particular for Russia. The message is of great relevance today and is clearly linked to the historical and political events of the time, and its prophecies were fulfilled one by one. These apparitions gave impetus to a great spiritual movement among the ever-growing masses of the faithful.

A great impression was made by the grandiose miracle of the solar eclipse, seen on October 13 by many people. After a thorough examination, Bishop J. Correia da Silva, on October 13, 1930, recognized the supernatural character of the apparitions of Fatima as an authentic supernatural phenomenon.

Over the years, to provide the best possible welcome for an ever-growing number of pilgrims, two basilicas were built, together with several convents and monasteries. Fatima has become one of the most important shrines in the world. Sister Lucia of the Immaculate Heart of Mary wrote her Memoirs between 1935 and 1941. These, together with the volumes of the rigorous inquiry into the events of Fatima, have become a source for understanding the Secret of Fatima.

To better understand the apparitions of Fatima, we will try to narrate the historical events.

Lucia was born on March 30, 1907, the youngest of the seven children of Maria Rosa and Antonio. At the age of six, she made her First Communion and symbolically placed a heart in the hands of the statue of the Virgin. She repeated this gesture several times, spontaneously and with sincere joy, in the few days before receiving the Most Blessed Sacrament. In 1915, Lucia, helped by her three friends, took the family flock to pasture on Mount Cabeço. One day, the four friends began to recite the Rosary, and as soon as they began the prayers they suddenly saw, above the trees, a figure of very bright light moving in the air. At the end of the prayer the figure disappeared. Lucia and her friends noticed the same presence twice on the following days. The girls’ parents objected that it must be the fruit of their imagination and forbade them to go out to pasture with Lucia. Lucia then went with Jacinta and Francisco’s flock to the same Mount Cabeço. One afternoon, the children dimly saw a white, transparent figure coming toward them. It was an angel. The cherub appeared, and from that moment on he appeared three more times to prepare them to receive the visit of the Virgin. The heavenly creature called himself the “Angel of Peace” and the “Angel of Portugal.” He took on the appearance of a young man of 14 or 15 and said to the children: “Do not be afraid, I am the Angel of Peace; pray with me!”

In the first apparition he communicated to them his spirit of reparation, teaching them a prayer: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.” While reciting the prayer, the Angel knelt, bowing his head to the ground. At the end, he rose and said: “Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are open to your prayers.”

In the second apparition, while the children were playing in the yard of the Santos family, beside the well, the Angel appeared to them and taught them the practice of sacrifice, above all in daily life.

At the third apparition of the Angel, the children were in the pastures, beside the flock, and were praying. This time they saw him bathed in a strange light: in his left hand he held a chalice, into which blood was dripping from a Host suspended in the air. The Angel left the chalice floating in the air, then knelt near the three children and began to pray in this way: “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifference by which He Himself is offended; and through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.”

Then the children received a “mystical” Communion: the Angel took the chalice and the Host from the air and gave the Host to Lucia, and the blood from the chalice to Jacinta and Francisco, while repeating these words: “Receive the Body and drink the Blood of Jesus Christ, who has been so terribly offended by human ingratitude. Atone for your sins and console your God!” Then he knelt again and, together with the children, repeated three times the prayer to the Most Holy Trinity. Finally, the angel vanished into the air, while the children were filled with peace and inner joy.

First apparition (May 13, 1917). After Holy Mass on Sunday, the children took the flocks to graze at the Cova da Iria, at Cabeço, which would later become famous for the apparitions of the angel. After eating and reciting the Rosary, they began to play. Around noon, a strange flash crossed the clear sky; the children took it for lightning and, expecting a storm, they gathered the flock and set out for home. As they passed near some bushes, in particular one more than a meter tall, they were bathed in a very bright white light, in the center of which they saw the figure of a very beautiful Lady who was calling them. It was Our Lady. The garment of the Mother of God was white as snow; from her hands, joined at the height of her breast, hung a graceful rosary ending in a golden cross. Our Lady bore on her face the marks of a deep sadness. With a kindly gesture she drew the children closer and began to speak.

Sister Lucia writes in her Memoirs that the children felt no fear of this apparition, but only of a possible storm. Only later did they understand that the flashes of lightning were a reflection of the light surrounding the Holy Virgin, and from then on they knew that, whenever that light appeared, the apparition of the beloved Lady was near.

The second apparition took place on the feast of the patron of the Parish of Fatima, Saint Anthony of Lisbon, June 13. After Holy Mass, the children, accompanied by about forty people who had heard about the apparitions, went to the place of divine grace. When they returned home, they were mistreated and beaten by their parents, who did not believe them.

With deep sadness and bitterness, the Carmelite sister would later recall in her Memoirs that the pain this conduct of her family’s caused her was like the tears of an expiatory sacrifice before God our Lord.

The third apparition took place on July 13; it was then that the vision of hell occurred and that the first two parts of the famous “Secret of Fatima” were communicated to the children. Our Lady taught the shepherd children the following prayer: “O my good Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Your mercy.” This time, more than two thousand people witnessed the apparition, including relatives of the seers. A few days after the apparition, Sister Lucia’s mother took her to the parish priest, who proved skeptical about the supernatural Marian manifestations, considering that they might be a deception of the devil.

In the fourth apparition, that of August 19, despite the anti-Catholic press (let us recall that a few years earlier Portugal had undergone a coup d’état that imposed a Republican regime clearly hostile to the Catholic Church and in control of the national press), on the 13th, then, more than fifteen thousand people flocked to the site. The crowd saw neither Mary nor even the shepherd children; they only heard a rumble of thunder and saw a flash of lightning. Then, when they looked up at the sky, they could see in amazement the clouds radiating the luminous colors of the rainbow. The reason the shepherd children did not come is that the Mayor of Vila Nova de Ourém had abducted the three seers, returning them to their parents three days later, but not before threatening them with death and torture if they did not reveal the Secret to him. This fourth apparition did not take place on the 13th, but on August 19. On that day Lucia and Francisco were grazing the flock in a meadow when they saw lightning flash twice, and Mary appeared to them. Our Lady asked the children to pray for sinners who go to hell because they have no one to pray for them. She also foretold a miracle and some healings, to confirm the faith of those present. Then she disappeared, as always, toward the east.

The fifth apparition, on September 13, already drew thousands of people, with a collective vision in which a luminous globe was seen on the horizon toward the east; there was also a white cloud that enveloped the children and at the same time sent down a rain of small flakes, like white flowers, which dissolved when they touched the ground.

The sixth and last apparition, on October 13, is the best known. By the time of this apparition autumn had already arrived, with heavy rains; there was Our Lady’s promise of a miracle, and some fifty thousand people were waiting for it to happen, together with many sick people begging to be healed. Quite a few people knelt out of reverence, and Our Lady presented herself to the shepherd children with the following words: “I am the Lady of the Rosary. I want a chapel to be built here in my honor. If you continue to pray the Holy Rosary every day. The war is about to end, and the soldiers will return home.” Then Lucia asked Our Lady to heal some sick people, and she answered: “Some will be healed, others not, because they must amend their lives and pray for the expiation of their sins.” Then, with a sad expression, she added: “The Lord, who has already been so greatly offended, should be offended no more.” When the vision had vanished, the children saw other indistinct visions around the sun. Suddenly the solar sphere began to spin dizzyingly. It was the prodigy Mary had announced a few months earlier. As it spun, the sun cast the colors of the rainbow over the people in every direction.

To these well-known and often-told apparitions we must also add the apparition of Mary Most Holy before Jacinta’s death. The youngest of the shepherd children fell gravely ill in October 1918, and Francisco did too shortly afterward. Our Lady appeared to Jacinta, who told Lucia that both of her cousins would suffer in the hospital for the conversion of sinners, and in this way would wash away the sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary and of Jesus, going to Heaven shortly afterward. And indeed, Francisco died on April 4, 1919, and Jacinta on February 20, 1920.

The apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima and her message of prayer through the Rosary fit within the framework of John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptoris Mater, which exalts Mary as the mother who guides humanity toward peace and conversion through filial prayer.

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