Fatima

The 6 Apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima

The following year was the start of a long series of events.
There were in fact 6 Apparitions of the Virgin Mary between 13th May 1917
and 13th October of the same year.

13th May 1917: 1st Apparition
On her first Apparition, the Virgin Mary appeared to the 3 shepherd children
dressed in white and asked them to come at the same time every 13th of
the month for six months. She then added, "recite the rosary every day to
obtain peace in the world and the end of the war".

13th June 1917: 2nd Apparition
The following month, the children, accompanied by several hundred faithful,
went to the appointment. After the collective prayer, the Virgin Mary
appeared again and announced to Lucy: "I will soon take Francisco and
Jacinta to heaven, but you will remain here for some time. Jesus wants to
use you to make me known and loved". She then asked the young Lucy to
learn to read and write to spread her word amongst mankind.

13th July 1917: 3rd Apparition
On Friday, 13th July, the Virgin Mary appeared before Lucy and her cousins
as on the other occasions. 4,000 people were at this event, even though
they "saw" nothing themselves (as Lucy was the only one to see the woman
in white, the faithful could only observe strange occurrences such as flashes,
a halo of light, etc.). As with every Apparition, she addressed Lucy: "I want
you to continue to say your rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the
Rosary to obtain the end of the war and peace in the world". During this
Apparition, the Virgin Mary also announced 3 new prophecies that were to
be kept secret by Lucy for some time. Two of these secrets were disclosed
in 1942, the third in 2000.

19th August 1917: 4th Apparition
On Monday 13th August, some 18,000 people went to the meeting place
and saw some of the phenomena encountered at the previous Apparitions
such as thunder, lightening, a halo of white light… but Lucy was not there
and the Apparition did not occur.
The administrator of the canton had locked up Lucy and her two cousins,
claiming that they were a disturbance to public order. He in fact wanted to
know the secrets that the Virgin Mary had revealed to the children, even
going so far as to threaten them with death to get them to talk, but in vain.
Imprisoned for 2 days, they kept their secret and the administrator
reluctantly released them.
It was therefore on Sunday 19th August that the Virgin appeared to the
children asking them to continue to pray and promising them that at her last
Apparition, she would accomplish a Miracle "to make everyone believe".

13th September 1917: 5th Apparition
During the 5th Apparition on 13th September, around 30,000 faithful bowed
before the messengers of the Virgin Mary - Lucy, Jacinta and Francisco -
imploring their succour to heal the sick. It was at that moment that the Virgin
Mary announced, for the following month, the coming of the Lord, of Our
Lady of the Carmel and Saint Joseph with the infant Jesus.

13th October 1917: 6th and last Apparition
On 13th October 1917, the day of the last Apparition, it poured with rain on
the Cova da Iria. Lucy asked the faithful to close their umbrellas to recite the
rosary together and observe the arrival of the Holy Virgin.
The Virgin Mary presented herself to Lucy as Our Lady of the Rosary and
asked her to build a chapel in her honour. She announced that the war was
going to end and asked Lucy to "heal several of the sick and convert
sinners".

The Virgin Mary then raised her eyes to heaven, the rain stopped and the
sun shone brightly, radiating different coloured beams of lights. The crowd
cried out in terror but after a few moments, everything returned to normal.
The Virgin Mary then disappeared into the firmament, reappeared a few
moments later, under the amazed eyes of 3 shepherd children,
accompanied by Saint Joseph, the Infant Jesus and Our Lord blessing the
world using the sign of the cross.

During these many apparitions, the Virgin Mary announced, what is
recognised today by the church as the 3 secrets of Fatima: the start of the
second world war, the arrival of communist regimes and the last secret
which was interpreted as the announcement on the assassination attempt
against the Pope in May 1981.
The latter secret was kept by the Vatican in a sealed envelope for a long
time. This manuscript was only read in 2000 when Pope John-Paul decided
to make this revelation public.

Francisco and Jacinta Marto died very early in 1919 and 1920 respectively.
There were beatified by Pope Jean-Paul II on 19th May 1989.
Lucy Dos Santos took her vows in 1928 and received new apparitions from
the Virgin Mary in 1925 and 1929. She wrote her story herself, the official
version of the Apparitions of the Virgin of Fatima. Sister Lucy, the last
surviving seer of Fatima, passed from this life on February 14, 2005 at the
age of 97 years.

Fatima is now a world centre of well-known pilgrimages. With Lourdes, it is
one of the major sanctuaries dedicated to the Virgin Mary.