IT HAPPENED AT FATIMA

Considerations or questions?

Lucia herself tell us what has happened at Fatima in a testimony-book that the Queriniana (Brescia - Italy) has presented like: Lucia racconta Fatima - memorie, lettere, documenti, in the original title: Memorias e cartas de irmà Lùcia. A mine of extraordinary information.

The story of Fatima is the apparition of the Madonna to the three shepherd children, that tell what happened them with indeed unusual simplicity and determination.

1916 - an angel appears three times

To the three, first he makes him know the angel custodian of their country (Portugal), under the aspect of a boy little greater than them, and - so the boys tell - he teach them some beautiful and entirely new prayers. As for instance (in the 1916 spring):

«My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love you. I ask you pardon for everybody don't believe, don't adore, don't hope, don't love you».

He himself, after have prayed three times with these words, begins telling:

— Pray so, the holy hearts of Jesus and of Mary pay attention to the voice of your supplications.

The angel immediately change himself into a white cloudlet that the wind transports above toward the mountain.

And most ahead (toward the finish of July 1916):

— What do you do? Pray! Pray much! The hearts of Jesus and of Mary have on you merciful purposes: offer constantly to the Almighty prayers and sacrifices.

— Offer a sacrifice like act of reparation for the sins with which he is offended and of supplication for the conversion of the sinners. You get so for your country the peace. I am the custodian angel the angel of Portugal.

He says Icilio Felici, in his beautiful volume revised and widened from Eugenio Fornasari, that for the seers it had been a thing to take like "true Annunciation". But the Angel in a successive apparition (in October) - so the boys tell - invite them to address to God a new prayer:

«Holy Trinity, Father, Child and Holy Spirit, I adore you deeply and I offer you the precious Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the Earth, in reparation for outrages, sacrileges and indifferences with which he himself has offended. And I, through the infinite merits of his Holy Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, ask you the conversion of the poor sinners».

And, offering the Host to Lucia and the calyx to Francisco and Jacinta, he said:

— Take and drink the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged from the ungrateful men. Do reparation for their crimes and console your God.

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13th of May 1917 - The Lady that comes from the heaven

In the spring of the following year (Sunday May 13th 1917) to the Cova, preceded by two dazzling flashes, here is to appear above a small verdant ilex a Lady more shining than the Sun that, with caressing gesture and reassuring voice...:

— Don't be afraid. I don't want to do you any evil.

Lucia asks:

— From where do you come?

— I'm coming from the heaven.

— And what want you from me?

— I have come to ask you to arrive here for six consecutive months, the thirteenth day, to this same hour. Then I will tell you who I am and what I want. I will return afterward still here a seventh time.

— And will also I go to heaven?

— Yes.

— And Jacinta?

— Also she.

— And Francisco?

— Also he, but he will have to recite his Rosary.

Lucia tells to have remembered two girls that had died since little time:

— Maria das Neves is already in heaven?

— Yes, she is There.

— And Amelia?

— She will stay in Purgatory until the end of the world.

Lucia Resumes:

— Would you tell me if does the war finish soon or if a lot of time last still?

— I cannot tell you it still, before having told you what I desire.

The splendid Lady resumes speaking:

— Do you want to offer you to God ready to bear all the sufferings that He will want to send you, in reparation of the sins with which He is offended and to get the conversion of the sinners?

— Yes, we want that!

— Well you will have to suffer a lot, but the grace of God will be your comfort.

In the moment in which the Madonna pronounced these last words, she opened for the first time the hands, communicating us such an intense light, a kind of reflex that went out and penetrated us in the breast and in the more intimate of the soul, making us see ourselves in God, that was that light, more clearly Than we see us in the best of the mirrors. Then, for an intimate impulse we fell on our knees and we intimately repeated:

— Holy Trinity, I adore you. My God, I love you in the Holy Sacrament.

After a short time the Madonna added:

Recite the Crown every day to get the peace in the world and the end of the war...

Then the Lady started to rise and she disappeared in a sky that seemed to open...

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The Our Lady's aspect

«In (some) writings, and in certain cases through corrections brought to paintings or statues representing the apparitions, Sister Lucia gives us further details about the apparition.

Our Lady has the aspect of a young young girl, around fifteen - eighteen years old, not very tall, with the sweet and pleasant voice, the very beautiful face, the black eyes.

The hands are joined at the height of the breast; when the Madonna opens them she widens a few the arms and the hands have the palms turned downward kept to a height few under the horizontal.

The feet lean on a small cloud as of ermine that grazes the green branches of the small letch.

From the right arm a beautiful Rosary hangs, with the grains shining like pearls, finished by a cross like of bright silver.

The suit, of white light as the snow, falls up to the feet; and a long white veil, hemmed by a more intense light as of gold, covers her the head, the shoulders and, going down until almost to the edge of the suit, it surrounds her whole body.

Suspended to the neck by a yellow or gilded cord she has a gilded globe, bright in particular way; two small bright earrings are glimpsed there where the veil covers the ears».

(from www.unavox.it/103b.htm).

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13th of June 1917 - The Immaculate Heart

And it arrived the 13th of June, Holiday of Saint Antony, but for the seers now it is "Holiday of Mary" to the Cova de Iria. Lucia exclaims suddenly:

— The lightning is already seen; now the Lady comes!

At a run she turn her steps toward the ilex followed by her cousins. The dialogue between Lucia and the Virgin leaves us amazed.

Lucia:

— You have ordered me to come here. Would you like to do me the favor to tell me what you want from me?

— I mean you to return here the thirteen of next month; to keep on reciting the Rosary every day, and I also want that you learn to read to tell then you what I desire.

She asked the recovery of a patient.

— That he is converted, and he will recover within the year!

— I would like to ask you to bring us in Heaven.

— Yes; Jacinta and Francisco I bring soon them , but you still stay here for a few times. Jesus wants to use you to make to know and to love me. He wants to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart; to whom will practise it I promise the salvation: these souls will be favorite from God, and as flowers will be situated by me in front of its throne.

— Will I remain here alone?

— No, my daughter. And do you suffer a lot of it? Don't get discouraged, I will never abandon you. My Immaculate Heart will be your shelter and the street that will conduct you to God.

It happened in to pronounce these last words that she opened the hands and communicated us, for the second time, the reflex of that immense light, in which we saw us like absorbed in God. In front of the palm of the right hand of the Madonna there was a heart thorns crowned that seemed us hammer. We understood that it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of the humanity, that wanted reparation.

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13th of July 1917- Mary entrusts the secret

More than 2000 people feel the 13th of July to the Cova de Iria for look the seers that view the Madonna. To noon in point, preceded from the usual lightning, the Lady appears...

— What does you want from me?

— I want - the apparition replied - that you come here the 13th of the following month and that you keep on reciting your Crown every day to the Madonna of the Rosary for get the peace of the world and the end of the war; because only she will succor you.

— I would like to ask you to tell us who you are; to make a miracle so that everybody believes that you appear us.

— Continue to come here every month. In October I will say who I am, what I want and I will make a miracle that everybody can see well for believing.

To further claims for graces the apparition responded that «she would not have recovered the cripple... neither she would have freed him from the poverty: but that he recited rather the Rosary every day with the family. That the sick was not in a hurry, She knew better when it was worthwhile to come to pick him up; the other people would have gotten the graces desired during next year, but that it needed that they recited the Rosary».

— Sacrifice yourself for the sinners and recite many times, especially each time you do any sacrifice: «Jesus, is for your love, for the conversion of the sinners and in reparation of the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary!».

— You don't want anything from me?

— No, today I don't want anything.

— Neither want I, — Lucia exclaimed...

Those people whom had assisted had been able to observe this time a white cloudlet that had gone down on the ilex, accompanied by an accented lowering of the solar light...

But the Lord's Mother also in that day had submitted a secret, tied up to the delivery of the silence, composed of three parts, the first two of which were disclosed by Lucia, for obedience, in 1941 and that concern: "the salvation of the souls", the first one, and "the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary", the second, while the third part (written by Lucy in 1944 and revealed by the card. Sodano on the 13th of May 2000) is a symbolic vision that involves the whole life of the Church and of the world.

Lucia explains:

«Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire, which seemed to be under the earth. 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 a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.

We then 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.

— To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.

— To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated... In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.

After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God».

The Virgin, after having warned «not to tell this anybody, except to Francisco», had concluded:

— When you recite the Rosary, say at the end of every ten: «O my Jesus, forgive our faults; preserve us from the fire of the hell; carry to heaven all the souls, and especially assist the neediest (of your mercy)».

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13th August 1917- The children in the jail; the white cloud

It drew near then the fourth appointment with the Lady: in the month of August, on the 13th day, and on the small ilex, the wriggle of a lightning followed at once by to appear of a white cloud... that, not very later, disappears.

The boys are not been able this time to come to the appointment because the mayor of the country, strongly anticlerical, had cheated them and had transferred them to the town house... They evidently started to result dangerous for the conformists ones. Nothing been worth to shift the boys from their fixed thought to the Madonna that, this time, gone down to the Cova de Iria, had not met them for questions of force majeure... Nothing been worth to make them to reveal the secret confided them by the Mother of Jesus and nothing were able the threats...

The secret «They could not reveal it, because the Madonna had commanded them not to tell it anybody...».

At the end the seers are put in the jail... but this doesn't even shift them from the delivery of Mary. They are threatened of death; and this doesn't even make them desist...

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The Madonna appears at the three shepherd children on the 19th of August

But the boys had the nicer surprise the next Sunday, on the day 19th, in the place called Valinhos where the Madonna reaches them unexpectedly and placates their suffering and also their anguish for to they have been absent on the 13th to the Cova.

— What do you want from me? - it is the habitual stupendous question of Lucia...

— I want tell you that continue to go to the Cova de Iria the 13th day; that you continue to recite the Rosary every day. In last month, I will do the miracle, so that everybody believes. If they have not carried you to the village the miracle would have been more grandiose.

— What do you want that is made some money that people leave to the Cova de Iria?

— That they makes two stretchers: one hand it you with Jiacinta and other two children; the other hand it Francisco with other three children. The money of the stretchers is for the holiday of the Madonna of the Rosary; and what advances is for the construction of a chapel, that they will make to do.

— I would like to ask you the recovery of some sick ones...

— Yes, somebody I will recover within the year. Pray, pray a lot; and make sacrifices for the sinners, mind that many, many souls go to the hell, because there is not who sacrifice and pray for them.

After this she started to rise herself toward the sky in direction of east and she disappeared from their sight...  

13rd of September 1917 - Anticipations of the miracle of October

For the fifth apparition to the Cova de Iria there was a great crowd coming from every part, perhaps in number of twelve thousand people. It is the 13th of September and it's about 12 o'clock... here is the Sun to be covered and the globe of light to reach from east west... Maria begins to talk to his small darlings...:

— Keep on reciting the crown to get the end of the war. In October the Lord will come, also Our Lady of Sorrows, the Madonna of the Carmel, S. Joseph with the Child Jesus, to bless the world. God is happy about your sacrifices, but he doesn't want that you sleep with the rope. Bring it only the day.

— They have begged me to ask you a lot of things: the recovery of some sick ones, of a deaf-mute.

— Yes, I will take care of anybody, of others I don't will. I in October will do the miracle so that everybody believes.

For all the presents, during this conversation, it was visibly been allowed by the Madonna to be able to see a part of sky to become gold-yellow flushed and a white cloud to surround the ilex also winding in her halo the seers.

As everybody could see, during the dismissal of the vision, to ascend the bright globe toward the sky and perceive a rain of endless white petals that reached few from earth disappeared. 

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13th of October 1917 - The "miracle of the sun" and various apparitions

The following month, October, it had to be the month of the dismissal from the Madonna to Cova de Iria, because the Madonna had precisely pointed out in the 13th of October the date of Her last apparition. Accordingly everybody was anxiously waiting for to be able to see the miracle that had been announced for that date by the seers, by charge of the Mother of the Lord.

In the forenoon of the day 13th an improbable crowd was already collected and it came from the whole district, but also - numerous - from Oporto, from Coimbra, from Lisbon with special envoys of the national and international press. It is spoken about around seventy thousand presences to attend the event.

The recite of the Rosary starts under an insistent drizzle and in the middle of the mud... exactly to midday Lucy announces to have perceived the "lightning! ".

— Here she is! Here she is! - Lucia by now is ecstatic toward the apparition...

— What do you want by me?

— I want tell you that they make a chapel in my honor here; that I am the Madonna of the Rosary; that they continue to recite the Crown always all days long. The war will finish and the soldiers will return soon to their homes.

— I would have a lot of things to ask you: if you treat some sick and if you convert some sinners, etc....

— Someone yes; others, not. They have to amend them; That they ask forgiveness for their sins. Don't offend anymore God our Lord, that is already very offended.

The Virgin, to this point opens the hands, she makes them reflect in the sun; and, while he raised, the reflex of Her light itself kept on being reflected in the sun. Moved by an internal inspiration Lucia shouts to everybody to look toward the sun: ... there, the Madonna being disappeared in the immensity of the firmament, the seers see close to the sun St. Joseph with the Child and the Madonna, white dressed with the blue mantle.

St. Joseph and the Child seemed to bless the world, with certain gestures in form of cross that they did with the hand. Some instants later, another picture: the Lord and the Madonna that seemed to Lucy to be Our Lady of Sorrows. The Lord seemed to bless the world in the same way of St. Joseph. A third picture finally follows: the Madonna, with aspect similar to the Madonna of the Carmel.

All the presents, from the nearest to the seers up to the most distant of numerous kilometers, could assist to the great prodigy that the Madonna put aside, what will be called: «The Miracle of the Sun!».

The prodigy promised to Lucia for its people by the Madonna came true...!!!

They saw the rain suddenly stop, the clouds to be torn themselves, the solar disk to lean out as a silver moon and to turn at dizzy speed on himself, similar to a wheel of fire, projecting in every direction bandages of every color light, that inflamed fantastically the clouds of the sky, the trees, the rocks, the earth, and that reverberated them on the immense crowd, dazzling her.

Some moments of standstill, and again a dance of light as a radiant and rich windmill.

Yet a standstill and then, for the third time, a firework, more varied, more colored and more flashing than ever before.

The crowd has the impression that the sun detaches him from the firmament and falls him to set her on fire; and therefore an unique cry, immense of amazement and of terror, erupt:

— Miracle! Miracle!

When this all ends, also the suits, a little before soaked with water, are perfectly dry and they easily are freed from the mud become thin dust, to all this people that, in the context, has felt to have to ask for forgiveness for the offenses made to the Lord...

To the Cova de Iria the Madonna was really gone down and had really operated in front of everybody, so that everybody could believe and testify! Her message is of mercy and of salvation!

But for the seers the apparition continue; they follow the Virgin that slowly climbs in the background of the solar light up to lose herself... and near the sun a last picture appears: the Sacred Family.

To the right the Madonna with the cerulean mantle and with the face brightest than the sun; to the left St. Joseph, with the child Jesus, in act to bless the world with the sign of the redemption.

Finally still another picture perceived by Lucia: the Lord blessing the people and again the Madonna, before under the aspect of Our Lady of Sorrows and then of the Carmel.

To the fading away of the last picture, still the sun painted of prodigious light the sky and the earth, the things and the creatures...

NOTE: Even if what above written cannot be proposed to be believed as a dogma however we owe many thankfulness to Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco that have it told (because it nevertheless concerns historical facts). 

The compilation of this page has even used what was written in a distinguished way by Luigi Gonzaga De Fonseca in Le meraviglie di Fatima, edition revised and adjourned by Joaquin Maria Alonso, Edizioni S. Paolo, 1997....

This report has been elaborated from a page of the site www.maria.org, with the express authorization of the Author.

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