Our Lady of Fatima

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Our Lady of Fatima

Our Lady of Fatima (pron. IPA ['fa.ti.mɐ]) is the title given to the Virgin Mary by Catholics and others who believe that she appeared monthly, for several months, to three shepherd children at Fátima, Portugal, in 1917. The title of Our Lady of the Rosary is also used in reference to the same apparition; the children related that the apparition specifically identified herself as "the Lady of the Rosary". It is also common to see a combination of these titles, i.e., Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima (Portuguese: Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Fátima)

[edit] History

Between May and October of 1917, three shepherd children, Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto reported visions of the Virgin Mary in the Cova da Iria fields outside the village of Aljustrel, very close to Fatima, Portugal. They had this experience on the 13th day of each month at approximately the same hour.^[1] Lúcia described seeing Mary as "more brilliant than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal glass filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun."^[1]

A photostatic copy of a page from Ilustracao Portugueza, October 29, 1917, showing the crowd looking at the miracle of the sun during the Fatima apparitions (attributed to the Virgin Mary)

According to Lúcia's account, Mary confided to the children three secrets, known as the Three Secrets of Fatima.^[1] She exhorted the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners.^[1] The children wore tight cords around their waists to cause pain, abstained from drinking water on hot days, and performed other works of penance.^[1] Most important, Lúcia said Mary asked them to say the Rosary every day, reiterating many times that the Rosary was the key to personal and world peace. Many young Portuguese men, including relatives of the visionaries, were then fighting in World War I.

Thousands of people flocked to Fatima and Aljustrel in the ensuing months, drawn by reports of visions and miracles.^[1] On August 13, 1917, the provincial administrator Artur Santos^[2] (no relation), believing that the events were politically disruptive, intercepted and jailed the children before they could reach the Cova da Iría that day.^[1] Prisoners held with them in the provincial jail later testified that the children, while upset, were consoled by the inmates, and then led the inmates in saying the Rosary.^[1] Administrator Santos interrogated the children primarily about the alleged secrets, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to discover what those secrets were.^[1] Santos went so far as to feign the preparation of a pot of boiling oil, and then removed the children one by one from his interrogation room, claiming that each removed child had been boiled to death in the oil, and urging the remaining child to divulge the secret so as to avoid a similar fate.^[1] That month, instead of the usual apparition in the Cova da Iría on the 13th of the month, the children reported that they saw Mary on the August 19 at nearby Valinhos.^[1]

On October 13, 1917, the final in the series of the apparitions of 1917, a crowd believed to be approximately 70,000 in number^[3], including newspaper reporters and photographers, gathered at the Cova da Iría in response to reports of the children's prior claims that on that day a miracle would occur "so that all may believe".^[1] It rained heavily that day, yet, countless observers reported that the clouds broke, revealing the sun as an opaque disk spinning in the sky and radiating various colors of light upon the surroundings, then appearing to detach itself from the sky and plunge itself towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, finally returning to its normal place, and leaving the people's once wet clothing now completely dry. The event is known as the "Miracle of the Sun".^[4].

Columnist Avelino de Almeida of O Século (Portugal's most influential newspaper, which was pro-government in policy and avowedly anti-clerical)^[1], reported the following "Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws-the sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of the people."^[5] Eye specialist Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, writing for the newspaper Ordem reported "The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceeding fast and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat".^[6] The special reporter for the October 17, 1917 edition of the Lisbon daily, O Dia, reported the following, "...the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds...The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands...people wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they."^[7]

Depiction of the three children receiving the vision. This tilework is from Ironbound, a Portuguese neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey.

No movement or other phenomenon of the sun was registered by scientists at the time.^[1] According to contemporary reports from poet Afonso Lopes Vieira and schoolteacher Delfina Lopes with her students and other witnesses in the town of Alburita, the solar phenomena were visible from up to forty kilometers away.^[1] The three shepherd children, in addition to reporting seeing the actions of the sun that day^[8], also reported seeing a panorama of visions, including those of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of Saint Joseph blessing the people.^[1]

[edit] The first two secrets

The first secret was a vision of Hell, which Lucia describes in her Third Memoir, written in 1942, as follows:

"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."^[9]

The second secret included Mary's instructions on how to save souls from Hell and convert the world to Christianity:

"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."^[10]

[edit] The fate of the three children

The children seers of Fatima, Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto

Lúcia reported seeing the Virgin again in 1925 at the Dorothean convent at Pontevedra, Galicia (Spain). This time, she said she was asked to convey the message of the First Saturday Devotions. A subsequent vision of the Christ Child Himself reiterated this request, by her account.

Lúcia was transferred to another convent in Tui or Tuy, Galicia in 1928. In 1929, Lúcia reported that Mary returned and repeated her request for the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.

Lúcia reportedly saw Mary in private visions off and on throughout her life. Most significant was the apparition in Rianxo, Galicia in 1931, in which Sister Lúcia said that Jesus visited her, taught her two prayers, and delivered a message to give to the hierarchy of the Church.

In 1947, Sister Lúcia left the Dorothean order and joined the Carmelite order in a convent in Coimbra, Portugal. Lúcia died on February 13, 2005, at the age of 97. After her death, the Vatican, specifically Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (at that time, still head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) ordered her cell sealed off. It is believed this was because Sister Lúcia had continued to receive more revelations, and they wished to censor them, or perhaps simply to examine them in the course of proceedings for Lúcia's canonization.

Lúcia's cousins, the siblings Francisco (1908–1919) and Jacinta Marto (1910–1920), were both victims of the Great Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1919.

Francisco and Jacinta were declared "venerable" by Pope John Paul II in a public ceremony at Fatima on May 13, 1989. John Paul returned there on May 13, 2000, to declare them "blessed" (one step from sainthood — see Canonization for more on that process). Jacinta is the youngest non-martyred child ever to be beatified.

During the second apparition on June 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary predicted the deaths of two of the children, although Lucia did not tell anybody about these predictions until 1941. Some accounts, including the testimony of Olimpia Marto (mother of the two younger children) state that her children did not keep this information secret and ecstatically predicted their own deaths many times to her and to curious pilgrims. According to the 1941 account, on June 13, Lúcia asked the Virgin if the three children would go to heaven when they died. She heard Mary reply, "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.^[11] Jacinta, in fact, accurately predicted the time and detailed circumstances of her death, according to Lúcia and hospital staff.

Exhumed in 1935 and again in 1951, Jacinta's body was found incorrupt.^[12] Francisco's had decomposed.

[edit] The consecration of Russia

According to Sister Lucy, The Virgin Mary promised that the Consecration of Russia would lead to Russia's conversion and an era of peace.^[1]

Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Letter of July 7, 1952 Sacro Vergente Anno is considered to have performed the requested consecration. Pius XII wrote, “…just as a few years ago We consecrated the entire human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so today We consecrate and in a most special manner We entrust all the peoples of Russia to this Immaculate Heart…”

Others believe that Pope John Paul II fulfilled this request in 1984 by giving a blessing over the world, including Russia, before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, even though that consecration did not specifically mention Russia by name.

Some believe that Lucia Santos verified that this ceremony fulfilled the requests of the Virgin Mary. However, in the Blue Army's Spanish magazine, Sol de Fatima, in the September 1985 issue, Sister Lúcia said that the ceremony did not fulfill the Virgin Mary's request, as there was no specific mention of Russia, and "many bishops attached no importance to it".

In 2001, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone issued a statement, claiming that he had met with Sister Lúcia, who reportedly told him, "I have already said that the consecration desired by Our Lady was made in 1984, and has been accepted in Heaven." Sister Lúcia died on February 13 (same day as the apparitions), 2005, without making any public statement of her own to settle the issue.

Our Lady of Fatima

[edit] Controversy around the Third Secret

The Vatican kept the third secret secret until Easter 2000 – despite Lúcia's declaration that it could be released to the public after 1940. Several sources, including Canon Barthas and Cardinal Ottaviani, said that Sr. Lúcia insisted to them it must be released by 1960, saying, "by that time, it will be more clearly understood." When 1960 passed without any such announcement, immense speculation over the content of the secret materialized.

Some sources claim that the third part of the secret revealed in the year 2000 was not the real secret, or at least not the full secret. This was long suspected because it was known that the third part of the Secret began with the words, "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc." Sister Lúcia revealed this in her Fourth Memoir. These words and even this theme were not reflected by the version released by the Vatican on June 26, 2000.

Another argument for this revolved around the decision to release the secret much later than when specified by Sister Lúcia. It was thought that the secret might contain condemnatory remarks about the last pope (who obviously wouldn't have wanted to release it), or that it might contain inflammatory remarks about Russia. Instead, the third part of the secret as revealed was by far the most unspecific and ambiguous part (compared to earlier parts which said that if unconsecrated, "Russia will spread its errors around the world").

Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) said in November 1984 that the Secret would cause "sensationalism" and dealt with the "end times." This comment could not be understood if the Secret referred to the assassination attempt in 1981^[13].

On November 11, 1984, as reported in the Pauline Catholic magazine Jesus, Cardinal Ratzinger stated that he had "read the text of the Third Secret." When asked why he had not revealed it, he replied that "in the judgment of previous Popes, it adds nothing to what Christians must know respecting what is stated in the Book of Revelations."

This followed the report in the October 1981 issue of the German Catholic magazine Stimme des Glaubens of a discussion at Fulda in November 1980 when Pope John-Paul II had stated to a select group of German Catholics, in response to the question why he had not revealed the Third Secret of Fatima, "If you read that the oceans will inundate continents, and millions of people will die suddenly in a few minutes, once this is known, then in reality it is not necessary to insist on the publication of this Secret."

However, in another interview, John Paul indicated that the entire secret of Fatima could be summarized in the idea that prayer, especially the Rosary, is the remedy against all manner of evil.

[edit] Controversies of Fatima

Fatima is not without controversy. The alleged apparitions occurred during a period when Freemasons had gained influence in Portugal and attempted to limit the power of the Catholic Church following the republican revolution of October 5th, 1910. Many Catholics felt persecuted, leading to a polarization of Portuguese society between the largely urban liberals and the largely rural and more conservative Catholics. Secularists may have viewed the apparitions as an attempt by the Church to reassert political control. The detention of the children by the provincial administrator reflects this concern.

Following the rise of the counter-revolutionaries in the military revolution of 1926, under General Óscar Carmona, the newly re-established government, and especially that of Prof. António de Oliveira Salazar, devotion to Our Lady of Fatima was no longer semi-forbidden. In fact, it became rather encouraged, being one of the three anecdotal elements of popular Portuguese nationalism: "Fado, Fatima, and Football" (commonly referred to as "the three F's").

There have been accusations of a campaign to cover up the message of Fatima by ecclesiastical authorities within the Catholic Church, including imposing an order of silence against Sister Lúcia. As Lúcia was already under orders of silence as a Carmelite sister, giving no interviews or statements to the public without permission, and since Lúcia continued to write private diaries and personal letters up until her death, this claim seems doubtful.

In the years prior to the alleged revelation of the Third Secret in 2000, many tabloids published articles claiming the Third Secret was a vision of the end of the world, or "earth changes" similar to those predicted by Edgar Cayce, which would come to pass in the very near future. Lúcia, when asked about these articles, allegedly denied that the third secret was anything like that, although in Catholic publications she referred enquirers to Chapters 8 to 13 in the Book of Revelation.

In 1992 details relating to the apparitions, which had previously been unreleased, were finally revealed. A priest who had interviewed the children at the time of the apparitions reported their description of the Lady wearing a short skirt, earrings and a necklace with a medallion.^[14] This did not accord with the norms^[15] of modesty expected of the Blessed Virgin and was not included in the official reports at the time.

In the Documentação Crítica de Fátima, Doc. 2, pp. 11–12 Cónego Formigão, who also participated in the inquiries, said:

"Jacinta declares that Our Lady's dress goes down only to her knees. Our Lady can only appear dressed, obviously, in the most decent and modest way. The dress would have to come down to her feet. Any other way constitutes the most serious obstacle to the supernaturalism of the apparition and makes us think that it is a mystification prepared by the Spirit of Darkness. But how can we explain the belief of so many thousands of people, their living faith and burning piety, the modesty and the composure they show in all their acts, the silence and behavior of the crowd, the numerous and astonishing conversions caused by the events, the appearance of extraordinary signs in the sky and on the earth, verified by thousands of witnesses? How can we explain, I repeat, all these facts and conciliate them with divine providence and the laws that rule the supernatural world, above all after the establishment of Christianity, if the Demon is the cause of such events? (Documentação, Doc. 7, pp. 66–67, cited in Armada and Fernandes, p. 190)

The earrings worn by the Virgin were assimilated into a "halo" of light around her head in the descriptions issued in the aftermath of the apparitions with no mention of the actual jewellery observed by the children.

The short dress worn by the Virgin during the apparitions did not form part of any official description released at the time, instead, and in sharp contrast, the Virgin was reported as saying: "Certain fashions will be introduced which will offend my Son (Jesus) very much." ^[16]

In the 1940s, Pius XII was asked his opinion of what women teaching in Italian schools should wear to preserve their modesty. He replied "Below the knee, halfway down the arm, and two finger widths below the collarbone." which the Virgin is described as having breached during the Fatima apparitions.^[17]

[edit] Political aspects

Conservative Catholics take the anti-Communist character of Lúcia dos Santos' messages very much to heart. The Blue Army of Our Lady is made up of Catholics and non-Catholics who believe that by dedicating themselves to daily prayer (specifically, of the Rosary) they can help to achieve world peace and put an end to the error of communism. In 1952, a feature film, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, was released. Critics held that the film overplayed the role of socialist and other leftist elements in Portuguese government as the "adversaries" of the visions. They state that since the government was controlled not by socialists but by Freemasons at the time, most government opposition to the visions would have been motivated by concern for separation of church and state, not by atheistic or Communistic ideology. Other critics have stated that only the enemies of the message propose such a belief.

[edit] Official position of the Catholic Church

As with other modern miracles, Catholics are not required to believe in a miraculous origin for the events at Fatima, however the events at Fatima were officially declared "worthy of belief" by the Roman Catholic Church on October 13, 1930.^[18]

[edit] Interesting facts

• Although it has been used previously, Fátima has become a more common name for Portuguese females. Legend says that the name of the city derives from a Moorish princess from Alcácer do Sal named Fatima who, following her capture by Christian forces during the Moorish occupation of Portugal, was betrothed to the leader of those forces, Gonçalo Hermigues, converted to Catholicism, and was baptised before her marriage in 1158. Her baptismal name was Oureana. Legend also says that the name of the town Ourém derives from Oureana — this however is not true, since the name of the city is attested before these events.

• Fatima is originally an Arabic name, and was used by Muslims to name daughters in honour of prophet Muhammad's daughter, who had that name - see"Fatima Zahra".

• Mgr. Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII (and "Pope of Fatima" as he had also become known as) was being consecrated a Bishop in the Sistine Chapel by Pope Benedict XV on May 13, 1917, the day "the Lady of the Rosary" is said to have first appeared at Fatima, Portugal.

• Pope John Paul II believed he was preserved from assassination by Our Lady of Fatima. He visited Fatima three times after the attempted assassination on May 13, 1981 — the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, as celebrated by Roman Catholics. He offered to Our Lady of Fatima both the bullet that was removed from his body that was placed in the crown of the Virgin image in Fatima^[19], and his first cardinal ring.

• Our Lady Fatima Parish is one of the divisions of mainland Macau, a former Portuguese colony, now part of a special administrative region of China.

• The Lady of Fatima story is a key reference in the Tom Robbins novel Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (2000).

[edit] Bibliography

• Michael Cuneo: "The Vengeful Virgin: Studies in Contemporary Catholic Apocalypticism" in Tim Robbins and Susan Palmer (eds) Millennium, Messiahs and Mayhem: New York: Routledge: 1997: ISBN 0-415-91649-6

• Nick Perry and Loreto Echevarria: Under the Heel of Mary: New York: Routledge: 1988: ISBN 0-415-01296-1

• Sandra Zimdars-Swartz: Encountering Mary: Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1991: ISBN 0-691-07371-6

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• The Story and The Message of Fatima Film Official Website
• The Call To Fatima - The Story and The Message
• Sanctuary of Fatima — Official Website
• "The True Story of Fatima" — Contains the classic written by John De Marchi; contains many first-person witness accounts, including those of newspaper reporters and of the children themselves.
• Official Vatican Statement releasing the third secret of Fatima
• The Fatima Center from an alternative perspective, a very thorough look at Fatima, and Full account of the apparitions
• Fatima for Agnostics
• The Miracles at Fatima A skeptical treatment of the alleged miracles at Fatima from an Atheist perspective.
• Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) and Our Lady and Islam: Heaven's Peace Plan The relationship between Mary, Islam and the Fatima apparitions.
• Fatima Perspectives
• A Fatima Soliloquy and its commentary
• Our Lady of Fatima Praesidium of the Legion of Mary
• Fatima is Forever: A Book by Fr. Robert J. Fox and Oil Painting by Artist Mark Sanislo
• A Critical Review of the Fatima Apparitions
• Fatima Family Apostolate International