Pontevedra apparitions

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The Apparition at Pontevedra

Eight years after the Fatima events, one of the seers, now called Sister Lucia was living in a Dorothean convent in Pontevedra, Spain. On December 10, 1925, she claimed she experienced another apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this occasion, in Sister Lucia's own words, the Virgin returned as She had promised at Fatima to relate the specific requirements for the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

Here is how Sister Lucia describes the appearance: "The Most Holy Virgin appeared to me, and by her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was the Child Jesus. The Most Holy Virgin rested her hand on my shoulder and as she did so, she showed me a heart encircled by thorns, which she was holding in her other hand."

During this alleged apparition, the Child Jesus asked Sister Lucia to have compassion on His Mother, referring to her as the heavenly mother of Sister Lucia.

At this point, the Virgin Mary is said to have set the parameters of the five first Saturdays devotion. If one fulfilled these conditions on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, the Virgin Mary promised special graces at the hour of death.

The devotion of the Communion of Reparation on the Five First Saturdays, mentioned by the Virgin at Fatima on July 13, 1917, and then confirmed at Pontevedra as described above, some believe is an essential part of the Message of Fatima.

The First Saturday devotions had already been an estsablished custom in the Catholic Church. On July 1, 1905, Pope Pius X approved and granted indulgences for the practice of the first Saturdays of twelve consecutive months in honor of the Immaculate Conception. This practice greatly resembled the request of Pontevedra.

[edit] Second apparition

Then on February 15, 1926 while emptying a garbage can outside the garden, Sister Lucia saw a child she thought she recognized. After striking up a conversation with him, she claimed the child transformed himself into the Child Jesus, who chastised Sister Lucia for not doing more to promote the five First Saturdays devotion.