On May 13, 1917, Lucia Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto witnessed an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a field just outside the small Portuguese village of Fatima. The Virgin is said to have told the children (then aged ten, nine and seven respectively) three secrets about the future, appearing to them in the same field on the thirteenth of every month for six months.
The First Secret.
The First Secret of Fatima is said to have been a vision of Hell granted to the children upon their initial sighting of the Virgin Mary. The vision was later described by Lucia as 'a great sea of fire...in which souls and bodies burned.' Given the words that the Virgin Mary spoke in the Second Secret (described below), it is assumed that this vision was not meant to scare the children, but as a lesson of what happens after death to those who are not devout.
The Second Secret.
The Second Secret of Fatima involves prophecies regarding both World War One and World War Two. The Virgin Mary is said to have told the children that the First World War was about to come to a close (this proved true, as the war ceased in 1918), but another would soon follow if the world did not observe the Roman Catholic faith and Russia was not consecrated. A few years later, the Second World War broke out.
The Third Secret.
The Third, and final, Secret of Fatima came of great shock to all concerned in the Roman Catholic Church. The Secret was never fully released outside of the Church, but is rumoured to have contained several predictions about the fate of those closely connected to the pontificate. The alleged Third Secret has been interpreted in many ways, the most common been that the Roman Catholic Church will experience rival papacies or that there would be an direct attack on a single Pope. The latter interpretation has been said to relate to the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. Given the secrecy the Church has regarding the Third Secret of Fatima, it is unlikely that the general population of the world will ever known what was truly said.
The Miracle of the Sun.
The initial release to the children of the Third Secret was the final appearance of the Virgin Mary in Fatima. The event is said to have been marked with several unexplained phemomena. After a sudden end to the heavy rain Fatima was experiencing that day, the sun suddenly appeared, appearing to spin and descend upon the Earth before returning to its natural position some minutes afterwards. The phenomenon was recorded as been seen from many miles away. This event is now known as The Miracle of the Sun, although some scientists believe that it could be accounted for due to an extreme occurance of aurora borealis over Europe.
Did the Children Lie About the Presence of the Virgin Mary?
Many theories have been passed suggesting the validity, or lack thereof, of the claims that Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta made regarding the Virgin Mary. As the Virgin was said to have only appeared to the children, even at times when great crowds of people were present, it is thought that they were indeed lying about the visitations, thus discrediting claims that the Secrets even existed.
What Happened to the Children?
Unfortunately, Francisco and Jacinta died in the Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1920. They were eleven and ten years old respectively. However, Lucia lived to become a Nun, finally dying of natural causes at the age of 97. She wrote six books, each detailing in some form the events of the miracles of Fatima. All three children were beautified by the Catholic Church some years after their deaths.
Sources.
- di Marchi, Joao, The True Story of Fatima, Catechetical Guild Educational Society, 1956.
- Healey, Tim, Great Mysteries of the 20th Century, The Reader's Digest Association Limited, 1998.
- Stanford, Ray, Fatima Prophecy: Discover the Message and Meaning of Fatima, Inner Vision Publishing Company, 1989.
- www.catholicculture.org
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