Our Last Hope

The Immaculate Heart of Fatima

By: Maureen Elizabeth Plass

Posted: 4/28/09

In 1917, Europe was at war. Portugal's soldiers had been in the trenches in France and Africa for a year. In the small rural village of Fatima, near Lisbon, local families farmed and raised herds of livestock. One afternoon, three children returned from watching sheep and told their families a very strange story about their day in the pasture. Ten-year-old Lucia described the beautiful lady in white clothes who had appeared in a bright light and spoken kindly to them. Of course, her parents dismissed it as a story or some kind of game. Nine-year-old Francisco and seven-year-old Jacinta, Lucia's cousins, had no more luck convincing their own family. The village pastor remained skeptical for many years that the "Beautiful Lady" was really the Blessed Virgin Mary and not a demonic illusion.
The event witnessed by the three children on May 13 was the first of six such occasions. Lucia relates what happened in her Memoirs. A bright flash of lightning caught their attention twice, and then a lady standing above a small tree shining a very clear and intense light. Lucia and Jacinta heard her tell them to pray the rosary every day for peace in the world and to end the war. Lucia asked if they would all go to heaven. The answer was "Yes, but Francisco must say many rosaries first." The Lady promised to return in exactly one month.
On June 13 a small crowd of curious neighbors gathered at the pasture while the children prayed a rosary. Disappointingly, they saw only a bright light above the tree. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta all saw the beautiful Lady during these apparitions, but Francisco never heard her words. Lucia alone spoke to the Lady, who described herself as "the Immaculate Heart." She told the children that Francisco and Jacinta would be in heaven soon, but Lucia would spend many more years on earth working to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart. In addition to her earlier request that they pray the rosary, she also asked Lucia to learn to read. The children then saw a vision of her heart, pierced with thorns symbolizing the neglect and offenses of humanity-similar to the Sacred Heart of her Son.
News of the monthly apparitions spread rapidly, bringing visitors who had travelled long distances and several curious local officials to the field on July 13. After praying the rosary with the crowd, Lucia asked the Lady for a sign that would convince the crowd that the apparitions were from heaven. She answered that she would work a miracle in October and that she would also reveal her name. She asked the children to sacrifice for sinners and say the following prayer: "O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary." Then she spread her hands and the three children saw the ground in the pasture open up to reveal a sea of fire with demons and people moving around like glowing embers. Lucia writes that thousands more were falling continuously into this sea "like snowflakes". The Lady explained that this was a vision of Hell, and that these souls could be saved by devotion to her Immaculate Heart. She predicted the end of the first World War but warned that a second and worse war would begin if nations did not convert and do penance. A mysterious light at night would signal that God was going to punish the world with "war, famine and persecutions of the Church and the Holy Father." She continued the prediction. "To prevent this I will 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 will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."
Local anti-religious factions became uneasy as the apparitions attracted large numbers of visitors to the pasture near Fatima. On the thirteenth of August several thousand people waited for the children to arrive before the apparition. At the usual time they saw and heard the thunder and lightning that preceded the Lady's appearance, however, the children did not come. The crowd saw a small white cloud above the tree. After a few minutes the cloud disappeared. The mayor of nearby Ourém had arrested the children in an attempt to discredit the apparitions. He threatened them one by one with death, hoping that they would reveal the secret which they had received from the Lady. Frustrated after two days, he released them again. They had missed the promised apparition, but the Lady came on August 15, repeating her messages of prayer and penance.
At the apparition September, the crowd was so large that the children had difficulty walking to the tree. The Lady reminded them that she would work a spectacular public miracle in October, and repeated her previous requests. "Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Carmel. Saint Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices."
On October 13, more than 70,000 spectators gathered in the rain-soaked pasture, waiting for the miracle. The Lady appeared and told Lucia to have a chapel built at that location in her honor. She said that her name was the "Lady of the Rosary." The children saw Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary under her titles of Sorrows and of Carmel. Lucia called to the crowd to look at the sun. Eyewitnesses, who could not see the heavenly apparitions, described the sun as a shining silver disk that began to spin around in the sky. Everything in the field changed colors like a kaleidoscope. Then suddenly the sun moved in a zigzag pattern towards the terrified spectators. After ten minutes, the sun was in its usual position and the crowd noticed that their soaking clothes were completely dry and warm. In Lisbon, the chief editor of the usually anti-clerical paper O Seculo, described the event in great detail and included photographs. Mario Godinho was an engineer who also witnessed the miracle. "From those thousands of mouths I heard shouts of joy and love to the Most Holy Virgin. And then I believed. I had the certainty of not having been the victim of a suggestion. I had seen the sun as I would never see it again."
Francisco Martin died on April 4, 1919, and his sister Jacinta died on February 20, 1920 after dedicating their lives and sufferings to save sinners from Hell. They were beatified on May 13, 2000, by Pope John Paul II. Lucia dos Santos entered the order of Carmelites at Coimbra. She received another apparition from the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 10, 1925. Our Lady requested the devotion of the Five First Saturdays in reparation to her Immaculate Heart, just as her Son had requested the Nine First Fridays in reparation to His Sacred Heart. "Look, my daughter, at my heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."
Sister Lucia died on February 13, 2005, after a lifetime of doing her best to fulfill the Blessed Virgin Mary's requests. A chapel has been built at the site of the apparitions, as well as the large Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima. Russia has not yet been formally consecrated to the Immaculate Heart by all the bishops together, although in 1984 Pope John Paul II gave a blessing for the entire world with a special mention of Russia's name. On May 13, 1981, he called attention to the message of Fatima "as an outpouring of the love of the Heart of the Mother, who is always open to her child, never loses sight of him, thinks of him always, even when he leaves the straight path and becomes a prodigal son...The greatest concern of her Immaculate Heart is the eternal salvation of all men and women."
The Blessed Virgin Mary's predictions have been fulfilled quite literally, beginning with the promised Miracle of the Sun, and the end of World War I. On the night of January 24, 1938, a bright red light (described as an unusual form of Aurora Borealis) was seen in the sky all over Europe, Africa and Asia, Canada and the USA. Three months later, Hitler invaded Austria and the Second World War soon followed. We can be certain that her final prediction will be fulfilled: the triumph of her Immaculate Heart and peace for the world after the conversion of the entire nation of Russia to the Catholic Faith.

Act of Consecration and Reparation
to Mary's Immaculate Heart

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of heaven and earth and most tender Mother of men, in accordance with Thy ardent wish made known at Fatima, I consecrate to Thee myself, my family, my brethren, my country, and the whole human race.

Reign over us and teach us how to make the Heart of Jesus reign and triumph in us and around us, as it has reigned and triumphed in Thee.

We desire to atone for the many grievous sins and offenses committed against Jesus and Thee. We desire to call down upon our country and the whole world, the peace of God in justice and charity.

We promise to imitate Thy virtues by the practice of a Christian life without regard to human respect. We resolve to receive Holy Communion on the First Saturday of each month, and to offer Thee five decades of the Rosary each day, together with our sacrifices, in the spirit of reparation and penance. Amen.

Maureen Elizabeth Plass is a Senior