Apparition Our Lady of Fatima: everything that really happened

Beginning in the spring of 1917, the children reported apparitions of an angel and, from May 1917, apparitions of the Virgin Mary, which the children described as "the brightest Lady of the Sun". The children reported a prophecy that prayer would lead to the end of the Great War, and that on October 13 of that year the Lady would reveal her identity and perform a miracle "so that everyone can believe". The newspapers reported the prophecies and many pilgrims began to visit the area. The children's stories were deeply controversial, provoking strong criticism from both local secularism and religious authorities. A provincial administrator briefly took the children into custody, believing that the prophecies were politically motivated in opposition to the officially secular First Portuguese Republic founded in 1910. The events of October 13 became known as the Miracle of the Sun.

On May 13, 1917, the children reported seeing a woman "brighter than the sun, shedding clearer and stronger rays of light than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun." The woman wore a white mantle edged with gold and held a rosary in her hand. He asked them to dedicate themselves to the Holy Trinity and to pray "the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and the end of the war". While the children had never told anyone to see the angel, Jacinta told her family that she had seen the woman enlightened. Lúcia previously said that the three should have kept this experience private. Jacinta's unbelieving mother told the neighbors about it as a joke, and within a day the whole village heard about the children.
The children said the woman told them to return to the Cova da Iria on June 13, 1917. Lúcia's mother asked the parish priest, Father Ferreira, for advice, who suggested that she let them go. He asked to be taken to Lúcia later so that he could question her. The second apparition took place on June 13, the feast of Saint Anthony, patron of the local parish church. On that occasion the lady revealed that Francisco and Jacinta would be brought to Heaven soon, but Lúcia would live longer to spread her message and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

During the June visit, the children said that the lady told them to recite the Holy Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary to achieve peace and the end of the Great War. (Three weeks earlier, on April 21, the first contingent of Portuguese soldiers had embarked for the front line of the war.) The lady would also have revealed to children a vision of hell, and entrusted them with a secret, described as "good" for some and bad for others ". p. Later, Ferreira said that Lúcia said that the lady said to her: "I want you to go back to thirteenth and learn to read to understand what I want from you ... I don't want more."

In the following months, thousands of people gathered in Fatima and near Aljustrel, drawn by reports of visions and miracles. On August 13, 1917 the provincial administrator Artur Santos intervened (no relationship with Lúcia dos Santos), since he believed that these events were politically destructive in the conservative country. He took the children into custody, imprisoning them before they could reach Cova da Iria. Santos interrogated and threatened the children to convince them to divulge the contents of the secrets. Lúcia's mother hoped that officials could persuade the children to conclude the deal and admit to lying. Lúcia told Santos all but the secrets, and offered to ask the woman for permission to tell the official the secrets.

That month, instead of the customary appearance in the Cova da Iria on August 13, the children reported seeing the Virgin Mary on August 19, one Sunday, in nearby Valinhos. He asked them to pray the rosary again every day, spoke about the miracle of October and asked them "to pray a lot, a lot for sinners and to sacrifice a lot, since many souls perish in hell because nobody prays or makes sacrifices for them . "

The three children claimed to have seen the Blessed Virgin Mary in a total of six apparitions between May 13 and October 13, 1917. 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the apparitions.