By Leon Bent –
In the spring of 1917, something extraordinary began unfolding — visions that would put three shepherd children on the path to sainthood, and transform Fatima from an ordinary village in Portugal, to the site of a Catholic Shrine, venerated and visited by millions of devotees, on an everyday basis!
May 13 is the anniversary of the first of six apparition of Our Lady to Lucia, 9, and her cousins Francisco, 8, and his sister Jacinta, 6, between May 13, 1917 and October 13, 1917.
On 13 May 1917, the children reported seeing a woman, “brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger 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. She asked them to devote themselves to the Holy Trinity, and to “pray the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to World War I”. While the children had never told anyone about seeing the angel, Jacinta told her family about seeing the brilliantly-lit woman.
In the last apparition the woman revealed her name in response to Lucia’s question: “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”
What is the central meaning of the message of Fatima? Nothing different from what the Church has always taught: it is, as Emeritus Pope Benedict the XVI, put it, “the exhortation to prayer as the path of ‘salvation for souls’ and, likewise, the ‘summons to penance and conversion.’”
Perhaps, the most well known utterance of the apparition of Our Lady at Fatima was her confident declaration: “My Immaculate Heart will triumph”. Jesus said: “In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.
Mary asked the children to pray the Rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners, and for the conversion of Russia. She also gave them gave them three secrets. Following the deaths of Francisco and Jacinta in 1919 and 1920, respectively, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927. It concerned devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second secret was a vision of Hell. Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See’s Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000; it spoke of a “bishop in white” who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him. Many people linked this vision to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.
Lucia dos Santos would later become a Carmelite nun and died aged of 97, in 2005. Unfortunately, Francisco and Jacinta Marto died as children, as a result of the influenza epidemic of 1918–19. The pious siblings were beatified in 2000, by St. Pope John Paul II, making them the youngest non-martyred children to be beatified in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. They were canonized as saints by Pope Francis in 2017, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of their visions.
Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio to the UN, declared: “The message of peace that the shepherd children said the Lady from heaven brought, and the practices of conversion, transformation of heart, prayer and commitment she indicated, are as important today for peace in the world as they were a century ago” (MAY 15, 2017, THE TABLET).
“As Pope Francis in Fatima, tonight and tomorrow, seeks to lead all Catholics throughout the world in prayer for peace and in gratitude for the living legacy given by the maternal Ambassador of Peace, we, too, who are assembled here at the United Nations, commit ourselves to do our part, like Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia, in responding to the noble calling and urgent cause of peacemaking” (MAY 15, 2017, THE TABLET).
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.
Leon Bent regularly writes for 9 Catholic Magazines, Journals and Web Portals, worldwide – occasionally, the reach is over 5 million readers.