By far, the most spectacular appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary took place at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. She appeared
to three peasant children, and made monthly visits from May through October,
giving messages about the state of the world and its future.
According to one of the children, Lucia Santos, the Blessed Virgin Mary gave them a vision of hell:
. . . we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now following back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me do). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellant likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals . . .
She then said:
You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. It is to save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace. This war will end, but if men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light [this occurred on January 28, 1938], you will know it is the sign God gives you that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.To prevent this, I shall come to the world to ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that on the First Saturday of every month Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins-of the world. If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and the world will enjoy a period of peace. In Portugal the faith will always be preserved...
The children predicted that a supernatural transformation of the Sun would take place on October 13, 1917 to show that the Blessed Virgin Mary actually was present. On that day, according to O Dia, a Lisbon newspaper that covered the event:
"At one o'clock in the afternoon, midday by the sun, the rain stopped. The sky, pearly grey in colour, illuminated the vast arid landscape with a strange light. The sun had a transparent gauzy veil so that the eyes could easily be fixed upon it. The grey mother-of-pearl tone turned into a sheet of silver which broke up as the clouds were torn apart and the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds. A cry went up from every mouth and people fell on their knees on the muddy ground....The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands. The blue faded slowly, and then the light seemed to pass through yellow glass. Yellow stains fell against white handkerchiefs, against the dark skirts of the women. They were repeated on the trees, on the stones and on the serra. People wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they."
The children mentioned a secret message from the Blessed Virgin Mary that was given at Fatima. This was revealed in 2000, when Pope John Paul II authorized it to be released:
. . . we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."
The Roman Catholic Church approved the apparitions in 1930, meaning that no one was obligated to believe in them, but that they were of supernatural character and did not contradict the teachings of the Church. Keep in mind that these messages were made public in the 1920's, well before the outbreak of World War II, and well before the invention of weapons that actually had the potential to ‘annihilate’ entire nations, as the prophecy stated. Not only was it impressive that World War II was prophesied, but the fact Communism would spread throughout the world was also accurately predicted. For those who can remember the Cold War, it was inconceivable that Russia would one day be converted from Communism - yet that was exactly what had been predicted by Fatima for decades before it happened.
Millions visited Fatima over the years to see the spot of the apparitions. Pope John Paul II himself visited Fatima several times during his pontificate. A widely-known fact: he was shot on October 13, 1981, the 64th anniversary of the last appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima. Many theologians felt this was the fulfillment of the third prophecy at Fatima. He credited The Blessed Virign Mary with having saved his life and actually returned to Fatima after he recovered to place the bullet from the attack into the crown on a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Clearly, the apparition at Fatima has very compelling elements that support its validity. Its message in some ways seems narrowly to address World War II and the rise and fall of Communism, but in a broader sense, it addresses the rejection of God that still marks this troubled era in history. The many compelling events that surround this unique event make it reasonable to consider the real likelihood that Fatima represents the strongest expression of God’s involvement in human events in modern history.
According to one of the children, Lucia Santos, the Blessed Virgin Mary gave them a vision of hell:
. . . we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now following back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me do). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellant likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals . . .
She then said:
You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. It is to save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace. This war will end, but if men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light [this occurred on January 28, 1938], you will know it is the sign God gives you that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.To prevent this, I shall come to the world to ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that on the First Saturday of every month Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins-of the world. If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and the world will enjoy a period of peace. In Portugal the faith will always be preserved...
The children predicted that a supernatural transformation of the Sun would take place on October 13, 1917 to show that the Blessed Virgin Mary actually was present. On that day, according to O Dia, a Lisbon newspaper that covered the event:
"At one o'clock in the afternoon, midday by the sun, the rain stopped. The sky, pearly grey in colour, illuminated the vast arid landscape with a strange light. The sun had a transparent gauzy veil so that the eyes could easily be fixed upon it. The grey mother-of-pearl tone turned into a sheet of silver which broke up as the clouds were torn apart and the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds. A cry went up from every mouth and people fell on their knees on the muddy ground....The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands. The blue faded slowly, and then the light seemed to pass through yellow glass. Yellow stains fell against white handkerchiefs, against the dark skirts of the women. They were repeated on the trees, on the stones and on the serra. People wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they."
The children mentioned a secret message from the Blessed Virgin Mary that was given at Fatima. This was revealed in 2000, when Pope John Paul II authorized it to be released:
. . . we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."
The Roman Catholic Church approved the apparitions in 1930, meaning that no one was obligated to believe in them, but that they were of supernatural character and did not contradict the teachings of the Church. Keep in mind that these messages were made public in the 1920's, well before the outbreak of World War II, and well before the invention of weapons that actually had the potential to ‘annihilate’ entire nations, as the prophecy stated. Not only was it impressive that World War II was prophesied, but the fact Communism would spread throughout the world was also accurately predicted. For those who can remember the Cold War, it was inconceivable that Russia would one day be converted from Communism - yet that was exactly what had been predicted by Fatima for decades before it happened.
Millions visited Fatima over the years to see the spot of the apparitions. Pope John Paul II himself visited Fatima several times during his pontificate. A widely-known fact: he was shot on October 13, 1981, the 64th anniversary of the last appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima. Many theologians felt this was the fulfillment of the third prophecy at Fatima. He credited The Blessed Virign Mary with having saved his life and actually returned to Fatima after he recovered to place the bullet from the attack into the crown on a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Clearly, the apparition at Fatima has very compelling elements that support its validity. Its message in some ways seems narrowly to address World War II and the rise and fall of Communism, but in a broader sense, it addresses the rejection of God that still marks this troubled era in history. The many compelling events that surround this unique event make it reasonable to consider the real likelihood that Fatima represents the strongest expression of God’s involvement in human events in modern history.