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Dedicated toOur Lady of FatimaOur Lady of Fatima Feast Day May 13 Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to visit Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 2010, on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. On May 13, 1917, in Portugal, Our Lady of Fatima appeared to three children in a place called Cova da Iria. It was at noon, and the children were shepherding sheep. Suddenly there was lightening, and the children, thinking that it was going to rain, began to run. Then, just above a holm oak tree, they saw a beautiful lady made of light, holding a rosary in her hand. Our Lady of Fatima spoke to the children and told them not to be afraid. "I come from Heaven," she said. The oldest of the children was Lucía who was ten years old. She asked Our Lady of Fatima, "Will I go to Heaven?" "Yes," Our Lady of Fatima answered. "And Jacinta," who was her seven-year-old cousin, "Will she go to heaven too?" "Yes," answered Our Lady of Fatima. "And Francisco," the brother of Jacinta who was nine years old, "Will he go to Heaven?" "Yes," answered Our Lady of Fatima, but he will have to say many rosaries."
On June 13, Our Lady of Fatima appeared again to the children. The conversation was to pray and make sacrifices and to pray the Rosary. On July 13, Our Lady of Fatima appeared again and conveyed a secret to the children composed of three parts. The first two parts were revealed by Lucía in her memoirs in 1941 and the third part was released by Pope John Paul II in May 2000. Regarding the first part, the vision of hell, Sister Lucía writes:
"How can we ever be grateful enough to
our kind heavenly Mother who had already prepared us by promising, in the first
apparition, to take us to heaven? Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear
and terror. 'When you see a night illuminated by an
unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is
about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine and
persecutions of the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall 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 shall be converted, and a
period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the
Faith will always be preserved.' 'Oh my Jesus, forgive us ours sins, save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy."
The mayor was atheistic as were many in Portugal. In separate conversations with each of the three children, the mayor threatened death if they did not confess everything as a lie. However, the children did not give in to the mayor and professed the truth of Our Lady of Fatima. As a result, the children could not meet Our Lady of Fatima because they were held in jail with common criminals for the night. But according to witnesses, the children
converted the men in the jail, and they all prayed in the cell.
From the previous day, many people were traveling toward the area. There were not only those with faith but also the atheistic communists and the secular newspaper reporters who were convinced that they would write a story discrediting the entire event as a hoax. Suddenly, it began to rain. The field where people were gathering turned into a field of mud. Seventy thousand people were present to see the miracle. ![]() Then the sun stopped and returned to its place
in the sky, and it turned into a beautiful day. People become aware that their
clothes were dry.
Francisco died in 1919 and Jacinta in 1920,
both from disease. When Our Lady of Fatima appeared to Jacinta and Francisco were saints from the first day Our Lady of Fatima appeared to them on May 13, 1917. They gave themselves up to prayer and sacrifice for sinners and prayer for the pope. Once the beautiful Our Lady of Fatima had appeared to them, they lost all interest in the worldly life. Lucía took the name Sister Maria Lucía of the Immaculate Heart of Mary when she became a Carmelite nun. In 2000, on May 13 in Fatima, Pope John Paul II beatified Jacinta and Francisco as Blesseds of Heaven. Sister Lucía was present.The third part of the secret given to the children on July 13, 1917, was written by Sister Lucía in 1944, but the text was not revealed until 2000. On May 13, 1981, there was an assassination
attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II. Shortly afterward His Holiness read
the third part of the secret of Fatima but chose not to reveal it at that time.
Coinciding with the May 13, 2000, Beatification of Jacinta and Francisco, The
Holy Father released the third part of the secret. Sister Lucía recently said that it now appears ever more clear that the purpose of all the apparitions was to help people to grow more and more in faith, hope and love. Our Lady of Fatima recalls frequently forgotten values. She reminds us that the future of humankind is in God, and that we are active and responsible partners in creating that future. Our Lady of Fatima wants all of us to stop offending God; the same message as at Lourdes to Saint Bernadette. She reminds us that hell exists.
Sister María Lúcia and Pope John Paul II Sister María Lúcia of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (nee Lucía de Jesús dos Santos), the oldest of the three children to whom Our Lady of Fatima appeared, died on Sunday, February 13, 2005, at 5:25 P. M. at the age of 97, at the Carmelite Convent of Saint Teresa at Coimbra in Portugal where she was buried for a year at her request so that the nuns could mourn privately. In February, 2006, Sister María Lúcia was reinterred at Fatima. Pope John Paul II sent a condolence message read at Sister María Lúcia's funeral attended by hundreds of mourners which said he "...always felt lifted by the daily gift of her prayers, especially in difficult and testing moments of suffering." Mel Gibson visited Sister María Lúcia in July of 2004 and gave her a DVD of his movie The Passion of the Christ. Pope Benedict XVI has fast-tracked Sister Lúcia's road to sainthood by eliminating the five-year waiting period to start the canonization process. Sister Lucia's previously unpublished writings
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