(To print this story, simply copy and paste the text into a word document.)
Lucy was ten; her cousins Francisco and Jacinta were nine and seven. They lived in Fatima, Portugal. And their story began on May 13, 1917 – Mother’s Day.
Every day after Mass, the children lead their fathers’ sheep up the mountain where they could graze. They ate their lunch in a big hollow in the side of the mountain called Cova da Iria. After lunch they would say the Rosary, but not very well as they were in a hurry to play.
On this day, just as every day, they lead their sheep to graze, ate lunch, and said their Rosary when there was a flash of strange Light in the Cova. The children thought it was lightening and began to gather their sheep to go home when it came again – the Light. This time it gathered in a globe of light on the top of a small evergreen oak tree.
As they looked at it, it turned into a Lady! A beautiful Lady clothed in a white dress that itself seemed to be made of light.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said, softly, “I won’t hurt you.” Her voice was so kind that all at once they were not afraid any more.
“Where did you come from?” Lucy asked.
“I come from heaven,” the Lady replied. “I want you children to come here on the thirteenth day of each month until October. Then I will tell you who I am.”
“Shall I go to heaven?” Lucy asked. “Yes, you will.” “And Jacinta?” “Yes, she, too.” “And Francisco?”
“Yes. But he will have to say many Rosaries.” Then the Lady looked at them very seriously. As Lucy said later, she was “not sad, not happy, but serious.” She asked, “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God, and bear all the sufferings He wishes to send you, to make up for sins, and for the conversion of sinners?”
They did not have to think a long time about this as some people might as they were generous, as most children are. They were already so much in love with the Lady that they would have been willing to do anything to make her happy.
“Oh, yes!” cried Lucy, “yes, we will!”
“Then you will have much to suffer, but, thanks be to God, He Himself will help you.”
The Lady then opened her hands, which had been folded as if she were praying. Streams of beautiful light came from her palms, and it seemed to go right into the hearts of the three children.
“Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world,” the Lady said.
Suddenly they could only see the Light, not the Lady anymore. Quickly the globe of Light left the tree, moving toward the eastern mountains. The children stared in silence until they couldn’t see it any more.
They were very quiet and began to count the months - five more times they would see her again!
They were going to keep this all a secret as Lucy thought it would be better that way, because the Lady had not said they could tell anybody. But it was too beautiful for Jacinta not to talk about. She always told things to her mother, and this was the biggest thing that had ever happened to her.
So their secret got out and this is how the suffering began. Many people, even Lucy’s mother, did not believe the children about the Lady. They were mocked and called dreamers and liars. Lucy’s’ mother scolded and beat her. Her sisters tormented her. The children of the village would ask questions then laugh at their answers.
Their only relief came when they led the sheep into the mountains where it was quiet. They were careful to say the Rosary every day for peace, and to say it slowly, thinking of the Lady all the way through.
They also found ways to suffer, for sins, and for the conversion of sinners. “Let’s give our lunches to the poorer children,” said Francisco, “and go without, for sinners.”
One day, they were hot and thirsty and a woman gave them a jug of water to drink. For sinners, they did not drink themselves, but poured the water into a hollow stone for the sheep. This all sounds very hard, but God did help them, just as the Lady herself had promised.
June 13th finally came, and with Lucy, Francisco, and Jacinta were seventy other people who came because they believed or were curious. Some came to make fun of the children and scoff at them.
The Lady came as before and the three little shepherds could see her. The other people gathered there could only see the branches at the top of the tree curved and bent a little.
“Continue to say the Rosary every day,” the Lady told them. “After each decade add this prayer, ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins! Save us from the fires of hell! Bring all souls to heaven, especially those who most need your mercy!’”
Lucy said to her, “I should like you to take us to heaven.”
“Yes, Jacinta and Francisco I will take soon. But you, Lucy, are to remain on earth for some time more. Jesus wishes to make use of you to have me known and loved. He wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”
Then the Lady showed the children her hands from which streams of light flowed. In that light was a heart encircled with thorns which pierced her heart like nails. The children knew at once that sin was doing this to the Lady. And they understood better why they must pray and make sacrifices. Sin must be stopped! The beautiful Lady must not be hurt any more. People must be converted, and then help convert others. They would do more now.
“Pray, pray very much,” the Lady said. “Many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.” Then the Light carried off the Lady.
All through the rest of June and early July, the children kept on saying the Rosary, taking care to add at the end of each decade the Lady’s prayer. They also kept on making sacrifices, doing hard things, for the Lady. After a while, they found that they even liked to make the sacrifices.
July 13th was the day of the Two Promises, the Revelation, the Secret and the Vision. When the Lady appeared again, she promised first that in October she would do a wonderful Miracle, so that “everyone will have to believe.” Then she promised that the badly war beaten Russia would change. She said, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and it will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world.”
The Revelation was about Russia as well. She revealed that if people would not listen to her, and pray, and stop their sins, there would be another war. “Russia will scatter her errors through the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be annihilated.” (WWII)
The Secret is to this day a secret. All three children, Francisco and Jacinta who died very young of respiratory diseases, and Lucy who lived to the age of 97 all died without ever telling it.
The Vision that the Lady showed the three children was of hell. The children would have died with fear at this sight, if God and the Lady had not helped them. It made them listen very willingly to the Lady’s next words:
“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice, ‘O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and to make up for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’”
More and more people began believing the children. The devil did not like this. Neither did the enemies of God’s Church and God’s Mother. There was a blacksmith named Arturo in the city of Ourem, near Fatima who was also the Mayor, and had some power over the whole region. People feared him. Arturo did not like religion. On August 13th he drove his carriage to Fatima and pretended to be friends with the children. He asked to give them a ride to the Cova da Iria. The children did not want to offend him as they were afraid of him and agreed. The next thing they knew, he was driving the wrong direction, away from the Cova.
At Ourem, the blacksmith put them in the town jail cell with thieves and drunkards. The children were frightened. They were upset that they would not see the Lady that day. Then Francisco realized that it was a sacrifice to not see her, their hardest one yet. So they said the Lady’s prayer to offer this sacrifice for sinners. They hung a medal of Our Lady on the wall and knelt to say the Rosary. Some of the thieves and drunkards joined them.
Arturo brought the children to his office and wanted them to say they had not seen a Lady, he wanted them to tell him the Secret. “I’ll have you boiled alive in hot oil if you don’t,” he said.
But the children would not lie nor would they tell him the Secret. They were ready to die rather than lie or break a secret.
On August 15th, Our Lady’s Feast Day, Arturo brought the children home. The following Sunday, August 19th, the Lady appeared to the children in a different place, so that they almost missed her. She only stayed a short time and spoke about the miracle in October and again asked for them to say the Rosary every day. “Pray, pray very much,” she urged them. “Make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray for them.”
On September 13th, the next apparition, there were almost 30,000 people in the Cova da Iria! Arturo’s cruelty had created sympathy for the children and people began to believe them. This day, the Lady made another great Promise. “In October,” she said, “Our Lord will come also, and St. Joseph, to bless the world.”
Finally, the Day of the Miracle arrived! Nearly 70,000 people came from all over Portugal. It had rained all night and all morning. The people were drenched.
Someone asked Lucy if she was afraid of what the crowd would do to her if there were no Miracle. But Lucy was not afraid; she knew there would be a Miracle, the Lady had promised it.
Shortly past noon, the rain abruptly stopped. Just as if someone had turned off the faucet. The black clouds in the sky were rolled back like the flaps of a tent. The sky became Our Lady’s blue. Against the blue sky was the sun. But a strange sun – silver instead of gold, shedding a gentle, moon-like light. You could look straight at the sun without hurting your eyes.
Then the sun began to dance as people called it later. It made jumpy movements from place to place in the heavens. It turned round and round like a wheel. It flung off colors at its edge; orange, purple, green and red. Then came the frightening thing: The sun began to fall!
The people cried and began to pray “Jesus, save us!” Just when it seemed the sun would crash into the Cova, the end of the world was near, the sun stopped. It stood poised a moment over them. In that moment it dried all their rain-soaked clothes. Then this silver sun began to climb, zig-zag, into the high heavens. It changed from silver to gold. No one could look straight at it anymore. It was the everyday sun.
There was a long silence in the Cova, of fear and wonder. Then people began to shout, “Miracle! Miracle! The Lady has kept her Promise. Blessed be God and Our Lady. The children have really seen and spoken to the Mother of God.”
While the crowd was watching the sun, Lucy, Francisco, and Jacinta had something even more wonderful to see. Our Lord had come, and St. Joseph, and Our Lady of the Rosary, and of Sorrows, and of Glory.
The Child Jesus was in the arms of St. Joseph. Mary had stood beside them, dressed inblue and white- Our Lady of the Rosary. Jesus and St. Joseph had blessed them and the crowd.
Lucy alone saw the next vision. It was of Our Lady, dressed in purple, sorrowing as she did on Good Friday. Beside her was Jesus, looking with pity on her grieving face. Then He turned with the same sad look upon the crowd, and blessed them with the sign of the cross.
The third Vision was also for Lucy. She saw Our Lady enthroned in heaven, in glory. She was dressed, and looked, very much as she does in the picture on the brown scapular – Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Just before the Visions, the Lady had come in the Light again, to her familiar place, the evergreen-oak. She had a few last words for the children and a message for the people in the Cova, and in the whole world.
“I am Our Lady of the Rosary. Let them continue to say the Rosary every day. Let them offend Our Lord God no more, for He is already much offended.”