Apparitions of Fatima

What is the origin of the Miracle of Fatima?

Our Lady of Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is known for Her apparitions in 1917 to three shepherd children at Cova da Iria, in Fatima, Portugal.

The Miracle of Fatima (also known as the Miracle of the Sun) happened between May and October on the 13th day of each month, at approximately noon. The three children: Lucia and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco (ages 7, 9 and 10) were spoken to by a luminous lady who entrusted them with three secrets.

The first secret was a frightening vision of hell, “where the souls of poor sinners go,” and contained an urgent plea from Our Lady for acts of prayer and sacrifice to save souls, with particular emphasis on praying of the rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The second secret prophesied the outbreak of World War II and contained the prediction of the huge damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communists’ totalitarianism.

The third secret was not revealed until 2000. Its revelation coincided with the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta. It did not contain any cataclysmic prediction, but, instead, the vision affirmed the immense suffering endured by witnesses of the faith. Sister Lucia, the surviving member of the three children, confirmed that in the vision “the Bishop clothed in white,” who prays for all the faithful, is the Pope. As he makes his way with great difficulty towards the Cross amid the corpses of those who were martyred, he too falls to the ground, apparently dead, under a hail of gunfire. It is possible that the vision predicted the 1981 attack on Pope John Paul II’s life. The Pope has always credited the Virgin for his survival.

The Miracle of the Sun occurred in October 13, when a crowd of seventy thousand people who had gathered in Fatima, in response to a prophecy made by the three children. The prophecy was that the Virgin Mary would appear and perform a miracle on that date. The crowd witnessed an extraordinary zig-zag dance of the sun in the sky that lasted ten minutes that afternoon. No one had ever seen such a phenomenon. The whole crowd was in awe.