Fatima Articles and Talks
Just over a century ago, between May and October 1917, Our Lady appeared at Fátima in Portugal, at the height of World War I – as Europe was tearing itself apart in a fratricidal struggle – with a message of peace and salvation for all. In our own time, we can see that we live in a world where peace is still at a premium; particularly in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia we have a situation reminiscent of the worst aspects of the terrible trench warfare of the First World War. Eight years after her apparitions to the children of Fátima – Jacinta and Francisco Marto, and Lucia dos Santos – the Blessed Virgin appeared to the eldest of them, Sr Lucia, while she was a postulant in the Dorothean convent at Pontevedra in Spain. 10 December 1925, she fully revealed the Five First Saturdays devotion associated with the Fátima message. The centenary of this apparition is being celebrated this year by the World Apostolate of Fátima (WAF) in England & Wales, which is part of a worldwide organisation which is the officially approved Fátima body in the Church. The Apostolate is arranging for two Fatima statues, and relics of Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto, to visit all the cathedrals in England and Wales between May of this year and October 2026, in a repeat of what happened in 2017, the Fátima centenary year. The Five First Saturdays is a monthly devotion, to be done over five consecutive months, which involves the recitation the rosary with a 15-minute mediation, plus Confession and Holy Communion, with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary afflicted by the sins of mankind. In return, Our Lady promised to those who complete the devotion assistance at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for salvation – that is a promise of heaven. This devotion is a very important part of the Fátima message, not least because it was linked by the Blessed Virgin to the conversion of Russia during her July 1917 apparition, when the children were given the Secret of Fátima in three parts. In this centenary year of the First Saturdays devotion, the current world situation has become increasingly more serious and worrying, and so a renewed promotion of the Fátima Message, with its promise of the conversion of Russia, the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and an era of peace, has become an even more urgent necessity. As regards Russia and its conversion, this is especially so, given the current aggression in Ukraine, which is also a threat to Europe as a whole, but particularly Eastern Europe. The situation is further complicated with what looks like less American involvement in Europe. At the same time, more countries, for example Iran and North Korea, are striving to develop their nuclear-weapons programmes. The Holy Land and the lands around it are seeing renewed bloodshed, and the China/Taiwan stand-off is an ever-present worry – and this is to say nothing of the continuing humanitarian crises, and the increasing persecution of Christians worldwide. If this seems alarmist or exaggerated, then it is sobering to recall that during her July 1917 apparition, Our Lady spoke of the danger of various nations being annihilated. On 13 July 1917, she requested, “the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays.” The first part of her request was fulfilled when Pope St John Paul II consecrated Russia collegially with the bishops of the world on 25 March 1984; thereafter the Soviet Union and its Communist ideology collapsed from within. It now remains for the Church to fulfil the second part of Our Lady’s request – the promotion of the Five First Saturdays devotion. Then she will fulfil her promise, that “Russia will be converted and a period of peace will be granted to the world.” That is why the Five First Saturdays devotion is so important and why the centenary is being celebrated this year. In this centenary year of the First Saturdays devotion, humanity is entering a more precarious, indeed perilous era, and thus the Fátima Message must surely assume a much greater importance for the Church and the world. As individuals we can do very little to ameliorate the global problems we are now facing in a direct way, but at Fátima, Our Lady gave us the means to bring about real and lasting change in the world, and peace, and that is through the power of prayer to change minds and hearts. The Centenary of the Five First Saturdays devotion is an opportunity to present the Fátima message anew, through increased commitment to prayer and devotion. The World Apostolate of Fátima in England and Wales, through its programme of visits of the Fátima statues and relics to all the cathedrals in England and Wales is leading the way. Donal Anthony Foley is a committee member for the World Apostolate of Fátima (WAF) in England & Wales .
Prayer is the mainstay of the Christian and Catholic life and so it isn’t surprising to see how, once the Fatima children had experienced the awesomeness and power of the angel of Fatima and the beauty and goodness of Our Lady, they increasingly devoted their lives to prayer. We can learn some important lessons from this and from the Fatima message, generally, for our own prayer lives. The Angel of Portugal, or Angel of Peace, as he identified himself, appeared to the three seers during the summer of 1916, when they were playing on the stone slabs of the well at the bottom of the garden belonging to Lucia’s parents. “What are you doing?” he asked. “Pray, pray very much! The most holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High.” That the angel should have spoken to the children in this way is highly significant. He had previously appeared to them in the spring and invited them to pray with him as follows: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You!” – telling them that the Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to their supplications. He appeared again in the fall and taught them a prayer of adoration of reparation for sins against the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, known as The Angel Prayer. Sister Lucia tells us, “His words engraved themselves so deeply on our minds that we could never forget them. From then on, we used to spend long periods of time, prostrate like the Angel, repeating his words, until sometimes we fell, exhausted.” Later on, during the apparitions of Our Lady, she too, was insistent on the great importance of prayer, calling them to pray the Rosary every day, and relating that Francisco must pray “many Rosaries” before he would be called home to heaven. Following their kidnapping by the local mayor on August 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin implored, “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.” From all of this, we can deduce that their vocation was so exalted that a complete dedication to prayer was demanded of them and that this ought to come before everything else. Sister Lucia later wrote that the Blessed Virgin was not just speaking to three little children. Surely, we who seek to follow in the footsteps of the seers, need to make prayer much more the center of our lives. Prayer Makes A Difference When the Blessed Virgin appeared in Belgium in the early 1930s, at Beauraing and Banneux, the message she delivered then also focused on the importance of prayer. During the apparitions, she told the children at Beauraing to “pray, pray very much,” and to “pray always,” while at Banneux, she told the seer to “pray much.” This was in the context of the rise of Nazism in neighboring Germany, with all the terrible evils that it would bring down on the world. It can be difficult to pray, at times, even when we are in a calm and recollected mood – it becomes much more difficult if we are disturbed by a spirit of fear or discontent at what is going on around us or in the news, or on social media. Somehow, we have to be so focused on prayer that it acts as a rock in our lives and prevents the currents of discontent which swirl around us from overwhelming us. The reality is that rather than neglecting prayer we need to realize that, following the teaching of Our Lady, our prayers and sacrifices really do matter and really do make a difference, and also that they enable us to remain steadfast in the Faith, regardless of what is happening in the world. If, as she repeatedly reminded us at Fatima, the Rosary has the power to stop wars and bring about peace, then praying it devoutly can certainly help us to deal with the lesser problems that we have to deal with in everyday life. Sister Lucia is reported to have said, “The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given new efficacy in the recitation of the Holy Rosary. She has given this efficacy to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families … that cannot be solved by the Rosary.” It’s very easy to get caught up in the idea that the “end times” are upon us, or just around the corner. But Our Lady promised at Fatima that in the end her Immaculate Heart would triumph and that a period of peace would be granted to the world. Therefore, despite the chaos that flares up in our modern world periodically, we are, in a deeper sense, moving onward towards a time of peace, and we ought to concentrate on that rather than on the transitory events of each day. The Fatima seers are our models regarding prayer, and we too must allow ourselves to be led deeper into prayer by the Blessed Virgin, and particularly the prayer of the Rosary. If we do that, we will be truly living the message of Fatima. Donal Anthony Foley
Here are some extracts from Fr John de Marchi’s book The True Story of Fatima , describing the penitential aspect of early pilgrimages to Fatima. They show the original spirit animating the early pilgrims to Fatima, many of whom walked to the Cova da Iria, and then spent the night in the open air without any accommodation and so doing an All Night Vigil. This is the spirit that can also be reproduced by a modern walking pilgrimage to the Shrine, or indeed to any recognised Marian shrine. Fr de Marchi writes describing the situation in the 1930’s and 1940’s: “There must be some reason..., why Fatima, which appears as undisturbed a place as any in the western world, has been able to draw to itself on certain days more pilgrims than have ever crowded, as excess population, the city of Rome itself—with Rome's great treasures, glories, and long tradition as the heart and mind of the Church. A million people (a number equal to one-seventh of the total Portuguese population) have assembled within and about the rocky field near Fatima that is known as the Cova da Iria. “There are no hotel accommodations nor any other shelter for those who come to Fatima at these extraordinary times. There is only this open field and the surrounding slopes of the simple countryside to provide a resting place. Customarily, on these few great occasions, the pilgrims arrive the night before the scheduled devotions. Often it has rained the length of the night, as though to test the fibre of the faithful. It seems fair enough, on the evidence, to say that Christian devotion has never in modern times exceeded the fervour of these demonstrations in the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth day of May or October in any of recent years. “The pilgrimages to the Cova da Iria grew to immense proportions, not only from Portugal but from both hemispheres and almost every corner of the earth. Fatima was to call down upon Portugal an immensity of grace, and for Christendom at large has come to symbolise the spiritual war against Communism and to be the focal point of the new crusade. “The apostolic nuncio presided at the first Portuguese national pilgrimage on May 13, 1937, at which it is calculated some half million pilgrims were present. The second national pilgrimage took place on May 13, 1938, and was the fulfilment of a promise made by the Portuguese episcopate if our Lady should deliver Portugal from the Communist menace which caused the terrible civil war in Spain, and which was waged in places only a few yards from her soil. “The 13th of October, 1939, marked one of the most glorious pages in the history of the great new Marian shrine. The cardinal patriarch of Lisbon presided at the pilgrimage to implore peace for Portugal. “From the 8th to the 13th of April, 1942, on the occasion of their second national congress, the Juventude Catolica Feminine (Girls Catholic Youth Movement) organised the triumphal journey of the statue from the Chapel of the Apparitions, to Lisbon and back again to the Cova da Iria by the 13th of May, where another notable national pilgrimage took place to celebrate the silver jubilee of Fatima. In October of the same year, the Holy Father, Pius XII, broadcast in Portuguese his famous consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Fr de Marchi also gives this testimony from Senhora Maria da Capelinha, who was associated with events at the Cova da Iria right from the beginning. “After that day on which the sun danced (she has told us) there was an endless procession of people to the Cova, especially on Sundays and on the 13th day of each month. The people came from all around—all kinds of people, really. The men came with their sticks and bundles on their shoulders, and the women came carrying children. Even the old and infirm came faithfully, and all of them would kneel near the tree where our Lady had appeared. A remarkable thing, but no one ever seemed weary or tired when he was here. It was, from the beginning, a place that gave strength. “Here,” said Maria da Capelinha, “at this holy place, mark you, nothing was ever sold, not a cup of wine or of water—nothing! And, oh, what good times those were for true prayer and true penance. Often we would weep with emotion.” Telling us of this place where her own heart and hopes had found an enduring home, Maria da Capelinha would sometimes have tears of great and remembered joy running down her cheeks: “Here there were many tears and prayers for our Lady, Father, and when there were plenty of people, we would sing our favourite hymns. All of us, it seems, did so much penance with such joy of heart, that I believe if I had died just then that our Lady would have taken me straight to heaven. Surely those days are long gone, but I cannot help myself from wishing to live them again. “People went home contented from the Cova because our Lady always heard their prayers. Truly, recalling those times I can think of no one saying that our Lady had not responded to prayer. All who came, it seems, came with faith, or else, if they did not have it at first, they found it here. “One day a man who had come a long way was standing there soaked with the rain. I went up to him and asked him if there were any ill effects. ‘No,’ he told me, ‘I am every bit all right and have never passed such a happy night as this. I have come and yet I do not feel at all tired. I am so happy in this place.’ I remember this because, apart from the rain, it was winter, and terribly cold, and this man had passed the whole night in the open air, since there was no shelter for him.”
