Fatima

On a rainy spring day in Portugal in 1916, three young cousins were tending their family’s sheep. Jacinta Marto, age 6, Francisco Marto, age 8, and Lucia Santo, age 9, took shelter from the rain in a cave. An angel appeared to them in a globe of light. The angel called himself “the Angel of Peace” and he asked the children to pray with him. He kneeled and he prayed this prayer which the children repeated after him three times:

“O my God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee.”

The angel appeared to the children two more times, and he encouraged them to pray and make sacrifices because God was offended by a sacrilegious and indifferent world.

Then on May 13, 1917, the children were again shepherding the family flocks when, above a small oak tree, they beheld a shining lady in a white dress, more beautiful than the angel. Lucia said that she was “a lady more brilliant than the sun.” The Lady told the children, “I come from Heaven.” She asked them to return on the 13th of each month until October, and then she would tell them who she was and what she wanted.

Word spread of what was happening, and on October 13, 1917, the Lady arrived for her final appearance. It had rained all the previous night, but 70,000 people had gathered and stood in ankle deep mud in the rain. It was just after noon when the Lady appeared to the children, and she told them: “I am the Lady of the Rosary. I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and to ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord anymore, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let then continue saying it every day.”

Then the Lady of the Rosary pointed to the sky, and Lucia also pointed. The clouds parted, and everyone present saw the sun appear as a silver disk. They could gaze directly into it without burning their eyes. Then the sun began to whirl and throw off shafts of multicolored light. The sun repeated this a total of three times. Then a gasp rose from the crowd as the sun grew and appeared to be plummeting toward the earth. People fell to their knees in terror—some thought it was the end of the world. Then the sun returned to its normal position in the sky. When the people arose, they found that their muddy clothes were now clean and dry. Many sick and crippled people were miraculously cured that day.