Faith and Fatima

by Sarah Brummet

On February 13, Sister Lucia, one of the most important religious figures in Portuguese life, passed away at the age of 97. But Sister Lucia was not only important to the people of Portugal, she was important to all Catholics, and many believe she was important to the whole world as well. While Sister Lucia did many good things during her life as a Carmelite nun, her importance stems from something far greater: in 1917, between the months of May and October, the Virgin Mary appeared to Lucia and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta, delivering prophecies to them as they tended their sheep in the hills.

After the revolution in 1910, Portugal was moving closer and closer to fascist totalitarianism. Like many such movements of the time, the Church was a main target of persecution from the anti-religious and anti-clerical ruling classes. Many people were turning away from the Church all across Europe, and the descent into World War I was seen by many as a sign of God’s unhappiness with the state of the world.

In the heat of revolution and war, Lucia and her cousins witnessed the first apparition was on May 13^th, 1917, and then again on the 13^th of the month for six successive months. During that time the children began getting more and more attention, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Because of the violent anti-religious sentiments in the nation’s government, the Mayor of Fatima was concerned and aggravated by all the noise that was being generated as more and more pilgrims flocked to the hills to witness the apparitions. Consequently, in August 1917 before the apparition was set to appear again, the Mayor kidnapped the three children and kept them in jail. On the 13^th, however, a group of pilgrims had gathered to see the event, and witnessed instead a strange phenomena surrounding the sun while a small white cloud formed by the trunk of the tree where the other apparitions had occurred.

The final apparition occurred on October 13^th, 1917 before a crowd of 70,000 people. The apparition revealed herself to Our Lady of the Rosary, and then the pilgrims, several skeptics and reporters among them, witnessed the sun “dance” in the sky. According to a reporter from O Dia, one of the main anti-clerical publications at that time:

The sky, pearly gray in color, illuminated the vast arid landscape with a strange light. The sun had a transparent gauzy veil so that eyes could easily be fixed upon it. The gray mother-of-pearl tone turned into a sheet of silver which broke up as the clouds were torn apart and the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy gray light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds. A cry went up from every mouth and people fell on their knees on the muddy ground. The light turned a beautiful blue as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands. The blue faded slowly and then the light seemed to pass through yellow glass. Yellow stains fell against white handkerchiefs, against the dark skirts of women. They were reported on the trees, on the stones and on the serra. People wept and prayed with uncovered heads in the presence of the miracle they had awaited.

Though astronomers insisted that there had been no such phenomena involving the sun, many newspaper across Europe reported the event as it was relayed by witnesses.

However grand the final apparition, the most important one was that which occurred in July, in which the Virgin entrusted secrets in three parts to the children. Francisco and Jacinta died not long after the apparitions, but Lucia survived and became a leading figure in the spiritual life of her people, even receiving personal visits from pope John Paul II; however, the relationship between Lucia and the Vatican has been a subject of controversy for nearly half a century.

Lucia recorded the Secrets revealed to her in memoirs penned between 1935 and 1941, and the first two parts—the first a description of hell, the second a warning to the world about events to come if people did not “behave”—were published. The third, however, was not to be published before 1960, according to Lucia, but once it was in the hands of the Vatican in 1957, the contents have only been hinted at, and never published. Of greater controversy is that after that time, Sister Lucia was not permitted by the Vatican to talk about the third Secret without prior authorization from Rome—many male Church officials who had read her account, however, spoke on it freely and often, though never disclosing the extent of its contents.

The secrecy of the Vatican regarding the third Secret has raised people’s suspicions, especially in Portugal, and now some people fear that the true secret died along with Sister Lucia. Many speculate that the reason for the secrecy is that the third Secret was a prophecy about the future of the Catholic Church, perhaps relating to specific practices of dogma or future schisms. For now, however, the people of the world will simply have to remain in the dark, and trust that the Vatican will reveal the truth in good time.

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Last Updated 2/27/05