Our Lady of Fatima
1917: The First Four Appearances
Fatima background
Fatima is a small Portuguese village located about 80 miles north of Lisbon. In 1917 three peasant children, ages 7, 8 and 10 (Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta) claimed they saw and spoke with a beautiful lady from heaven who came to be known as Our Lady of the Rosary or Our Lady of Fatima. The children said the Lady from Heaven appeared to them six times (May 13, June 13, July 13, August 19, September 13, and October 13, 1917).
October 13, 1917 was her final appearance, and it was then that the Miracle of the Sun occurred, precisely when and where the children said it would. Go to Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun for an account of the events on that October 13th. What follows on this page is an account of her visits on May 13, June 13, July 13, and August 19. Her visitation on September 13, 1917 is separately described at Our Lady of Fatima: The September 13th Miracle.
May 13 – First visitation
The Lady first appeared to them on May 13, 1917 after the children had just completed praying the Rosary together. Her appearance was preceded by a bright light. All three of the children saw this shaft of light on two successive occasions, but when she first appeared Francisco did not see or hear her. When Lucia told the Lady that Francisco did not see her, she answered, “Let him say the Rosary and in that way he too will see me.” Shortly after he started the Rosary the Lady became visible to him “with almost blinding splendor.”
The Lady told Lucia (age 10) and Jacinta (age 7) that they would go to heaven, but that Francisco (age 8) would first have to say many Rosaries. The Lady also told them, “Say the Rosary every day to earn peace for the world and the end of the war.”
Despite a vow of secrecy among the three children not to reveal the visitation, seven-year-old Jacinta could not contain herself and immediately revealed the details to her parents that evening. Francisco and Jacinta were brother and sister, and Francisco confirmed everything Jacinta had said. The next morning, the mother relayed the story to her neighbors, and within a short time circled back to Lucia. She reluctantly affirmed everything Francisco and Jacinta had said. Lucia’s mother was much more skeptical and concluded that her daughter was a liar and treated her as such. The story, nevertheless, circulated throughout the village and to the local pastor.
On May 13th, the Lady had told the children to appear at the same spot on the 13th day of the month for the next five months, and that she would appear to them through October 13, 1917.
June 13 – Second visitation
On June 13th, the children were accompanied by a small contingent from the village and a couple of neighboring towns. The Lady told the children to pray the Rosary, and to insert the following prayer between the mysteries:
“O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need.”
This has come to be known as the Fatima Prayer and has been incorporated into the Rosary throughout the world.
Again, following the June 13th apparition, skepticism was the general order of the day – especially on the part of the parish pastor. Lucia was directed by her parents to have a session with the pastor in the hopes of her recanting her stories of the apparitions. The pastor did not believe that the Lady was Our Lady of the Rosary and told her that what she was seeing and hearing could be a trick of the devil.
July 13 – Third visitation
The third apparition occurred on July 13. This time a crowd accompanied the children to the Cova da Iria, where the visitations took place. During this visit the Lady provided the children with a graphic image of hell (page 28).
Vision of Hell. “Lucia later described the scenes, ‘She opened Her hands again as She had done the two previous months. The light reflecting from them seemed to penetrate into the earth, and we saw as if into a sea of fire, and immersed in that fire were devils and souls with human form, as if they were transparent black or bronze embers floating in the fire and swayed by the flames that issued from them along with clouds of smoke, falling upon every side just like the falling of sparks in great fires, without weight or equilibrium, amidst wailing and cries of pain and despair that horrified and shook us with terror. We could tell the devils by their horrible and nauseous figures of baleful and unknown animals, but transparent as the black coals in a fire.’”
To save sinners the Lady said that God wants to establish throughout the world the devotion to Her Immaculate Heart (see Fatima’s Messages of Love). It was also on this date that Our Lady asked for the Consecration of Russia and the whole issue of what was to become known as the ‘third secret’ emerged.
Lucia was severely upset about what her pastor had said — that this whole series of events and visitations could be the work of the devil — and so she asked the Lady to tell them who she was and to perform a miracle so that everyone could see that she had appeared to them. The Lady responded, “Continue to come here every month. In October, I will say who I am and what I desire and I will perform a miracle all shall see, so that they believe.”
Many within the village had asked the children to petition the Lady for favors and cures. But even when the requests for favors and cures were not going to be granted, the Lady pointed to a higher duty and the need to say the Rosary, “Some I will cure and others not. As to the crippled boy, I will not cure him or take him out of his poverty, but he must say the Rosary every day with his family.”
Following the July 13th visitation, all three children continued to be ridiculed and Lucia’s life became even more distressing because her mother refused to believe her. Crowds continued to follow the children, with a severe disruption of the parents’ agriculture livelihood; their garden was trampled, etc. The children wouldn’t reveal most of the messages that the Lady had given them and took comfort among themselves. A few priests believed them, but most did not. The apparitions had been reported in the newspapers and the newspaper accounts accused the children of being duped by priests and heaped ridicule upon the children and those that believed them.
August 19th – Fourth visitation
The fourth apparition occurred on August 19th, not the 13th. Why?
At that time, the village of Fatima was under the jurisdiction of an Administrator, or Chief Magistrate. He had tremendous power. All administrative, political and sometimes even judicial power was in his control. He had left the Catholic faith as a young man and founded and became head of a Masonic Lodge. He was also a newspaper publisher by which he endeavored to undermine the faith of the people in the Church and its priests.
This was a powerful man with the strength to intimidate and spread terror among the locals. He realized the effects that the apparitions of Fatima might have among the people and that these visitations would strengthen the faith and the Church. He needed to destroy the children’s credibility. To keep them from kneeling at the place where the apparitions had taken place (which was always the 13th day of the month) and through plain old trickery he had the children kidnapped on the morning of August 13. He took them to his house and subjected them to intense interrogation. The children spent the night in confinement, and then on the morning of the 14th they were taken to the County House where they were subjected to relentless questioning. Finally, they were incarcerated in jail with criminals and told that they would be thrown into a tank of boiling oil if they did not reveal their lies.
Let us not forget that Jacinta was seven, Francisco was eight, and Lucia was ten. Later, they were returned to the County House and the threats continued. They were told that the oil was boiling, and one by one – beginning with Jacinta – they were led out and told they would be plunged into boiling oil. Of course, none recanted (How could they? They knew what they had seen and heard) even though each was convinced they would soon be dying a horrible death.
They were eventually released and on August 19, 1917 the children went to the Cova de Iria, the scene of the previous appearances. Again, the Lady appeared, and told them, “I want you to continue to come to the Cova da Iria on the 13th and to continue to say the Rosary every day.”
She also told them (page 41), “In the last month, in October, I shall perform a miracle so that all may believe in My apparitions. If they had not taken you to the village, the miracle would have been greater. Saint Joseph will come with the Baby Jesus to give peace to the world.”
Quotations and page references are from The True Story of Fatima.
Introduction to September 13
Despite the August 19th terror imposed upon them by the Administrator, the children were not deterred. They followed the Heavenly Lady’s instructions and returned to the Cova de Iria on September 13th and it was there at that time and place that the underreported September 13th miracle occurred. Go to Our Lady of Fatima: The September 13th Miracle.
Some websites and references
Footnotes and Attributions
The picture of the three Fatima children in jail in August 1917 accessed from the America Needs Fatima website.
Last modified September 27, 2019