Page 51 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper March/April 2018 Edition

Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun 51

The Most Amazing Facts

About Our Lady of

Fatima

by W. P. Bennett

In May of 1917, deep into World War I, three
little children in rural Portugal claimed to have
seen a vision of Mary, the Mother of God. We
are now about to celebrate the 100th
Anniversary of an event that Saint Pope John
Paul II has credited with saving his life, as well
as the upcoming canonization of two of the
children. Here are 20 things you should know
about Our Lady of Fatima.

The Witnesses
Mary appeared to three children. Two of
them, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, were
sibilings and the third, Lucia Santos, was their
cousin. In the spring of 1917 the three of them
were assigned by their parents to herd sheep
the message that she was about to give them. Revealing the Secrets
near their hometown of Fatima. It was during
Mary gave the children three secrets,
these times of herding sheep that the apparitions
A Vision of Hell which over time have become quite famous.
began.
During this second apparition, Mary Mary told the children to keep them secret, but
showed the children a vision of hell. The vision after pressure from other people the children
Other Apparitions
of hell would prompt the children to consistently asked Mary for permission to tell the secrets and
Mary wasn’t the first apparition to come
repeat Mary’s command to them to pray so that they were given the permission, except for the
to the children. Three times before Mary
souls would avoid going to this place. third secret which was to be kept a secret.
appeared the children claimed to have seen an
angel who identified himself as “The Angel of
The Word Spreads The First Secret
Peace” told the children to pray, make sacrifices,
As the apparitions continued and people The first secret was the vision of hell that
and to adore the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
began to hear about them, Fatima began to be a the children were granted access to by Mary.
place of pilgrimage. So many people came that After the children saw what hell was like, the
Number of Apparitions
the civil authorities became concerned about the emphatically preached the need to pray for souls
Mary didn’t just appear once. The
number of people and actually arrested the to avoid what they saw in hell.
anniversary we will celebrate on May 13 is the
children. Jacinta and Francisco’s mother hoped
anniversary of her first appearance. She
this would make the children admit they were (Continued on Page 52)
appeared a total of six times to the children over
making the whole thing up. The children
that summer with the final appearance being
continued to hold to their story.
October 13, 1917.
The Secrets of Fatima The Lady of Fátima & the
One of the things the children held to
The Community's Response Miracle of the Sun
very fast and told nobody until Mary gave them
Jacinta and Francisco’s mother didn’t
permission are what are called the Secrets of
believe the children when they told her. She told
Fatima. Mary told the children three things that
a neighbor about it as a joke, but that neighbor Continued from Page 49
they were instructed to keep secret. These three
spread the word about the apparitions of Mary
secrets, especially the third secret, would
and soon the entire village knew about Mary and Valenzuela showed the miracle to her priest,
become the focus of much discussion in the
the children. who assured her that it was a sign that her life
future. was on the right path. The Virgin Mary next
How Our Lady Looked showed up at a backyard barbecue in McAllen,
The Day the Sun Danced
The children described Mary as brighter Texas, when a guest noticed that a darkened oval
Although the secrets of Fatima get most
than the sun and wearing a white mantle with a knot in a wooden fence looked like Mary; her
of the attention, there is a documented miracle
gold trim and holding a rosary. This image presence was credited with helping a woman
attached to Fatima that deserves much attention.
would become the basis for the famous statue recover well from a recent surgery. Then, a few
At her final apparition, in October of 1917 the
that would be built. Many replicas of this statue days before Christmas, a woman in Dallas,
sun danced in the sky, reportedly changing
can be found throughout people’s homes as a Texas, photographed a transparent, oblong
colors and rotating. This was witnessed by over
devotional today. image through the back window of her Ford
30,000 people and even reported in the local Expedition that she believed was of the Virgin
newspapers.
The First Apparition Mary.
After the first apparition, Mary told the It's not surprising that human-shaped
A Pilgrimage Site
children to come back a month later and she forms might be interpreted as religious figures,
Over two million people visited Fatima
would reappear. Lucia’s mother asked the local especially around the religious holidays. People
in the next 10 years, which would cement
priest what she should do. The priest told her to see these images for the same reason that they
Fatima as one of Catholicism’s biggest
let Lucia go, but to bring her to him immediately see faces in clouds, Rorschach blots and coffee
pilgrimage sites, and pilgrims have continued to
afterwards so he could question her. stains. This phenomenon, called pareidolia, is
flock to this site ever since. well known in psychology, and it is the cause of
Francisco and Jacinta died of a flu
The Second Apparition many supposedly mysterious and miraculous
pandemic that struck Portugal in the next three
At the second apparition in June of 1917, events (including the famous "Jesus in the
years. Lucia would live a full life, dying at the
Mary told the children that Francisco and Jacinta Tortilla"). Whether the sightings are the result of
age of 97 in 2005 after living as a nun for most
would be taken to heaven soon but that Lucia a miracle or a mundane psychological process,
of her life.
would be around a long time in order to spread they are welcomed by the faithful.[]