The apparitions of Our Lady
(13 May - 13 October 1917).

     Our Lady’s apparitions were a wonderful display of grace and glory which had a very different effect on the souls of the children, as described by Lucy in her Fourth Memoir: «There was the same inner joy, the same peace and the same happiness» as at the apparitions of the Angel, «but instead of a sense of being physically crushed, we felt a certain expansive vivacity; instead of the annihilation produced by the divine presence, we felt a joyous exultation; instead of the difficulty experienced in speaking, we felt a certain communicative enthusiasm...»

     In vain did they promise each other not to tell anyone about this, for Jacinta told her mother everything: «She was such a beautiful lady, so pretty!... Oh, Mama! we must say the Rosary every day... The Lady also said that She would take all three of us to Heaven.»

     On that Sunday 13 May, there was however one “secret”, which Jacinta, with a very sure instinct, was careful not to betray. Lucy revealed it later in her Second Memoir. After She had promised them Heaven, Our Lady asked:

     «Are you willing to offer yourselves to God to put up with all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?

     – Yes, we are willing.

     – Then you will have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your consolation.»

     On Wednesday 13 June, the children had said enough for about fifty people to hasten to the heavenly rendezvous. Everyone could see the branches of the holm oak bending towards the east when the beautiful Lady took Her departure. Sufficient had been seen for the “enthusiasm to be communicated” to the crowds who would coming running from that moment: on Friday 13 July, thousands of spectators witnessed a small ashen cloud hovering above the holm oak, while the blinding daylight and the summer heat were tempered by a breeze which had a miraculous freshness about it.

     However, Our Lady seemed only to take an interest in Her three little confidants to whom She brought a new revelation, something that was to remain a «secret». On 13 June, having promised Lucy, «My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God», Our Lady opened Her hands, says Lucy, «and communicated to us, for the second time, the reflection of that immense light. In this light, we saw ourselves immersed as it were in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light which rose towards Heaven, whereas I was in that part which illuminated the earth. In front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a Heart encircled by thorns which pierced It. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of mankind and seeking reparation.»

     As in the previous month, Francisco had not heard Our Lady’s words.  Therefore he asked Lucy: «Why did Our Lady have a Heart in Her hand, flooding the world with that vast light which is God?...»

     As for Jacinta, she had heard and understood everything: «Our Lady said that Her Heart would be your refuge and the way that would lead you to God. Don’t you love that so much? I do so love Her Heart, it is go good!»

     On 13 July, with the same gesture, Our Lady showed them hell, «an ocean of fire», after first teaching them a new prayer which they would have to keep secret: «Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and often say to Jesus, especially when you make a sacrifice:

     «O MY JESUS, IT IS FOR LOVE OF THEE, FOR THE CONVERSION OF SINNERS, AND IN REPARATION FOR THE SINS COMMITTED AGAINST THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY.»

     From 13 May and the time of the first “vision in God”, Francisco’s heart was transfixed: «I loved seeing the Angel, he said, but what I loved even more was seeing Our Lady. What I loved above all was seeing Our Lord in that light which Our Lady placed in our chests. I do love God so much! But He is so sad on account of our many sins! We must never commit any sins again.»

     The little boy always remained struck by this inexpressible sadness, perceived in that immense light which is God, emanating from the open hands of the Blessed Virgin on 13 June and 13 July. He then pronounced these inspired words:

     «What is God like? He cannot be explained! Yes, truly no one will ever be able to describe Him! But it was painful to see Him so sad! Ah! if only I could console Him!»

     The mere thought of Our Lord’s sorrow made a little boy of nine years dissolve into tears! His father had the moving experience of being a witness to this: «One night, around 1 o’clock, I woke up and I thought I heard a sigh coming from Francisco’s bedroom. I listened carefully until I was sure I was not mistaken. I jumped out of bed, lit a lamp and anxiously entered my son’s room. I found him lying on his stomach, his face buried in his pillow to choke his tears. I was convinced he was unwell and I asked him:

     – Why are you crying?

     «Surprised, he raised his head and did not reply. But before my insistent questioning, he answered timidly and with a holy modesty:

     – I was thinking of Jesus who is so sad because of the sins that are committed against Him.

     «Then I was seized with a great respect for my child. I could only pass my hand through his hair and caress him.

     – It’s all right, Francisco. Now it’s time to go to sleep.

     «I returned to bed, careful not to wake my wife; but I had difficulty in getting back to sleep again.»

     As for Jacinta, she was unable to put out of her mind the vision of hell, the cause of this sorrow of God’s: «What are you thinking about at this moment? Lucy one day asked her cousin, noticing her face overcast with sadness.

     – I am thinking of hell and poor sinners. Oh, hell!... hell!… How I pity the souls who go to hell! And to think that there are people there, burning alive like wood in the fire!... Oh, Lucy! why doesn’t Our Lady show hell to sinners? If they saw it, they wouldn’t sin any more, and then they wouldn’t have to go there!»

     «And as Lucy remained silent, embarrassed by the question, she continued very sadly:

     «Oh, Lucy, why didn’t you tell Our Lady to show hell to all those people?

     – I forgot.

     – I didn’t remember either», added Jacinta despondently.

     Then the little girl, kneeling on the ground, folded her hands together and repeated the words that the Blessed Virgin had taught them:

     «O my Jesus, forgive us our sins! Save us from the fires of hell! Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who have the greatest need.»

     «How was it that Jacinta, who was so little, could have possessed such a spirit of mortification and penance?» Lucy was one day asked.

     «It seems to me that it was primarily due to a special grace that God wanted to give her through the intermediary of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but also because she had seen hell and the wretchedness of souls who fall into it. Certain people, even pious people, do not like to talk to children about hell, lest they frighten them. But God did not hesitate to show it to three children, one of whom was only seven years old, and He knew that she would be frightened by it, even to withering away with terror, I dare say.»

     To these children Our Lady «kindly and sadly» then revealed all Her “secrets” concerning the future of the world… including this Third Secret which begins with the Angel’s call to penance. He called out to the earth in a loud voice, as we would subsequently learn on 26 June this year: «Penance, Penance, Penance!»

     On Saturday 13 October 1917, after the apparition and the miracle of the sun, Lucy gave a hint of what she had seen on 13 July. Perched on the shoulders of Doctor Carlos Mendes, she exclaimed:

     «Do penance! Do penance! Our Lady wants you to do penance. If you do penance, the war will end...»

     The man carrying her on his shoulders tells us: «She appeared inspired... It was really impressive to hear her. Her voice had a certain intonation, like the voice of a great prophet.»

The mission of two predestined children.

     They responded to the Angel’s appeal. They did penance! In no time at all Our Lady turned Francisco and Jacinta, the two youngest seers, into two great saints. When each of them reached ten, they were ready to enter Heaven: Francisco on 4 April 1919, and Jacinta on 20 February 1920.

     Does their story end here then? What good would all this display of wonders be if it merely ended in death...? But no, it was for a better life!

     Our Lady would use Lucy as Her messenger here on earth to reveal to us this mystery, this “Secret”, during her long life. But the trio remains inseparable, tied from Heaven to earth like the threefold cord which, as Scripture says, «is not broken» (Qo 4.12). For the testimony of Lucy rests on that of her two young cousins.

     These children displayed such great holiness and in such little time, that for eighty years Portugal and the entire world were asking for them to be canonised. But the Blessed Virgin had even more profound plans. When Lucy asked Her to take them to Heaven on 13 June, She replied:

     «Yes, Jacinta and Francisco I will take soon, but you, Lucy, will stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make Me known and loved. He wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. To those who embrace this devotion I promise salvation; these souls will be favoured by God, like flowers placed by Me to adorn His throne.»

     Jacinta, who loved flowers so much, had well understood the promise of being favoured by God, like a flower placed by the Virgin Mary to adorn His throne. This image ravished it. Her love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary grew more intense each day. With an ardour that was already truly missionary, she was impatient for this new devotion to be known and practised everywhere.

     As for Francisco, he expressed his profound and yet simple meditation in these simple words which frequently sprang from his heart, like a spiritual bouquet:

     «What I want is to go to Heaven!»

     He knew, like his little sister, that they would both be going to Heaven; they had been given a promise of this, but that was not enough for them. What they desired now was to go to Heaven soon, without delay! What joy, but also what a constant stimulus to avoid wasting any opportunity of making reparation for sins and consoling God, of praying and offering sacrifices for the conversion of sinners.

     The heroic virtue of Francisco and Jacinta heralds a new humanity emerging from the hands of Mary on the day of the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart. By keeping secret until their dying day the message with which they were charged, the source of all the graces by which they were transformed, they vouched in advance for everything that Lucy, at the prompting of the Blessed Virgin, would tell us about it. They are the unimpeachable witnesses of a new covenant in Mary, of which Lucy would be the herald throughout the century, for the conversion of sinners and the establishment in the world of devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.

The beginnings of a singular vocation.

     On 16 June 1921, Lucy left Fatima, where Our Lady had granted her the grace of one final Apparition. On the following day, she entered the Sisters of Saint Dorothy at the Asilo (college) of Vilar in Porto, under the assumed name of Mary of Sorrows, and with strict orders not to speak about the apparitions.

     This was for her a period of instruction and formation in the virtues of the religious life, a period filled with great trials: «It passed through my mind that everything was over. It was a source of profound sorrow to me to think that the Most Blessed Virgin would never be venerated over there as She had asked to be. And I often thought of this. The idea never left my mind and afflicted me.»

     During this time the pilgrimages were growing: «Never had Our Lady performed so many miracles as at that time», Maria Carreira would say. On 13 May 1918, the prodigy of 13 September 1917 was repeated, and again on 13 May 1924, when two hundred thousand pilgrims contemplated the magical spectacle of the gracious downpour of white petals or round glistening snowflakes, which slowly descended and disappeared on reaching the ground.

     But the great miracle was the progress of the counter-revolution. It began on 14 October 1917, the day after the final Apparition and the miracle of the sun, with the municipal elections in which public opinion began to switch from the freemasons to Catholics. The way was being paved for Sidonio Pais’ saving coup d’état on the following 8 December, which would suddenly return all her freedoms to a Church that had been outlawed from society since the eighteenth century and relentlessly persecuted since the revolution of 1910.

The clauses of a new covenant.

     On 25 October, Mary of Sorrows was transferred to Pontevedra, in Spain, to begin her postulancy with the Dorothean Sisters.

     On the night of Thursday 10 December of that same year, while in her room after supper, she received a visit from the Virgin, accompanied by the Child Jesus «standing on a luminous cloud»:

     «The Most Blessed Virgin placed Her hand on her shoulder, and as She did so, She showed her a Heart encircled by thorns which She was holding  in Her other hand.

     «At the same time, the Child Jesus said to her: “Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, without anyone making an act of reparation to remove them.”

     «Then the Most Blessed Virgin said to her: “My daughter, behold My Heart surrounded by the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console Me and say that to all those who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary in a spirit of reparation, I promise to assist at the hour of their death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls.”»

     Great was Lucy’s perplexity, for ever since 13 June 1917 she had kept secret the revelation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She gave her confessor and her superior an account of the grace she had received. Her superior spoke about it to the Bishop of Leiria, Mgr da Silva.

     On the evening of 15 February 1926, Lucy was emptying the dustbins by the garden gate: «At the same place, she relates, a few months earlier, I had met a child and I had asked him whether he knew the Ave Maria. He answered yes, and I asked him to say it to me, so I could hear it. But as he seemed determined not to say it alone, I recited it three times with him. At the end of three Ave Maria’s, I asked him to say it on his own. As he remained silent and appeared unable to say it alone, I asked him if he knew the Church of Saint Mary. He answered yes. Then I told him to go there every day and say this prayer: “O my Heavenly Mother, give me Thy Child Jesus!” After I had taught him this prayer, I left him. Then, on 15 February, coming back as usual [to empty the dustbins outside the garden], I found a child there who seemed to be the same one I had met before, so I asked him:

     – Did you ask our Heavenly Mother for the Child Jesus?

     «The Child turned to me and said:

     – And you, have you revealed to the world what the Heavenly Mother asked you?

     «And when He had said that, he turned into a resplendent child. Then recognising that it was Jesus, I said to Him:

      – My Jesus! You know what my confessor said to me in the letter I read to You. He said that this vision had to be repeated, that there had to be facts permitting one to believe in it, and that the Mother Superior could not spread this devotion on her own.

     – It is true that the Mother Superior can do nothing on her own, but with My grace, she can do all. It is sufficient for your confessor to give you permission and for your superior to talk about it for it to be believed by the people, even if they know not to whom it was revealed.

     – But my confessor said in his letter that this devotion already exists in the world, because there are already many souls who receive You every first Saturday in honour of Our Lady and the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.

     – It is true, My daughter, that many souls begin, but few persevere to the very end, and those who persevere do it to receive the graces promised. The souls who perform the Five First Saturdays with fervour and with the aim of making reparation to the Heart of your Heavenly Mother please Me more than those who do it fifteen times and yet are lukewarm and indifferent.

     – My Jesus! Many souls find it difficult to confess on Saturday. Will You allow a confession within eight days to count?

     – Yes. It can even be made later on, provided that souls are in a state of grace when they receive Me on the first Saturday, and that they have the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

     – My Jesus! And what of those who forget to formulate this intention?

     – They can formulate it at their next confession, taking advantage of their first opportunity to go to confession.»

     The new covenant, promulgated by the Virgin Mary as though by another Moses and sealed in the Body, Blood and Divinity of Her Son received in Communion, as was the case at the third apparition of the Angel in 1916, procures eternal salvation for whoever fulfils the stated conditions out of love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with a desire to console It for the offences, ingratitude, insults and blasphemies which pierce It. There are five such sins: blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception, against Her Virginity, against Her divine Maternity and Her universal Mediation which constitutes Her Mother of men; the blasphemies of those who scandalize children by sowing in their hearts indifference, contempt or even hatred towards this Immaculate Mother; finally, the offences of those who outrage Her directly in Her sacred Images.

     Having stated these five blasphemies which gravely offend His Most Holy Mother, Our Lord gave Sister Lucy the following decisive explanation which allows us to penetrate the secret of Her Immaculate Heart overflowing with mercy towards all sinners, even those who scorn and outrage It: «Here, My daughter, is the reason why the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspired Me to ask for this little act of reparation, in consideration of which My mercy was moved to pardon souls who have had the misfortune to offend Her. As for you, always seek by your prayers and sacrifices to move My mercy to pity for these poor souls.»

A time of great mystical graces,
in an inviolable Secret. Tuy (1929).

     On 20 July 1926, the young postulant left Pontevedra and entered the noviciate of the Dorothean Sisters at Tuy, where she received the sacred habit on 2 October. The following year, on 17 December 1927, Our Lord gave her permission to reveal the first two parts of the Secret and the two apparitions at Pontevedra.

     If these revelations were not published at that time, it is because Mgr da Silva withheld his consent…

     On 13 June 1929, she was favoured with a Trinitarian theophany: «I understood that I had been shown the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and I received insights into this mystery which I am not permitted to reveal.»

     Here, therefore, we have a new “secret” within the Secret. Is that possible? Certainly. An inviolable conjugal secret of an unparalleled virginal fecundity, of which the fruit alone would see the light of day: «It was at this time that Our Lord advised me that the moment had come when He wanted me to make known to Holy Church His desire for the consecration of Russia and His promise to convert it», as announced on 13 July 1917 in the second part of the Secret: «I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the first Saturdays. If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.»

     In May 1930, Our Lord informed the seer that the two requests for the consecration of Russia and the devotion or reparation should be conjointly addressed to the Holy Father in person.

     At the end of May, Sister Lucy wrote two important letters in which she set out Heaven’s requests. Due to Mgr da Silva’s inertia, Father Gonçalves took it upon himself to ensure that they reached the Holy Father. But at the time Pius XI was pursuing a policy of compromise with the Soviets, a policy of “opening to the East”. He therefore observed an icy silence regarding the great designs of mercy revealed at Tuy for the conversion of Russia and the peace of the world.

     The outrageous refusal of the Pope to such a gracious offer of alliance could not but excite the just anger of the Son of God, jealous of the honour of His Mother!

     Pius XI must certainly have learned of Heaven’s demands some time between September 1930 and August 1931. It was at the very moment when the Pope was scornfully refusing to respond to them that the prophecy began to be fulfilled to the letter in Spain: Russia was spreading her errors through the world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church.

     1931 was therefore the critical year in the period between the two wars. From that moment, the clear-sighted could see the dangers mounting and the almost inevitable march of Europe towards a Second World War.

     In August of that same year of 1931, Lucy was at Rianjo. Our Lord said to her:

     «Make it known to My ministers that, given they are following the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My request, they will also follow him into disaster. It will never be too late to have recourse to Jesus and Mary.» Lucy will be more explicit in an account she wrote in 1936: «They refused to listen to My request!… Like the King of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will already have spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer.»

     On 18 May 1936, Sister Lucy wrote to Fr Gonçalves: «In an intimate manner I spoke to Our Lord on this subject and, a short time ago, I asked Him why He would not convert Russia without His Holiness making this act of consecration: “Because, said Our Lord, I want the whole Church to recognise this consecration as the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in order to extend Her cult and to place devotion to this Immaculate Heart alongside devotion to My Divine Heart.”»

     In March 1937, the Bishop of Leiria himself wrote to the Holy Father and passed him the request for the consecration of Russia. The Vatican acknowledged receipt of his letter, but did not follow the matter up.

     On 6 February 1939, Our Lord said to Lucy: «The moment is approaching when the rigours of My justice are going to punish the crimes of several nations. Some of them will be annihilated. In the end, the rigours of My justice will fall most severely on those who wish to destroy My reign.» Pius XI died four days later, on 10 February. And on 20 June, Lucy wrote: «God, in His displeasure, is lifting the arm of His mercy and letting the world be ravaged by this chastisement, the like of which has never been seen before, truly HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE.»

     On 13 September 1939, Mgr da Silva recommended the reparatory devotion of the Five First Saturdays, but, knowing the obstinate opposition of Rome, he did so under cover of a cowardly anonymity! And on 17 September of that same year, the USSR invaded Poland.

Mary remains the Queen of Peace.

     On 2 December 1940, Sister Lucy wrote Pius XII a letter which was unfortunately “corrected” by Mgr da Silva. This resulted in the requests of Our Lady being misrepresented.

     On 20 June 1941, she wrote: «What would I not give for His Holiness to decide to take this step! By this act [of Russia’s consecration], he will perhaps snatch from the Heart of Jesus, through the mediation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, peace for our world so deeply troubled. But we must wait yet a little longer. Patience!»

     At the beginning of July 1941, Roosevelt asked Rome not to oppose the alliance with Moscow. Pius XII acceded to this request on 20 September 1941. Sister Lucy wished to write to the Holy Father again, but the Bishop of Gurza, Mgr Ferreira, dissuaded her. She wrote to the latter:

     «On the night of 5 March 1942, Our Lord seemed to make me feel more keenly that He was refusing to grant us peace on account of the crimes which continue to provoke His justice, and also because He is not obeyed in His demands, especially regarding the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, even though He has moved the heart of His Holiness to accomplish this. Whence the idea came to me of renewing my request. But, in accordance with the advice of Your Most Reverend Excellency, I find it good to keep silent.»

     A Rome-Moscow agreement was concluded in 1942 between Mgr Montini and Stalin. Torn between the desires of the Queen of Heaven and those of the allies of Bolshevik Russia, and anxious not to displease Stalin, Pius XII pronounced a consecration “of the world”, but not the consecration of Russia that Our Lady wanted.

     February 1943. Our Lord informed Sister Lucy of the fruits to be expected from this consecration. She lamented the limited benefits that would flow from it:

     «He promises to end the war soon, in view of the act that His Holiness deigned to accomplish. But since it was insufficient, the conversion of Russia will not come about till later.»

     In the meantime, Russia will be the rod of God’s anger, poor people!

Twenty years of neglect and contradiction by Rome.

     On 3 January 1944, Sister Lucy committed the Third Secret to writing, after having suffered several months of terrible anguish which were only brought to an end by an apparition of Our Lady on Sunday 2 January. She sent Mgr da Silva the envelope containing the text. He proposed to pass it on to the Holy See, but Rome rejected his suggestion.

     At the beginning of that same year, shortly after having written down the Secret, she wrote to Mgr Ferreira, the Bishop of Gurza, juast as he we about to set off for Rome: «If the Holy Father questions you about me and what I would like to say to him, you can reply that I would be pleased to speak to His Holiness about the consecration of Russia and on the subject of the bishops of Spain.»

     Two years later, in May 1946, Lucy’s superiors were inclined to allow her to make this journey, and it is all too clear that the refusal came from Rome.

     Let us note at this point that the seer would renew her attempt to speak to the Holy Father in 1967, when Paul VI arrived in Fatima for the fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions. With the same lack of success. It would be necessary for her to wait another ten years before she would be listened to and understood by Cardinal Albino Luciani, the Patriarch of Venice, the future John Paul I, then unknown, on his visit to Coimbra for the sixtieth anniversary in 1977. But this visit passed unnoticed.

     The year 1944, the year when Lucy wrote down the Secret, was also that of the most radical contestation to arise in the very heart of the Church against the testimony of Our Lady’s messenger. Its author, Father Dhanis, admitted the fact of the apparitions of 1917, but described as make-believe the progressive revelation of the Secret by Lucy in the following years. This Flemish Jesuit displayed evident bad faith by refusing to come to Fatima when invited to do by the Bishop of Leiria in order that he might study the facts and the documents kept in the archives in the actual context of the events. He would also bluntly refuse Sister Lucy’s invitation to question her confessors.

     With her testimony thus brought into question, Sister Lucy would give a very firm reply to Father Jongen in 1946:

     «When I speak of the Apparitions, I confine myself to the general sense of the words. But when I write, I try to quote them literally. I therefore wished to write down the Secret word for word.

     – Are you certain that you have remembered everything?

     – I believe so.

     – So have the words of the Secret been revealed in the order in which they were communicated to you?

     – Yes.»

     In spite of this, today Father Dhanis remains the only authority cited by Cardinal Ratzinger in his “theological commentary” which was published along with the Third Secret on 26 June last… and the other Roman prelates take their cue from him.

     Let us note especially that this same year of 1944, which began at Tuy on 3 January with the writing down of the Secret, was also the year of the so-called “liberation”, which in reality was yet one more revolution, the daughter of the revolution of 1917, the year when the Secret was revealed. It is as if hell were unleashed at every manifestation of Mary Immaculate.

     At Vichy and Paris, civil war overturned the Maréchal’s “national revolution” and opened up a crisis within the Church, which worsened year on year, suddenly multiplying tenfold in malice and power during the Sixties, the years of Vatican II. The opening of Vatican II on 11 October 1962 was the signal for yet another “October revolution”, overturning and devastating everything, even the as yet inviolate Sanctuary of the Roman Catholic Church, and finally leading to the great apostasy which today extends throughout the whole world.

Rome loses her faith in Mary Immaculate.

     On 13 May 1946, Our Lady of Fatima was solemnly crowned Queen of the World by the Pope’s legate.

     On 25 March 1948, the day of the Annunciation and also Holy Thursday, Sister Lucy entered the Carmel at Coimbra. She received the name of Sister Mary-Lucy of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart, and made her solemn profession on 31 May 1949.

     On 7 July 1952, the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, apostles of the Slav people, Pius XII published the apostolic letter “Sacro vergente anno”, addressed to the peoples of Russia. The Pope consecrated them to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but without making any reference, even a veiled one, to the requests of Our Lady of Fatima; he presented this consecration simply as a «special testimony of Our particular benevolence». He did not make the slightest allusion to the reparatory devotion of the Five First Saturdays, nor to the necessity of associating all the bishops of the world in this public act of reparation and consecration pronounced by the Holy Father.

     Sister Lucy wrote: «I also thank you for the newspaper cutting which reports the consecration of Russia. It pains me that it was not done as Our Lady asked. Patience!» But from 1952 Our Lady’s messenger will be reduced to silence by measures which would become even more restrictive in February 1955.

     The Pope sent Father Schweigl, an Austrian Jesuit, to Coimbra, to question Sister Lucy; but the Holy Office did not authorise the publication of her replies.

     On 13 July 1955, the Portuguese bishops asked for a special feast in honour of Our Lady of Fatima. The Pope refused.

     On 16 April 1957, Rome demanded that the envelope containing the Third Secret be handed over to the Vatican. But Mgr da Silva and Pius XII declined to open it.

     Then on 26 December 1957, Sister Lucy confided to Father Augustine Fuentes: «Father, the Most Holy Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to Her message, neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on their way without setting any store by the message. The bad, failing to see God’s punishment already falling upon them, continue their life of sin without worrying about the message. But believe me, Father, God is going to chastise the world, and it will be in a terrible manner. The punishment from Heaven is imminent.

     «Father, how little time there is before 1960, and what will happen then? It will be very sad for everyone and there will be no rejoicing if the world does not first pray and do penance. I cannot give you further details because it is still a secret. According to the will of the Most Holy Virgin, only the Holy Father and the Bishop of Leiria are permitted to know the secret, but they have chosen not to do so in order that they might not be influenced (sic!).

     «This is the third part of Our Lady’s message which will remain secret until 1960.»

     It continued to remain so until 26 June 2000…!

     Pius XII died on 9 October 1958. John XXIII succeeded him and, on 8 February 1960, a press release inspired by the Vatican made it know that the Third Secret would not be revealed. Lucy was indeed a prophet when she went on to say to Father Fuentes:

     «Father, we should not wait for an appeal to come from Rome, on behalf of the Holy Father, calling on the whole world to do penance. Nor should we wait for it to come from our bishops in their dioceses or from the religious congregations. No. Our Lord has already made frequent use of these means and the world took no notice. That is why each of us must now begin his own spiritual reform. Each person must not only save his own soul, but also all the souls that God has placed on his path.»

     In 1962, the Abbé de Nantes published this text asking whether it was not «a direct echo of the famous “Secret” revealed to the Holy Father in 1960». Today we can see that his intuition did not mislead him. For the Third Secret ends in a scene depicting the disappearance of the hierarchical Church, corresponding in every point to Lucy’s prophetic warning.

     It is therefore a «decisive battle» that is underway, as Lucy went on to say in this same conversation:

     «Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world, but She made me understand this for THREE REASONS:

     «FIRSTLY, because She told me that the devil is currently engaged in a decisive battle against the Virgin, and a decisive battle is a final battle where one will know on which side lies victory and on which side defeat. Hence, from now on, either we are for God or we are for the devil; there is no middle way.

     «SECONDLY, because She said, both to my cousins as well as to myself, that God was giving two last remedies to the world: THE HOLY ROSARY AND DEVOTION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, and this implies that there will not be any others.

     «AND THIRDLY, because in the plans of Divine Providence, when God is about to chastise the world, He always exhausts all other remedies first. Now, when He saw that the world ignored all other remedies, then, as we might say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offered us with a certain trepidation the last means of salvation: His Most Holy Mother. For if we scorn and repulse this ultimate means, we will not have any more forgiveness from Heaven, because will have committed what the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Spirit, which consists in openly rejecting, with full knowledge and consent, the salvation that is offered us.

     «Let us remember that Jesus Christ is a very good Son and that He does not permit us to offend and despise His Most Holy Mother. As patent evidence of this, we have many centuries of Church history which, by fearsome examples, shows us how Our Lord Jesus Christ has always defended the honour of His Mother.»