SIGNS IN HEAVEN

     Not only did Our Lady warn us of the approach of the «last times», She also furnished the proofs «in order that everyone might believe».

     Jesus had said: «But as for that date or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.» That is why He recommended, «Be on your guard, stay awake, for you never know when that time will come.» (Mk 13.32-33)

     But He had also said that there would be signs «in the sun» (Lk 21.25). «The sun would be darkened» (Mk 13.24; Mt 24.29), and «the stars will come falling from heaven» (Mk 13.25). That is exactly what happened at the Cova da Iria on 13 October when the sun appeared to detach itself from the sky and to be about to fall on the earth.

     One could say that Jesus had decided not to come «as a thief», since He has permitted His Most Holy Mother, who is also ours, to give us advance notice. He had said: «If, then, they say to you, “Look, he is in the desert”, do not go there: “Look, he is in some hiding place”, do not believe it, because the coming of the Son of man will be like lightning striking in the east and flashing far into the west.» (Mt 24.26-27)

     «Suddenly, says Lucy, we saw what looked like lightning.» This was always how Our Lady was announced, coming from the east, whither they saw Her return: «She started to rise gently, in the direction of the east, until She disappeared in the immensity of the sky. The light which encircled Her seemed to open a path before Her between the stars, which was why we sometimes said that we had seen heaven opening.» Saint John said the same nineteen centuries ago on Patmos: «Then the sanctuary of God opened in heaven, and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside.» (Ap 11.19)

     «The ark of the covenant» is Her! Saint John continues: «Then came flashes of lightning and peals of thunder.» So it was on 13 August at the Cova da Iria. That day, the children, locked up by the Tinsmith, could not make their appointment. When the crowd of eighteen thousand pilgrims learned of this, «there was a general commotion», recounts Maria Carreira, «and I do not know what would have happened if we had not suddenly heard a clap of thunder. The clap of thunder was much like that of the previous month. Some claimed that it came from the direction of the road and others from the holm-oak. To me it seemed to come from a long way off. Everyone went quiet, overcome with fear; certain people started to shout out that we were going to die. The crowd began to disperse and move away from the holm-oak. But of course no one died! After the thunderclap came a flash of lightning…»

     This order of events proves that the “sign” is undoubtedly supernatural, for in storms lightning precedes the thunderclap.

     «… and, all at once, we all noticed a very beautiful little cloud, white and very delicate, which hovered for a few moments over the holm-oak, then rose towards the sky before finally disappearing in the air.» In the Apocalypse, Saint John saw the «Son of man» enthroned on this cloud from whence he cast his sickle upon the earth to harvest and reap it, an image of the divine judgement: «Now in my vision I saw a white cloud and, sitting on it, one like a Son of man with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.» (Ap 14.14)

     And so, before coming to judge the living and the dead, the Son of man sends His Mother before Him, once more to call the living  to be converted. Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort had prophesied this in his “Preparation for the kingdom of Jesus Christ” which we refer to as the TREATISE ON THE TRUE DEVOTION, written before 1716, but only discovered in 1842, and published for the first time the following year:

     «It is through the Most Blessed Virgin Mary that Jesus Christ came into the world, and it is also through Her that He must reign in the world.» (n^o 1)

     «It is through Mary that the salvation of the world was begun, and it is through Mary that it must be consummated.

     «God wishes, therefore, to reveal and make known Mary, the masterpiece of His hands, in these latter times. As She is the dawn which precedes and reveals the Sun of Justice, She must be known and seen, that Jesus Christ may be known and seen.» (n^os 49-50)

LAPIDES PRETIOSI

     «Then, looking around us», continues Maria Carreira, «we noticed something strange, which we had seen before on a previous occasion and which we were to see again later. People’s faces displayed all the colours of the rainbow: pink, red, blue… The trees no longer appeared to have branches or leaves, but simply flowers; they all seemed to be laden with flowers, and each leaf seemed to be a flower. The ground looked like it was covered in tiles of different hues.»

     Our Lady could not better have expressed the fact that She was establishing, on that very spot where She had descended, «the Holy City, the new Jerusalem» which Saint John had seen coming down «from God out of heaven, having all the radiant glory of God and glittering like some precious jewel or crystal-clear diamond.» (Ap 21.10-11) «The foundations of the city wall were faced with all kinds of precious stone: the first was of diamond, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth and the twelfth amethyst. (Ap 21.19-20)

     Maria Carreira continued: «Our clothes were also all the colours of the rainbow. The two lanterns fixed to the arch looked like they were made of gold.» They were like the «golden rod» which the Angel held in his hand to measure the city (Ap 21.15), whose streets were «pure gold, transparent as crystal» (Ap 21.21).

     These heavenly signs today bear out our “scientific” conviction: the message of Fatima is of divine origin. We have therefore entered the latter times, and God offers us one final means of salvation: His Most Holy Mother. Not without a certain trepidation, as Lucy said to Father Fuentes, since He knows that, if we pay no heed to Her, He will have no alternative but to cast us into «the lake of fire and burning sulphur»!

     Whence the anguish… of God! and His recourse… to His divine Mother. Now, what does She do? She opens Her Heart to us. And what do we discover there? That which Saint Luke had already given us to understand nineteen centuries ago: «As for Mary, She carefully preserved all these things, meditating upon them in Her Heart.» (Lk 2.19; 2.51). In this She imitated Jacob who «kept in mind» the astonishing events of Joseph’s childhood, his dearest son who was the envy of his brothers (Gn 37.11).

     Jesus betrayed by his “brothers”, as Joseph was, and thus become their Saviour: such is the “secret” of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. In this light, the third part of the Secret of Fatima appears like a renewal of the Gospel.

I.  OUR BEAUTIFUL PASTOR

     «Pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: Penance, Penance, Penance!»

     He called out «in a loud voice», like that of John the Baptist, «the voice of one who cries in the wilderness» (Mt 3.3): «Do penance!» (Mt 3.1) On pain of the fire of hell: «Every tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.» (Mt 3.10; Lk 3.9)

     When Jesus appeared, He spoke no differently: «Do penance!» (Mk 1.15; Mt 4.7) but He interposed Himself between the «fire» and sinners, «proclaiming a year of the Lord’s grace» (Lk 4.19). Now, Jesus is the fruit of Mary’s virginal womb, and the «splendour» which shone from Mary’s right hand to counter the flashing sword in the left hand of the Angel emanates from the Sacred Heart of this most loving Son.

     The vision is therefore a continuous reminder of the drama in which the Blessed Virgin has been engaged, within the Glory of God, since the very beginning: the Angel who guards the entrance to Her abode seems to brandish his flaming sword over the world in order to burn it to the ground, but the very first glimmers of the fire are halted by the splendour and dazzling light of the rays emanating from Her right hand. «Today, it seems to me that the Lord is crying out», wrote Sister Lucy to Father Umberto on 1 November 1943, «but that, when He cries out, He is not listened to. Do you not hear the cry of God calling men to voluntary penance through the avoidance of sin, through repentance and prayer, that they might obtain mercy?

     «Does it not seem likely that this war, spreading throughout the world like a chastisement of divine justice, will destroy mankind? But men, obstinate in their sins, refuse to pull back.

     «Do we not hear the cry of God when the Pope confronts the world in so many ways, asking men in their blindness to open their eyes to the light, to abandon their life of sin and damnation?

     «Again, does not God cry out in man’s heart through all these misfortunes, these famines and these diseases, through the death, distress and sorrow that overwhelms him, as though Her were saying to each person: the cause of all this is the sin of immorality. Oh! who will obtain for us the grace that God should be heard? The principal source of all the tears that flow on so many faces lies in sin, but even those who weep refuse to recognise this.» Do we hear Sister Lucy reproaching herself for revealing the Secret before time? For she adds: «I do not know why I say these things. For myself, I know nothing of what goes on in the world, thanks be to God, and I am happy to remain in a state of ignorance.» She sees everything «in the immense light which is God», as the prophets did, so how is it that we take no notice of her!?

     The «Bishop dressed in White» whom Our Lady showed to the seers is clearly Jesus therefore, but Jesus in the person of His Vicar:

     «We had the impression that it was the Holy Father.» It was as though Jesus was not going to let Himself be recognised immediately or clearly, as happened when He appeared to Mary Magdalen after His resurrection (Jn 20.16-18), to the disciples on the way to Emmaus (Lk 24.32), and to the Apostles gathered in the Cenacle (Lk 24.37) and on the shores of Lake Tiberias (Jn 21). Like a phantom seen through the veil of God’s glory, this Prince dressed in White is not the risen Jesus: he is a Pontiff who disappears for a time, having been «killed by a group of soldiers», but who returns, as a good Pastor, to save his flock.

     Who is he? To him as well can be applied these words of the Lord: «Take care that no one deceives you; because many will come using My name and saying, “I am the Christ”, and they will deceive many.» (Mt 24.5) How are we to identify this mysterious Pope, the object of the thoughts of the Immaculate Heart of Mary? She has given us several signs thanks to which not only can we avoid mistaking him but we can also come to know him better and never forget him.

WHITE LIGHT

     If we follow the thread of the evangelical and apostolic events of the first century of our era, there is no doubt about the identification of this «Bishop dressed in White»: it is Saint Peter who follows his Lord (Jn 13.36; 21.19). Behind him march the Christians of the early community: «Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious». Together they tread in the footsteps of Jesus, ascending towards the Cross under the leadership of the head of the Apostles, in the midst of an unbelieving and rebellious generation.

     In our own times, which are the last, we ourselves are the Christian community, the Roman Catholic Church of the twentieth century. We are like the early community of the first century, in the centre of whom was the Blessed Virgin (Ac 1.14), with Simon Peter, bar Jona, which means “son of the Dove”, as Head and Sovereign Pontiff.

     «They climbed a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a large Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with its bark…»

     The «steep mountain» can be identified without any uncertainty. One need only read what Father Formigao wrote on his pilgrimage of 13 May 1920: «After Mass, I had a rapid lunch, then I made my way to Fatima by the path which winds between the steep hills as it climbs for several kilometres.»

     Great marvels were witnessed in the early years at Fatima. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary, attentive to the voice of the supplications of the three most favoured children, called on the Church and the entire world, through the voice of the Angel of Portugal, to do penance. But from 1960 the appeal became more urgent, it now becoming necessary to direct the men of the Church, and especially consecrated souls, away from the immense apostasy into which «the errors of Russia» were leading them. This was the time when the Third Secret should have been published. We find a thinly disguised reference to this in the letters of Sister Lucy: «May the Angel of Portugal take up his sword to fight for us and for the honour of God! Hell is engaged in an open struggle against God and His elect.» (Letter of 21 April 1961)

     But the world, represented in the vision of the Third Secret, to the left of the splendour of Mary, was choking on its own hatred and rage, and took no account of the message.

A few days after his election, John Paul I said to Mgr Pierre Canisius van Lierde, his vicar general for Vatican City: «I want to let my vicar general into a secret: Notice, Monsignor, that I am always smiling, but, believe me, deep down I suffer.» (Osservatore Romano, 8 October 1978)

     «Before reaching there, the Holy Father passed through a large city half in ruins», devastated by the Council and its Reform. Our Lady will not speak of Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, the ones responsible for this «autodemolition of Rome by Rome», to use a phrase of the Abbé de Nantes, but only of their successor John Paul I, «half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow», like Jesus «beset by fear and distress» (Mk 14.33; Mt 26.37).

     Sister Lucy had in fact forewarned him of all this the previous year in the course of a two-hour conversation in which she had referred to him as «Holy Father», even though he was at the time only the Patriarch of Venice. This information comes from Andrea Tornielli, the author of a biography of the holy Pope (Papa Luciani. Il parrocho del mondo, 1998, published by Segno), in a review of a book published by the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar in 1988, under the title Erika, the name of a seer who belonged to the Johannes community and died in 1987 (30 DAYS n^o 10, 1993, p. 27). The correlation with the vision of the Third Secret leaves no doubt that Sister Lucy revealed its contents to Cardinal Luciani.

     «He prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way», men like the high priests, the scribes and the Pharisees of yore, «whitened tombs whose interiors are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of corruption» (Mt 23.27), to whom Jesus said, «You appear to people on the outside like good honest men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.» (Mt 23.28)

     «Having reached the summit of the mountain, falling on his knees at the foot of the large Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him.»

     John Paul I was killed on the night of 28 to 29 September 1978, after a reign of thirty-three days. «Loved at Belluno», writes the Abbé de Nantes, «happy at Vittorio Veneto, and hounded by the progressivist pack in Venice, Don Albino Luciani underwent at Rome the death of the Innocent. What an image of the Church!» (French CRC n^o 135, November 1978, p. 8)

     Scarcely had John Paul I died than he was already embalmed; ignored as though he had never existed.

     «He was my best friend, my Master», confided Don Rinaldo to Madame de Marsac in 1979. «In losing him I lost everything. No one has been able to understand why God, having offered us such a great grace by giving him to us as Pope, should have taken him away from us so quickly. But God knows what He is doing and we must live in hope, even though we find it hard to comprehend.» At the time Don Rinaldo was the parish priest of Canale di Agordo, the birthplace of Albino Luciani. A few years later, in 1983, he would be removed and transferred to a small industrial centre near Belluno to the great despair of his parishioners. One of the Lucianis’ friends would explain: «The bishop had never forgiven him for his devotion to John Paul I and the initiative he had shown in asking for prayers for his beatification. He had not been careful enough to conceal his disappointment after the visit made by John Paul II.»

     In Belluno, at the seminary where the young Luciani had first been a student, then teacher and vice-rector, his successor pointed out the chapel where he constantly went to pray: «He was a truly devout Pope, a Pope wholly focused on spiritual matters. It may seem strange to speak about a Pope like this, for such should always be the case.» At the back of the chapel, next to the door, a chair and kneeler mark the spot where Don Luciani used to pray. «He always wanted to have the last place, and in this way he could be sure of not disturbing anyone if he was called. His modesty and his humility may be compared to those of the greatest saints. Moreover, I do not hesitate to state that he was truly a saint.»

     He ended the conversation by saying: «He traced the path; we have but to follow him and keep our spirits up.»

     At Rome, our friend heard the extern sister of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart declare: «He was a true saint. It is an irreparable loss for the Church which needed him, but we must stay confident, for he will watch over us.»

A REPUTATION FOR HOLINESS CONTESTED

     Several years later, in 1985, Madame de Marsac returned to Canale d’Agordo. On Sunday June 23, the archpriest of Treviso celebrated the solemn Mass of Saint John the Baptist. In his homily, he extolled Pope Luciani in terms worthy of the Third Secret: «He passed like a meteor, as much by his brilliance as by the brevity of his pontificate, then he fell into oblivion... He was baptised in this church and celebrated his first Mass here; he did good everywhere he went, a simple curate, then the Bishop of Vittorio Veneto, and finally Pope for an all too short pontificate.» And he concluded: «Many Popes have been canonised, and a parallel can be established between Saint Pius X and John Paul I. One day he will receive the same glory on the altars.»

     But the Sisters of l’Asilo de Canale deplore the oblivion into which Pope Luciani has already fallen in his own country. Their superior venerates him as a saint. In her opinion, God wanted to show what the rebirth of the Church would have been like under the leadership of this Pope who fought modernism and progressivism, even to the extent of expelling Don Marco Cé from the seminary at Belluno in the 50s and, having become Pope, of opposing his nomination to the See of Venice as his successor. Once Pope Luciani was buried, Pope Wojtyla hastened to appoint Cé Patriarch of Venice, whereupon Madame de Marsac could not but observe how the cult of Saint Pius X, honoured under the leadership of Patriarch Luciani, disappeared from Saint Mark’s city after 1979. As for John Paul I, one could not find the least image of him anywhere!

     Shortly after his election, continued the Superior of the Sisters of l’Asilo de Canale, certain people wanted to present him as having a second-rate mind, whereas his scholarship was immense. Able to read Latin, Greek, French and English fluently, he took great care in preparing his lectures and sermons in order to teach the most exact and scholarly theology in a language accessible to all.

     Several people of Canale claim to have received graces by praying to John Paul I. One of them relates that one day in Venice a group of pious ladies asked Cardinal Luciani to settle their dispute: Was it to better to honour the Virgin of the Rosary, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, the Virgin of the Seven Sorrows, etc...?

     – Honour above all Our Lady of Penance!

     The influence of the Secret on his answer is very apparent.

     Despite the renown of his virtues and the petitions which poured in to the Curia of Belluno shortly after his death, the cause John Paul I’s beatification has not yet been introduced. The decision belongs to the local bishop of the place where the servant of God died, to John Paul II therefore. A request signed by two hundred and twenty-nine bishops from Brazil, on the initiative of the Cardinal Lorscheider, was addressed to the Pope, in the name of «the increasing veneration expressed by the Brazilian faithful of all social classes towards the paternal and benevolent person of the late lamented John Paul I», on 8 December 1990, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, for whom John Paul I always nourished an ardent and particularly tender devotion» (30 DAYS, August 1998).

     The text emphasises the fact that «the late Pontiff left behind him a luminous wake of faith and holiness and that, in many parts of the world, the faithful are already speaking about special graces received through his powerful intercession.» Clearly Someone has not forgotten him and watches over his glory...

     «And in the same way there died one after another the Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people, men and women of different ranks and positions»... like Priscilla and Aquila, those makers of tents with whom Saint Paul stayed and worked in Corinth (Ac 18.1-4). They are the models of the Christian laity, such as Father de Foucauld would have liked to have introduced at Hoggar. Here we are at the source of the profound thinking of Sister Lucy, according to whom «the prayer of the Rosary is the most accessible of all prayers, for both the rich as well as the poor, for the learned as well as for the ignorant. It should be each person’s spiritual bread.» What better antidote could there be to the class struggle!

     From the very beginning, this mixing of the various social stations has been a characteristic of pilgrimages to the site of Our Lady’s apparitions, as Canon Formigao testifies: «At the same time as myself, there arrived at Vila Nova de Ourem two ladies, one young and elegant, who was the daughter of a former minister of the Monarchy, the other older and also of distinguished appearance, who was related to one of the principal families of the town of Guarda. Poor ladies! Yet, despite the pouring rain, they did not complain, so great was their faith and devotion.»

     Now Albino Luciani, the object of Our Lady’s tender love, was «born poor, just like Saint Pius X», observed the Abbé de Nantes, «and in that very same Venetia [...], the son of the pious Bortola and the courageous labourer Giovanni Luciani, a seasonal emigrant [...]. John Paul I loved poverty for itself and, what is even rarer, practised it.» (English CRC n^o 172, August 1984)

     At Belluno, he spent the little money he received as a teacher to buy books for the library. When he was appointed Bishop of Vittorio Veneto, he refused to take his books with him, declaring that he did not have any temporal goods. He took only his breviary, his Imitation of Jesus Christ, and the works of Saint Francis de Sales.

     «He also loved the poor», our Father goes on to explain, «and he did not wish them to possess wealth or to maintain the means of acquiring it.» In Pope John Paul I «we came close to seeing that famous “third way” which everyone speaks about but of which no one has any clear idea, the way between the East and the West, between capitalism and socialism, or rather beyond them. The way of the Gospel. The Catholic way.»

II.  THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS

     «… the blood of every holy man that has been shed on earth, from the blood
of Abel the Holy to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah» (Mt 23.35)

     It is precisely on a description of this «evangelical and Catholic way» that the Secret of Fatima ends, a way once lived in full truth by the early community of the first century and applicable to that of the twentieth century as it draws to a close. It is summarised in a few words charged with significance and upholding a «social doctrine» that excludes no one under the pretext of an “option for the poor”. It is the recognition, pure and simple, of «different ranks and positions».

     We are far removed from the world of “humans right”! Indeed, since they are all on their way to martyrdom, we see here «the unimportance of so many things», to use the words of Father de Foucauld. He desired martyrdom, he asked God for this grace, and his prayers were heard: the great French aristocrat was killed by a group of soldiers at the door of his bordj, in the midst of the poorest people, on 1 December 1916.

     At Fatima, this «group of soldiers» has been at work since the beginning! On 13 May 1920, Canon Formigao went up to the Cova da Iria «crossing the steep hills». He met a car «coming down from above». «In it he could see rifles pointing menacingly in all directions. It was the Administrator of the canton, with his escort!»

     One of the homilies of Patriarch Luciani, pronounced during the Corpus Christi procession on 28 May 1978, less than one year after his conversation with Sister Lucy, presents a definite connection with the Secret and at the same time a marvellous example of this Saint’s preaching:

     «In the charming poem entitled “The Madonna dressed in blue”, Renato Simoni pictures Pius X coming down from Paradise, in the middle of the night, during the battle of Piave, to have a talk with the Virgin in a little church in Venezia. Guns thunder, shells whistle past the little church, there are many deaths and many casualties, many houses and churches are destroyed, the Madonna weeps, and then... the old Pope addresses this heartfelt prayer to the soldiers: “Let Italy be saved! Stand firm, my little ones! Long live Italy!” Then he went back up to Heaven.

     «It is only a story of course. But today, our times bear a strong resemblance to it: there is so much shooting, so many hostage situations, so much disorder. The old Pope makes his Venetians hear his rallying cry: “My little ones, stand firm!”

     «Let us cleave to the faith of our Fathers! to religious instruction! Let us remain unshakable before the seductions of the world thanks to frequent Confessions and well-made Communions!»

     Three months later, elevated to the sovereign pontificate, Albino Luciani knew, through his conversation with Sister Lucy at Coimbra in July 1977, that he was on his way to martyrdom. That is why, writes Regina Kummer in an admirably apposite manner in a biography of the saintly Pope published in 1988, «the smile of the “smiling pope” was not a happy smile, contrary to what one might think, but a heroic smile, illuminated by Christ. He was called to tread the way of the Cross, in accordance with the divine decree.» Today, we can state that this “decree” has been recorded in the Secret of Fatima.

     «He continued on his path», Regina Kummer goes on, «docile to the divine will. Accepting its plans humbly, he found in the Cross his true and authentic joy. Although smiling, he was climbing Calvary during those thirty-three days; although smiling, he drank the chalice of his passion. He knew himself to be in the hands of the Father and the instrument of His designs. What a tremor (tremore) this soul was to undergo!» Yes, exactly so, as we now know: Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta beheld him «half trembling with halting step».

     «Beneath the two arms of the Cross, there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.»

     The martyrs are those whom Our Lady announced in the second part of the Secret: «The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.»

MARTYROLOGY

     In Spain, torrents of blood flowed: 13 bishops, 4317 secular priests, 2489 monks, 283 nuns, and 249 seminarians massacred out of hatred of the faith; in all, including members of the laity, there were 500,000 victims. But such figures are soulless. To stir our lukewarm hearts, let us read about some of the first victims who were immolated:

     Sister Mary Pilar of Saint Francis Borgia entered the Carmel of Saint Joseph, at Guadalajara, on 12 October 1898, Sister Theresa of the Child Jesus on 2 May 1925, and Sister Mary of the Angels of Saint Joseph on 14 July 1929.

     During the sadly renowned days of religious persecution at the time of the Spanish Civil War, Sister Mary Pilar suffered deeply from the offences committed against God, and she took comfort in the thought that soon perhaps she would be able to fulfil her desire of dying while bearing witness to her faith. It was for this reason that, during recreation periods, in order to encourage her sisters, she would say:

     «If they lead us to martyrdom, we will go there singing like our sisters, the martyrs of Compiègne. We will sing their canticle, “Sacred Heart, Thou shalt reign”. All I desire is to die in my habit and not to fall into the hands of these men».

     In the same spirit, she offered herself as a victim during the bombardments, going so far as to tell the prioress, «I asked Our Lord, if He needs a victim, to take me and to spare Your Reverences.»

     Thus did the courageous Sister Mary Pilar speak on 22 July 1936.

     Owing to the speed with which events succeeded one another, she was going to see her desires fulfilled only two days later, on that very date when the Church celebrates the feast of the Martyrs of Compiègne, 24 July, due to the octave of Our Lady of Carmel!

     In an attempt to save the community, the authorities had ordered that the Carmelite nuns of Guadalajara should dress as ordinary civilians, wearing the clothes specially procured for them, and that they should leave their beloved cloister in groups.

     Along with her others sisters, Mary Pilar was on the first night lodged in the basements of the Hotel Iberia, and, the following day, they left to join the other nuns in a boarding house. But, since there were too many nuns there already, Sister Theresa proposed to go with Sister Mary Pilar and Sister Mary of the Angels to the house of a friendly family.

     So they left their refuge, stepping outside for a walk in the most peaceful way imaginable. At that very moment they passed nearby a car in which there was a group of militants, both men and women. One of the women recognised them and cried out like a harpy, «Shoot those women, they are nuns!»

     Then gunfire broke out. At that moment, the sisters fled running in a zigzag fashion, and they reached Francisco Cuesta Street. They arrived at the door of house n^o 5, where the friendly family lived. But despite ringing the doorbell of this refuge as hard as they could, nobody answered. At this they sought help from another floor in the building, but there was no one there either… Then a man obliged them to step back on to the pavement, to avoid disturbing a family who were staying in the house.

     It was thus that the Lord allowed the supreme moment of their sacrifice to arrive. For as they came back out, they were seen and caught up by the militants who had been chasing them, and without giving them a moment to respond, they fired on the three nuns with their rifles. Two of them fell on the pavement, covered in blood, near the house of n^o 5 of this street.

     When they saw that Sister Mary Pilar still showed signs of life and was murmuring in a low voice, «My God! My God! Long live Christ the King!», they shot her again and stabbed her with a knife in their bloodthirsty fury.

     At the noise of the gunshots and the shouting, a crowd started to gather, and an assault guard arrived on the scene. He wanted to restore order, and he reprimanded the assassins. He had the bloody victim carried to a nearby pharmacy. A doctor there said that there was nothing more he could do, and that they needed to transport the casualty to the Red Cross clinic.

     The guards tried to requisition a car to transport her, but the driver, drawing his dagger, exclaimed, «Bring her here, and I will finish her off myself!» And, after this savage act of bravado, he sped off. A little later, another car passed by whose driver agreed to taker her under the supervision of the assault guards.

     The dispensary was at that time located on Marlasca Square, but this was also the meeting point of the red militia! As soon as the militants understood what was going on, they incited a riot, and the crowd cried out furiously, «Let us finish her off, she is a nun!» The assault guards had a major task on their hands trying to protect her and to get her into the clinic.

     Yet, it was only right that the poor Carmelite should have aroused their compassion, considering her state: her legs and arms were dislocated, her body wounded by bullets, and one of her kidneys practically exposed due to the large wound caused by the knife blow. She gave vent to sorrowful complaints: «Water, water, I am choking!... But what have I done to be treated like this?... My God, forgive them, they know not what they do!…»

     Doctors sought to provide some relief to the casualty, but the stretcher- bearers had to wait for the frenzied crowd to vacate the square before they could bring her into the clinic. There, a Sister of Charity applied first aid and suggested she make ejaculatory prayers, giving her a crucifix to kiss. This last spiritual help filled the poor dying sister with consolation. In a gentle voice she continued to repeat, «My God! My God! Forgive them, for they do not know what they do!” And with this prayer the Carmelite nun expired.

«Beneath the two arms of the Cross, there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.» (13 July 1917) From left to right: Blesseds Theresa of the Child Jesus, Mary Pilar of Saint Francis Borgia and Mary of the Angels of Saint Joseph, martyred on the afternoon of 24 July 1936, the first of innumerable martyrs of the Spanish Civil War.

     During this time, Sister Theresa had not herself been injured by the gunfire in Francisco Cuesta Street. She had attempted to take refuge in a nearby building, then in the Palace Hotel, but some of the men had prevented her. At that critical moment, another man appeared on the scene and forcefully led her by the arm along the street of San Juan de Dios, over the San Antonio bridge and towards the deserted walls of the cemetery.

     The man wanted to rape her, but with God’s help, her virginal weakness triumphed over the force of this brute.

     The other militiamen arrived on the scene, eager to take part in the chase. They tried to get the sister to exclaim, «Viva Azaña! Viva el Comunismo!» and, in exchange for such a renunciation, they promised her a deceptive freedom. But their efforts were in vain, for the heroic Carmelite made a courageous confession of faith crying out at the top of her voice, «Viva Cristo Rey!»

     Then they ordered her to advance so that they might shoot her.

     Without a moment’s delay, Sister Theresa formed her arms into a cross, as though her whole body were crying out, as a kind of echo to her voice, one last and truly sublime «Viva Cristo Rey!»… A blaze of gunfire crowned this new virgin and Carmelite martyr with glory.

     She sank to the ground while her soul took flight. Then her assassins fled, taking with them as a trophy her small bag, in which they found her treasure: her prayer books. In angry disappointment they reduced them to ashes.

     As for Sister Mary of the Angels, she was the first to take wing to Heaven. Francisco Cuesta Street was the site of her martyrdom, for she fell down dead at the first round of shooting. A bullet had pierced her heart.

     The bodies of the three nuns were put in a common grave, along with other victims of this Communist fury. On 15 March 1941, the bodies of the nuns were exhumed and could easily be recognised thanks to their Mount Carmel scapulars, the cords on their habits, their instruments of penance and the crucifixes they had received at their profession.

     On 29 March they were solemnly glorified by the Church, the first of countless Spanish martyrs of the years 1936-1939.

     (Taken from J M Feraud García, Promoter of the Cause, Trez azucenas ensangrentadas de Guadalajara.)

SAINT MAXIMILIAN-MARY KOLBE,
MARTYR OF THE IMMACULATE

     In Poland, the first victim of the Germano-Soviet pact, things were even worse. Why this difference? For a reason revealed by the Secret of Fatima: because Pope Pius XI had refused to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

     We can say that it was because of this that Saint Maximilian-Mary Kolbe died, on 14 August 1941, at Auschwitz, the holy land of his heroism and martyrdom.

     He would never know that responsibility for his death lay with the Holy Father, as this was a Secret. But he saw his martyrdom coming. Primarily because he knew from the age of ten that this was his vocation. And secondly because he was very clear about the consequences of «Russia’s errors»:

     «How will things be in twenty or thirty years time? The brothers are already working in the Far East. If things continue in this way, they will be working throughout the whole world. The devil foresees all this, which is why he fights back. Yesterday, I learned that the Socialists and the Communists have received orders to destroy Niepokalanow.» (English CRC n^o 303, p. 13)

     Father Kolbe’s career is parallel to that of the seers of Fatima, and his message is identical to theirs, so much so that we cannot cannot avoid making this observation: each of their careers illustrates the hidden combat which, from Saint Pius X to John Paul I, has been waged by the Immaculate Virgin against the ministers of Her Son in revolt against Him.

     It is She who is at both the beginning and the end of the whole of the Polish Saint's life. She appeared to him when he was but ten years old to set before him two crowns, one white indicating purity, the other red indicating martyrdom. The idea was not for him to “choose”, contrary to what is all too often said, as if one could choose between purity and martyrdom! In fact, it is only too clear that one prepares for martyrdom through “positive” purity, as the Abbé de Nantes has said. He therefore accepted them both (cf. English CRC n^o 303, Nov 1997, p. 2).

     Thereupon his whole life proceeded under the sign of this alliance contracted with the Immaculate. This was his “secret”, one absolutely parallel to that of Fatima. He had had his own “vision of hell” in 1917 in the streets of Rome, at a time when demonstrations broke out at every opportunity against Catholics and against the Pope, stirred up by «demons straight out of hell», as Blessed Pius IX called the Communists. In the fourth centenary of the Protestant Reformation (1517) and the bicentenary of the foundation of freemasonry (1717), the outrages against the Pope reached their paroxysm, a prophetic vision of which was granted to Jacinta at Aljustrel one day when she was on her own at the well of Arneiro:

     «I saw the Holy Father in a very big house, kneeling by a table, with his head in his hands and weeping. Outside, there were many people and some of them were throwing stones, others were cursing him and using bad language against him. Poor Holy Father! We must pray very hard for him!» (quoted in the English CRC n^o 331, p. 22)

     At the same time, Brother Maximilian-Mary did not confine himself to prayer: he founded the “Militia of the Immaculate” and gave the Miraculous Medal to his “knights” as a rallying sign and a pledge of protection. «Is it possible», he said to them, «that our enemies should expend so much effort to gain the upper hand, while we should stand idly by, applying ourselves to prayer in varying degrees yet failing to engage in action? Do we not perhaps have the more powerful weapons, the protection of Heaven and of the Immaculate Virgin? The Immaculate, victorious and triumphant over all heresies, will never yield to the enemy who raises his head, provided She finds faithful servants who are docile to Her commands. She will win fresh victories far greater than anyone could have imagined.»

     This is exactly what Our Lady said to the seers of Fatima: «If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.» And, whatever happened: «In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph.»

     Father Kolbe also said: «For seven centuries we fought for the truth of the Immaculate Conception to be recognised: a struggle that was crowned by the dogmatic proclamation and by the apparitions of the Immaculate at Lourdes. It is now time for the second part of this history to commence: we must now sow this truth in souls, watch over its growth and reap the fruits of holiness. And we must do this with all souls: those that exist now and those that will exist until the end of the world. The first part of history, that is to say those initial seven centuries, simply represent the period in which the project was prepared and approved, but now we must pass to its execution, to living out its dogmatic truth, to making the Immaculate known to all souls, to giving Her to souls along with all the beneficial effects She brings.» (25 February 1933; quoted in the English CRC n^o 305, p. 10)

     These words are the direct echo of the Secret of Our Lady of Fatima: «God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart.» As the association is clearly not a literary one, it can only be explained by reference to a common source: the Most Blessed Virgin in person, who revealed the Secret to the little seers of Aljustrel while She was inspiring the devotion and guiding the projects of a new Saint Francis in Rome.

     It was in 1917, the year of the apparitions at Fatima, that Brother Maximilian-Mary conceived the idea of instituting the Militia of the Immaculate. Without knowing it, he was thus to anticipate the «designs of mercy» of the Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which the Angel of Portugal had begun to reveal in 1916 to the three little shepherds of Aljustrel. The occasion was the seventy-fifth anniversary of the conversion of Ratisbonne. On the morning of 20 January 1917, all the seminarians were assembled in the chapel for common prayer. Father Stephan Ignudi, Vice-Chancellor of the Seraphic College, read and commented on the extraordinary apparition of the Immaculate Virgin to the Jew Alphonsus Ratisbonne and his striking conversion which had taken place on 20 January 1842, exactly seventy-five years earlier.

     We can scarcely imagine the agitation of Brother Maximilian-Mary: this account awakened in him the memory of the apparition with which he had been favoured in his childhood. When he heard that Ratisbonne had cried out, «I SAW HER! I SAW HER!», he could tell himself: I also, I have seen Her! So it was that this event renewed his alliance with the Immaculate. Nine months later, on the evening of 16 October 1917, the first seven “knights of the Immaculate” consecrated themselves to Mary. This was three days after the sixth apparition of Our Lady who, on 13 October, had brought seventy thousand pilgrims together at Fatima.

     After which She will perfectly “synchronize” the life of both one and the other. For example, in the autumn of 1919 Father Kolbe was struck down with phthisis, and on 12 January 1920 he was hospitalised at Zakopane.

     Francisco died on 4 April 4 1919 of the terrible Spanish influenza complicated by broncho-pneumonia.

     Father Kolbe would at first stay at Zakopane in an intermittent way, then, between June 1920 and April 1921, due to his increasingly frequent bouts of haemoptysis, he would remain there on a continuous basis. On 1 November 1920, he wrote to his brother Alphonsus, «May the Immaculate do with me as She wishes and as She likes, because I am Her property and am entirely at Her disposal.»

     That same year, on 20 February, Jacinta died of a purulent pleurisy, all on her own in the hospital of Lisbon, with identical sentiments of self-abandonment to the «Sweet Heart of Mary».

     But Father Kolbe survived, to «make known and loved» the Immaculate, just like Lucy. The latter was terrified at this prospect on 13 June 1917: «Am I to remain here all alone?

     – No, my daughter. Do you suffer greatly? Do not be discouraged, I will never abandon you! My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.»

     For his part, Father Kolbe admitted: «Suffering, indeed the very prospect of adversity, frightens me... but Jesus Himself, in the Garden of Olive, was afraid, and that is why I am happy and take heart. In the middle of our small sufferings, let us pray and invoke Maria!»

     He went on: «Our love for the Immaculate must be such that it consumes both our soul and our body. The soul in which burns the fire of this love consumes itself for Her. From this arises that sacrifice of suffering and prayer. The soul which gives itself to the Immaculate loves true suffering...»

     In February 1937, he gave a conference in Rome in which he reviewed the twenty years of combat of the Militia of the Immaculate. He declared:

     «WE DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THAT GLORIOUS DAY IS FAR OFF, NOR THAT IT IS SIMPLY A DREAM, WHEN THE STATUE OF THE IMMACULATE WILL BE ENTHRONED, THANKS TO HER MISSIONARIES, IN THE VERY HEART OF MOSCOW.» (11 February 1937)

     This prophecy – for such indeed it is! – is quite extraordinary. In the first place, it is an appeal for the consecration of Russia considered as the centre-piece of authentic Marian geopolitics.

     Secondly, it corresponds to the promise that concludes the second part of the Secret: «In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph [...]. Russia will be converted.»

     Finally, a second version of this prophecy proves that this Saint was truly the confidant of all the Immaculate's secrets . Father Quirico Pignalberi, one of the seven founders of the Militia of the Immaculate, provides us with this testimony:

     «Father Maximilian came to find me in the Convent of Piglio on 7, 8 and 9 February 1937. We discussed matters in my room. He informed me of the difficulties his work had encountered in Poland and Japan. Nevertheless, he told me that many obstacles had been overcome. He also stated THAT A STATUE OF THE IMMACULATE WOULD BE ERECTED IN THE CENTRE OF MOSCOW, BUT THAT A BLOODY PERSECUTION WOULD HAVE TO COME FIRST.»

     The last tableau says exactly the same thing: «Beneath the two arms of the Cross, there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.»

     The same may be said of the «crystal aspersoria» as of «the golden censer» held by an Angel in chapter 8 of the Apocalypse. Saint John Eudes identifies the latter with «the admirable Heart of the Most Sacred Mother of God»: «The censer is of gold, he writes, THURIBULUM AUREUM, to show that the Sacred Heart of Mary is pure gold and pure love.»

     In the Secret the aspersoria are made of crystal but, in the Book of the Apocalypse, what is of gold is «like the purest crystal» (Ap 21.18). «And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made of a single pearl; and the main street of the city was pure gold, transparent like crystal.» (Ap 21.21)

     We can therefore identify these «aspersoria» with the «golden bowls» which one of the four Living Creatures gave the seven Angels (Ap 15.7), the only difference being that the bowls are «filled with the Anger of God» to avenge the blood of the martyrs, whilst here the «aspersoria» are filled with the blood of the martyrs themselves for the salvation of those souls «who are making their way to God».

     To understand this new liturgy, we must continue our reading of Saint John Eudes: «This censer is in the hand of an Angel, he who is the Angel of high council, that is to say the Saviour, in order to show that the Sacred Heart of our divine Virgin has always belonged to God and has never belonged to any other, and that It has always been in the possession and under the direction of the Angel of high council. For if the heart of a king of the earth is in the hand of the Lord for Him to govern as He sees fit, how much more the Heart of the Queen of Heaven?

     «This Angel of high council fills this censer with fire from the altar and a great quantity of incense, INCENSA MULTA, that is to say with the prayers of the saints, in order to signify that it was the Son of God who filled the Heart of His most holy Mother with the sacred fire which He brought down to earth, and that every act of adoration, praise, glorification and prayer which issues from this virginal Heart proceeds from the adorable Heart of Jesus.

     «The prayers of the Saints are placed in the Heart of Mary, represented by the gold censer, so that we might understand that the Saints place their prayers and all the praise and adoration they render to God in the Sacred Heart of their most excellent Mother, She who is the dearest Mother of their Saviour, so that, united with Her own, they might be all the more agreeable and effective before His divine Majesty.»

     Let us add: and that they might thus «sprinkle the souls who are making their way to God». All this is in keeping with the final words of Our Lady of Fatima, which receive an extraordinary illustration in the martyrdom of Saint Maximilian-Mary:

     When the guards pushed them – him and his poor companions – into the cell of block 13, entirely stripped of their clothing, to die there of hunger and thirst, they said to them, sniggering: «You will dry up like tulips!»

     One need only read the account of the Pole who witnessed those fifteen days of torture to understand how Saint Maximilian-Mary literally poured all the blood in his heart into the Heart of Mary Immaculate, irrigating by means of this “channel” the souls of those who were «drying up like tulips» along with himself, as they were deprived of all nourishment:

     «From the cell where the unhappy men were kept, every day one heard prayers recited in a loud voice, as well as the Rosary and hymns, in which prisoners from the other cells joined... Fervent prayers and anthems to the Virgin spread throughout all the underground cells. I had the impression of being in a church. Father Maximilian-Mary began and everyone responded. Sometimes they were so absorbed in their prayers that they did not notice the arrival of the guards for their customary visit; then we would hear the guards shouting at them to keep quiet.»

     According to Saint John Eudes, «the most august Heart of the Mother of God» is the temple in which the «victims of love» are sacrificed. Who are these victims? They are of three principal kinds: «The first is that adorable victim whom the Blessed Virgin offered to God with all Her Heart and with an inconceivable love in the temple of Jerusalem and on Calvary, and whom She continues to offer in Heaven and in all the divine sacrifices which are made every day and at every hour throughout the world...»

     «The second victim who is sacrificed in this same temple is She Herself, the Mother of the Saviour [...]. The third victim comprises a countless number who have been sacrificed to God in the marvellous temple of this virginal Heart...»

     Who would not make an offering of himself that he might be counted amongst these blessed victims of love, like a sheep in the flock of Albino Luciani, our good Shepherd, the martyr and beloved son of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, who was and will remain forever the holy Victim, a Victim without blemish, the innocent Victim killed by his brothers, and the Priest of the incomparable Sacrifice of the Roman altar? In this way there will be reborn, through the grace of his sacrificial holocaust, the one undivided Church of both East and West, under a single Father and Roman Patriarch.

Brother Bruno Bonnet-Eymard