By FR. SEAN CONNOLLY
(Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a series of articles on the one hundredth anniversary of our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima. Fr. Connolly is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York.)
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After word had spread of what the young Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta had seen on May 13 at the Cova da Iria, they were subject to mockery and scorn. At least, Francisco and Jacinta had the support of their father, but Lucia did not even have this. The ridicule and disbelief of her own mother was so strong that she began to feel that she should not return to the Cova in June as was requested by our Lady. (1)
Fr. Manuel Ferriera, the parish priest of Fatima, prudently advised Lucia’s mother not to prevent her from returning to the Cova as the children’s earnestness was enough to convince him to wait and see what would happen in the months ahead.
Yet, even though Lucia was free to go, her discouragement was so great that she decided against it. The pleading of her younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta, were not enough to convince her otherwise. But when the time came for our Lady to return to Fatima on June 13 as she said she would, Lucia felt herself so drawn back to the Cova that she could not stay away. (2)
June 13 is the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, one of the most beloved saints in the history of the Catholic Church. St. Anthony is especially loved not just by those in the land of Italy, where “he won renown for his sanctity, but by the people of Portugal as well, the land of his birth. In Fatima, the feast of St. Anthony was a heightened celebration because the parish church was named for him.” (3)
So, while most went to the church for the celebration of the saint, the three visionaries and some fifty others who had heard of what they had seen a month prior made their way to the Cova da Iria.
Why were the three little visionaries not alone? Each of those who accompanied them had their reasons. On her way to the Cova, Lucia saw fourteen of her First Communion friends who joined her out of fellowship. News of the apparitions had already spread through the countryside so there were some from other villages too, already there waiting for them.
The reasons for Maria da Capelinha being there are endearing and can really only be found among God’s poor and simple; hoping for a miracle, she brought her crippled son, John, who had to use his staff to walk the distance to get there. (4)
As it was almost the appointed time of noon, all began to recite the rosary. Then, our Lady came as she did before and appeared atop the little three-foot holmoak tree. As on May 13, all three children could see her but Francisco was not able to hear her words. No one else saw the Mother of God but those in the small crowd reported hearing a faint sound like the buzzing of a bee and noticing a brief dimming of the sun’s light and a bending of the branches and leaves of the holmoak tree. (5)
As in May, Lucia spoke for her cousins and began by asking: “What do you want of me?” The Blessed Virgin responded with three requests, the first two being reiterations of requests made in her first apparition a month prior. She told Lucia to return with her cousins the next month on July 13 and to pray the rosary every day. Her third request was new; she requested that Lucia learn to read. Our Lady ended her remarks by saying: “Later I will tell you what I want.”
Lucia then asked that a sick person who was recommended to her be cured. Our Lady answered: “If he is converted he will be cured during the year.” It is unknown who the person was that Lucia had in mind or what healing he was in need of. (6)
In the first apparition, Lucia asked if she and her cousins would go to Heaven. Now she requested: “I would like to ask you also to take us to Heaven!” Our Lady answered: “Yes, I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon. But you are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”
In this we can see the purpose of Mary’s desire to have Lucia learn to read and write. It would be her mission to spread our Lady’s message from Fatima to the whole world. (7) Lucia would become a cloistered nun and live nearly 87 more years from the time this mission was entrusted to her. (8) Through her prayers, fidelity to her vocation and her writings, she fulfilled this most important task of spreading devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Lucia protested that she did not want to remain alone without Francisco and Jacinta. Our Lady reassured her: “Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.”
Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, summarizes well what happened next:
“As soon as our Lady finished speaking, she opened her hands and communicated to the children an immense light that enveloped them, as happened at the end of the first apparition. In this light the children saw themselves submerged in God. Jacinta and Francisco appeared to be in a part of the light that was rising to heaven, while Lucia was in a light spreading over the earth. This vision confirmed what our Lady had just told the children about their future. Finally, the children saw the heart of our Lady surrounded with piercing thorns, which represented the offenses committed against her. These were the sins that needed reparation, and the children were eager to offer it” (9)
With the apparition ended, the onlookers noticed the highest branches on the holmoak tree which before were standing upright, now inclined toward the east as if they had been trod upon. (10) As a result, they began to break off some of the branches and leaves to keep as relics of the blessed holmoak touched by the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Childlike Faith
As everyone returned to the center of town, the celebrations in honor of St. Anthony were in full swing. The visionaries were met again with mockery and scorn.
The next day, all three were taken to Fr. Ferriera and after a close questioning he concluded that they were telling the truth of what they had seen but suggested the possibility that the visions were a deception of the Devil. (11) This prospect was rejected by the children at first, but the seeds of doubt were sown into the impressionable mind of Lucia. Over the course of the following weeks she had to endure these doubts plaguing her mind, but to her aid came the little angels of consolation, Francisco and Jacinta, always at hand to strengthen her. (12)
Jacinta insisted: “Lucia, it is not the devil! Not at all! They say that the devil is very ugly and that he is under the earth in hell. The Lady is so beautiful and we saw her rise into heaven.” (13) Surely this logic is the product of a childlike faith so beloved by the Lord. It is the faith of a saint (cf. Matt. 18:3).
Despite tremendous pressures placed upon them to admit they were either lying or that this was truly the work of the Devil, the visionaries of Fatima were determined to return to the Cova on the thirteenth of the next month as our Lady requested. Their perseverance would not be in vain.
At this next meeting, the Mother of God would give to them a secret with ramifications for the fate of the world.
Footnotes
1) Andrew Apostoli, Fatima for Today: The Urgent Marian Message of Hope (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010), p. 50.
2) Ibid.
3) Ibid., p. 51.
4) John de Marchi, The True Story of Fatima: A Complete account of the Fatima Apparitions (Constable, New York: The Fatima Center, 2009), p. 22.
5) Warren H. Carroll, 1917: Red Banners, White Mantle (Front Royal, Va.: Christendom Publications, 1981), p. 76.
6) Apostoli, p. 52.
7) Ibid.
8) Ibid., p. 54.
9) Ibid.
10) De Marchi, p. 23.
11) Carroll, p. 77.
12) De Marchi, p. 25.
13) Ibid.
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