Nearly everyone knows the story of the Apparitions at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. We all waited for years to hear the last of the three "Secrets" of Fatima which were finally "released" a few years ago. If you want a good run-down of the story, WIKIPEDIA has much, EWTN has an excellent presentation, the MARY PAGES or THE APPARITIONS OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA a good source.
Everything Our Lady said at Fatima still applies today. Sister Lucy (Lúcia Santos), the oldest of the three Fatima visionaries died just a few years ago in 2005. All those years I did not know that she had written memoirs that were published and translated into English. I just want to pass that information on to you so that you can read them. I promise you, your heart will just melt when you read how those children loved Mary and Jesus, and each other, and how she loved them.
LUCIA WROTE SIX MEMOIRS DURING HER LIFETIME. The first four (4) were written between 1935 and 1941, and the English translation is published under the name Fatima in Lucia's Own Words. The fifth and six memoirs, written in 1989 and 1993, are published in English under the name Fatima in Lucia's Own Words II. These latter books were written in her own handwriting. An additional book was published in 2001, variously known as Calls from the Message of Fatima and Appeals of the Fatima Message, as announced by the Vatican on December 5, 2001. However, this book is not written in her handwriting.
SISTER LUCY ALSO WROTE NUMEROUS LETTERS TO CLERGY AND DEVOUT LAY PEOPLE inquiring about the Third Secret of Fatima and about Lúcia's interpretation of what she had heard Mary request. Two letters she wrote concerned the Consecration of Russia, in which she said Our Lady's request had been fulfilled.
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| Pope John Paul II believed that Our Lady saved him from death when he was shot in Saint Peter's Square on May 13, 1981. |
THE ACTUAL THREE SECRETS OF FATIMA
(TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH)
THE “SECRET” OF Fatima
FIRST AND SECOND PART OF THE “SECRET”
ACCORDING TO THE VERSION PRESENTED BY SISTER LUCIA
IN THE “THIRD MEMOIR” OF 31 AUGUST 1941 FOR THE BISHOP OF LEIRIA-Fatima
IN THE “THIRD MEMOIR” OF 31 AUGUST 1941 FOR THE BISHOP OF LEIRIA-Fatima
"... This will entail my speaking about the secret, and thus
answering the first question.
"What is the secret? It seems to me that I can reveal it, since I
already have permission from Heaven to do so. God's representatives on earth
have authorized me to do this several times and in various letters, one of
which, I believe, is in your keeping. This letter is from Father José Bernardo
Gonçalves, and in it he advises me to write to the Holy Father, suggesting,
among other things, that I should reveal the secret. I did say something about
it. But in order not to make my letter too long, since I was told to keep it
short, I confined myself to the essentials, leaving it to God to provide another
more favourable opportunity.
"In my second account I have already described in detail the doubt
which tormented me from 13 June until 13 July, and how it disappeared completely
during the Apparition on that day.
"Well, the secret is made up of three distinct parts, two of which
I am now going to reveal.
"The first part is the vision of hell.
"Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under
the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like
transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in
the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within
themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side
like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and
groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear.
The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to
frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but
an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who
had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to
heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.
"We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so
sadly: "You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save
them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If
what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The
war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will
break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by
an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is
about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and
persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall 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; if not, she will spread her errors
throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will
be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be
annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will
consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will
be granted to the world.”
(translation)
“J.M.J.
"The third part of the secret revealed at the Cova da Iria-Fatima, on 13 July 1917.
"I write in obedience to you, my God, who command me to do so through his Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your Most Holy Mother and mine.
"After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. 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. Tuy-3-1-1944”.
Love, Jeanne
