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Our Lady of the Rosary is also popularly known as Our Lady of Fatima.

Fatima

Fatima is a village in the very center of Portugal, about 70 miles north of Lisbon. It consists of several little hamlets hidden away in the elevation known as Serra de Aire. One such hamlet is known as Aljustrel; and it is here, and more especially in the surrounding rocky pasturelands, that our story is centered.

The Children of Fatima

The eldest of the three children to whom Our Lady was to appear at Fatima was Lucia de Jesus dos Santos. Francisco and Jacinta, the other two main figures, were Lucia’s first cousins, the eighth and ninth children, respectively.

Lucia would select the place for the day’s pasturing. Usually they went to the hill country, where Senhor dos Santos owned some property. Sometimes she took them out to the open country around Fatima. And Lucia remembers, even today, all their beautiful, simple songs. When they heard the sound of the church bells, or when the height of the sun told them it was noon, they stopped their playing and dancing to recite the Angelus. After eating their lunch they would say their Rosary and then go on with their playing. They would return home in the evening in time for supper, and after their night prayers they would go to bed.

First Apparition

Lucia and her little cousins met as usual at the small bog, beyond the village, called the Barreiro, on the way to Gouveia, whence they proceeded to the Cova da Iria. When they heard the church bells summoning the people to the last Mass they knew it was time for lunch. Their meal finished, they sped through their Rosary and then chased the sheep up the hill. Their game today would be building, making castles out of the rocks. While they were thus busily intent upon their building projects, a sudden bright shaft of light pierced the air. In their efforts to describe it they called it a flash1 of lightning. Frightened, they dropped their stones, looked first at each other, then at the sky which was clear and bright without the least spot of a cloud. No breeze stirred the air, the sun was shining strong. Such perfect weather belied this flash of lightning, the forerunner of a storm. The children decided that they had better start for home before it rained. Quickly they gathered the sheep and started down the hill. Half way down, just as they were passing a tall oak tree, another shaft of light split the air. Panicky with fear, and as if led by some unknown power, they took a few steps, turned towards the right, and there, standing over the foliage of a small holm oak3 they saw a most beautiful Lady. “Fear not!” the Lady said, “I will not harm you.”… Again the Lady spoke to them, “Say the Rosary every day to bring peace to the world and the end of the war.”

Miracle of the sun

After some newspapers reported that the Virgin Mary had promised a miracle for the last of her apparitions on 13 October, a huge crowd, possibly between 30,000 and 100,000, including reporters and photographers, gathered at Cova da Iria. What happened then became known as the “Miracle of the Sun”. According to accounts, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke and the Sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, and to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The Sun was then reported to have careened towards the Earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became “suddenly and completely dry, as well as the wet and muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling”.

Not all witnesses reported seeing the Sun “dance”. Some people only saw the radiant colors, and others, including some believers, saw nothing at all. The only known picture of the Sun taken during the event does not show anything unusual. No unusual phenomenon of the Sun was observed by scientists at the time. A number of theologians, scientists, and skeptics have offered alternative explanations that include psychological suggestibility of the witnesses, temporary retinal distortion caused by staring at the intense light of the Sun, and optical effects caused by natural meteorological phenomena.

Sacrifices and Sufferings

After the third apparition of Our Lady the three children yearned more and more to be left alone to say their prayers and make their sacrifices for Our Lady; but when-ever they were seen on the streets, the crowds of people gathered to ask them all sorts of questions about the apparitions. To avoid these questioners, they had to wend their way to their pastures over back roads and deserted lanes. So filled were they with the thought of pleasing the Lady that nothing else counted, neither singing nor dancing, not even the flute playing of little Francisco. As news of the apparitions spread throughout the country, the number of visitors to Fatima increased daily. Some were devout, others were merely curious; but all wanted to see the Cova da Iria and to speak to the three children. The priests were no less inquisitive. “They would ask us questions,” Lucia said, “then they would ask the same questions all over again. As soon as we saw a priest, if we could, we ran away. Every time we found ourselves before a priest, we prepared our-selves to offer to God one of our biggest sacrifices.” There were some exceptions among the priests: One was a source of great joy and encouragement to the children. “My dear girl,” Lucia remembers this priest saying to her, “you should love God a great deal for the favors and graces He is giving you.”

The Chapel at the Cova

Senhor dos Santos readily donated the land, and within a month a pitifully small chapel was erected.As soon as the chapel was finished, someone offered to have a statue made to complete the shrine. This proposal met with great enthusiasm, and immediately a procession was planned for the installation of the statue. Two years later, on March 6, 1922, two bombs were placed at the Cova, one in the chapel, the other at the holm oak. The roof of the chapel was blown off, but the bomb at the holm oak failed to explode.

Many years have now passed since the apparitions occurred. The barren fields on which Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta used to graze their sheep are now covered with large beautiful buildings. The little chapel can still be seen, but a great shrine in honor of Our Lady of Fatima dominates the area, flanked by a hospital, a convent and a retreat house, all of which testify to the power and mercy of Our Blessed Mother Mary.

For more information go to The True Story of Fatima