First Saturdays Devotion

The pious custom of honoring the Virgin Mary on Saturday is an ancient one, largely attributed to the Benedictine monk Alcuin (735-804), "Minister of Education" at the court of Charlemagne. He composed a Votive Mass formulary for each day of the week, assigning two to Saturday in honor of Mary. The practice was quickly adopted by both clergy and laity. The practice of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the First Saturday was initiated in Rovigo, Italy, by Maria Dolores Inglese, a Servite tertiary in 1889. She started among her friends the pious practice of "Communion in Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary". The practice was endorsed by Bishop Antonio Polin of the Diocese of Adria and was taken up by sodalities throughout Italy and elsewhere. This practice greatly resembled the later reported request of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Pontevedra apparitions. Inglese wished to establish a religious congregation dedicated to the apostolate of Marian reparation. Bishop Tommaso Pio Boggiani recommended she join the Servite sisters, known for their devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. She joined the Servites as Sister Maria Dolores in 1911, and with foundress Mother Mary Elisa Andreoli revised their rule, making propagation of Communion of Reparation on the First Saturday of each month the congregation's main apostolate. They also changed the name of the group from "Servants of Mary" to "Servants of Mary of Reparation". The sisters subsequently published a monthly magazine that helped spread the devotion throughout Europe. == Fátima ==

as it was revealed in the 1917 Marian apparitions which occurred at Fátima, Portugal. At the age of 10, Lúcia dos Santos, one of the three Portuguese seers of the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima, reported in her 1941 memoir that Mary asked the following during the third apparition in Fátima on 13 July 1917.The war is going to end. But if people do not stop offending God, another, even worse one will begin in the reign of Pius XI. When you shall see a night illuminated by an unknown light know that this is the great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its many crimes by means of war, hunger, and persecution of the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent it, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays. ==Pontevedra==

, now known as the Sanctuary of the Apparitions, in which Sister Lúcia lived and received Marian apparitions. Four years later on 17 June 1921, Lúcia dos Santos at the age of 14 was admitted as a boarder in the school of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy in Vilar, close to the city of Porto. On 24 October 1925, she entered the Institute of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy as a postulant in the convent in Tui, Spain, just across the northern Portuguese border. According to a document she wrote, later recorded in her book “Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words”, Lúcia reported how on 10 December 1925, the Virgin Mary appeared to her at the Dorothean convent in Pontevedra, and by her side on a luminous cloud was the Child Jesus. According to Lúcia, Mary requested the institution of the Devotion of the Five First Saturdays in reparation to her Immaculate Heart and attached a personal promise to the devotion: He also expressed sorrow that "many souls begin them, but few finish them", and lamented the lack of fervor and spirit of reparation. Following this conversation, the Child Jesus eased the conditions of the devotion, as they are known today. == Devotion ==

Practice of the five First Saturdays The First Saturdays Devotion consists of a series of practices that must be performed on five consecutive first Saturdays of the month. Each one of these practices should be done with the intention of making reparation for sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. • Receive Holy Communion. It can be received at a Saturday daily mass or at a Saturday evening anticipatory Mass. • Pray five decades of the Rosary. • Keep Mary company while meditating on one or more of the mysteries of the Rosary for 15 minutes, in addition to the recitation of the Rosary. According to Lúcia dos Santos, a promise of assistance at the hour of death and all the graces necessary for salvation was made by the Virgin Mary during the Pontevedra apparition on 10 December 1925. Sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary In response to a written inquiry from her confessor, Lúcia prayed to Jesus asking about the significance of the five First Saturdays on 30 May 1930, in the convent of Tui. According to Lúcia, Jesus revealed that the five First Saturdays are linked to five specific offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. • Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception. • Blasphemies against her perpetual virginity. • Blasphemies against her divine maternity, while refusing at the same time to recognize her as Mother of men. • The blasphemies of those who publicly seek to implant in the hearts of children indifference, contempt, or even hatred towards the Immaculate Mother. • The offenses of those who outrage her directly in her holy images. == Church approval ==

On September 13, 1939, the local bishop of the Leiria-Fátima diocese, José Alves Correia da Silva, approved the First Saturdays Devotion at the diocesan level. The Holy See has still not officially approved this devotion at the level of the universal Church, despite Lúcia's efforts. ==See also==