The Fátima story developed in two parts: that which was reported in 1917 and 1922, and information later mentioned in
Sister Lúcia's memoirs which she wrote years later, after the church ruled that the events in Fátima were "worthy of belief." Some scholars argue that her memoir was not subject to the same scrutiny. The early messages focused on the need to pray the rosary for peace and the end to World War I. The alleged supernatural events in Fátima were not widely known outside
Portugal and
Spain until Lúcia published her memoirs, starting in the late 1930s. Between 1935 and 1993, she wrote six memoirs. The first four, written between 1935 and 1941 during World War II, were published under the title ''
Fatima in Lucia's Own Words (1976). The fifth and sixth memoirs, written in 1989 and 1993, are published as Fatima in Lucia's Own Words II''. In the mid-1930s the Bishop of Leiria encouraged Lúcia (at that time named Sister Maria Lúcia das Dores) to write her memoirs, so that she might reveal further details of the 1917 apparitions. In her first memoir, published in 1935, Sister Lúcia focused on the holiness of her cousin, Jacinta Marto. The deceased girl was by then popularly considered a saint. In her second memoir, published in 1937, Lúcia wrote more about her own life, the apparition of 13 June 1917, and first reveals the earlier apparitions of the Angel of Peace. Finding herself inundated with constantly repeated questions concerning the
Marian apparitions that occurred in
Fátima, Portugal, and the visionaries, the message they received and the reason for some of the requests contained in that message, and feeling that it was beyond her to reply individually to each questioner,
Sister Lúcia asked the
Holy See for permission to write a text in which she could reply in general to the many questions that had been put to her. This permission was granted and in December 2000, a new book was published entitled
Calls from the Message of Fatima.
Three Secrets of Fátima In her third memoir of 1941, Sister Lúcia described three secrets. She said these had been entrusted to the children during the apparitions of 1917.
First Secret This was a vision of
Hell, which Lúcia said they experienced on 4 July 1917. [Mary] opened Her hands once more, as She had done the two previous months. The rays [of light] appeared to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me).
Second Secret This was a recommendation for devotion to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary as a way to save souls and bring peace to the world. It predicted an end to the Great War, but predicted a worse one if people did not cease offending God. This second war would be presaged by a night illuminated by an unknown light, as a "great sign" that the time of chastisement was near. To avert this, Mary would return to ask for the consecration of
Russia to the Immaculate Heart, and the establishment of the
First Saturdays Devotion. If her requests were heeded, Russia would be converted, and there would be peace; if not, Russia would
spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Catholic Church. The vision culminated with a promise that in the end, "the Immaculate Heart would triumph. The Holy Father would consecrate Russia to Mary, and a period of peace would be granted to the world." On
25 January 1938 (during
solar cycle 17), bright lights, an
aurora borealis appeared over the northern hemisphere, including in places as far south as
North Africa,
Bermuda and
California. It was the widest occurrence of the aurora since 1709 and people in Paris and elsewhere thought it was a great fire and notified fire departments. Sister Lúcia indicated that it was the sign foretold and so apprised her superior and the bishop in letters the following day.
Consecration of Russia in Fátima, Portugal According to Sister Lúcia, the Virgin Mary promised that the
Consecration of Russia would lead to Russia's conversion and an era of peace. At the time the supposed request for the consecration of Russia was made, however, the
Bolsheviks had not yet taken control of Russia.
Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Letter
Sacro Vergente of 7 July 1952, consecrated Russia to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pius XII wrote, :"Just as a few years ago We consecrated the entire human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so today We consecrate and in a most special manner We entrust all the peoples of Russia to this Immaculate Heart..." In 1952 the Pope said to the
Russian people and the
Stalinist regime that the
Virgin Mary was always victorious. "The
gates of hell will never prevail, where she offers her protection. She is the good mother, the mother of all, and it has never been heard, that those who seek her protection, will not receive it. With this certainty, the Pope dedicates all people of Russia to the immaculate heart of the Virgin. She will help! Error and
atheism will be overcome with her assistance and divine grace." Popes Pius XII and
John Paul II both had a special relationship with Our Lady of Fátima.
Pope Benedict XV began Pacelli's church career, elevating him to
archbishop in the
Sistine Chapel on 13 May 1917, the date of the first apparition. Pius XII was laid to rest in the crypt of
Saint Peter's Basilica on 13 October 1958, the anniversary of the final apparition and the Miracle of the Sun. Pope John Paul II again consecrated the entire world to the Virgin Mary in 1984, without explicitly mentioning Russia. Some believe that
Sister Lúcia verified that this ceremony fulfilled the requests of the Virgin Mary. However, in the
Blue Army's Spanish magazine,
Sol de Fátima, in the September 1985 issue, Sister Lúcia said that the ceremony did not fulfil the Virgin Mary's request, as there was no specific mention of Russia and "many bishops attached no importance to it." In 2001, Archbishop
Tarcisio Bertone met with Sister Lúcia, who reportedly told him, "I have already said that the consecration desired by Our Lady was made in 1984, and has been accepted in Heaven." Sister Lúcia died on 13 February 2005, without making any further public statement of her own to settle the issue. Some maintain that, according to Lúcia and Fátima advocates such as Abbé
Georges de Nantes, Fr. Paul Kramer and
Nicholas Gruner, Russia has never been specifically consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by any Pope simultaneously with all the world's bishops, which is what Lúcia in the 1985 interview had said Mary had asked for. Two interviews with Sister Lúcia, in 1992 and 1993, tape recorded and televised with her permission on Portuguese State Television RTP1 and on SIC, TVI and RAI 2, in March 1998, finally clarified the Seer's personal opinion regarding the Secret, Consecration and Conversion of Russia. However, by letters of 29 August 1989 and 3 July 1990, she stated that the consecration had been completed; indeed in the 1990 letter in response to a question by the
Rev. Father Robert J. Fox, she confirmed: I come to answer your question, "If the consecration made by Pope John Paul II on 25 March 1984 in union with all the bishops of the world, accomplished the conditions for the consecration of Russia according to the request of Our Lady in Tui, Spain on 13 June 1929?" Yes, it was accomplished, and since then I have said that it was made. And I say that no other person responds for me, it is I who receive and open all letters and respond to them. In the meantime, the conception of
Theotokos Derzhavnaya, Orthodox Christian venerated icon, points out that Virgin Mary is considered actual
Tsarina of Russia by the religious appeal of
Nicholas II; thus "Consecration of Russia" may refer to return of Russian
monarchy. The icon was brought to Fátima in 2003 and 2014, together with another significant icon, the
Theotokos of Port Arthur.
Third Secret , the
Azores, 2007. The devotion is especially popular among Catholics in
Lusophone countries and the Portuguese diaspora. The third secret, a vision of the death of the Pope and other religious figures, was transcribed by the
Bishop of Leiria and reads: :"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, Religious men and women 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, Religious men and women, 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."
Controversy around the Third Secret Lúcia declared that the Third Secret could be released to the public after 1960. Some sources, including Chanoine Barthas and
Cardinal Ottaviani, said that Lúcia insisted to them it must be released by 1960, saying that, "by that time, it will be more clearly understood", and, "because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so." Instead, in 1960, the Vatican published an official press release stating that it was "most probable the Secret would remain, forever, under absolute seal." This announcement triggered widespread speculation.
The New York Times wrote that speculation over the content of the secret ranged from "worldwide nuclear annihilation" to "deep rifts in the Roman Catholic Church that lead to rival papacies." The
Vatican did not publish the Third Secret, a four-page, handwritten text, until 26 June 2000. Such writers as Father Paul Kramer, Christopher Ferrara, Antonio Socci, and Marco Tosatti have suggested that this was not the full text of the secret and stating the Third Secret is not the full text. They alleged that Cardinals
Bertone,
Ratzinger and
Sodano concealed the existence of another one-page document, containing information about the Apocalypse and a great apostasy. During his apostolic visit to
Portugal during 11–14 May 2010 on the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto,
Pope Benedict XVI explained to reporters that the interpretation of the third secret did not only refer to the attempted assassination of
Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square in 1981. He said that the third secret, "has a permanent and ongoing significance," and that, "its significance could even be extended to include the suffering the Church is going through today as a result of the recent reports of sexual abuse involving the clergy." ==Fátima prayers and reparations==