Did You Know? Fatima (Feast Day: May 13)

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• published: 10 May 2013
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FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.TANBooks.com/Fatima Did You Know? Fatima (Feast Day: May 13) The fourth episode in an ongoing series of brief videos filled with interesting details regarding the lives and miracles of well-known and lesser-known saints, and the devotions and traditions that have developed around them over time. More "Did You Know?": - St. Joseph (Feast Day: March 19) https://www.TANBooks.com/SaintJoseph - St. Bernadette Soubirous (Feast Day: April 16) https://www.TANBooks.com/StBernadette - St. Catherine of Siena (Feast Day: April 29) https://www.TANBooks.com/StCatherine TRANSCRIPT ------------------- Fátima On May 13, 1917, the first of six apparitions occurred that changed the way we pray the rosary and played a key role in the downfall of Communism. Ten-year-old Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto were tending sheep near their home village of Fátima, Portugal. Seven-year-old Jacinta was too young for the job by village standards, but she was so lonely without Lúcia nearby that her family gave her a few token sheep and sent her out to pasture, too. There, the children saw a beautiful woman that Lúcia described as "brighter than the sun" and when they asked her name, she called herself "Our Lady of the Rosary". Our Lady continued to appear to the children on the 13th day of each month until October 13th, 1917. During her July 17th visit she gave the children "Three Secrets". The First Secret showed the children a terrifying vision of Hell. The Second predicted World War II, and asked for the Consecration of Russia, who would otherwise "spread her errors throughout the world." The Third Secret, which remained unreleased until the year 2000, foretold the future persecution of the Church and an attack on the Pope. Oddly, while all three children could see Our Lady's revelations, only Lúcia and Jacinta could hear them. During this apparition Our Lady also gave the children what is known today as the Decade Prayer of Fátima, which is now prayed after every decade of the rosary. During her final apparition on a rainy October 13, 1917, Our Lady provided the "Miracle of the Sun". More than 70,000 people, including journalists and even atheists, witnessed the sun change colors, rotate like a wheel and dance towards the Earth, miraculously drying everything in sight within minutes. As predicted by Our Lady, Francisco and Jacinta both died from the Spanish Flu by 1920, but Lúcia was blessed with a long life. She first joined the Sisters of St. Dorothy, and later entered the Carmelite order. On May 13, 1981, exactly 64 years to the hour after the first apparition of Fátima, Blessed Pope John Paul II was shot by a would-be assassin in St. Peter's Square. As the gunman pulled the trigger, the Pope saw a young girl with a picture of Our Lady of Fátima. He bent down to bless her and missed two bullets aimed for his head by inches. A third bullet struck. But according to doctors, it followed an inexplicable zig-zag path through his body, barely missing the most vital organs. The Pope attributed his survival to the miraculous aid of Our Lady. He later placed the bullet in the crown of her statue at Fátima, where it resides today, and invited all the bishops of the world to join him in consecrating the world -- and Russia -- to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart. The consecration was made on March 25, 1984 and within five years the Communist Soviet Union had already begun to crumble. The children's visions were officially declared "worthy of belief" after canonical enquiry in October 1930. On May 13th, 2000, the 83rd anniversary of the first apparition, Jacinta and Francisco were beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II with Lúcia in attendance. Lúcia passed away due to old age in nearby Coimbra, Portugal on February 13, 2005, at the age of 97 and the town of Fátima now hosts nearly one million pilgrims every May 13th alone. And that's how a small Portuguese village became the pilgrimage site we know today.