History of Our Lady of Fatima

Written by Benoît Santos - Updated on Oct 27, 2024

Do you know the story of Our Lady of Fatima? Would you like to know more about her apparition to the shepherds and the three secrets?

We've done the research to bring you all the answers you need. In a nutshell:

Fatima is the place where the Virgin Mary appeared to the shepherds, to whom she made revelations. She asked the shepherds to return to the place of her apparition every 13th of the month. The city of Fatima has become a city of pilgrimage.

In this article you will discover:

The miracles of Our Lady of Fatima;
The secrets of the Virgin Mary of Fatima;
The impacts of its appearance.

If you enjoyed this Christian article and would like to learn more about the history of Notre Dame, here are several articles that might interest you:

And here are several articles of prayers to the Virgin Mary that you can discover on our site:

Without further ado, let’s get started right now!

Apparition of the Virgin of Fatima to the shepherds

The Virgin of Fatima presented herself to the shepherds and suddenly they began to see a white light that was hidden among the trees. They approached and discovered that there was a woman dressed in white with a rosary in her hand. It was the Virgin Mary ! The Lady asked the children one thing. She asked them to come back there on the 13th of every month.

So all three shepherds were astonished and quickly returned to the village to tell what had happened. The children kept the promise they had made at Fatima. In fact, they announced the apparition to their neighbors. Thus, they were all present on the thirteenth day of June and July.

After the second apparition in June , the young people said that the Virgin had announced that two of them, Jacinta and Francisco, would soon die. And it happened, in December 1918, due to an epidemic of "Spanish flu", Francisco and Jacinta fell ill. Months later, in April, Francisco died. On the contrary, Jacinta improved from the flu, but her health suffered again due to another illness. Realizing what the Virgin had predicted, he died on February 20, 1920.

Mary of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun

On October 13, 1930, the Bishop of Leiria declared the visions "worthy of faith," authorizing the cult of Our Lady of Fatima . Thousands of pilgrims began arriving in Fatima as soon as the rumor of the supernatural events spread. The crowd was estimated at between 30,000 and 100,000 people, including many journalists who witnessed the "Miracle of the Sun."

In reality, this is the great sign announced by the Virgin. After a torrential rain that soaked the ground and clothes, the sky opened. The pilgrims were able to watch the sun change color, size and position for about ten minutes. A sun that could be perfectly looked at with the same eyes. After what happened, the clothes and the ground suddenly seemed dry.

According to several eyewitness accounts, after a drizzle, the sun cast a different light than usual. Some people present came to think that it was the end of the world. In addition, some witnesses reported that the ground and clothes, which were wet from the rain, miraculously dried instantly.

Our Lady of Fatima and the different Popes of the Catholic Church

On October 1, 1930, Pope Pius XI granted a special indulgence to the pilgrims of Fatima . Years later, in 1942, Pius XII consecrated humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In addition, Pope John Paul II personally visited the site of the apparitions three times. One of his most important visits was when he gave the Virgin the bullet with which he had been shot in San Pedro Square.

More recently, Benedict XVI personally visited the site of the apparitions and consecrated all the priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For his part, Pope Francis has dedicated his pontificate to the Virgin of Fatima and, in May 2017, he visited the shrine to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the apparitions.

Currently, in the place of apparitions is the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima . This temple is able to accommodate thousands of people from all over the world for the pilgrimage each year. May 13 represents for the followers of the Virgin Fatima the day of her commemoration.

The three secrets of the Virgin Mary of Fatima

The main message of the apparitions is linked to the three secrets , or rather to a three-part revelation that the Virgin made to the shepherd children . Lucia, having become a nun, wrote the first two parts of her memoirs. The third part was written on January 3, 1944 and delivered in a sealed envelope to the Bishop of Leiria. An envelope that was later delivered in 1957 to the secret archives of the Holy Office and whose contents were revealed in 2000.

The vision of hell.

In the first part of the secret, Sister Lucia tells that the Virgin showed the three shepherd children : a great sea of fire that seemed to be under the earth. Immersed in this fire, demons and souls, as if they were transparent and black or bronzed embers, with a human form that fluctuated in the fire. Carried by the flames that came out of themselves and accompanied by the clouds of smoke that fell towards all sides.

It was like embers falling into a great fire, without balance or weight, between cries of pain and moans of despair that horrify. The demons were distinguished by their horrible and disgusting forms of hideous and unknown animals, but transparent and black. This vision lasted for a while, thanks to our good mother of Heaven, who had previously prevented us with the promise of taking us to Heaven. This promise was made in the first apparition, otherwise I think we would have died of fear and terror.

The vision of Russia.

The second part contains these words of Mary: you have clothed hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart . If what I am going to tell you is done, many souls will be saved and they will have peace.

The war will soon end. But if they did not stop offending God, another worse one would begin in the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God gives you that he is going to punish the world for its crimes. This will be done through war, hunger and persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.

To prevent this, I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the reparative Communion of the first Saturdays. If my wishes are heard, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, he will spread his errors throughout the world, favoring wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, which will be converted, and a time of peace will be granted to the world.

The vision of the bishop dressed in white.

The third part of the secret is reported by Sister Lucy: we saw on the left side of Our Lady a little higher up an Angel with a sword of fire in his left hand. The flashing light emitted flames that seemed to set the world on fire, but they went out on contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated from her right hand directed towards him. The Angel, pointing to the earth with his right hand, said in a loud voice: Penance, Penance, Penance.

After that, we saw in an immense light what God is. Something similar to how people see themselves in a mirror when they pass in front of it, a bishop dressed in white . We had the presentiment that it was the Holy Father. We also saw other bishops, priests, religious men and women who were climbing a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a large cross made of thick wood. It was like a cork oak with bark.

Before reaching it, the Holy Father crossed a large city half in ruins and half trembling with hesitant steps. It was heavy with pain and sorrow and the Father prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on the way. Having reached the top of the mountain, prostrate on his knees at the foot of the great Cross, he was killed by a group of soldiers. They fired several shots at him with rifles and arrows.

In the same way, bishops, priests, religious men and women, and various lay people, men and women of various classes and positions, died successively. Under the two arms of the cross there were two angels, each with a glass pitcher in his hand. They served to collect the blood of the martyrs and to water the souls who approached God.

The importance of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal

The apparitions of Fatima have the particularity of being among the most prophetic, because they predicted the misfortunes that have befallen humanity. They are always a manifestation of the maternal solicitude of the Blessed Virgin Mary for us.

These apparitions are a sign of her closeness to our problems, our anxieties and our difficulties. They are a maternal call to put us on the path of good. They are also the expression of the desire of the Mother of God to help us, men and women, engaged here below in the fight against the forces of evil. This is with the aim of resisting the dangers that threaten the Christian faith and life.

Apparitions and visions belong to the private sphere and add nothing essential to what we already know through the Revelation contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Marian apparitions are important because they help us to better discover God's will for us. They are a call to love God and to live the Christian life in a coherent way at the various moments of history.

The message that comes to us from Fatima is of great spiritual importance and is linked to the historical context of our time. It can be summed up in three words: prayer, penance and conversion of heart. In fact, it is an exhortation to prayer as a path to the salvation of souls; a call to change one's lifestyle; a call to repair sins through penance. Finally, it is an invitation to sanctify oneself and to pray for the conversion of those who are on the path of sin and evil.

The message of Fatima points to the heart of the Gospel and shows us the path that leads to heaven. It wants to increase devotion to Our Lady in the world, who as a good mother leads us to Christ, our divine Savior who supports and encourages us. Great is the light that comes to us from Fatima.

Remembering these apparitions allows us to better understand the providential presence of God in human affairs and invites us to look to the future with hope. Despite the trials and tragedies of our time, with the certainty that evil will not have the last word. Our Lady assured us: "In the end, my immaculate heart will triumph." Fatima therefore leaves a message of hope, salvation and peace, and a call to put God at the center of our lives.

The Virgin's indications on the great world wars.

The Virgin then indicated devotion to her Immaculate Heart as the path that leads to Christ and as a refuge in adversity. The content of the Virgin's appeals at Fatima is deeply rooted in the Gospel. We could therefore say that Fatima is a school of faith and Christian coherence, taught by the Blessed Virgin Mary .

A characteristic feature of the message of Fatima is that it is placed at the heart of global concerns and the tragic events of the century that was ravaged by two world wars. Which brought endless victims and destruction, and by two dictatorships: Nazism to which fascism was added in recent years. In addition to this, there is the Marxism of the Soviet Union, which lasted 70 years.

Two ideological systems that caused immense suffering to millions and millions of people, trampling on human rights and persecuting Christianity. The fight against God was truly great, Our Lady of Fatima spoke of the two world wars. One that was about to end and the other that was about to break out a little later and cause greater damage.

Clarifications of the vision on Russia.

By adapting to the intellectual capacity of the three shepherd children by means of images that they could understand, in an impressive vision whose content was only made public in the year 2000. The Virgin gave the three shepherd children a glimpse of the damage that the regime of the Soviet Union would cause to humanity. This was thanks to the spread of atheism and a harsh persecution of the Christian faith, which would lead to the sacrifice of the very lives of quite a few bishops and Christian faithful.

Now that the third part of the secret of Fatima has also been made public at the request of Pope John Paul II, we have more information. In fact, we know that the aforementioned vision also contained the prediction that the fight against God and against the Church would go so far as to want to kill the Pope. In fact, on May 13, 1981, there was an attempt on the life of the Pope in St. Peter's Square. But - as John Paul II stated - the hand of the Virgin guided the trajectory of the bullet so that the Pope could survive.

This ball is now embedded in the crown placed on the head of the statue of the Virgin in Fatima . Faithfully fulfilling the request of Our Lady of Fatima, on March 25, 1984, Pope John Paul II consecrated the world, especially Russia, to the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This, in union with the bishops of the entire world. It is then superfluous to emphasize that the secret of Fatima has been made public in its fullness.

Evidence of the publication of the secrets of the Virgin Fatima

As a confirmation, I can add that when in 1960 the then Congregation of the Holy Office gave Pope John XXIII the sealed envelope containing what had been written by Sister Lucy. The Pope wanted to open the envelope in the presence of his confessor and the substitute of the Secretariat of State, who was then Monsignor Angelo Dell'Acqua. In addition to having an Italian translation made for the Pope's use by a monsignor of the Secretariat of State in order to better understand the text, he kept a photocopy of everything under lock and key.

I can attest that what was published in 2000 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith corresponds exactly to everything of which Msgr. Dell'Acqua kept a photocopy at the time. The facts to which the secret of Fatima refers concern events belonging to the past, but the message of Fatima retains its full validity. It is, in fact, also valid for the men and women of our time.

It is also of great importance for the times in which we live. His appeals are also addressed to us and to our times. For they propose the eternal values of the Gospel to the Church and to the modern world.

Keep the Holy Mother close to you as your divine protector!

Now you know the story of Our Lady of Fatima . Now, the origin of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Fatima to the shepherds is a topic that you can share with other faithful or your loved ones.

To summarize the article, we can say that the Virgin Mary appeared to shepherds in the city of Fatima . During her apparition, she made revelations that were fulfilled over time. Many popes have visited the site where the Virgin Mary appeared.

For Christians who would like to impact their lives positively with the Holy Virgin Mary, we provide you with our various religious articles of the Mother of Jesus. These articles will support you throughout your life and will increase your faith in Mary.