Saint of the week: Our Lady of Fatima
- Aimee Boudreaux MacIver
- May 13
- 4 min read
Famine, pandemic, political turmoil, economic crisis, war: history is littered with sorrow and suffering. But what if changing the world could be accomplished in only fifteen minutes a day? To avert disasters and horrors, would we seriously commit to those fifteen minutes?
On May 13, 1917, in a little cove in rural Portugal, 7-year-old Jacinta Marto; her brother, Francisco; and their cousin, Lucia Santos, were tending sheep when they saw a quick succession of bright flashes. Even though the sky stretched blue and clear overhead, the children could only conclude that the flashes must be lightning, so they began rounding up the flock and looking for shelter under some dense trees. But then they saw her: a mysterious, sublimely beautiful young woman “more brilliant than the sun.”
The radiant Lady said, “Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you! I am from Heaven. Come here for six months in succession, on the thirteenth day at this same hour. Then I will tell you who I am, and what I want. And afterwards I will return here a seventh time.”
Like other Marian visionaries before them, the children did not know fully who she was or why she had come—they only knew that they could not resist her beauty and tenderness. When the Lady asked them to pray the rosary for the end of wars, they immediately obeyed. They agreed not to tell anyone what they had seen, but little Jacinta spilled the secret to her mother as soon as they left the fields.
The next six months became a crush of public scrutiny, controversy, interrogation, overwhelming attention, and even custody battles. But the children could not be shaken from their firm faith in the beautiful Lady. As she always does, the Blessed Mother called for prayer and repentance of sins, and asked the children to promote the daily recitation of the rosary for peace and the aversion of consequence for mankind’s most terrible sins.
Massive crowds began showing up at Cova da Ira to witness the potential spectacle. But the children had no interest in attention, especially after a glimpse of hell that Our Lady permitted them to witness. Though so very young, they began offering whatever sacrifices they could think of to save souls. Though so very young, they lived with the urgency of actually believing that eternity was at stake.
In October 1917, a huge crowd followed the children to the cove. Skeptical journalists and city officials had come, too, to debunk what they believed was a pious hoax. But the newspaper photos that day captured something beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.
As the children visited with Our Lady, an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 witnesses reported seeing “the miracle of the sun,” a phenomenon in which the sun appeared to zig-zag and spin while changing colors, then plummet toward the earth before reversing back to its normal position.
Many of the crowd, including skeptics, were profoundly shaken and unable to dismiss what their own eyes had seen: the sun swathed in scarlet flames and aureoled in violet and yellow. The Lady revealed herself to be the Queen of Heaven. Conversions flowered.
Yet Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia insisted that ordinary prayer and sacrifice were far more powerful in changing things than sensational sights. Pray the rosary every day for conversions and peace in the world, they urged everyone. Offer up whatever sacrifices you can to avert war and disaster. Our Lady asks for this. The whole world depends upon this. Fifteen minutes of the daily rosary could accomplish more for the world than newspaper photos of the sun dancing.
Very soon after the visions, Jacinta and Francisco died in the Spanish influenza epidemic. Lucia became a nun and lived until 2005, finally joining her cousins in heaven at age 97. In 1944, Sr. Lucia wrote down the three secrets of Fatima. In 2000, Pope John Paul II released the third secret: it prophesied an assassination attempt against some future pope. In 1981, nineteen years before he released the secret, Pope John Paul II had indeed survived an assassination attempt—which occurred on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
Our Lady asked three shepherd children to pray a daily rosary and offer up routine inconveniences in order to end war and avert horrors, and they took her seriously, at her word. What about you and me? When we look at the world around us with all its tragedy and strife, it’s easy to think there’s nothing we can really do about it. But we can do the same thing that three shepherd children did a hundred years ago: Pray the rosary. Offer up discomfort, unpleasant duties, traffic.
We often hear, “You’ll be in my thoughts” or “I’m thinking of you” when hard things strike. These words may be a warm comfort, but they are not efficacious. Prayer and sacrifice are. Prayer and sacrifice change things. The Queen of Heaven has promised that these smallest gifts will be magnified in Heaven, and through them, we can change the course of history.
The Feast of Our Lady of Fatima is May 13.
Images 1, 2, 3, 4: public domain. Image 5: source.
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