“Pray, pray much, and sacrifice for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to sacrifice and pray for them.”
(Our Lady of Fatima to St. Jacinta and Servant of God, Lucia)
Beginning in early 1917, three small children from Fatima, Portugal began receiving apparitions of an Angel on a hillside near their poor village. On May 13, 1917, the children were visited by "the Lady more brilliant than the Sun", who conveyed to them visions and secrets over the next six months, on the 13th day of each month. Local authorities believed the stories of the children were politically motivated, after the secular, anti-clerical First Portuguese Republic came into power in 1910.
In short, Our Lady came to Lucia dos Santos, Francisco Marto, and Jacinta Marto, with three messages of imminent and apocalyptic import.
As there is a plethora of information regarding Our Lady of Fatima, and the scope of this event is too great to capsulize on this page, we invite you to visit EWTN's site dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Apparitions, celebrated in 2017, for a deeper dive into all that took place.
We also invite you to visit America Needs Fatima, who sponsors annual Rosary Rallies across the United States, including at Sacred Heart.