October 4, 2017 // Special

100th Anniversary of Fatima apparitions

Todays Catholic

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to three shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal. The Blessed Mother appeared once each month to the children from May 13 until Oct. 13, 1917.

October 13, 1917

The sixth apparition:
The great miracle Our Lady had predicted

The prediction of a public miracle caused intense speculation throughout Portugal, and the journalist Avelino de Almeida published a satirical article on the whole business in the anti-religious newspaper O Seculo. People from other parts of the country descended by the tens of thousands on Cova de Iria, despite the terrible storm that lashed the mountain country around Fatima on the eve of the 13th. Many pilgrims walked barefooted, reciting the rosary as they went, all crowding into the area around the cova. By mid-morning the weather again turned bad and heavy rain began to fall.

The children reached the Holm oak around noon, then saw a flash of light as Mary appeared before them. For the last time, Lucia asked what she wanted: “I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honor. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.”

Again, Lucia made requests for cures, conversions and other things. Our Lady’s response was: “Some yes, but not others. They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins.”

Sister Lucia tells us that at this point Mary grew very sad and said: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.” Then, opening her hands, she made them reflect on the sun and, as she ascended, the reflection of her own light continued to be projected on the sun itself. After she disappeared, as the people witnessed the great miracle which had been predicted, the children saw the visions foretold during the September apparition.

The greatest miracle to occur since the Resurrection is also the only miracle ever precisely predicted as to date, time of day and location. Although it is popularly known as “The Miracle of the Sun,” and Oct. 13, 1917, has come to be known as “The Day the Sun Danced,” a great deal more took place. The solar phenomena included the dancing of the sun, its fluctuations in color, its swirling and its descending toward the earth. There were also the stillness in the leaves of the trees in spite of howling winds, the complete drying of the rain-soaked ground, and the restoration of clothes all wet and covered with mud so that, as eyewitness Dominic Reis put it, “they looked as though they had just come back from the cleaners.” Physical cures of the blind and the lame were reported. The countless unreserved public confessions of sin and commitments to conversion of life attest to the authenticity of what they saw.

The miracle is reported to have been seen from as far as 15-25 miles away, thus ruling out the possibility of any type of collective hallucination or mass hypnotism. Doubters and skeptics had become believers. Even Avelino de Almeida, who had written satirically before, now reported affirmatively, and stood by his story later in spite of harsh criticism.

The story of Fatima has been provided by the World Apostolate of Fatima, U.S.A., Our Lady’s Blue Army.

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades will celebrate the

Closing Mass of Our Lady of Fatima Centennial Year
at St. Matthew Cathedral, South Bend
Friday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m.

All are welcome.