Our Last Hope
The Immaculate Heart of Fatima
Maureen Elizabeth Plass
Issue date: 4/28/09 Section: Features
Local anti-religious factions became uneasy as the apparitions attracted large numbers of visitors to the pasture near Fatima. On the thirteenth of August several thousand people waited for the children to arrive before the apparition. At the usual time they saw and heard the thunder and lightning that preceded the Lady's appearance, however, the children did not come. The crowd saw a small white cloud above the tree. After a few minutes the cloud disappeared. The mayor of nearby Ourém had arrested the children in an attempt to discredit the apparitions. He threatened them one by one with death, hoping that they would reveal the secret which they had received from the Lady. Frustrated after two days, he released them again. They had missed the promised apparition, but the Lady came on August 15, repeating her messages of prayer and penance.
At the apparition September, the crowd was so large that the children had difficulty walking to the tree. The Lady reminded them that she would work a spectacular public miracle in October, and repeated her previous requests. "Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Carmel. Saint Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices."
On October 13, more than 70,000 spectators gathered in the rain-soaked pasture, waiting for the miracle. The Lady appeared and told Lucia to have a chapel built at that location in her honor. She said that her name was the "Lady of the Rosary." The children saw Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary under her titles of Sorrows and of Carmel. Lucia called to the crowd to look at the sun. Eyewitnesses, who could not see the heavenly apparitions, described the sun as a shining silver disk that began to spin around in the sky. Everything in the field changed colors like a kaleidoscope. Then suddenly the sun moved in a zigzag pattern towards the terrified spectators. After ten minutes, the sun was in its usual position and the crowd noticed that their soaking clothes were completely dry and warm. In Lisbon, the chief editor of the usually anti-clerical paper O Seculo, described the event in great detail and included photographs. Mario Godinho was an engineer who also witnessed the miracle. "From those thousands of mouths I heard shouts of joy and love to the Most Holy Virgin. And then I believed. I had the certainty of not having been the victim of a suggestion. I had seen the sun as I would never see it again."
At the apparition September, the crowd was so large that the children had difficulty walking to the tree. The Lady reminded them that she would work a spectacular public miracle in October, and repeated her previous requests. "Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Carmel. Saint Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices."
On October 13, more than 70,000 spectators gathered in the rain-soaked pasture, waiting for the miracle. The Lady appeared and told Lucia to have a chapel built at that location in her honor. She said that her name was the "Lady of the Rosary." The children saw Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary under her titles of Sorrows and of Carmel. Lucia called to the crowd to look at the sun. Eyewitnesses, who could not see the heavenly apparitions, described the sun as a shining silver disk that began to spin around in the sky. Everything in the field changed colors like a kaleidoscope. Then suddenly the sun moved in a zigzag pattern towards the terrified spectators. After ten minutes, the sun was in its usual position and the crowd noticed that their soaking clothes were completely dry and warm. In Lisbon, the chief editor of the usually anti-clerical paper O Seculo, described the event in great detail and included photographs. Mario Godinho was an engineer who also witnessed the miracle. "From those thousands of mouths I heard shouts of joy and love to the Most Holy Virgin. And then I believed. I had the certainty of not having been the victim of a suggestion. I had seen the sun as I would never see it again."
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