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| Image: Virgin of Fatima, in the Church of Santa Maria, Miranda de Ebro, Burgos, Spain. |
On the 13th of May 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children while they were with their sheep in Fatima, Portugal. The three children were Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta. They described her as “brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun.” She told them she was “Our Lady of the Rosary” and taught them to recite the rosary daily, to pray for the conversion of poor sinners, to make sacrifices as penance for the reparation for sin and in honour of Her Immaculate Heart. She prophesied the World Wars, and showed them a vision of Hell, as well as warning them about the spread of ideological errors originating from Russia. She asked that Russia be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart by the Pope in union with the world’s bishops. She appeared in Fatima every 13th day of the month from May to October that year. In the final apparition, tens of thousands of people witnessed the “Miracle of the Sun” by both believers and unbelievers.
