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Fatima. Historical dates Apparitions. Fatima Apparition. 13 May 1917

Fatima. Apparitions of the Angel (1915—1916)

From the Fourth Memoir (1941-12-08)

Apparitions of the Angel

Although I cannot give the exact date, it seems to me that it was in 1915 that the first Apparition took place. As far as I can judge, it was the Angel, although at that time he did not venture to make himself fully known. From what I can recall of the weather, I think that this must have happened between the months of April and October in the year 1915.

My three companions from Casa Velha, by name Teresa Matias and her sister Maria Rosa, and Maria Justino, were with me on the southern slope of the Cabeço. We were just about to start praying the Rosary when I saw, poised in the air above the trees that stretched down to the valley which lay at our feet, what appeared to be a cloud in human form, whiter than snow and almost transparent. My companions asked me what it was. I replied that I did not know. This happened on two further occasions, but on different days.

This Apparition made a certain impression upon me, which I do not know how to explain. Little by little, this impression faded away, and were it not for the events that followed, I think I would have forgotten it completely.

The dates I cannot set down with certainty, because, at that time, I did not know how to reckon the years, the months, or even the days of the week. But I think it must have been in the spring of 1916 that the Angel appeared to us for the first time in our Loca do Cabeço.

As I have already written in my account of Jacinta, we climbed the hillside in search of shelter. After having taken our lunch and said our prayers, we began to see, some distance off, above the trees that stretched away towards the east, a light, whiter than snow, in the form of a young man, transparent, and brighter than crystal pierced by the rays of the sun. As he drew nearer, we could distinguish his features more and more clearly. We were surprised, absorbed, and struck dumb with amazement.

On reaching us, he said:

“Do not be afraid. I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.”

Kneeling on the ground, he bowed down until his forehead touched the earth. Led by a supernatural impulse, we did the same, and repeated the words which we heard him say:

“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You!”

Having repeated these words three times, he rose and said:

“Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.”

Then he disappeared.

The supernatural atmosphere which enveloped us was so intense, that we were for a long time scarcely aware of our own existence, remaining in the same posture in which he had left us, and continually repeating the same prayer. The presence of God made itself felt so intimately and so intensely that we did not even venture to speak to one another. Next day, we were still immersed in this spiritual atmosphere, which only gradually began to disappear.

It did not occur to us to speak about this Apparition, nor did we think of recommending that it be kept secret. The very Apparition itself imposed secrecy. It was so intimate, that it was not easy to speak of it at all. The impression it made upon us was all the greater perhaps, in that it was the first such manifestation that we had experienced.

The second Apparition must have been at the height of summer, when the heat of the day was so intense that we had to take the sheep home before noon and only let them out again in the early evening.

We went to spend the siesta hours in the shade of the trees which surrounded the well that I have already mentioned several times. Suddenly, we saw the same Angel right beside us.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Pray! Pray very much! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High.”

“How are we to make sacrifices?” — I asked.

“Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. You will thus draw down peace upon your country. I am its Angel Guardian, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission, the suffering which the Lord will send you.”

These words were indelibly impressed upon our minds. They were like a light which made us understand who God is, how He loves us and desires to be loved, the value of sacrifice, how pleasing it is to Him and how, on account of it, He grants the grace of conversion to sinners. It was for this reason that we began, from then on, to offer to the Lord all that mortified us, without, however, seeking out other forms of mortification and penance, except that we remained for hours on end with our foreheads touching the ground, repeating the prayer the Angel had taught us.

It seems to me that the third Apparition must have been in October, or towards the end of September, as we were no longer returning home for siesta.

As I have already written in my account of Jacinta, we went one day from Pregueira (a small olive grove belonging to my parents) to the Lapa, making our way along the slope of the hill on the side facing Aljustrel and Casa Velha. We said our Rosary there and the prayer the Angel had taught us at the first Apparition.

While we were there, the Angel appeared to us for the third time, holding a chalice in his hands, with a host above it from which some drops of blood were falling into the sacred vessel. Leaving the chalice and the host suspended in the air, the Angel prostrated on the ground and repeated this prayer three times:

“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.”

Then, rising, he once more took the chalice and the host in his hands. He gave the host to me, and to Jacinta and Francisco he gave the contents of the chalice to drink, saying as he did so:

“Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Repair their crimes and console your God.”

Once again, he prostrated on the ground and repeated with us three times more, the same prayer “Most Holy Trinity…”, and then disappeared.

Impelled by the power of the supernatural that enveloped us, we imitated all that the Angel had done, prostrating ourselves on the ground as he did and repeating the prayers that he said. The force of the presence of God was so intense that it absorbed us and almost completely annihilated us. It seemed to deprive us even of the use of our bodily senses for a considerable length of time. During those days, we performed all our exterior actions as though guided by that same supernatural being who was impelling us thereto. The peace and happiness which we felt were great, but wholly interior, for our souls were completely immersed in God. The physical exhaustion that came over us was also great.

Sister Lucia's Memoirs. [pdf]
Fourth Memoir. The Story of the Apparitions.

From the Second Memoir (1937-11-21)

The Apparitions
 

1. A Mysterious Presage in 1915

… I therefore chose three companions from among the shepherds, and without saying a word to anyone, we arranged to pasture our sheep on the opposite slopes. These were the three I chose: Teresa Matias, her sister Maria Rosa and Maria Justino.[10] On the following day, we set out in the direction of a hill known as the Cabeço. We went up the northern slope. …

Around midday, we ate our lunch. After this, I invited my companions to pray the Rosary with me, to which they eagerly agreed. We had hardly begun when, there before our eyes, we saw a figure poised in the air above the trees; it looked like a statue made of snow, rendered almost transparent by the rays of the sun.

“What is that?” asked my companions, quite frightened.

“I don’t know!”

We went on praying, with our eyes fixed on the figure before us, and as we finished our prayer, the figure disappeared. As was usual with me, I resolved to say nothing; but my companions told their families what had happened the very moment they reached home. The news soon spread, and one day when I arrived home, my mother questioned me:

“Look here! They say you’ve seen I don’t know what, up there. What was it you saw?”

“I don’t know,” and as I could not explain it myself, I went on:

“It looked like a person wrapped up in a sheet!” As I meant to say that I couldn’t discern its features, I added:

“You couldn’t make out any eyes, or hands, on it.”

My mother put an end to the whole matter with a gesture of disgust: “Childish nonsense!”[11]

2. Apparitions of the Angel in 1916

After some time, we returned with our flocks to the same place, and the very same thing happened again. My companions once more told the whole story. After a brief interval, the same thing was repeated. It was the third time that my mother heard all these things being talked about outside, without my having said a single word about them at home. She called me, therefore, quite displeased, and demanded:

“Now, let us see! What is it that you girls say you saw over there?”

“I don’t know, Mother. I don’t know what it is!”

Some people started making fun of us. My sisters, recalling that for some time after my First Communion I had been quite abstracted, used to ask me rather scornfully:

“Do you see someone wrapped in a sheet?”

I felt these contemptuous words and gestures very keenly, as up to now I had been used to nothing but caresses. But this was nothing, really. You see, I did not know what the good Lord had in store for me in the future.

Around this time, as I have already related to Your Excellency, Francisco and Jacinta sought and obtained permission from their parents to start taking care of their own flock. So I left my good companions, and I joined my cousins, Francisco and Jacinta, instead. To avoid going to the serra with all the other shepherds, we arranged to pasture our flocks on properties belonging to my uncle and aunt and my parents.

One fine day, we set out with our sheep for some land that my parents owned, which lay at the foot of the eastern slope of the hill that I have already mentioned. This property was called Chousa Velha. Soon after our arrival, about midmorning, a fine drizzle began to fall, so fine that it seemed like mist. We went up the hillside, followed by our flocks, looking for an overhanging boulder where we could take shelter. Thus it was for the first time that we entered this blessed hollow among the rocks. … We ate our lunch and said our Rosary. I’m not sure whether we said it that day in the way I have already described to Your Excellency, saying just the word Hail-Mary and Our-Father on each bead, so great was our eagemess to get to our play! Our prayer finished, we started to play ‘pebbles’!

We had enjoyed the game for a few moments only, when a strong wind began to shake the trees. We looked up, startled, to see what was happening, for the day was unusually calm. Then we saw coming towards us, above the olive trees, the figure I have already spoken about.[12] Jacinta and Francisco had never seen it before, nor had I ever mentioned it to them. As it drew closer, we were able to distinguish its features. It was a young man, about fourteen or fifteen years old, whiter than snow, transparent as crystal when the sun shines through it, and of great beauty. On reaching us, he said:

“Do not be afraid! I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.”

Kneeling on the ground, he bowed down until his forehead touched the ground, and made us repeat these words three times:

“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You.”

Then, rising, he said: “Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.”

His words engraved themselves so deeply on our minds that we could never forget them. From then on, we used to spend long periods of time, prostrate like the Angel, repeating his words, until sometimes we fell, exhausted. I warned my companions, right away, that this must be kept secret and, thank God, they did what I wanted.

Some time passed,[13] and summer came, when we had to go home for siesta. One day, we were playing on the stone slabs of the well down at the bottom of the garden belonging to my parents, which we called the Arneiro. (I have already mentioned this well to Your Excellency in my account of Jacinta). Suddenly, we saw beside us the same figure, or rather Angel, as it seemed to me.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “Pray, pray very much! The most holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High.”

“How are we to make sacrifices?” I asked.

“Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. You will thus draw down peace upon your country. I am its Angel Guardian, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission, the suffering which the Lord will send you.”

A considerable time had elapsed, when one day we went to pasture our sheep on a property belonging to my parents, which lay on the slope of the hill I have mentioned, a little higher up than Valinhos. It is an olive grove called Pregueira. After our lunch, we decided to go and pray in the hollow among the rocks on the opposite side of the hill. To get there, we went around the slope, and had to climb over some rocks above the Pregueira. The sheep could only scramble over these rocks with great difficuity.

As soon as we arrived there, we knelt down, with our foreheads touching the ground, and began to repeat the prayer of the Angel: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You…”, I don’t know how many times we had repeated this prayer, when an extraordinary light shone upon us. We sprang up to see what was happening, and beheld the Angel. He was holding a chalice in his left hand, with the Host suspended above it, from which some drops of blood fell into the chalice.[14] Leaving the chalice suspended in the air, the Angel knelt down beside us and made us repeat three times:

“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.”

Then, rising, he took the chalice and the Host in his hands. He gave the Sacred Host to me, and shared the Blood from the chalice between Jacinta and Francisco,[15] saying as he did so:

“Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men! Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.”

Once again, he prostrated on the ground and repeated with us, three times more, the same prayer “Most Holy Trinity…” and then disappeared.

We remained a long time in this position, repeating the same words over and over again. When at last we stood up, we noticed that it was already dark, and therefore time to return home.


[10] All three, while still living, were interviewd by Fr. Kondor about what Lucia relates here.
[11] These indistinct apparitions of the Angel were probably meant to prepare Lucia for the future.
[12] This was the first apparition of the Angel, who appeared three times in 1916.
[13] The second apparition of the same Angel.
[14] The third and last apparition of the same Angel.
[15] Francisco and Jacinta had not yet received their First Communion. However, they never regarded this as a sacramental Communion.

Cross-Examination by Dr. Jose Jorge Goulven (1946-06-30)

‹…›

Question 11 — What exactly was the setting of the third apparition of the angel? What were the positions of the Host and the Chalice? Did the children really take Communion: Lucia, the Host; the cousins, the Chalice?

Answer 11 — The third apparition of the angel was in Cabeco. We were there having a snack and saying the Rosary and the prayer that the angel had taught us at the first apparition. So, as we were there, we saw for the third time, the angel, who approached us, coming over the trees that extended along the eastern side of the hill.

In his left hand he held a chalice. Over it, in his right hand he was holding a host from which was falling some drops of blood into the chalice. When he came to a small rock which was at the entrance to the hollow, he left the chalice and the Host suspended in the air in the same position he had been bringing them in, and kneeling down on the ground, beside us, he bent down to the ground, and said, three times, the prayer:

“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, I adore you most deeply and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the insults, sacrileges and coldness with wich He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Holy Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I implore You the conversion of poor sinners.”

Then he got up; took the chalice and the Host once more into his hands, gave the Host to me, and what was in chalice, he distributed between Jacinta and Francisco, saying at the same time, to each one:

“Take and drink, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, shockingly insulted by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their sins and console your God.”

He prostrated himself once more on the ground, repeated the prayer «Most Holy Trinity» three more times and disappeared. I believe the Communion was real, for I felt the contact of the Host, as in the ordinary Communions.

Question 12 — Is it possible to give the precise dates of these three apparitions of the angel?

Answer 12 — I am not able to be precise about the exact dates, for at that time I was still unable to name the days of the month. I think the apparitions of the angel took place in the spring and summer months of 1916.

‹…›

Documents on Fatima & Memoirs of Sister Lucia.
— 2-nd english edition. — Fatima Family Apostolate , 2000.
Chapter 77. Cross-Examination by Dr. Jose Jorge Goulven
1946-06-30

Links

Bibliography

  • Documents on Fatima & Memoirs of Sister Lucia.
    — 2-nd english edition. — Fatima Family Apostolate, 2000.
  • Воспоминания сестры Лусии о Фатиме. Том I.
    Сост.: Свящ. Луис Кондор SVD.
    — Изд.: Secretariado dos Pastorinhos. — 2-е издание. — ISBN-10: 972-8524-72-2 [pdf]
  • Father Joao de Marchi, I.M.C. Fatima from the Beginning. — 5-th edition. — Fatima, Portugal, 1985.
  • Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol.I, Vol.II, Vol.III
  • Mark Fellows. Sister Lucia: Apostle of Mary's Immaculate Heart.
    — Immaculate Heart Publications. — Buffalo, New York, 2007.

       
     
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