The Miracle Of Fatima.
Lucia’s Interrogation
The Administrator of Ourem in 1917 was Arturo de Oliveira Santos, a blacksmith by trade, and an active anti-Catholic. In Fatima he saw a threat to his authority, and he decided to do something about it.
On August 11, however, he accomplished very little. Simple people were in this section of Portugal, Santos’ authority meant little to them. The fathers of the children reasoned that it was quite a journey from Fatima to Ourem, and that "it was too far for the children to travel.” They decided to ignore the summons.
At the last minute, however, for want of something better to do since it was Saturday, they put Lucia on a donkey and started for Ourem. Naturally, they weren’t in a hurry, and every mile or two they stopped to chat with people along the road. When, finally, they did arrive in the city, the public building was locked. But this did not deter them. If the Administrator wanted to see Lucia, he was going to see her. They hunted him up at his home.
If they thought their delay was going to mellow him, they were badly mistaken. Santos was angry and demanded that Lucia tell him the secret the Lady had given her. Apparently he didn’t know there were two more children involved, because he didn’t even ask about the others. And Ti Marto certainly wasn’t one to offer any free information.
Lucia stood the inquisition alone, refusing to tell Santos anything. He even threatened to have her executed, but this didn’t frighten her. In final desperation, he literally threw her and the two men out of his home.
However, he wasn’t finished. Early on the morning of August 13— the date of the fourth visit of the Lady — he sped toward Fatima in his car.
At the Cova approximately 18,000 people waited for the children. But they never arrived. At noon lightning flashed out of a clear, blue sky and thunder rolled. A small white cloud was seen floating over the holm-oak tree, but it soon disappeared. According to all indications, the Lady had arrived, found the children missing, and left. The people wanted to know what had happened to Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco.
The Administrator alone had the answer. Shortly before the children were to leave for the Cova, Santos arrived in front of Ti Marto’s house. By now he knew there were three children involved, and when he found them at Ti Marto’s, he offered to take them to the Cova in his car.
Children Threatened
When the children refused his offer, he told them Father Ferreira wanted to question them immedi- ately, and that unless they accepted his offer, they could not see the priest and still get to the Cova in time to meet the Lady.
Actually, he was telling the truth. The priest did want to see them. But instead of taking them to the Cova,when the priest had finished with them, Santos whisked them away to Ourem
.For three days he kept them prisoner; part of the time in his home, part of the time in the district jail. He tried every trick he knew to get them to tell him the Lady’s secret message, but he got absolutely nowhere.
By the third day he had had enough. He called in his guards and ordered them to prepare a cauldron of boiling oil in an outer chamber. Then he notified the children that unless they talked, they would be thrown into the kettle.
Little Jacinta, badly frightened, was dragged away first. Next went Francisco, and finally Lucia. But instead of screaming for mercy, they prayed, and the Administrator knew he was defeated.
Instead of harming them, he put them into his car and had them returned to their families. It was August 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven.
Four days later, while the children, heartbroken at having missed the Lady’s visit, were grazing their sheep at a place called Valinhos, she appeared to them again. She repeated her requests for the daily Rosary, penance and sacrifice. And she told the children that because of the Administrator’s actions, the miracle promised for October would not be as striking as it otherwise would have been.
By September 13, news of the apparitions had spread through the entire country and spilled over the borders. There was no holding the people. They filled the homes of the children, begging them to re- quest cures of the Lady and to ask her hundreds of questions.
Crowds Followed
The children often hid so they could be alone with their thoughts and their Rosaries, but to no avail. No matter where they went, someone always found them, and the questions started all over again.
On September 13 — the day of the fifth visit — there were almost 30,000 people in the Cova. They were an orderly group, most of them hoping for something special to happen. But nothing out of the ordinary took place.
The Lady once again stressed the necessity of saying the Rosary to bring about the end of the war. Then suddenly, white roses began to fall from the sky, but before any could reach the earth, they faded away. Already miraculous things for all to see were starting to take place in the hills of Portugal.
One sentence describes what happened in this section of the world on the days immediately preceding October 13 — date of the scheduled miracle. "All roads lead to Fatima.”
Slept On Ground
Thousands walked from the most distant villages. Others came on horseback, some in ox-drawn carts. All carried their meals and slept on the ground at night, because there were no hotels or restaurants. The sick, the crippled, the blind also came. They prayed for a cure.
But it wasn’t only the believers who came. Among the 70,000 gathered in the Cova that day, there were thousands of atheists, scoffers and skeptics, who wanted to be on hand to make sure the children didn’t pull a fake miracle.
There were some who even threatened violence if the whole affair turned out to be a hoax. The elements also seemed to frown on the gathering. In the night of October 12 it started to rain and it continued until noon the next day.
0 D1A, a secular newspaper of Lisbon — one of many with reporters at the scene — had this to say of the eve of the miracle:
"All night long and into the early morning a light, persistent rain fell. It soaked the fields, soddened the air and chilled to the bone the men, women and children and the beasts plodding their way to the hill of the miracle. The rain kept falling, a soft, unending drizzle. Drops trickled down the women’s skirts of coarse wool or striped cotton, making them heavy as lead. Water dripped from the caps and broad-brimmed hats of the men . . . The bare feet of the women and the hobnailed shoes of the men sloshed in the wide pools of the muddy roads. They seemed not to notice the rain.”
By noon the ground in the Cova was a veritable quagmire. A sea of umbrellas covered the crowd, yet, when little Jacinta suddenly cried, "Put down your umbrellas,” the people obeyed and stood patiently in the rain.
Noon arrived, but nothing happened. A rumble of resentment rolled through the crowd. There had been no miracle.
Matters were almost out of hand, when Lucia looked toward the leaden sky and exclaimed, "Our Lady is coming.”
A hush fell over the crowd.
"What do you want of me?” Lucia asked the Lady. Fine rain fell on her upturned face, but she didn’t seem to notice.
"Lady Of The Rosary"
"I want you,” the Lady answered, "to tell them to build a chapel here in my honor. I AM THE LADY OF THE ROSARY ! Let them continue to say the Rosary every day. The war is going to end.”
Then the Lady grew more stern. "People must amend their lives, ask pardon for their sins and not offend Our Lord any more , for He is already too much offended ”
With this pronouncement she opened her hands, and wonderful things began to happen.
The rain suddenly stopped and the clouds parted like giant curtains opening on a gigantic stage. The sun, hidden until now, shone like a ball of white fire against a background of beautiful blue.
Despite its intensity and splendor, the people were able to gaze at it without the least discomfort. For several seconds nothing happened. Then as people watched, the shining disc began to spin.
Round and round it went like a giant pinwheel. Its pace was sickening, and when it seemed that it would spin off its axis, it stopped. But not for long. Again it started to whirl. Round and round it went, faster and faster. A crimson border appeared around its edges, and blood-red streamers started to feel their way across the sky until the entire heavens were filled with fiery fingers of light.
The people, the animals, the trees, the earth — all were red. Then the color started to change — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. All the colors of the spectrum were revealed.
Three times the strange phenomenon was repeated. Then the sun seemed to shudder, and started falling from the sky.
Nearer and nearer it came, staggering "drunkenly” as it neared the earth. "It’s the end of the world,” shrieked one woman.
Cries of terror went up from everyone. Many, who had come to jeer, were on their faces in the mud, grovelling before the might of Heaven. Others were on their knees crying to God for mercy. And some, too frightened to speak, simply knelt or lay in the mud waiting for the end.
There were not many in the Cova who didn’t pray that day. And the prayer on the lips of most was an act of sorrow for their sins. Like people on their death-beds, regardless of their attitude toward God up to that moment, they now were sorry, and prayed for another chance to prove it.
For nearly ten minutes the miracle continued. Then the sun started to climb again, and finally resumed its normal position. Only now the people in the Cova couldn’t look at it any longer. It was dazzling bright; the ordinary noontime sun of any ordinary day.
The miracle of Fatima had taken place as promised.