Our Lady of Fatima, 13th for Vigils. from The Dancing Sun by Desmond Seward

Memo: Dom Columban Mulcahy, ocso, the first Abbot, 1950(?) traveled to Liverpool to get the statue of Our Lady of Fatima from the boat. He carried the statue on his lap on the train to Edinburgh. In many years the Fatima statue was in the Chapel in the Guest House. Now it is beside the Sacristy Liturgy books.
                                                                                                                                                 

 

Our Lady of Fatima, 13^th  for Vigils

Fatima is in central Portugal, in the diocese of Leiria, and not far from the great abbeys of Alcobaca and Batalha. At the time of the apparitions, it was a hamlet near the large, straggling village of Aljustrel. Although admittedly more inspiring than the flat fields of Hriushiw, the country round about lacks the dramatic beauty of the mountain settings of Medjugorje, Turzovka or Garabandal; the ground is stony and the soil red, dotted with olive trees and evergreen holm-oaks. About a mile from Fatima there is a saucer­shaped depression called the Cova da Iria - the dell of Iria or Irene. Three peasant children were tending sheep here on 13 May 1917; Lucia dos Santos, aged ten, with her cousins Francisco Marto, eight, and his sister Jacinta, seven. They all lived at Aljustrel, their parents being small farmers.

They were saying the Rosary, as their mothers had told them

to, mumbling the prayers so as to finish it quickly. Suddenly there

was what seemed to be a flash of lightning and they began to go

home, fearing a thunderstorm. There was another flash, then they saw a Lady dressed in white, standing on a small holm-oak. In Lucia's words, 'She was more brilliant than the sun.' 'Where are you from?' asked Lucia. 'Heaven,' was the answer. The Lady told the children that she wanted them to come to the same spot on the thirteenth day of the month for six months, at the same time. In response to further questions, she said that both the girls would go to heaven but Francisco must say many Rosaries before doing so. One of their friends who had just died was already there - another would have to stay in purgatory till the end of the world.

 

Our Lady of Fatima & the children

       At first the two younger children were unimpressed by the apparition. 'Throw a stone at it/ said Francisco. 'Give her some bread and cheese,' suggested Jacinta. But they changed their minds after she started speaking to Lucia, and knelt down. She opened her hands and light poured into the three. When -she left, the intense light streaming from her seemed to open a path in the sky before her as she disappeared into space.

The children agreed to keep the vision a secret, but Jacinta told her mother and soon the story was all over Aliustrel. They were laughed at by their families. Despite the jeering, they sneaked back to the Cova da Iria on 13 June. The Lady came again, preceded by the same flashes of light, repeating her instructions. She also promised to take Jacinta and Francisco to heaven quite soon though Lucia must stay behind.

After this the parish priest suggested to Lucia that the visions came from the Devil. She was so frightened that she wanted to stay away from the Cova but the other children begged her to go with them on 13 July. Her mother and her uncle came too, with a crowd of several thousand .. The sun seemed to glow a little less brightly, then Lucia said that the Lady was appearing. This time she told the children to say the Rosary every day, for peace and for an end to the Great War; they must also pray to Our Lord, 'to save us from the fires of hell'. In October she would tell them who she was and what she wanted' from them above all. Meanwhile she confided a 'secret'. Lucia was seen to turn pale by those near her. (We now know from Lucia that she was witnessing a terrible vision of hell.)

Lucia pleaded with the Lady to work a miracle, to convince everybody that she really was appearing. The poor girl had good reason to want one; until August her mother beat her black and blue, often with a broomstick, for telling lies. At school Francisco was being scolded by his teacher and bullied by the other boys. The children's parents were alarmed because the authorities were beginning to take an interest.

From The Dancing Sun
by Desmond Seward,

pp., 162-164.

Sacristy vestibule