Santos Luciados

Portuguese child noted for the Miracle of Fatima which occurred on 13 October 1917, 1:30 PM GMT. Near the town of Fatima, Portugal, a small, rural town about 90 miles north of Lisbon, a miracle appeared to three peasant children, Lucia dos Santos and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto. On a spring day in 1916 Lucia, nine, Francisco, eight and his sister Jacinta, six, were tending sheep at Chousa Velha, a grazing field when they were startled by a brilliant light enclosing a young man of great beauty, who said to them that he was the angel of Peace. All three children saw the visions but Francisco could not hear them. Lucia was the only one to converse with the apparitions. The angel appeared again that summer, and in the fall he gave the children the host to eat and the chalice to drink, a sacrament of the Catholic Church. The children were awed and pious and spent long periods praying as the angel had instructed them. On 13 May 1917, shortly after noon, the three were watching the sheep at Cova da Iraia when a radiant form appeared above an old oak tree. She told them she had come from Heaven and instructed the three visionaries to return, once each month for six months. The Lady told the children that She had been sent by God with a message for every man, woman and child living in our century. Between 13 May and 13 October 1917, the vision of Our Lady was always on the 13th of the month with one exception, in August when she appeared to them near the village of Valinhos on August 19. The mayor, in an attempt to stop the events, had the youngsters kidnapped and secluded away but when the crowds demanded the return of the children, he soon released them. At a time when civilization was sickened by war and bloody violence, the Blessed Mother repeated her emphasis on prayer, reparation and consecration during each visit, in return for which She promised that Heaven would grant peace to all the world. She confided Three Secrets to the three child seers in July 1917; the first a vision of hell where the souls go of the unredeemed and the second a prophesy of World War II. The Third Secret was written down by Lucy Dos Santos, the last living Fatima seer, in 1944, and has been in the possession of the Holy See since 1957. At the time that she confided the Fatima Secret to the three seers, the Blessed Virgin also promised that God would work a great miracle the following October "so that all may believe." The event was reported in newspapers around the world, and by 13 October 1917, there were more than 70,000 people gathered in the Cova da Iria, come to witness the miracle. As the Lady was about to leave, she pointed to the sun. Lucy excitedly repeated the gesture, and the people looked into the sky. The sun appeared to spin, casting off a pinwheel of colored lights, and three times in the next 12 minutes, it rushed toward the earth, threatening to extinguish the planet with its brilliance. When it seemed the people would all be destroyed, the miracle ceased and the sun returned to normal. When the people arose from the ground, cries of astonishment were heard on all sides. Their clothes, which had been soaking wet and muddy, now were clean and dry. Many of the sick and crippled had been cured of their afflictions. This event has now become known as "the Miracle of the Sun" and the Catholic Church has accepted it as an historic, physical event. It has officially endorsed the message as "worthy of belief" since 1930, Read less