DCF Seleção, Doc. 80 (= DCF II, Doc. 4)

On the thirteenth of May nineteen hundred and seventeen, it was already night when he arrived at the hamlet, returning from the market at Batalha, and only then did he learn of the events of that day at the Cova da Iria. At home were a brother-in-law and a nephew and all or nearly all of the children, including Francisco and Jacinta, who had already told their Mother what had happened. They were having supper when the mother asked Jacinta again what she had witnessed.

The little girl said that Our Lady had appeared to them, that before that they had seen a flash of lightning, that they feared a thunderstorm was imminent or that it would rain, and they were already getting ready to go away, even going to drive the cattle for that purpose. Francisco, likewise questioned once more by his Mother, said that he too had seen the Lady, that at first he had not seen her, and that the Lady had said she would appear for six months in succession. In June Jacinta asked her Mother not to go to the fair of the thirteenth at Pedreiras, a league from Porto de Mós, so that she could go and see Our Lady. The Mother, hearing this request, said to her: “Ah! you're not going there, Our Lady doesn't appear to you”. To which the little girl replied: – “Yes she does, Our Lady said she would appear and so she will appear.” The Mother retorted: “So you're not going to the feast of Saint Anthony?” “No,” the little girl confirmed, “Our Lady is more beautiful than Saint Anthony”. When they got back from the fair, where they went despite their daughter's request, it was already night, and before reaching home they heard that the little ones had gone to the place and had said they saw Our Lady. There were people who were surprised that they let them go alone. On the thirteenth of July the parents also went to the Cova da Iria, the children going on ahead. A man of the parish named Matias, a barber², on seeing the children's father, called him over to the holm oak where his wife already was. The three seers always went together. At first they remained standing, then they knelt, Lúcia having told people to close the umbrellas that were open because of the sun. Most of the people were behind the seers. And at a certain moment these stood up and then knelt down again. They heard a voice coming from the spot by the holm-oak shrub which said: – “What do you want of me today?” She waited a moment and then said: “So you want nothing of me today?” Lúcia said, and the father heard it: “What I wanted – oh! Our Lady!”, and asked for the cure and conversion of various people, the father not remembering their names.

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Lúcia then added: “she says that not all of them will get better, because some are wicked”. She further declared that the Lady had said that they should all pray the rosary and that the war would soon end. The children were then kneeling; Lúcia got up quickly, her dress billowing out like a balloon, and said, pointing: “Look over there, if you want to see her” – and immediately added: “You're already too late”. She was facing almost to the west and turned towards the east to point to the Lady, who was withdrawing. It was very hot and soon afterwards the weather turned cool. As soon as they stood up, many people asked questions, took twigs from the holm-oak shrub and questioned the children. The father picked Jacinta up in his arms to get through the crowd more easily. She said she had seen Our Lady again. Some days later, the eldest daughter, Florinda, said that Jacinta had said to Lúcia: “Speak to her, Lúcia, she's already talking”. On the thirteenth of August he went to the field to fetch maize, intending to go to the place at the proper hour, and learned, when he was already on the threshing floor, from Florinda³, that the administrator had meanwhile arrived at his house. It was not yet ten o'clock. He went straight back home and found the administrator and a priest⁴ whom he did not know. The administrator asked: “Well, Mr Marto, do you know why I've come here today? I want to go up there to the Cova da Iria, to the Miracle, I want to go and see. I'm like Saint Thomas: seeing is believing”. Manuel Marto said: “You do well, Mr Administrator”. The latter declared that he would take the children in his carriage. They were still out with the cattle. Marto asked his wife to call them, because it was time. She did not get to call them, but they came with the cattle. Lúcia, learning that the administrator was at her uncle and aunt's house, went there at once, and he, as soon as he saw her, told her that he would take them in the carriage, to which she replied that they would not go by carriage. The little girl went back home and then came with her father. On that occasion there was talk of a secret. As the road had not been built, the carriage waited at a crossroads. The administrator said that in that case he would wait for them at Fátima to ask them some questions at the house of the parish priest.

The parents of the three children went to the parish priest's house, the administrator not yet being there; he arrived shortly afterwards. They all stayed on the veranda. Only Lúcia was called inside to be questioned by the parish priest in the presence of the administrator.

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After the interrogation, the administrator invited the children to come down the steps of the veranda and get into the trap in which he had come, drove round the church and fled to Vila Nova de Ourém. Jacinta's father then went on to the Cova da Iria, astonished at the administrator's departure. At the Cova da Iria, after talking with various people, he clearly heard a loud bang followed by dust and mist. The people fled. Almost everyone took off their hats, cried out to Our Lady and were very happy, saying that they had stolen the children, it was true, but that Our Lady had manifested herself. He also saw a sort of luminous globe turning in the clouds. There seemed to be a haze around the holm-oak shrub after the bang. The people complained not only about the administrator but also about the parish priest, saying that he too was to blame. Lúcia's uncle, António da Silva⁵, wanted that afternoon to go and demand an explanation from the parish priest, believing him guilty, but he did not turn up. Jacinta's father went to see the parish priest, supposing that he knew something about the children. He then went back home with his brother-in-law. The people went on talking against the parish priest, asserting that it was he who was to blame for the abduction of the children. The administrator brought the little ones back on Wednesday the 15th, after Mass, at about eleven o'clock. On Saturday the eleventh, the parents of Lúcia and of Jacinta had been summoned to Ourém, only the fathers and Lúcia going. First they called Lúcia and the parents. Then they called Jacinta's father. The father answered that he had not brought her, because, being so small, she could not go on foot, nor could she ride a donkey. The administrator retorted: “So you're disobeying?!” “No, because here I am,” Manuel Marto stressed. Later, when he came to bring them back to Fátima, he told him that he had already intended to arrest the children on that day. As soon as he arrived he took the children to the parish priest's house. He declared that people were accusing the regedor and the parish priest of the abduction of the children, but that he alone was to blame, that they could ask the children whether they had been ill-treated, and that he no longer wanted anything to do with it, that they could go to the place as often as they liked. What is certain, however, is that on the way back from Ourém he had already told the children that he would arrest them again if they went to the Cova da Iria once more.

When the administrator took the road to Ourém, Lúcia and Jacinta told him that the Cova da Iria was not in that direction, to which he replied in these terms: “I'm taking you to the house of the parish priest of Ourém

who wants to question you, and afterwards you'll come by motor car, you'll still arrive in time”. As soon as they arrived, they asked him to take them to the parish priest's house, but the administrator said that first they must eat, to which they agreed.

On the nineteenth of August, on arriving home, after passing through Valinhos, private property of António Ferreira Rosa, on his way to a field of his, he heard that Our Lady had appeared that day at that spot. His wife and Jacinta arrived and he asked his daughter what had happened, and she said that Our Lady had appeared; that those who had gone with the cattle were João, Lúcia and Francisco, that João had called her and that, as soon as she got there, Our Lady appeared, and that Our Lady of Sorrows (so it seems to him), Our Lady of the Rosary, Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus would appear.

On the thirteenth of September he also went to the Cova da Iria. He was some distance from the children. He saw nothing and heard nothing, but heard it said that some people had seen extraordinary things in the sky. He heard the children say that Our Lady would say in October what she wanted and would work a miracle so that all the people would believe. From the thirteenth of September the visits to his house were numerous. On the thirteenth of October it was raining. They advised him not to go because they might do him harm, although they would not do it to the children, since they were children. He went in their company. There were then many people at the place, which had turned into an enormous quagmire. He heard Jacinta shout that they should not crush her. Lúcia said: “She's here!” The people asserted that they saw colours in the sun and in the sky. The sun did not hurt the eyes at all. He heard no voice. He heard it said, either by Lúcia or by other people, that Our Lady wanted Our Lord not to be offended any more, since He was very much offended, and that the war was going to end.

2. Olímpia de Jesus, fifty-four years old, married for the second time to Manuel Pedro Marto, by whom she had seven children (having two more, still living and married, from her first marriage⁷), only two of them being alive at present⁸; she was born and lives in Aljustrel, parish of Fátima. She was on her way back to that hamlet on the thirteenth of May nineteen hundred and seventeen, after sunset, already at night, from the market held every Sunday at Batalha. When she got home Jacinta, very happy, threw her arms around her, which she did not usually do, and said: “Oh mother, today I saw Our Lady at the Cova da Iria”. The mother retorted: “I don't believe it; you're a fine saint to be seeing Our Lady”. The little girl looked a little sad and insisted: “Believe it, mother”. She was then seven years old. This took place still in the street at the door of the house. They went in and at once she said: “Mother, I'm going to pray the rosary with Francisco, because that is what Our Lady told us to do”. The mother let them go and pray. After they had prayed, the child turned to her mother and said: “Mother, you have to pray the rosary every day”. “That's not the custom,” the mother observed, “so am I to pray the rosary now?!” “Pray, mother, pray!” the daughter replied insistently. Seeing that the children went on praying the rosary every day, whether out with the cattle or at home, the parents resolved to pray it too every day together with the whole family. And if on some day this devotion was left undone for some unusual reason, she would be sad and say in a hurt voice: “Mother, I've already prayed the rosary and you haven't prayed it yet”. The mother, with little faith in the reality of the apparitions, waited for the thirteenth of June. To a question from the parents on this point, the little girl answered that Our Lady had said that they should go there for six months on the thirteenth and she would appear to them, and that they should pray the rosary. The seers understood that this recitation should be done every day. Our Lady said that they should pray the rosary, that they should spread it throughout the world and that God was very much offended. Francisco said that he saw the Lady moving her lips, opening her hands and closing them, but did not hear her words. Jacinta said that the Lady spoke only with Lúcia. Lúcia said that she saw a very beautiful woman, with a radiance about her head that was blinding. At the beginning of the apparition, when Lúcia said she was seeing Our Lady,

Francisco, seeing nothing, advised his cousin to throw a stone at it, and Lúcia said to the Lady: – “So you are Our Lady from Heaven and Francisco doesn't see you?” – The Lady had already told her that she was from Heaven. Our Lady said to Lúcia: “Tell him to pray the rosary and he will see me”. The boy told how he then put his hand into his waistcoat pocket, where he had his beads, and began to pray, and when he had prayed six or seven Hail Marys he could already see the Lady and could pray no more. At the moment when he could already see her, he noticed that the sheep were starting to go into a wheat field in the lowest part of the Cova da Iria and said he was going to turn them back. He was about to set off when Lúcia said to him: “Oh Francisco, don't go, because Our Lady says the cattle won't eat the wheat”. He then observed: “So the sheep are going right into the wheat and not eating it?!” And he came back. His mother asked him: “After Our Lady left, did the sheep eat the wheat?” He answered: “Ah, if they'd let them, they would have eaten it all”. On 13 June, Olímpia de Jesus and her husband went to a fair, although Jacinta had said the evening before: “Mother, don't go to the fair tomorrow, go to the Cova da Iria, Our Lady is coming there”. And the Mother would not believe it and said to her daughter: “You want to go to Saint Anthony's, you don't want to go to the Cova da Iria!” As if to suggest that it was a pretext for going to the feast. She answered: “Saint Anthony isn't beautiful”. “Why?” the mother asked. “Because Our Lady is more beautiful,” the daughter concluded. “I'm going to the Cova da Iria with Lúcia and Francisco, and if Our Lady says we're to go to Saint Anthony's, then we'll go”. On the evening of the thirteenth, when the mother arrived, they told her that Our Lady had appeared to them again, as on the thirteenth of May, and had told Lúcia that they should go there every month and do penance. The days passed until the thirteenth of July. On these three occasions the mother did not go with the children. She let them go, but was afraid that the people would do them harm, because it was thought that they were deceiving them. One day she even made as if to beat her son and daughter so that they would stop deceiving the people. “I'll beat you,” she said, “because you're deceiving the people and lots of folk are already going there”. The children said that they were not calling anyone there, that whoever wanted to go could go, whoever did not want to need not go, that they were going, that whoever would not believe would suffer punishment and that she, their mother, would suffer too. When Jacinta began to say that she knew a secret communicated by Our Lady, she began to be called to various places, even outside the parish. According to what the little girl said, Francisco did not hear the secret, and it was Lúcia who had told it to him on behalf of Our Lady. Francisco, when asked to reveal the secret, declared that even if they

On the thirteenth of July they went there and told how Our Lady had appeared as in the previous months. On the thirteenth of August the Administrator of the Council arrived at Manuel Marto's house early in the morning, and the wife did not know him. He insisted that they get the little ones, who were out with the cattle, ready to go to the Cova da Iria. Olímpia de Jesus said that it was very early, that they were out with the cattle and did not usually go there until noon. The administrator seemed very anxious, because he wanted the seers to come back earlier. They arrived at almost the usual hour and still did not want to go. The mother had sent for them. Lúcia declared that it was still too early. The administrator told Lúcia that they must come to Fátima, to the parish priest's house, to be questioned, and that from there they would go on in the carriage to the Cova da Iria. And so he deceived them. The three children went in the company of their fathers. The mothers stayed at home. Jacinta's mother learned on the way to the Cova da Iria, where she was heading, that the Administrator had taken the children to Ourém. She then turned back and went to tell her sister-in-law, Lúcia's mother, what had happened. “Oh Maria,” she said, “they've gone and taken the youngsters to the Aldeia!” She smiled and said: “Well, they shouldn't go around lying!” “Oh, what will they do to them there!” exclaimed Jacinta's mother. – “Don't be afraid, they won't eat them there!” said Lúcia's mother. At her sister-in-law's house, when they heard the people shouting, she said: “What can be going on there?” Lúcia's mother looked at the sun and said: “The sun looks different”. The people came and told how signs had been seen in the sun and in the sky.

The children arrived on the morning of the fifteenth of August, when the administrator came to bring them back. He said to the children, in the presence of Jacinta's mother: – “Now you can go to the Cova da Iria as often as you like”. The administrator told Jacinta's father that “they said they saw and heard

extraordinary things because of an illness they had”. The nineteenth was a Sunday. Lúcia was minding the cattle in the company of her cousins, Francisco and João, near Valinhos. They had come shortly before Mass. Jacinta stayed at home so that her mother could clean her head, her brother João going with the sheep instead of her. After a while João turned up at home looking for Jacinta, saying that Lúcia had sent him there to take her. The mother asked: “And what do they want Jacinta there for? Do you think there aren't enough of you already fooling around there?” João then explained: “Lúcia gave me a vintém to come and call her and not tell my mother what it was for”. The mother took hold of João and said: – “Either you tell me what it's for or I won't let you go either”. Then the boy declared that Lúcia had told him that she was already seeing the signs in the Sky, that Our Lady was also appearing that day and that she wanted Jacinta to be there too. The mother said to João: “Go and call Jacinta, who is at her godmother's house, and come this way”. The mother gave this instruction because she wanted to go with the children to see what they would say or do. But they went by another way. As they were slow in coming, she went to look for them at the godmother's house, where she asked where they were. The godmother answered: “Your João was here, he told Jacinta a sort of secret and they ran off up the track by the Talhos road, straight for Valinhos.” Olímpia de Jesus, who wanted to join them, waited a while and finally set off. But by then Francisco and Jacinta were already coming back home, saying that Our Lady had appeared again, but that João had not seen her. When João came home in the evening, his mother asked if he had seen anything. He answered that he saw Lúcia, Francisco and Jacinta on their knees by the holm oak, heard Lúcia speak, and when Lúcia said: – “She's going away now, Jacinta” – he heard a roar like a rocket, but saw nothing. And he added that his eyes even hurt from looking up into the air. He was then eleven years old.

On the thirteenth of September, after the children had left for the Cova da Iria, she went to call her sister-in-law so that the two of them could go in secret, that is, so that nobody would see them. They arrived and stayed on the slope, not going near the children so as not to be seen. When the people shouted that they saw signs, they did not understand what they were saying, but they thought they saw a little smoke rising from the middle of the people near the holm oak. As soon as they noticed that the children were coming away and that the people were following them, Jacinta's mother said: “They're safe, let's go”, and they went back to their homes. She thinks she heard Lúcia say that the Lady had

advised her to learn to read. She and other people questioned Jacinta and Francisco. The little girl was questioned more. Once some very rich ladies came to their house and offered Jacinta various jewels they were wearing if she would tell them the secret. Jacinta said she would not tell it for anything, not even if they gave her the whole world. Even during her last illness her mother would say to her: “I'll despise you and want nothing to do with you if you don't tell me the secret”. And the daughter would reply that she could not tell it. “At least you must tell me whether it's good or bad,” the mother insisted. She would answer that it was good for those who were willing to believe. “Believe in what?” the mother would ask. “In God,” the daughter would conclude. And she added that it was bad for those who would not believe.

On the thirteenth of October the mother went again to the Cova da Iria and stood near the children. Jacinta, as the mother heard, after they had said that Our Lady had already appeared, nudged Lúcia with her elbow and said to her: “Speak to her, Lúcia, Our Lady is already there”. Lúcia drew breath twice, like someone short of air. Then she said: “What do you want of me today?” A few moments later Lúcia said further: “I would like you to make my sick people better.” Then she declared: “Our Lady said she could not make them all better, that they were very wicked”. After a few moments she stood up very quickly and said: “If you want to see her, turn towards the east”. But immediately afterwards she exclaimed: “You can't see her any more”. Once at home Jacinta said to her mother: “Oh mother, I saw her go into Heaven”, and added that it had seemed to her, when she saw her go into Heaven, that her feet were getting caught. Francisco and Jacinta fell ill at the time of the pneumonic influenza and died as a result of that illness. Francisco knew he was going to die, and before dying he said: “Oh mother, look what a beautiful light there is there at our window”. And then he said that he could no longer see it. He gave a kind of smile and lay still, and never breathed again. He was always firm in asserting, even during his illness and close to death, that everything he had said about the apparitions was true. A few days before his death he said that he was sorry to die without receiving Our Lord, because he had never received Communion. He made his first communion as Viaticum on the eve of his death. Jacinta had already made her first communion in the year following the apparitions and afterwards received Communion several times. She died in Lisbon on the 20th (twentieth) of February nineteen hundred and twenty.

3. Maria Rosa, widow of António dos Santos, fifty-five years of age, born in Perulheira and baptised in Reguengo do Fetal, at present living in Aljustrel, had seven children, one dying at birth. They are all older than Lúcia. In the year before the apparitions, she heard her daughter Lúcia and other girls say that they had seen, in another place, a person wrapped in a sheet. She paid no attention to such words. In nineteen hundred and seventeen, on the thirteenth of May, Lúcia said nothing at home about what had happened at the Cova da Iria. The next day, the mother heard some neighbours say that they had asked her daughter what she had seen. She thought they were referring to the year before and was surprised that they should talk about such old things. They said that it had been the day before and that Francisco and Jacinta had told everything at home. Lúcia's mother continued to attach no importance to what was being said. Her two daughters, Maria dos Anjos and Carolina, questioned Lúcia about the events of the previous day and went home and said that their sister really had seen something. Finally, the mother too asked her what she had seen. She said that she saw a very beautiful little woman; that the dress she wore was all white, that to the question – “where she was from” – she had pointed to Heaven saying she was from there, and that, when she asked her whether Francisco, Jacinta and she, Lúcia, would not go to Heaven, the apparition answered yes. The Mother, on hearing these words, exclaimed: “How lucky you are!” The Lady said that she wanted them to go there six months running and that at the end she would say what she wanted. The mother refrained from asking the little girl many questions. She resolved to go to the Cova da Iria, if she saw that she went back there, to watch her in hiding without her seeing, thinking that nobody else would go. But on the thirteenth of June people at once gathered to accompany her, and so she did not go. That day, among the people accompanying her were two women from Boleiros. She let her daughter go. She dressed her better because from there she was going to the feast of Saint Anthony at the parish church. The mother went to the feast to hear Mass. On the way she met a group of five or six people who were going from Fátima to Aljustrel. Thinking they wanted to go to the feast, she said to them: “You're mistaken, the feast is that way”. “We haven't come for the feast,” they retorted, “we've come in search of three children who say they have seen Our Lady”. She was surprised at the answer and asked them where they were from. They said they were from Carrascos. She did not admit to them that she was the mother of one of the children. They asked where the children were.

She answered that they were in Aljustrel and went on to Mass. She grew more and more thoughtful, thinking that she was doing wrong in not going to the place of the apparitions, because they might beat the children for lying, but she did not want to undergo the shame she would be exposed to if there was nothing. The children, as soon as it was all over, went to Fátima. When people were coming out of Mass they were already there, with many people around them. The people said that those who had gone to the Cova da Iria had come back very satisfied, believing that what the children said was true. The people also said that Lúcia, on the way back, had been leading the rosary, at which the mother was surprised, not knowing where she had learned to lead the rosary, since at home everyone prayed the rosary only individually. When later I was able to get near her, she asked her what she had seen. She answered that she had seen the same little woman as the other day. She asked her what she had said. She said that she had said that they should keep going there and that they should learn to read. This suggestion made her unbelieving, because it seemed to her that Our Lady had not come down to earth to tell her to learn to read. Everything became more widely known and the news of the events spread further, the feast, where so many people from outside had gathered, contributing to this. She came back with her daughter to Aljustrel. She was good and humble. She came back with the same cheerfulness as before. After this apparition the little girl had shown her three and a half vinténs in ten-réis coins that had been given to her. A neighbour said: “Well, Lúcia does well to go around spreading these things, because they've already given her five tostões in silver, as she herself declared”. The mother asked her if it was true. The little girl said she had not said that. To which the mother replied: “So a woman of over sixty asserted that you told her that, and you deny it? Whoever makes one basket makes a hundred”. And she beat her, giving her a few slaps with the palm. She cried and kept saying that they had given five tostões to Jacinta but not to her. And Jacinta did in fact turn up with them. She then became convinced that everything the children said was a lie. She went to the parish priest to tell him that what they were about to investigate had already been investigated, since it was all a lie. And she told him what had happened, concluding that it was all a lie. The Parish priest said that she should not beat her daughter or go about frightening her, that he would catch her out lying if she really was a liar. The Parish priest had already questioned her once. On the thirteenth of July the children went back to the Cova da Iria. Her house filled with people. People of all classes accompanied them. Lúcia's mother did not go because the parish priest advised her not to go. On the way back her house also filled with people, who asked her daughter many questions.

Almost every day they came looking for her, so that she could not go and graze the cattle and had to get someone to take her place. The little girl said that the Lady had told her a secret that she could not tell anyone, and that she had asked for some sick people, and that she thinks the Lady said that some would get better and others not. In this month her husband and Lúcia were summoned to Ourém before the administrator.

On the thirteenth of August Lúcia went out in the morning with the sheep, and when she came back the house was already full of people. She meant to go to the Cova da Iria, as in the previous months, but the administrator took her to Ourém, the news of the arrest being told to the mother by her sister-in-law, who, on her way to the Cova da Iria, heard that the administrator had made off with the children. Lúcia's mother was hurt but did not fret, because she knew they would not eat the children, thinking at the same time that if they were lying they deserved some punishment, and that if they were telling the truth Our Lady would defend them. Afterwards, in the afternoon, many people came trying to comfort her, saying that they were now going away more believing, because it was the first day on which the signs appeared. Jacinta's brothers went by bicycle to see what was going on in Ourém and came back saying that they had seen the children playing on the administrator's veranda, and that he was treating them well. The administrator came to bring them back to Fátima on the fifteenth in a carriage and put them on the parish priest's veranda. Lúcia's mother, who was there, came home with her daughter. The children seemed as cheerful as before and ready to play, saying that they had been asked many questions and that a doctor had come to examine them. The administrator said that the people had an illness from having seen signs, and her brother-in-law Marto told him that in that case a great many people were ill.

On the nineteenth, Lúcia came home at night carrying a little branch of holm oak in her hand and said that Our Lady had appeared to her a little before sunset, around the middle of the afternoon, at four o'clock, she having been at home with the cattle at noon. The mother took the branch and noticed that it smelled very sweet. The scent could not be compared with any other scent. She was unbelieving and was somewhat shaken, a little more convinced. Her daughter said that the Lady had said that they should keep going to the Cova da Iria and that she would work a miracle in October at the Cova da Iria, that the soldiers would come back from the war, that Our Lady of Sorrows would come, and other things besides. On the thirteenth of September many people came. Everything happened as on the other occasions. On the thirteenth of October the mother went to the place for the first time, despite the parish priest's advice to the contrary. They went to dress the little girls

at her sister-in-law's house, because a lady from Pombalinho brought some dresses, veils and garlands. Lúcia's mother went with the children. But, as there were so many people going, she lost sight of them. At the Cova da Iria she pushed her way through and ended up right next to them. As people were saying that they would kill them, that they would cut them to pieces, and as on the other hand she would be so sorry if everything ended and she saw nothing, she decided to go. The children said what time the apparition would take place and wanted to go so as to be there at that time. On the last occasion they waited a quarter of an hour by the holm oak before the apparition began. All three were standing. Jacinta's mother was close by. People behind were saying that there would be nothing, because the hour was passing and nothing extraordinary was happening. All three at once gave a cry, an “ai!” Lúcia said: “Here she comes! Be quiet, there's been a flash of lightning”. It had been raining all morning. The holm oak was decorated with ribbons and roses; you could hardly see any of it.

Then Lúcia said: “She's here now”. She spoke aloud. The mother saw nothing. She only noticed the same scent as the little branch from Valinhos, when her daughter said: “She's here now!” Lúcia asked: “What do you want of me today?” She fell silent for a little and then seemed to ask her for a miracle so that all those people would believe. Then she was silent again. A few moments later she told her that she had many requests from many sick people to make to her. She was standing, with hands joined, facing the holm oak. The others were in the same position. Jacinta was in the middle. The other two children said nothing. Lúcia from time to time made as if to raise her eyes and lowered them at once, and when the parish priest later asked her why she did that, she said it was because it was blinding. The two little girls were dressed in a light blue dress and a white veil and had on their heads a garland of white artificial paper flowers. It all lasted a short time. Lúcia finally said: “There she goes, there she goes!... Do you see her?... Look over there!”, pointing with her arm towards the east, which was the direction she was facing and had faced the whole time. Then, naturally when she lost sight of her, she turned her back to the holm oak and, addressing the people behind, said: “Listen, Our Lady said that people should mend their ways and stop offending God, who was already very much offended, and that the war was going to end”. And her sister-in-law Olímpia said: “Oh Lúcia, didn't you ask Our Lady to work a miracle so that all the people would believe?” To this Lúcia answered: “Well, do you want a greater miracle than the war ending?” Lúcia said further that Our Lady had said that they should build a little chapel there, that she was the Lady of the Rosary, that the war would end as soon as she reached Heaven. She turned round again and repeated: “There she is!... Do you see her?... She's just about

to arrive” (The little girl does not remember having told the people to look up, I mean, at the sky, at the sun). It was then that the people began to look up. Lúcia's mother looked and saw the sun three times spinning and coming down, and one could look at it. All the people were looking and shouting. The people were saying: “Look, look!” Lúcia's mother even feared that the children might be ill-treated. A doctor from Torres Novas⁹ picked her daughter up in his arms and made off with her towards the road. The mother did not know whether it was for good or ill. She came to her sister-in-law's house, the house filling with people, and then went to her own house.

who invited them to go there, and not infrequently they turned up there even without being invited. He noticed that the children were like other children, perfectly normal, with their wits about them. They seemed serious to him. He heard something from them about the apparitions, but little, because they talked about it mainly with his wife and nieces, and more than anyone with his wife, who asked them questions. What they said was always the same thing, from what his wife told him. They would never go back on it. He therefore always regarded them as sincere. His wife said one day to Jacinta, in his absence, telling him about it afterwards: “Oh Jacinta, tell me the secret and I'll give you my gold chain”. Francisco was not present; if anyone was, it was Lúcia. Francisco never stayed at his house and went there only once or twice. Jacinta said: “if you give me that holy picture, I'll tell you”. His wife replied: “I can't give it to you, it isn't mine, it's my niece's”. The niece said: “Oh Jacinta, do tell me the secret and I'll give it to you”. To which she answered: “Not even if you gave me the whole world”. Once, when his wife was at their house asking Lúcia questions, Jacinta joined in the conversation and said: “Our Lady came from there (and she pointed to the east) and went there (and she pointed in the direction of the Cova da Iria).” His wife asked Francisco at the Cova da Iria whether he had seen Our Lady and he said no. And she asked him whether he saw her feet. And he said no, that he only saw a very lovely radiance at her feet. Naturally he was referring to the beginning of the first apparition, when he did not yet see her, before he began to pray the rosary.

One day, at the beginning of the apparitions, his wife was going to the Cova da Iria and asked Francisco what he was doing. He said he was making a little wall, and Lúcia and Jacinta were handing him the stones. On that occasion Lúcia said: “There's just been a flash of lightning and we're going to have rain”, and the three children went down the slope, and it was when they reached the Cova that Our Lady appeared to them on top of a holm oak which was stripped bare by the people. The Lady said: “Do not be afraid, for I am from up there, from Heaven”. And it was then that she told them to come there every month and to pray the rosary. Almost every month after May José Alves went there on the thirteenth and saw nothing; he only heard others say that they saw things in the sky. He did not hear the loud bang in August. He often heard it said that a little smoke appeared. He never felt like taking off his hat, but now he never dares to pass by there without taking off his hat and without praying a few Hail Marys. He gave a piece of land for the work, and gave it very gladly, and does not regret having given it.

She learned from her husband and from other people that Lúcia was saying that Our Lady had appeared to her on the thirteenth of May nineteen hundred and seventeen, as well as to her cousins Francisco and Jacinta, around the hour of solar noon.

On the thirteenth of June, before noon, she went to the place of the apparitions, where she found nobody. She went to wait for the children on the road, having heard that they were coming that day. She did not know them, as they were small, but she knew the families. Before her arrival, some women from Boleiros had turned up, who had had to face the mockery of the people of their village. They all joined together, some people from the Torres Novas district coming with the children. They all went on to the place. There they asked Lúcia which was the holm oak on which the Lady had appeared and she pointed to it with her hand. Then they went into the shade of a large holm oak nearby, where they waited for some time. Shortly afterwards, when she was asked whether the Lady would be long, she answered no. A girl

asked that they all pray the litany, Lúcia declaring that there was no longer time. Almost at the same moment she stood up and said that Our Lady was coming, for there had already been the flash of lightning. She ran to the holm oak, knelt down and everyone did as she did. Moments later she asked the Apparition: “You told me to come here; please tell me what you want of me”. She heard a buzzing that came from the holm oak, not understanding a single word of the answer. Lúcia was looking at the holm oak, as were the other two children, all of them with hands joined. The deponent did not quite understand what she then said to the Apparition, but the other people told her that the little girl had asked her whether she wanted anything more of her. Then she said: – “Look! Do you want to see her?... There she goes, there she goes!” Then there was heard a kind of whistling like a rocket when it gathers strength to rise. She looked and saw a cloud of smoke rising from the holm oak and moving off and rising towards the east, the little girl pointing to it. It was also seen very high and very far away. Finally it disappeared from sight. The cloud was a very light mist. The sun was shining and it was very hot, the sky being fairly clear.

Before the apparition, she saw the shoots of the holm oak fresh and very straight. After the apparition the shoots were as if bent over, in a little circle at the top, towards the east, as if the clothes had swept them in that direction. The people began to take twigs from the holm oak, Lúcia urging them not to take them from the top but from the bottom, and the people then took leaves and twigs from the lower part. Finally they performed a short devotion before withdrawing.

This deposition was confirmed on oath by her husband, who arrived at the place of the apparitions shortly before the arrival of the three seers. That deponent, however, added nothing more – I mean, did not add anything more of note.

On the following Sunday she went with her two eldest daughters to pray the rosary by the holm oak. On the Sunday after that only the daughters went back, and by then a few more people had joined them in praying. On Sundays and even on weekdays people were beginning to pray at the place.

She went there also on the thirteenth of July. She had asked Lúcia to let her son João stay near them, to which she agreed. She took a stone and sat down. There were many people, who had begun to come early. When Lúcia said that the Lady was coming, her son slipped and fell. She asked them to pray for him, to which she said that the Lady had said she would make him better or give him the means to earn his living, and that he should always pray the rosary to Our Lady with his family. They were all kneeling. Lúcia said: “Our Lady is coming now”. The same buzzing was heard

when she spoke, and the same rocket-like whistle at her departure. Before the apparition they prayed the rosary. Her husband said that she looked at the Lady and from time to time to the side, and that he asked her why she did that, to which she answered that it was because the radiance she had blinded her eyes. Lúcia asked for the recovery of a person from Pedrógão, for the conversion of a family from Fátima, and for a man from Atouguia who had asked her that Our Lady should take him to Heaven as soon as possible. Afterwards the deponent heard that the little girl had stated that Our Lady had said he should not be in a hurry, for she knew very well when she would take him.

Lúcia also stated that the Lady had told her the secret. At the time of the apparition an ai was heard, and the little girl was frightened. After that day many people came looking for her and asked her the secret. One day some ladies came and one of them asked her whether the secret was good or bad, and she said that for some it was good, for others it was bad, and for her and her cousins it was good.

In August many people gathered. The deponent was present, waiting for the children. At noon it became known that the administrator had taken the children under arrest to Vila Nova de Ourém. The people were grieved and indignant. There was a rumbling near the holm oak which gave the people such a great fright that they all seemed to have gone mad, letting out loud cries and thinking they were dying. Little by little the people withdrew. The deponent saw nothing extraordinary. She picked up some alms to keep them at the request of other people. Nobody – neither Lúcia's parents, to whom the land belonged, nor Jacinta's parents, nor the parish priest – would accept the alms, the latter advising her to keep them until it was seen how the whole thing turned out.

When the children went back to the Cova da Iria, she told them to ask the Lady what was to be done with the money. At Valinhos, when the apparition took place there on the nineteenth of the same month, the little girl did indeed put that question to the Lady, and the Lady said that they should make two litters and take them to the church of Our Lady of the Rosary. Many people were sorry that the money was not to be spent on something to be made at the place, and they told Lúcia to ask permission to build a chapel at the place, permission which the Lady gave on the thirteenth of September, on condition that half of the money on hand be given to Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima. The sum of thirteen thousand five hundred and forty was collected by the thirteenth of September. And what the Lady ordered was carried out.

On the thirteenth of September the deponent went back to the place again. At Valinhos Lúcia asked the Lady, at the deponent's request, whether Our

Lady had appeared to anyone else at the Cova da Iria, and the Lady answered that it was not she but an angel, the figure that Carolina, the deponent's youngest daughter, aged twelve, and a little girl of seven from Espite saw on the twenty-eighth of July near the holm oak, of small stature, very beautiful, with fair hair, a figure which Carolina afterwards saw on top of the holm oak.

On the thirteenth of October, when Lúcia said: “Our Lady is coming now”, one of the deponent's daughters, named Maria, being on top of a stone a metre from the holm oak, on the east side, so as to guard the arch so that the people would not damage it, the girl felt a blow on her face, saw a very beautiful light near her and gave a cry, saying: “Oh! Our Lady!” The deponent looked and saw a star, a ball, not entirely round, like an egg, very beautiful, of the colours of the rainbow but much more vivid, having a tail a metre and a half long of brilliant colours. It passed very quickly and close to the holm oak, and disappeared a hand's breadth from the ground. She saw the sun, which came down a great deal.

After the thirteenth of September she told Lúcia to ask the Lady who she was. The holm oak shook a great deal when she said that the Lady was coming. She heard Lúcia ask: “You gave permission to build the little chapel; now say under what title we are to worship you”. When she stood up after the apparition, she asked her what title she had said, and the little girl said that it was Our Lady of the Rosary. That day Lúcia also said: “Now close your umbrellas,” for Saint Joseph is already coming into the sun, and the Child, to give the blessing, as soon as Our Lady reaches Heaven”. After she said this the sun danced. From then on the crowds became ever greater. Ill-intentioned individuals came from afar to commit an outrage. The people wanted a chapel built. She asked the parish priest to give permission for a little chapel to be built in order to store the alms received in kind, and he gave permission.

In September he hastened his coming because he was anxious to find out properly and to witness what was happening. On the thirteenth of September he went to the Cova da Iria, but saw nothing except a great many people, whom many reckoned at fifty thousand. He was more or less seven metres away from the children, whom he saw arrive in the midst of a great crowd accompanying them, and he saw them kneeling by the holm oak praying the rosary. At a certain moment the people nearby said that everyone should uncover their heads, because the children had ordered it, Our Lady being present. Where he was, everyone uncovered respectfully. Some were standing, others kneeling. Almost everyone knelt when they gave the order. Some people said they had seen a star. Others lamented that they had seen nothing. Afterwards he went to the children's houses, and first to Jacinta's. There he found many people. Some ladies were questioning Jacinta and asking her to pray that the war might end. So he went to Lúcia's house. She and her parents were there. He spoke with the mother. The house too was so full of people that hardly anyone could move there. He then asked the mother about the outcome. The mother answered that her daughter, after the first apparition, came home at night and told her that she had seen Our Lady at the Cova da Iria. She would not believe it, because her daughter was not what she wished her to be, with merits enough to see Our Lady. She wanted to beat her. Lúcia, afraid of her, began to tell people outside what was happening and would not tell her

mother anything more. When her mother found out, she said to her: “So you go around telling people outside that Our Lady appears to you, and you tell me nothing?” The little girl answered: “Well, mother, you wanted to beat me!” Then she asked her daughter how big the Lady was. She said she compared her to a girl from there of fifteen. She was of such beauty that she had never seen the like. A priest from far away asked the father's permission to speak to his daughter, and he said he would not allow it, because he did not believe in the apparitions and they were wearing his daughter out; she was by her father's side, very dejected. He heard that in the end the priest had managed to speak to her after all. Then the deponent went with the father to the house of an aunt of his named Teresa, with whom he wanted to speak, the father accompanying him to show him where she lived. The aunt asked him whether he had seen anything at the Cova da Iria. He answered that he had seen nothing but a white butterfly, to which she said: “There are plenty of those around here; and then, Mr Manuel,” she added, “what will become of us?” “Why?” asked the deponent. “Because people have been passing by here making their comments, threatening and saying that the little ones and their families ought to be prosecuted, because they were deceiving the people.” The deponent spoke to her in this way: “don't worry, because if it is the work of God or of Our Lady, there is no reason to be frightened, because there was not and could not be anything against her”. The father was somewhat worked up, and so he did not speak to him about anything further.

On the thirteenth day of the month of October, when he left Boleiros with other people, it began to rain. His sister was afraid she would not come back, because people said that bombs would be thrown, but he calmed her, saying that if it was Our Lady who appeared there, no harm would come to her, for Our Lady would not allow it. The rain was heavy and the wind blew hard, so that he got quite wet despite carrying an umbrella. So when he reached the parish church he went to the house of a cousin and dried himself. At a certain point in the conversation he had with her, he said to her: “Surely the children won't go there in this rain.” – “They will,” she said, “even if it rains buckets”. Many people were worried about the animals that had carried them, but it is not reported that any harm came to them because of the rain. The rain having passed, at about one o'clock, he set off for the place, and near the road he met a priest from Penacova, who asked him where the place of the apparition was, the deponent pointing out to him the spot where a haze could be seen, a rather dense little smoke, which did not surprise him, as he thought it was incense burned in honour of Our Lady; he was surprised afterwards when they told him that there had been no smoke there at all, that no

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fire of any kind had been made there, not even a match had been struck. Suddenly the priest looks at the sun and says that the sun in eclipse was not like that. The deponent also looked and saw that the sun gave no light; across it ran a white haze; it was a moon without brightness. The sun was to the left, the rest of the sky being overcast. Taking his eyes off the sun, he saw the people a very vivid red; and he exclaimed: “Oh, gentlemen, how red all the people are!” And the priest answered: “could they be red handkerchiefs?” To which he observed: “How can that be? Did they all agree to have red handkerchiefs over their shoulders?!” Then the people appeared the colour of gold. He did not see the rotating movements of the sun. The people at that moment were shouting a great deal, kneeling and with hands raised, crying out to Our Lady, paying no attention to the mud, of which there was a lot, invoking Our Lady again and again. The impression on the people was extraordinary. Since the apparitions he has been to the Cova da Iria several times on the thirteenth and he understands that there have been various phenomena and miracles and that the crowds are ever greater.