13 August 1917

After resting a little I walked slowly to the place of the apparition. When I got there many people were praying and singing verses to Our Lady around the small shrub where the apparitions take place; it is a small cork oak⁴ which has already been reduced to its trunk, so many branches have been taken from it. I began talking with some people from here whom I saw there; by this time there were already a lot of people there; it was not long before some seminarians arrived, who came straight over to me, and we were not parted again. They were António Ferreira⁵, Manuel dos Santos⁶, Penna⁷, Caetano from Thomar⁸, who has done the 1st year, Pereira⁹, who is from right here, and later António Poças¹⁰ arrived and Marques Vieira¹¹ with a brother¹². We went into some shade and stayed there a long time. It was then that the great influx of people began; they came from all sides, but on either side of the road it was a real flood. Carts followed one after another, people on horseback, on foot and on bicycles; just the sight of the carts scattered over the slope and the animals in the shade, a string of motor cars on the road and veritable heaps of bicycles was interesting. At about noon (old time)¹³, the exact hour of the apparitions, there were many thousands of people at the place. I am no good at estimates, but those who gave the lowest figure spoke of 5000 people. — The children were already late when Poças arrived with the sad news that the administrator of Ourem^* had told the children's parents at whose house he was that he would take them in his trap to the spot, but that he had made off with them to Ourem. And so it was: that wicked and cowardly man betrayed all those people, but in this there seems indeed to have been an intervention of God, because that place, where a great many people were constantly passing, was deserted, and the only witnesses de visu^* were the Parish Priest, the Vicar of Torres Novas¹⁹ and Fr. Manuel Poças²⁰, who were on his veranda

(the parish priest's), as they themselves told me afterwards. When the people found out they were extremely indignant and I, as it was already about 3 o'clock, went to Fátima with some of the seminarians to find out what had happened. I was so angry that I no longer know what I said there; no doubt those priests called me ... a fool or something of the sort... We were in the middle of this when some men turned up, very happy, saying that Our Lady had appeared. I at once took leave of the priests and went back up. The roads were already full of those people talking about the sensational event. I asked each group what they had seen, and in no time at all I found myself surrounded by all those people, who with a great deal of shouting told me that they had heard a clap of thunder and everyone had run away; then, coming back, they saw a cloud come down, blue and white, which shortly rose and disappeared. Others said they had seen a flash of lightning, and there was one little woman who, with tears in her eyes, said, utterly convinced, that she had seen Our Lady; in short, everyone was satisfied and from what I heard from the people of Ourem the administrator seems to have put his life at great risk with that abduction.

I saw there an altar over a holm oak and a great many people praying; as they arrived, they began to pray, and never stopped praying. I never saw so many people together, nor so many carriages from the direction of Torres Novas and Ourem. They arrived fifteen and twenty carriages at a time, unable to get past one another.

At the time when the children were about to leave their parents' house, accompanied by some priests who had been questioning them, suddenly a closed carriage⁵ turns up at the door with the administrator inside and a certain gentleman who they say is a Carbonário^6*. The two take hold of the children, saying: little girls, come on, let's go there, it's time now; and the children declined the favour, saying: we're going on foot with these people. And the said gentlemen say: no, no, little girls; today is a feast day, I'd like you to go by carriage.

At this they take hold of the children, put them in the carriage, turn the horses round and make off with the children to Ourem. The people run to the place with the news; all the people were weeping, and a motor car at once went after the carriage to see if it could bring the children back, but it could not.

Well, the people who had been there last month raised everyone's spirits again, saying: pray, pray, and pay attention, for it's less than five minutes now to the time of last month.

The people fell silent. The weather was clear. Then suddenly a flash of lightning formed from the sky over the altar and made a whirlwind round the altar which covered more than three hundred people with earth. Everyone was running away and falling and weeping. The earth rumbled, and very loudly, the stones changed colour, and then many people began to shout: look, look, look, there comes Our Lady, see, in a white dress! Those who saw her on the ground were many, but those who saw her in the sky were many more; and more than three thousand people saw no more because, when the earth rumbled and the stones changed colour, all those who were nearest, some fell, others got upset, and I too was so flustered that, wanting so much to see, I saw little. But what I, and all those who were left sobbing, did still see very well was arches and garlands in the sky on the south side, with flowers of all colours. This everybody saw.

And also the flowers that decorated the altar made everyone marvel, because it was hot and they were lovelier and lovelier, and they were not in vases.

If the people had much faith, they were left with much more. If the administrator arrested the children, Our Lady did not fail to appear for all that. She did not speak, naturally because there was no one to answer her.

After all the people had seen and regained their composure, they were saying to one another: let's join up with all these people and go to Ourem and make fresh meat^*. Since they have stolen our neighbours from us, we're going there to fetch them. I don't know anything more, but on the 13th I'm going back there, God willing.

The time she appeared was half past twelve.

The official, after questioning the little children at length in their homes, had them brought to my house, for the purpose of inquiries — so he says, so that they would disclose to them a secret they had not until then revealed to him — and from there, at a moment he thought opportune, he had them get into the carriage and, telling the parents and bystanders that he was taking them to the place of the apparitions, sets off at full gallop for Vila Nova d'Ourem.

With what aim did he choose my house? To escape the wrath his act would provoke? So that the people would rise up, as they did rise up, against me as an accomplice?

On the twenty-first the girl Lúcia appeared before me and said that on the thirteenth, when she was taken by the administrator to Vila Nova de Ourém, where she stayed in the administrator's house until the fifteenth, she saw nothing extraordinary. On the nineteenth, which had been a Sunday, she was pasturing the sheep at the place called Valinho with her cousin Francisco and a brother of his called João, older than Francisco; and seeing the sky look as it did when they used to see the Lady, she asks her cousin João, offering him a vintém^*, to go and fetch Jacinta, who was at her parents' house. And as soon as Jacinta arrived, the Lady appeared to them on top of a holm-oak shrub; they all saw her except her cousin João, the brother of Francisco and Jacinta. And then she asked her:

– Well, what is it you want of me?

And the Lady answered her:

– I want to tell you to go back to the Cova da Iria: if they had not made off with you to the Village (Vila Nova de Ourém), the miracle would be better known. Saint Joseph would have come with the Child Jesus to give peace to the world. Our Lord would have come to bless the people. Our Lady of the Rosary would have come with a little angel on each side. Our Lady of Sorrows would have come with an arch of flowers around her.

– That money you have, what do you want done with it? (This is the money from the offerings people have given.)

When this question had been asked, the Lady answered:

– That money... have two little processional litters^* made; you carry one with three other girls like you, all dressed in white, and let Francisco carry the other with three other boys like him, wearing white capes; take them to Our Lady of the Rosary and dedicate them to Her.

Having said this, she disappeared, rising up into the air. The first or second time the Lady appeared, Lúcia asked her who she was – and the Lady answered that she would tell her on the last day. She also said that the second or third time the Lady appeared to her, she taught her a prayer, which she usually says between the mysteries^* of the rosary when she says it at the Cova da Iria. – The prayer is: O my Jesus, forgive us and deliver us from the fire of hell:

take all the poor souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of it.

Lúcia said that she saw Our Lady on the Sunday following the 13th² at the place called Valinho³; first she saw the signs in the air as they usually appeared; she saw Our Lady coming from the east, and then she alighted on top of the holm-oak shrub.

I bowed to her, stood up again and asked her:

– What do you want of me?

– “I want to tell you to go back there to the Cova da Iria; if they had not made off with you to the Aldeia⁴ the Miracle would have been better known; St. Joseph was to come with the Child Jesus to give peace to the world, and Our Lord was to come to bless the people; Our Lady of the Rosary was coming with an angel on each side, and Our Lady with an arch of flowers around her.”

I asked:

– That money that you have, what do you want done with it?

– With that money make two little litters^*, very small ones; you carry one, with three other girls like you, all dressed in white; Francisco carries the other, with three other boys like him; let them wear white capes; take it to Our Lady of the Rosary and use it for her. Then she went off up through the air and I said goodbye.

I asked her the 1st or 2nd time who she was, and she said that she would tell me on the last day.

“The place of the apparition, let us call it that, is in an open stretch of heath, almost without trees, where small oak shrubs predominate. There was already an immense crowd around the one on which the child says Our Lady alights, and many groups scattered over the whole of that nearest stretch of ground, but without the look of a country fair; one noticed a respectful silence, an admirable composure and calm, even among those who were eating their packed food or talking about the matter that had drawn them there. I do not exaggerate in saying that there were upwards of 4,000 people, and around the privileged spot the rosary was being said, hymns were being sung, etc., with moving devotion; a great deal of praying has been done at that place these last two months!...

Everyone was longing for the arrival of the children, but at the hour they usually appeared, a young man arrived on a bicycle saying that the administrator^* of Ourem had taken them there! They would not believe it could be. Then I thought of asking F...⁵ to go and find out how much truth there was in it. She came back shortly afterwards confirming the news. The administrator, who had been at the children's parents' house since the morning, sent them, with the court officer he had brought with him, to the parish priest's house, where he subjected them to a new, insistent and lengthy interrogation. The children never retracted; however much they were intimidated, even the little boy of 6⁶ said: “No, we are not afraid.” It is extraordinary, isn't it?!... They say they looked like three little lambs, and without crying or shouting they got into the carriage, very calm, when the administrator told them he was going to take them to the place himself! But as soon as he had them in the carriage he whipped up the horses and set off at full gallop with them towards Villa Nova d'Ourem, which was his aim...

Meanwhile, it seemed that nobody could tear themselves away from the heath; they had been there for hours and hours and were in no hurry to leave. I said to F...: “Now that we are here I should like to stay until two o'clock, which is after all solar noon^*. Both she and C...'s⁸ family agreed, and we stayed sitting on some stones. Well, daughter, at two o'clock precisely by my watch there was a rapid fall in temperature, without wind, producing the sensation one has when there is an eclipse of the sun, and instantaneously, as if an electric current had put that whole multitude in communication, all the men took off their hats and men and women all knelt, visibly and spontaneously moved. Why, what happened? I cannot tell you; many people, among them my maids, said they saw a lovely cloud right beside the sun which disappeared in moments. I saw nothing, but I felt a shiver and an extraordinary emotion, and there were few eyes that were not weeping or at least brimming with tears.

What was it that instantaneously caused this effect? Let us await the future. But what is certain is that nobody was expecting anything any more; they were disheartened and were beginning to move off, reluctantly, to leave the place when this happened, just as I describe it to you. I looked at the holm-oak shrub and saw it wrapped in that mist which they say has always been noticed, and I pointed it out to F... Was it dust raised by the movement of the people? Perhaps, but it occurred at no other point, and, I repeat, there was no wind; it was cool. A short while before, a little man with whom I was talking had said to me: "Look, madam, the heavenly bodies are looking just as they did a month ago today." The clouds were thinning and forming a sort of very light web, it is true, but nothing that was extraordinary; what was extraordinary was the sensation that was suddenly felt, and everyone felt it."

This time she appeared to them at the spot called Valinhos on the Sunday immediately after 13 August (because on that day they were treacherously taken to Ourém by the local administrator^*, who deceived them, saying that he himself would take them in his carriage to the place of the apparition). On this day she told her that if on the 13th they had not been taken away by the administrator, the miracle (for the people) would not have been so well known. Lúcia made various requests to her that she convert certain people and make some sick people better, to which She answered that some would be converted and get better, but others not, because they did not believe, and some not even in her Son.

So we went there on 13 August. We left home at half past nine in the morning; the day was fine but not very hot, the temperature even pleasant. We set off moved, apprehensive and recollected, expecting I hardly know what. After a drive of nearly 3 hours by motor car we at last reached Fatima, and there we were told that the place of the apparition was at the Cova da Iria, some three kilometres from the village, and we made our way there. The crowd was already large when we arrived. In Fátima a countrywoman had told us: “you'll know at once where it is, you'll see on your right a world of people, that's it.” And so it was. We left the car on the road and walked a few metres to the spot where the crowd was thickest, and we could hear the Lourdes Ave^* being sung.

We asked whether the children had arrived yet, for it was difficult to see who was around the holm-oak shrub, the bush on which, so they said, the apparition alighted.

They told us no, saying that as the apparition would only take place between noon and one o'clock, the children would only come near that hour. We argued that as it was already nearly one o'clock, the children ought to be there already. “What time are you going by?” a countrywoman asks us. “Is it the modern time? ... Neither the Lady nor the little girls go by that, but by the old time^*, which is the true one.” — While we waited we went about talking with the people and asking those who had already been there in the previous months what usually happened. They told us that at the appointed hour the sun would be veiled by light clouds, and that a mist would envelop the bush on which Our Lady, coming down from a cloud, would alight to speak with the children.

Little by little we came across several people we knew in the crowd, and even some of our female relatives. We all gathered together and went on gathering information and commenting on it, finding some of it rather extraordinary and some of it implausible.

At this point a man appears telling us that the children would not be coming, because they had been arrested by the municipal administrator^* and taken by him to Villa Nova d’Ourem. At first nobody believes it; it is thought to be a joke in bad taste on the man's part, but he asserts it so insistently that a lady offers to go to Fatima in her motor car to find out what had happened there. She came back, and in her face we all see that the news is true. The administrator, having offered to take the children to the Cova da Iria after interrogating them, treacherously takes them under arrest to Villa Nova d’Ourem. By what right? What had the children done to be arrested?... nothing; it was the persecution that was beginning.

Everyone protests, everyone is indignant, but it is an orderly protest, and although there are a great many people there, some 5 to 6 thousand, nobody thinks of rising up or fighting. Those who were there were believers, people full of faith, not brawlers.

Of the people present, many think of going away, but from the people above all this cry goes up: “Let us stay and wait, the hour has not yet come, and if this is a thing from Heaven it will show itself, even though the children have been arrested, for against the power of God and of the Virgin, the authorities can do nothing”.

We admire the people's faith, and we all stay, full of anxiety, waiting for the announced hour.

As we had forgotten the 37 minutes by which the clocks had long since been put forward^*, at 2 o'clock we were all already thinking of leaving, believing that, since the children were absent, nothing out of the ordinary would happen.

But at that very moment we heard an enormous murmur, which made us all turn round, and we were then privileged to witness the most moving display of faith we had ever seen.

The people, all falling on their knees, with hands and eyes raised to Heaven, implored God and the Virgin; the men, and they were the majority, bareheaded, kneeling on the ground, let their tears flow freely. It was truly impressive.

Everyone was looking at the sky, which was covered by a light cloud, like the finest white lace, rosy in places. The sun, which for an instant hid itself completely, left us lit by a strange light, with yellow patches to be seen on the ground and on all of us, and a great drop in temperature, as happens when there is an eclipse of the sun. Someone says: — ‘Look at the mist around the holm-oak shrub!’ We looked and indeed it was there; was it really a mist? was it smoke? was it dust?... it could have been any of these things, but to me it seemed more like smoke which, coming out as if from a censer, rose from the ground in light spirals and at once dissolved around the bush.

Some said it was dust raised by a light breeze, but how could one explain that the breeze blew only in that spot, and that it always happened so on the 13th of each month?! ... By then the sun had already regained all its former brightness. Suddenly a man from Lapas (a place not far from Torres Novas), who had gone there only to please his wife and who did not believe the miracle possible, cries out bathed in tears: “I see, I see the Lady!!! Look, in this direction, between those two clouds, don't you see her?” We all looked in the direction indicated but... none of us saw anything more than the clouds. Nevertheless the man, full of faith, kept saying: “Arrest me if you like, but I shall always say what I saw”!

His wife saw nothing, but she was radiant that it was her husband who had seen, for he did not believe; she believed, she did not need to see.

Did this man really see something, or was it mere suggestion? — He was neither an old man nor a child; he was a man of about forty, therefore in the full strength of life and for that reason perhaps less apt to be influenced by suggestion. He was not an atheist, for he had come from his home to Bairro, a place close by, to hear a sermon, but he was an unbeliever in the miracle.

Other ordinary people said they had seen, but what did they see? I do not know, but of those I spoke with, the one who impressed me most was the man from Lapas.

[…]

So we came back from Fátima convinced that something out of the ordinary had taken place. An eclipse of the sun is a known fact, even a common one if you like, but how is one to explain that in four consecutive months it always took place on the same day and at the same hour, without science having announced it? And that mist which was seen only in that spot?

1^st – On 19 August, who were you grazing the flock with at Valinhos?

– I was with Francisco and Lúcia.

2^nd – Was Jacinta present too?

– She wasn't.

3^rd – Did Lúcia ask you to go and fetch her?

– She did.

4^th – What was it she said to you?

– She told me to go and fetch Jacinta, because it seemed that Our Lady was going to appear.

5^th – And did you go and fetch her at once?

– No; I didn't want to go, but Lúcia gave me a vintém^* to go, and then I went.

6^th – Was Jacinta at home?
– She wasn't; I only found my mother there; my sister was at the door of Lúcia's house.
7^th – Was she willing to go to Valinhos?
– She was.
8^th – When you arrived, what were Lúcia and Francisco doing?
– They were sitting down, but they got up when we arrived.
9^th – What did they do then?
– Lúcia told Jacinta to look towards where it seemed Our Lady was to appear. Jacinta started looking in that direction.
10^th – Did you all kneel down?
– No; everyone was standing. Lúcia did not kneel.

2 November 1917 Continuation of the interrogation of João

11^th – Did you see anything?
– I saw nothing. I only heard Lúcia speaking with Our Lady near the holm-oak shrub.
12^th – Did you hear what Our Lady said?
– I didn't.
13^th – What was it Lúcia said to the Lady?
– She asked her what she had come here to do.
14^th – Did you hear the Lady's answer?
– I didn't, but Lúcia waited a little while.
15^th – Did Lúcia ask more questions?
– She did. She spoke again, but I don't remember what she said, except for the last question, which was whether she would bring my Manuel back here.
16^th – Didn't Lúcia tell you afterwards what the Lady had said to her?
– She told me the same day near the holm-oak shrub, straight away on the way back, that if she had not been taken to the village (Vila Nova de Ourém) on the 13th, the miracle would not be so well known. 17^th – What time was it when Our Lady appeared?
– It was almost night.
18^th – Did you stay at the place much longer?
– Francisco and Jacinta went off and Lúcia and I stayed. Francisco and Jacinta came back and told me afterwards that they had gone to pray there, but I stayed some way off minding the sheep and didn't hear them pray.

What did the Lady say in August?

– In August we didn't go there.

8^th – Will you tell me what it was the Lady said the following Sunday at Valinhos?

– Lúcia asked the Lady whether she would bring back my Manuel⁸ (a brother of Jacinta's who is serving in the army in Cape Verde^*) and she said she would bring them all back here.

9^th – What else did the Lady say?

– She said that, if we hadn't gone off to Ourém, St. Joseph and the Child would have come to give peace to the world, and Our Lady of the Rosary with two little angels, one on each side.

10^th – What else did she say?

– She said we were to make two litters^* and take them to the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary; that I, Lúcia and two more little girls dressed in white were to carry one, and Francisco with three boys was to carry the other.

11^th – Did she say anything else?

– She said nothing.

What did the Lady say in August?

– In August I didn't go there.

47^th – But what did she say the following Sunday when she appeared to you at the place called Valinhos?

– At Valinhos she said that if we had not been arrested the miracle would not be so well known, and that St. Joseph would have come with the Child to give peace to the world, and Our Lord to give the blessing to the people.

48^th – What else did She say?

– I asked her what should be done with the money that had been collected, and she said we were to take it on two litters^* to Our Lady of the Rosary, on the days of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

49^th – Was it you who thought of asking that question?

– No; it was the person who had the money who told me to ask that question.

50^th – Did the Lady say nothing more?

– I asked again for the sick and the sinners who had been recommended, and she said that some would be made better and others converted within a year.

That day I didn't ask her anything else.

"In August, on the 13th, I saw the sun come down in the sky at the time of the apparition. It never came down as much as that time, not even on 13 October. All the objects around me turned yellow. The people, hearing a noise by the holm-oak shrub, started to run away. Some men, who were up a tree, fell, without any harm coming to them. I, seeing what was happening, told the people not to run away, because it was Our Lady appearing. The multitude then stopped running away, and almost everyone uncovered their heads, many falling to their knees.

“In August, on the 13th, a little white cloud appeared which moved from south to north towards the east, taking on various very lovely colours. The sun lost its brightness completely, so that one could look at it, and it changed colours.

On the thirteenth of August, at about ten o'clock in the morning, the municipal administrator^*, Artur de Oliveira Santos, came to my house, the parish residence, where I was with the Very Reverend Vicar Forane^* of Torres Novas, Fr. António de Oliveira Reis. In the carriage that carried him he brought the Rev. Fr. Manuel Carreira Poças, Parish Priest of Porto de Mós. When I expressed to this priest my surprise that he should be accompanying the civil authority in a matter of this kind, he told me there was nothing amiss, because they had just come from questioning the children at their homes, and that the administrator, like himself, believed what the children say; that they have no doubts left, but that they are coming to my house so that I may question the children – who are about to arrive – about a secret (the first time I heard of the secret), which the children say the Lady told them but which they have not revealed to them; and that afterwards the administrator would take them to the place of the Apparition, where he also wishes to go. The administrator makes the same statement to me, appearing, if not a believer, at least curious. About half an hour later the children and their parents appeared. The administrator asks me to question them, which I did in his presence. When I asked the girl Lúcia who had taught her to say what she has been saying, she answered that it was the Lady she saw at the Cova da Iria. When I told her that people who tell lies that do as much harm as hers does – if it is a lie, with so many people coming here deceived – go to hell, she answered that if liars go to hell, she will not go to hell for that, because she does not tell lies; she only says what she saw and what the Lady told her; and if the people come, it is because they want to, for she has not called anyone. I asked her whether the Lady had told her a secret. She answered that she had, but that she would not tell it to me. After several questions about it, she answered: Look!... if you like... I'll go up there and ask the Lady whether She gives me leave to tell the secret, and if She gives me leave, then I'll tell you. To this the administrator replies: these are supernatural things... let's go. He gets up and orders the children out of my study, where we were, and into the carriage. All this in the presence of the parents and of the reverend priests mentioned above. He follows the road that leads to the Cova da Iria for a while, and .... then turns back at full speed towards Vila Nova de Ourém, where he takes them and keeps them until the fifteenth, when he came to hand them back to their parents. The news of the abduction is carried with the speed of lightning to the place of the Apparitions, where some fifteen to eighteen thousand people were anxiously awaiting their arrival.

A few minutes later a motor car and some excited cyclists arrive at the door of the parish residence, bringing word of the indignation of the great mass of people at the Cova da Iria, who were demanding that I be lynched as an accomplice in the outrage of carrying off the children. I declare my innocence, and indeed my indignation at such an act. And thanks to the Most Holy Virgin I was not abused, apart from some offensive remarks made by a parishioner of this parish.

He further declared that on the thirteenth of August of the same year, shortly after the hour fixed for the Apparition, when the abduction of the children was being discussed, he noticed a loud and inexplicable bang beside the holm-oak shrub, which frightened all the people, who began to run away and cry out in great emotion – there were even some fainting fits –, and that near the sun a cloud formed with the colours of the rainbow.

Joaquim Inácio Vicente, married, stonemason, native and resident of the hamlet of Chainça, in Santa Catarina da Serra, of this diocese of Leiria, a thoroughly trustworthy man, declared to me that on the thirteenth of August, having left his work at the siesta hour at the parish church of this parish, where he was working, he went to the Cova da Iria; and that shortly after the hour given for the Apparitions, when the people were already disheartened and about to leave, he heard two loud detonations, like the bang of bombs or shots, coming from the direction of the holm-oak shrub, and at the same instant he sees the great mass of people fleeing. He fled too, thinking a serious brawl had broken out among the people; and, without knowing how or why, on turning back – for he was among those in front, being further from the holm-oak shrub – he sees the people, as if drawn by an electric current, running and gathering close to the holm-oak shrub.

We were on our way to the place of the holm-oak shrub and they told us that first we had to go to the Parish Priest's house; we went thinking that he wanted something of us; when we got there we went up onto the veranda waiting for the orders they would give us; nobody wanted us for anything.

Then they said to us: Get into this carriage so that you get to the place more quickly. At first my father said that we would go on foot; but the Administrator^* told us to get into the carriage again, saying that in the carriage we would be free of the crowd. So on my father's orders I got into the carriage, and my cousins, instead of going with us to the cova de Iria, went to Vila Nova de Ourem. I said this isn't the way over here; but the Administrator answered, saying that we were going to Ourem to the Parish Priest's house and afterwards we would come in an automobile and would still get here in time. And as soon as we got to Ourem he locked us in a room, promising us that we would not leave there until we told the secret that the Lady had confided to us; and so three days went by, with them threatening us with various punishments and promising us some gold coins, but they got nothing out of us. Then they came and left us at the Parish Priest's house.

When we got home we went straight off to pasture the sheep at a place called Valinho; I was with Francisco and João; Jacinta had stayed at home. Then I suspected that our Lady might pay us a visit, and by inspiration of our Lady I asked João to go home and call Jacinta, and as he didn't want to go I promised to give him a vintém^* I had; then he went. When Jacinta arrived there was a flash of lightning and the Lady appeared above a holm-oak shrub.

So what do you want of me today? I want you to go on [going] to the cova de Iria the rest of the months; If you hadn't gone away the miracle wouldn't be so well known. The woman who has the money sends to ask what you want done with that money. I want them to make two processional litters^* for the day of the feast of our Lady of the Rosary; Francisco carries one with three more little boys, the girls carry the other with two more. I want to ask you for some people who asked me for the Lady to cure them; in a year's time some Will be cured. And with that she went up as in all the other months, leaning towards the east.

On 13 August the crowd grows, and anyone looking at the Cova, which forms a basin among the small hills or knolls around it, sees a touching spectacle.

Pilgrims arrive from all sides singing hymns, and we feel we are living some happy hours. The hour has passed and the children have not appeared; the people are waiting impatiently when word runs through that mass of people that the administrator^* of Ourém has taken them away. Protests are heard and, when they are about to start breaking up, an outcry is heard and a wave of heads turns towards the sky, each person declaring what he is seeing. Then I look at the sky and see the clouds changing colour and racing in different directions.

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.

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 going home believing more firmly now, because it was the first day on which the signs had 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 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 flock. Marto asked his wife to call them, because it was time. She did not get to call them, but they came back with the flock. 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.

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.

On the thirteenth of August the municipal Administrator^* 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 flock, ready to go to the Cova da Iria. Olímpia de Jesus said that it was very early, that they were out with the flock 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”.

"In the month of August, did everything happen in the same way?". She answered: "In the month of August it was different. Before the 13th of August, my cousins and I were summoned to the Administration^*; my uncle did not take his children there, but I went with my father. The Administrator questioned me and insisted that I reveal the Lady's secret to him, which I did not do; after writing it down, he sent me away. On the thirteenth we were going to the place of the holm-oak shrub, when we were told that we first had to go to the parish priest's house. So we went, going up onto the veranda of the house. After we had been waiting for some time, the Administrator appeared and told us to get into a carriage, saying that we would get to the Cova da Iria faster that way.

My father said that we would go on foot, but the Administrator insisted it was better for us to go in the carriage, because we would be free of the crowd. Then, on my father's orders, I got into the carriage with my cousins. The carriage turned round and set off in the direction of Vila Nova de Ourém. "It isn't this way", I said, but the Administrator answered that we were going to Ourém to the parish priest's house and that we would still come back in time because we would be coming by motor car. When we reached Ourém, they shut us in a room and said that we would not leave there until we declared the secret that the Lady had confided to us. The next day³, an elderly lady questioned us about the secret; then they took us to the Administration, where we were questioned again, being offered gold coins to reveal the secret. We went back to the Administrator's house, where we had stayed the previous night, and in the afternoon we were questioned again about the secret. They took us to the jail, and threatened that we would stay there if we did not tell it. We went back to the Administration, and since we did not tell the secret, they promised they would fry us in oil. The Administrator had us taken out and told a man to get a cauldron of hot oil ready. Then he called Jacinta, saying she was the first to be burned. She went at once, without saying goodbye. They questioned her and put her in a room. Next they called Francisco; they told him that Jacinta had already been burned and that he would have the same fate if he did not declare the secret. They questioned him and sent him to the same room. Then it was my turn; they said that my cousins had already been burned and that I would have the same fate if I did not tell the secret. Although I thought it was true, I was not afraid. They sent me to join my cousins, and a man said that it would not be long before all three of us were burned. They took us to the Administrator's house, and there we spent that night in the same room. The next day⁴, it was almost the same thing: interrogations morning and afternoon, with many promises and threats. On the sixteenth⁵, we went again to the Administration at about ten o'clock, but they got nothing out of us, as on the other occasions. Then the Administrator had us get into a carriage, and left us at the parish priest's house, on the veranda.

When we got home, we went straight away with the sheep to a place called Valinho together with Francisco and João. Jacinta had stayed at home. There was a flash of lightning, and I sent João, her brother, to fetch Jacinta. João did not want to go, and I promised him two vinténs^* to go. When Jacinta arrived, I told her there had been a flash of lightning and that the Lady was probably going to appear. We went down by a short cut, and saw the Lady on top of a holm oak. "What do you want of me?", I asked. She said: – "I want you to keep going to the Cova da Iria for the rest of the months until October and to say the Rosary". I asked further: "What is to be done with the money that was at the Cova da Iria?" Maria do Rosário, from Moita⁶, had taken charge of it and since neither my parents nor my cousins' parents wanted to keep it, she told me to ask the Lady what should be done with that money. The Lady answered: "Make two processional litters, for the day of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary; Francisco is to carry one with three other boys, and the two of you are to carry the other with two other girls". I asked her for the cure of some people, and She said that within a year some would be cured. I also asked her for a miracle so that the people would believe, and She said that in the last month she would make a sign in the sun, so that everyone would believe; that the Child Jesus would come with Saint Joseph to give the blessing to the world, and Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Sorrows; that Our Lord would come to give peace to the world. Then she disappeared as in the other months towards the east."

– "Did all of you see the Lady?" – She answered: – "Jacinta and I saw and heard; Francisco, as on the other occasions, saw her but did not hear what she said, and João neither saw nor heard anything"

– "Did many people come to your house asking about the Lady?". She answered: "many people came, and even many priests, some of whom called me a fraud".

On the thirteenth of this month did Our Lady say that the war would end that very day? What were the words she used?

– She said this: “The war ends this very day; expect your soldiers here very soon”.

2^nd – Did she say: “expect your military men here” or “expect your soldiers here”?

– She said: “expect the military men here”.

3^rd – But look, the war is still going on!... The newspapers report that there has been fighting after the thirteenth!... How is this to be explained, if Our Lady said that the war ended on that day?

– I don't know. I only know that I heard her say the war would end on the 13th. I don't know anything more.

4^th – Some people assert that they heard you say on that day that Our Lady had declared that the war would end soon. Is that true?

– I said it just exactly as Our Lady had said it.

5^th – On the 27th of last month I went to your house to talk with you, do you remember?

– I remember seeing you here.

6^th – Well, on that day you told me that Our Lady had said that on 13 October St Joseph and the Child Jesus would also come, and that after that the war would soon end, not on that day.

– I don't remember well now how She said it. She could have said that; I don't know. Perhaps I didn't understand the Lady properly.

7^th – On the thirteenth of this month did you tell the people to look at the sun?

– I don't remember doing that.

8^th – Did you tell them to close their umbrellas?

– I did the month before. This last time I don't remember telling them to.

9^th – Did you know when the sign in the sun was due to begin?

– No.

10^th – Did you look at it?

– I did; it seemed to be the moon.

11^th – Why did you look at the sun?

– I looked because all those people said to look at the sun.

12^th – Did Our Lady say she would pray to her Divine Son for the souls of the soldiers killed in the war?

– No, sir.

13^th – Did she say the people would be punished if they did not turn from their sins?

– I don't remember if She said it. I think not.

14^th – On the 13th you didn't have the doubts you have now about what the Lady said. How do you explain your doubts today?

– On that day I remembered better; it had happened more recently.

15^th – What did you see about a year ago? Your mother says that you and other children saw a figure wrapped up so that its face could not be seen. Why did you tell me last month that it was nothing?

– !...

16^th – That time, did you run away?

– I think I ran away.

17^th – On the eleventh of this month you wouldn't tell me that on the thirteenth Our Lord would appear blessing the people, and Our Lady of Sorrows^* too. Was it for fear that I would make fun of you, as other people had already done, saying it was impossible? Or was it because many strangers were present and you were shy of saying it in front of so many people? Look, Jacinta has told me everything...

– !...

18^th – When did Our Lady tell you that those apparitions would take place on the thirteenth of October?

– It was on the day she appeared at Valinhos or on the other thirteenth. I don't know exactly.

19^th – Did you also see Our Lord?

– I saw a figure that seemed to be a man; it looked like Our Lord.

20^th – Where was that figure?

– It was beside the sun.

21^st – Did you see it bless the people?

– No, I didn't; but Our Lady had said that Our Lord would come to bless the people.

22^nd – If the people knew the secret that Our Lady revealed to you, would they be sad?

– I think they'd stay as they are, more or less the same.

On 13 July some companions of his, with bad intent, got him drunk with the aim of leading him to commit some folly at the place of the apparitions. And indeed, although, as always, he let his daughter go to that place, he ordered the people to withdraw. He is the owner of the heath where the holm-oak shrub that serves as pedestal for the Apparition stands. The people, seeing him in a state of drunkenness, paid no heed to this order and a man pushed him, making him fall.

[…]

At first the people did not want to go to the Cova da Iria. Nobody believed the children. On the thirteenth of June, the day of the second apparition, there was a feast at the parish church in honour of St. Anthony. At the Cova da Iria there were only some sixty people at the time of the apparition. Francisco and Jacinta's parents had gone early in the morning to Porto de Mós to the fair called "of the thirteenth", in order to buy oxen, and got back after nightfall. In their absence their house filled with people who wanted to see the children and ask them questions. At present a large part of the people think the children are telling the truth. For my part, I am convinced of it.

[…]

The signs are many. In August almost all who were present saw those signs. A cloud came down to the holm-oak shrub. In July the same was noticed. There was no dust at the place. The cloud made the air dusty, so that it looked misty.

– Was there any other sign?

– In the sky, near the sun, white clouds are seen which turn successively bright red (blood-coloured), pink and yellow. The people take on this last colour. The light of the sun diminishes considerably in intensity.

A rumbling was also heard in July and in August.

[…]

She prays the rosary^*. When she addresses the Lady, she speaks aloud.

I heard her myself in June, because I was nearby. Some people claim they hear the sound of the answers.

10^a – Is the place of the apparitions also much visited on other days, by devout people or by the curious?

– It is much visited, above all on Sundays. The biggest crowds are at night. Many people go there, from far and near, and still more from outside the parish. They pray the rosary and sing hymns in honour of the Virgin.

I, Manuel Antunes Marto², Parish Priest of the parish of Nossa Senhora da Luz de Maceira, council of Leiria, diocese of Coimbra³, at the request of the most worthy Parish Priest of the parish of Fátima, Manuel Marques Ferreira, summoned before me Maria do Carmo, my parishioner, wife of Joaquim dos Santos, who has my complete trust, and she declared the following: That she had been ill for five years with no hope of getting better, for day by day she felt her strength failing; she was very thin and had a bad cough, spending whole nights coughing, so that people thought she had tuberculosis, and she was convinced of it too – so convinced that she sent her children, her daughters⁴, away from her so as not to infect them. And having heard that in the parish of Fátima Our Lady had appeared to some little children, she made a vow to go there on foot on the thirteenth of four months in a row, praying all the way, to see whether Our Lady would make her better. As soon as she went there the first time, with great difficulty, she felt better, for the journey back cost her less effort than the journey there.

She went on improving steadily, and on the thirteenth of November nineteen hundred and seventeen, the day she completed her vow, she found herself completely well, attributing her cure to a miracle of Our Lady of Fátima.

Without delay I began to question him about what he had seen and heard since the month of May last at the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of each month during the time of the apparition.

Between him and me the following short dialogue took place:

- What have you seen at the Cova da Iria these last months?
- I have seen Our Lady.
- Where does she appear?
- On top of a holm-oak shrub.
- Does she appear suddenly or do you see her coming from somewhere?
- I see her coming from the side where the sun rises and placing herself on the holm-oak shrub.
- Does she come slowly or quickly?
- She always comes quickly.
- Do you hear what she says to Lucia?
- I don't hear.
- Have you ever spoken with the Lady? Has she ever addressed a word to you?
- No, I have never asked her anything; she speaks only with Lucia.
- Whom does she look at, at you and Jacinta too or only at Lucia?
- She looks at all three; but she looks longer at Lucia.
- Has she ever wept or smiled?
- Neither one thing nor the other; she is always serious.
- How is she dressed?
- She has a long dress and over it a mantle that covers her head and comes down to the bottom of the dress.
- What is the colour of the dress and the mantle?
- It is white, the dress having gold stripes.
- What is the Lady's attitude?

– That of someone praying. She has her hands joined at the height of her breast.

– Does she carry anything in her hands?

– She carries, between the palm and the back of her right hand, some beads that hang down over her dress.

– And what does she have on her ears?

– Her ears can't be seen, because they are covered by the mantle.

– What colour are the beads?

– They are white too.

– Is the Lady pretty?

– Yes, she is.

– Prettier than that girl you see there?

– Prettier.

– But there are ladies much prettier than that girl...

– She is prettier than anyone I have ever seen.

The questioning of Francisco concluded, I called Jacinta aside, who was playing in the street with other children, had her sit on a little stool beside me and subjected her too to an interrogation, succeeding in obtaining from her answers as complete and detailed as her brother's.

– Have you seen Our Lady on the thirteenth of each month since May?

– I have.

– Where does she come from?

– She comes from Heaven, from the side of the sun.

– How is she dressed?

– She has a white dress, trimmed with gold, and on her head a mantle, also white.

– What colour is her hair?

– Her hair can't be seen; it is covered by the mantle.

– Does she wear earrings?

– I don't know, because her ears can't be seen either

– What is the position of her hands?

– Her hands are joined at the height of her breast, with the fingers turned upwards.

– Are the beads in her right hand or her left?

To this question the child first answers that they were in the right hand, but then, owing to a deliberate and captious insistence on my part, she appears perplexed and confused, not knowing how to say precisely which of her own hands corresponded to the hand in which the Apparition held the rosary.

– What was it that Our Lady recommended to Lucia most earnestly?

– She told us to pray the rosary^* every day.

– And do you pray it?

– I pray it every day with Francisco and Lucia.

What have you seen at the Cova da Iria in recent months?
- I have seen Our Lady.
- Where does she appear?
- On top of a holm-oak shrub
- Does she appear suddenly or do you see her come from somewhere?

– I see her come from the side where the sun rises and settle on the holm-oak shrub.

– Does she come slowly or quickly?

– She always comes quickly.

– Do you hear what she says to Lúcia?

– I don't.

– Have you ever spoken to the Lady? Has she ever spoken to you?

– No, I never asked her anything; she speaks only to Lúcia.

– Whom does she look at, at you and Jacinta too, or only at Lúcia?

– She looks at all three of us; but she looks longer at Lúcia.

Have you seen Our Lady on the 13th of each month since May?

– I have.

– Where does she come from?

– She comes from Heaven, from the side of the sun.

– How is she dressed?

– She has a white dress, trimmed with gold, and on her head she has a mantle, also white. Round her waist there is a golden ribbon that comes down to the hem of the dress.

– Does she wear boots or shoes?

– She wears neither boots nor shoes.

– So she has only stockings on?

– It looks as if she has stockings, but perhaps her feet are so white that they look as if they had stockings on.

– What colour is her hair?

– You can't see her hair, it is covered by the mantle.

– Does she wear earrings?

– I don't know, because you can't see her ears either.

– What is the position of her hands?

– Her hands are joined on her breast, with the fingers pointing upwards.

– Are the beads in her right hand or her left hand?

– .....

To this question the child at first answers that they were in her right hand, but then, owing to insistence on my part, she shows herself perplexed and confused, unable to say precisely which of her own hands corresponded to the hand with which the Lady held the Rosary.

- What did the Lady most earnestly recommend to Lúcia?
- She told us to pray the rosary^* every day.
- And do you pray it?
- I pray it every day with Francisco and Lúcia.

Is it true that Our Lady has appeared to you at the place called Cova da Iria?

– It is true.

– How many times has she appeared to you already?

– Five times, once each month.

– On what day of the month?

– Always on the thirteenth, except in the month of August, when I was arrested and taken to the town (Vila Nova de Ourém) by the administrator^*. That month I saw her only some days later, on the nineteenth, at the place called Valinhos.

– It is said that the Lady also appeared to you last year. What truth is there in this?

– Last year she never appeared to me (nor before May of this year); nor did I say that to anyone, because it was not true.

Where does she come from? From the east?
- I don't know; I don't see her come from anywhere; she appears over the holm-oak shrub, and it is when she withdraws that she goes off in the direction where the sun rises.
- How long does she stay? A long time or a short time?
- A short time.
- Long enough to say an Our Father and a Hail Mary, or more?
- More, quite a lot more, but not always the same length of time (perhaps not enough to pray the rosary).
- The first time you saw her, weren't you frightened?
- I was, so much so that I wanted to run away, with Jacinta and Francisco, but She told us not to be afraid, because she would not harm us. She said: "don't be afraid, for I won't harm you."
- How is she dressed?
- She has a white dress, which comes down to a little below the middle of the leg, and her head is covered by a mantle of the same colour and the same length as the dress.
- Has the dress no trimmings?
- On it, at the front, two golden cords can be seen, which come down from the neck and are joined by a tassel, also golden, at about the middle of the body.
- Does she have a belt or a ribbon?
- She doesn't.
- Does she wear earrings?
- She wears small yellow hoops.
- Which hand holds the beads?
- The right hand.
- Were they a five-decade rosary or a full rosary?
- I didn't notice properly.
- Did they end with a cross?
- They ended with a white cross, and the beads were white too. The chain was white too.
- Did you ever ask her who she was?
- I did, but she declared she would only say so on 13 October.
- Didn't you ask her where she came from?
- I asked where she was from, and she answered me that she was from Heaven.
- And when did you ask her that question?
- The second time, on the thirteenth of June.
- Did she ever smile or look sad?

- She never smiled nor looked sad, but was always serious.
- Did she urge you and your cousins to say any prayers?
- She urged us to pray the rosary in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world.
- Did she express a wish that many people should be present at the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of each month?
- She said nothing about that.
- Is it true that she told you a secret, forbidding you to reveal it to anyone whatever?
- It is true.
- Does it concern only you or your companions too?
- All three of us.
- Can't you disclose it at least to your confessor?
(At this question she kept silent, seeming somewhat embarrassed, and I thought I should not insist by repeating the question).
- It is said that, to free yourself from the administrator's pestering on the day you were arrested, you told him something as if it were the secret when it was not, thus deceiving him, and afterwards boasted of having played that trick on him: is it true?
- It is not; the administrator really did want me to reveal the secret to him, but as I could not tell it to anyone, I did not tell him, even though he insisted with me a great deal to that end. What I did was to tell everything the Lady said to me, except the secret, and perhaps for that reason the administrator was left thinking that I had revealed the secret to him as well. I did not want to deceive him.
- Did the Lady tell you to learn to read?
- She did, yes, the second time she appeared.
- But if the Lady said she would take you to Heaven next October, what use would it be to you to learn to read?
- That is not true: the Lady never said she would take me to Heaven in October, and I never asserted that she had told me such a thing.
- What did the Lady declare should be done with the money the people leave at the Cova da Iria at the foot of the holm-oak shrub?
- She said we should put it on two litters^* and carry them to the parish church: Jacinta, two more girls and I carrying one, and Francisco with three more boys the other. Part of that money would be for the worship and feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and the other part towards a new chapel.
- Where does she want the chapel to be built? At the Cova da Iria?
- I don't know: she didn't say.

- Are you very happy that Our Lady has appeared to you?
- I am.
- On the thirteenth of October will Our Lady come alone?
- St. Joseph will come too with the Child, and peace will be granted to the world.
- And did she make any other revelation?
- She declared that on the 13th she will make all the people believe that she really appears.
- Why do you quite often lower your eyes and stop gazing at the Lady?
- It's because she is sometimes dazzling.
- Did she teach you any prayer?
- She did; and she wants us to recite it after each mystery of the rosary^*.
- Do you know that prayer by heart?
- I do.
- Say it then...
- O my Jesus, forgive us, deliver us from the fire of hell, take all the little souls to Heaven, especially those that most need it¹⁰.

You told me some days ago that Our Lady wanted the money offered by the people to be taken to the parish church on two litters^*. How are they to get the litters, and when are they to be taken to the church?

– The litters are to be bought with the money offered and will be carried at the feasts of Our Lady of the Rosary.

2^a – Do you know for certain in what spot Our Lady wishes a chapel to be built in her honour?

– I don't know for certain, but I think She wants the chapel at the Cova da Iria.

3^a – What did She say she would do so that all the people would believe that she appeared?

– She said she would perform a miracle.

4^a – When did she say that?

– She said it several times, but only once, at the time of the first apparition, did I ask her that question.

5^a – Aren't you afraid the people will harm you if they don't see anything extraordinary on that day?

– I am not afraid at all.

6^a – Do you feel within you something, some force that draws you to the Cova da Iria on the 13th of each month?

– I want to go there, and I would be sad if I didn't.

7^a – Did you ever see the Lady cross herself, pray, or tell the beads of the Rosary?

– I didn't.

8^a – Did she tell you to pray?

– She told me to pray several times.

9^a – Did she tell you to pray for the conversion of sinners?

– She didn't; she only told me to pray to Our Lady of the Rosary for the war to end.

10^a – Did you see the signs that other people say they have seen, such as a star, roses coming loose from the Lady's dress, etc.?

– I didn't see the star or other extraordinary signs.

11^a – Did you hear any rumbling, thunder or earth tremor?

– I never did.

12^a – Can you read?

– I can't.

13^a – Are you learning to read?

– I'm not.

14^a – How then do you fulfil the order the Lady gave you in that regard?

!.....

15^a – When you tell the people to kneel and pray, is it the Lady who tells you to say so?

– It is not the Lady who tells me, it is I who want to.

16^a – Whenever she appears, do you kneel?

- Sometimes I stay standing, other times I kneel.
16^a – When she speaks, is her voice sweet and pleasant?
– It is.
17^a – How old does the Lady seem to be?
– She seems to be about fifteen.
18^a – What colour is the chain of the rosary?
– It is white.
19^a – And that of the crucifix?
– The crucifix is white too.
20^a – Does the veil cover the Lady's forehead?
– It doesn't. Her forehead can be seen clearly.
21^a – Is the splendour that surrounds her beautiful?
– It is more beautiful than the light of the sun and very bright.
22^a – Did the Lady never greet you with her head or her hands?
– Never.
23^a – Did she never smile at you?
– No, not that either.
24^a – Does she usually look at the people?
– I never saw her look at them.
25^a – Do you hear the talk, noises and shouts of the people during the time you see the Lady?
– I don't.
26^a – Did the Lady ask you in May to come back to the Cova da Iria every month until October?
– She said we should come back there month after month for six months, on the 13th.
27^a – Did you hear your mother read the book called "Missão abreviada" where the story is told of the apparition of Our Lady to a boy and a girl?
– I did.
28^a – Did you often think about that story and talk about it to other children?
– I didn't think about that story nor did I tell it to anyone.

How old are you?
– I'm nine.
2^a – Do you only see the Lady or do you also hear what She says?
– I only see her; I hear nothing of what She says.
4^a – Does she have a glow around her head?

– She does.
5^a – Can you look properly at her face?
– I can look, but only a little, because of the light.
6^a – Does she have any trimmings on her dress?
– She has some gold cords.
7^a – What colour is the crucifix of the rosary?
– It is white.
8^a – And the chain of the rosary?
– It is white too.
9^a – Would the people be sad if they knew the secret?
– They would.

Near Fátima or Aljustrel, Cova da Iria, beside Aljustrel, [near] the road [of] macadam, on the north side. Things I witnessed. On 13 June I went there for the first time, but did not arrive in time for the event; however, I spoke with the little girls in the churchyard at Fátima. I questioned them carefully and saw in them something that, it seemed to me, could not possibly be untrue. From that moment I believed that it was the Most Holy Virgin who came there. On 13 July I was present too. At the hour of the apparition [there could be seen] a little mist. The sun lost its strength and stopped giving heat, though until then it had been very hot. And many people said that, when the apparition spoke, they heard her but did not

[…]

witness [make out] what She was saying. I only heard when Lúcia said: there She goes! I heard a roar in the air. It seemed like the beginning of a thunderclap. On 13 August I was present too. The little girls and the boy had been arrested. There were a great many people. At the same hours as the apparition, the heavenly bodies and the sun did the same as on the other occasions; and there was a most extraordinary sign in the heavens. On 13 September I was present too. The sun and the heavenly bodies made the same display. The people were full of excitement, looking up into the air, some saying that they saw stars, others that they saw a dove, others that they saw stars running and swallows going along with them. Everyone was excited. Still others [said] that they saw flowers falling. On 13 October it rained almost all morning. Close to the hour of the apparition it stopped raining. The extraordinary things that happened in the sun! Everyone saw them who had their eyes open; whoever closed them saw nothing. And perhaps there were some who saw and said they had not, so as not to give honour to the Mother of Heaven. Whatever mistake there may have been about the war^*, the extraordinary [facts] that happened there are undeniable.

How did you learn that the Lady appeared to your daughter the first time? Was it she who told you?

– I learned of it from the other children's family, because Lúcia advised her companions to say nothing for fear they would be scolded. Only after I questioned her did she say what she had seen.

3^a – Did you never scold your daughter for going to the Cova da Iria? Did you always give her complete freedom to go there on the 13th of each month?

– I never forbade her to go to that place. Sometimes I asked her if she wanted to go and she answered yes, other times she herself said she would go, if I gave her leave.

4^a – Do the three children usually go to the place of the apparitions alone or do they go accompanied by other children?

– They go alone. Other children almost always go too, but accompanied by their parents, and they stay beside them; they do not join Lúcia and her cousins.

5^a – Did the children tend livestock? To whom did it belong?

– Lúcia tended a small flock of sheep and her cousins another. Those flocks belonged to their respective families. Sometimes they put the animals together, but only because they wanted to. The sheep Lúcia tended I have already sold.

6^a – How have the children been dressed when they go?

– The first time they were shabbily turned out, as shepherds almost always are. The other times, on the 13th of each month, they go dressed in light-coloured clothes and wear a white kerchief on their heads.

[…]

When the children were arrested by the administrator^* of Vila Nova de Ourém, did anyone go to demand that they be returned to their parents?

– A brother of Francisco and Jacinta went to talk to them at the administrator's house. The administrator's wife asked whether he had come to fetch the children, to which he answered no. The administrator himself brought them back to Fátima.

11^a – Have many people come to see your daughter?

– Many people have come almost every day.

Before each apparition did you see any flash of lightning?

– Sometimes I saw one, other times I saw two. The air was murky, as before a thunderstorm.

29^th – The first time the Lady appeared to you, was the sky cloudless?

– I don't remember whether there were clouds.

30^th – When the Lady appeared to you the 1^st time, what were you doing?

– I said the rosary before she came.

31^st – When the first apparition happened, did you kneel or remain standing?

– The first time I remained standing.

32^nd – Did the Lady always come surrounded by a radiance?

– She did.

– What colour was that radiance?

– It was very bright, very white.

33^rd – Did the radiance appear before the Lady?

– It appeared almost at the same time as the Lady.

I sit down beside him and begin my conversation: “Did you see Our Lady?” — “I did.” “How was she dressed?” — “All in white and gold.” “And didn't she have anything coloured?” — “No.” “And on her head?” — “A mantle.” “And nothing else?” — “Yes, she had a thing.” “What?” — “I don't know, a thing.” “And could her hair be seen?” — “No.” “And what colour were her eyes?” — “They were black.” These answers were given with an air of enormous naturalness, in a slightly drawling voice. All three children, whom I spoke to separately, change their tone when describing Our Lady's gaze. One can see that it was what impressed them most.

Lucia says of the eyes: “They were very dark.” “And the dress?” — “White and gold.”

“With a coloured belt?” — “No, with gold stars; look, she had one on her breast.” “And on her head?” — “A mantle and a thing, like this...” “But what?” — “I don't know, it was like a little basket thing” (a little basket). I did not even say the word crown, which came to my mind at once; I let the child explain herself as best she could, and I confess I found the comparison delightful. “And could her hair be seen?” — “No.” “Tell me, was Our Lady laughing, cheerful?” — “No, she was serious.” “Cross?” — “No, serious.” “She had the beads, didn't she?” — “Yes, some white beads, and when she spoke she opened her hands, like this...” The child took the beads out of her pocket and explained what she had seen. At a certain point she tells me that Our Lady had a great deal of light. “Like the sun?” — “More than the sun.” A lady who was there says to her: “Why were you afraid at first? If I appeared to you, you wouldn't run away.” — “That's because you wouldn't blind me.” She says that Our Lady asks the people to mend their ways, to pray the rosary a great deal and to build a chapel to Our Lady of the Rosary. The child repeats many times: “The people don't mend their ways, the people don't mend their ways...”

Our Lady's dress was of these colours: the dress was all white; it had two stars from the waist down, one in line with the other; round the neck a cord with a ball came down to the waist; the hands joined, and from them hung some beads, I don't know if it was a Rosary or a white Terço^*, with a crucifix also white. The mantle covered her head down to the end of the dress. it had a little gold edge; the feet, I don't know if she had stockings on or came barefoot, because I couldn't make out her toes; it was because of the light that didn't let me fix my eyes on them; everything ar[ound] her was a light so bright and so strong that it didn't let me see as I wanted because it seemed to blind me.

I think I have already said almost everything if anything of what she told me to write is missing I don't remember.

"Did your cousins ever speak with the Lady?". She answered: "They never spoke; once we agreed that Jacinta would speak to her, but, when we got there, Jacinta said nothing."

– "Was the Lady's countenance smiling?". She answered: "It was sad; when she spoke, she opened her hands, which were joined and raised against her breast".

[…]

"Are you certain that you really saw a Lady on top of the holm-oak shrub and that you were not mistaken?". She answered: "I am certain that I saw her and that I was not mistaken; even if they killed me, no one would make me say the contrary.

– "And who was this Lady?". She answered: "Before she said she was the Lady of the Rosary, I did not know who she was; now I am convinced she was Our Lady".

Several times I questioned the seer Jacinta, who always confirmed to me that she saw a Lady at the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of each month from May to October nineteen hundred and seventeen, except on the thirteenth of August, when she was at the house of the municipal administrator^*, but that in that month she saw Her on the following Sunday – the nineteenth – at the place called Valinho, where she was called by her brother João at Lúcia's request.

She said that she saw a very beautiful Lady, all dressed in white, in a garment with little gold cords, with a veil or mantle over her head, the size of F. – she points to a girl of average height, about fourteen years old – and that she had some very white beads hanging from her hands, held between the forefinger and thumb of both hands, which she held up at her waist and parted to about the width of her shoulders when she spoke to Lúcia.

When She spoke to Lúcia, she heard a very gentle, pious voice, but she does not remember hearing anything said except that they – the seers – would go to Heaven. In the several times I questioned her she never contradicted herself on essentials, although on incidental matters there were some contradictions, real or apparent. On one occasion – 21 August – I went to her parents' house with five ladies – Dona Maria de Jesus Raposo, of Torres Novas, and others from the Quinta da Cardiga – one of whom, about fifteen years of age, was dressed in white. On reaching the parents' house I called out... Jacinta came; she was alone, and on seeing the unexpected visitors she was embarrassed, as is natural in a child of the people, and in one who a few days earlier had been returned to her parents after being abducted. After a few words of encouragement, I said to her:

– Look, Jacinta, see whether it was one of these ladies you saw at the Cova da Iria, or whether there is one here who looks like the one you saw there.

She raises her little eyes, runs her gaze over all of them, from head to foot, and says:

– It wasn't any of these... the other one is much more beautiful.

I point out to her the one dressed in white, saying to her:

– Then wasn't it this Lady, dressed in white, so beautiful, that you saw up there?!

This Lady, she answered, is very beautiful, but She whom I saw there is much more beautiful.

We went to Lúcia's parents' house and, on finding her, I asked her the same question and got the same answer. Nor could I get her to reveal the secret to me; she only said that it – the secret – was not bad for them, the seers. She also said that the Lady appeared to her three more times: once on the day of the Ascension of the Lord, in the church during Mass, when she taught her to say the beads; another time, at night, above the trapdoor of the loft while the family was asleep; and once more under (or, if I am not mistaken, on top of) a table, without saying anything to her, until she, Jacinta, said to her mother: Look... don't you see the Lady I saw up there, there underneath?!... Look!!! As the mother herself stated to me.

When I asked the girl Lúcia who had taught her to say what she has been saying, she answered that it was the Lady she saw at the Cova da Iria. When I told her that people who tell lies that do as much harm as hers does – if it is a lie, with so many people coming here deceived – go to hell, she answered that if liars go to hell, she will not go to hell for that, because she does not tell lies; she only says what she saw and what the Lady told her; and if the people come, it is because they want to, for she has not called anyone. I asked her whether the Lady had told her a secret. She answered that she had, but that she would not tell it to me. After several questions about it, she answered: Look!... if you like... I'll go up there and ask the Lady whether She gives me leave to tell the secret, and if She gives me leave, then I'll tell you.

The Reverend Manuel Marques Ferreira, parish priest of Fátima, in a letter dated the fifteenth of August, nineteen hundred and seventeen, published in the same newspaper, defends himself against the accusations unjustly made against him of complicity with the municipal administrator of Vila Nova de Ourém in the abduction of the seers carried out on the thirteenth of that month. He states in it that his life was even in danger, so great was the excitement of feeling provoked by the abduction and by the calumny imputed to him. Finally, he sets out the reasons for his systematic absence from the place of the apparitions on the thirteenth of each month, which is due to his conviction that his presence is not necessary if the apparitions are really supernatural, and to his wish not to give the enemies of the Church a pretext for attributing the faith of the crowd to the presence or the counsels of the parish priest of Fátima.

P.S. — On the 15th the official arrived with the children at my house, where their parents and many other people gathered, and before them he tried, with every courtesy, to explain his conduct.

4^th time - I was arrested

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 (at noon she had been at home with the flock). 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.

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.

33 - She never said at what time she was coming, but we used to go there at that time.

[37]⁴

[37-] The Lady told her a secret but she will not reveal it.

What the Lady wore on her feet – were they stockings? Are you sure of that?

– I reckon they were stockings, but they might not have been.

4th – You have never told the secret, nor even said that the people would be sad if they knew it. Francisco and Jacinta say that they would be sad. If you cannot say that, neither could they say it. What do you think?

– I don't know whether they should or shouldn't say that the people would be sad. Our Lady said we were not to tell anything to anyone. That is why I can't say anything.

2^nd – You once said that the Lady had white stockings. So were they stockings or were they her feet?

– If they were stockings, they were white, but I don't know for sure whether they were stockings or her feet.

3^rd – Was the skirt always the same length?

– The last time the skirt seemed longer.

When was it that the Lady taught you the prayer you were to say after each mystery^*?

– I think it was in the third month.

2^nd – How many people did the Lady promise to cure and convert?

– I asked for many and she said she would cure and convert some, and not others.

3^rd – How many times did you make that request to her?

– I think it was five times, now for some people, now for others.

On a few different occasions I questioned Francisco, and he always told me that he saw a very beautiful Lady at the Cova da Iria and at Valinho on the same days his companions had given, and that she was dressed in white, but that he did not hear Her speak. As for the secret, I could not get him to reveal anything. When I told him that, since he did not hear the Lady, he had no secret at all, he answered that yes, he has; Lúcia told it to him. I told him that, since it was Lúcia who told it to him, he could tell me, because it is not a secret and Our Lady did not tell him not to tell it; he answered: I won't tell, it's a sin; Lúcia said that I shouldn't tell it, so I won't.

We were in the middle of this when some men turned up, very happy, saying that Our Lady had appeared. I at once took leave of the priests and went back up. The roads were already full of those people talking about the sensational event. I asked each group what they had seen, and in no time at all I found myself surrounded by all those people, who with a great deal of shouting told me that they had heard a clap of thunder and everyone had run away; then, coming back, they saw a cloud come down, blue and white, which shortly rose and disappeared. Others said they had seen a flash of lightning, and there was one little woman who, with tears in her eyes, said, utterly convinced, that she had seen Our Lady; in short, everyone was satisfied

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 flock 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 (he thinks), Our Lady of the Rosary, Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus would appear.

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 (at noon she had been at home with the flock). 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.

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.

We learned afterwards that the children, set free on the 15th, said that on the 19th they had been favoured with a new apparition, not at the Cova da Iria but at Valinhos, where they were pasturing the flock. That the Lady had again urged them to pray the rosary in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary so that the war would abate, and that because they had been arrested on the 13th the same signs would not be seen the following month, and that the miracle would be better known. But that She would come on 13 September to the Cova da Iria, and that the children should go there too.

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.

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 firework rocket, but saw nothing. And he added that his eyes even hurt from looking up into the air. He was then eleven years old.

As soon as they arrived at Ourém, the children were shut in a room and told that they would not leave it until they declared the secret that the Lady had confided to them. The next day, after being questioned by a lady, they were taken to the council administration and questioned again, someone even offering them gold pieces to reveal the secret. In the afternoon they were again questioned about the secret. They were taken to the jail and threatened that they would be made to stay there if they did not tell it. As they would not tell it, they were threatened that they would be fried in oil. At that point, in the presence of the children, the administrator told an individual who was nearby to get ready a cauldron of hot oil. He then called Jacinta, saying that she was the first to be burned. She went promptly, and Lúcia, in her deposition, adds ingenuously that she went without saying goodbye. They questioned her and put her in a room. Next they called Francisco and told him that Jacinta was already burned and that he would suffer the same fate if he did not declare the secret. They questioned him and sent him to the same room. Then it was Lúcia's turn. They told her that her cousins were already burned and that she would suffer the same fate if she did not tell the secret. Although she thought it was true, the seer was not afraid, as she herself declares. They sent her to join her cousins, and a man said that it would not be long before all three were burned. They were taken to the administrator's house, and there they spent one more night in the same room. The next day almost the same thing happened: interrogations morning and afternoon, with many promises and threats. On the sixteenth they went again to the administration, at about ten o'clock, but nothing was obtained from the seers, as on the other occasions, until finally the administrator went to take them to the parish residence of Fátima.

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 processional 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 sixteenth of August, the day of the fourth apparition, after the sad episodes at Ourém, Lúcia asked the Lady for a miracle so that the people would believe, and She said that in the last month she would make a sign in the sun and that everyone would believe. After what had happened in the seat of the council, and in the face of the doubts that so many people expressed about the reality and supernatural character of the apparitions, it was natural that Lúcia should think of asking the Lady for evident proof that she was not a liar, as many claimed. If she did not think of it, someone would certainly have advised her to make that request. On the thirteenth of September Lúcia pressed for the fulfilment of the promise. Here are the exact words that appear in the report on fol. 5²⁶: "I asked again that she would work a miracle for the people to believe, because they said I was a humbug who ought to be hanged and burned. The Lady gave me the same answer as the other time".

On the morning of the thirteenth of May 1917 a boy and two girls were grazing, as was their custom, a small flock of sheep belonging to their families, on a property in the Serra de Minde, in the parish of Fátima, municipality of Villa Nova d'Ourem, district of Leiria.

[…]

That day it was nearly noon by the sun^*. As was their custom, the three children, after spending a good while at their innocent games, began to pray the rosary^*, a devotion very dear to the inhabitants of that parish. They had scarcely finished when they suddenly saw the dazzling brightness of a flash of lightning shine in the air a short distance from them and, almost at the same moment, above the crown of a small holm oak, the radiant and enchanting figure of a woman of extraordinary beauty appeared. Frightened by so unusual and so unexpected an occurrence, they thought of running away, but they were at once completely reassured by the kindly manner of the Apparition, who in the sweetest voice promised that she would do them no harm at all.

The Apparition seemed to be no more than eighteen years old. Her dress was of the purest snow-white, as was the mantle, edged with gold, that covered her head and most of her body. Her face, of flawless nobility of line, with an indefinable something supernatural and divine about it, was serene and grave, as if clouded by a slight shadow of sadness. From her hands, joined at the height of her breast, hung a beautiful rosary ending in a gold cross, whose beads, white as ermine, looked like pearls. From her whole figure, surrounded by a splendour brighter than the sun's, beams of light radiated, above all from her face, whose beauty was impossible to describe and incomparably superior to any human beauty.

A dialogue took place between the Apparition and Lucia, lasting about ten minutes.

Jacinta saw the Apparition and clearly heard the words she spoke to Lucia, but she never spoke to her, nor did the Apparition ever address a word to her. Francisco only saw the Apparition and never heard what she said to Lucia, although he was at the same distance and had excellent hearing.

[…]

The Apparition insistently urged everyone to do penance and pray the rosary. She told the children a secret, which they could not reveal to anyone. She promised them Heaven.

She asked for a chapel to be built in her honour at that spot and declared that on the thirteenth of October she would perform a miracle so that all the people would believe that she had really appeared there. On the thirteenth of August, moments before the time of the apparition, the children were abducted by a trick by the administrator of the municipality^*, who kept them in his house for two days, threatening them with death if they did not retract or at least reveal the secret the Apparition had entrusted to them.

That month the apparition took place on the nineteenth, at the spot called Vallinhos, when the children no longer expected it until the following month.

It was from the family of the other two seers, Francisco and Jacinta, her nephew and niece, that she learned that Our Lady had appeared to her daughter the first time, because Lúcia had advised her companions to say nothing, for fear of being scolded. Lúcia only said what she had seen after being questioned by her mother. At first she did not believe in the children's sincerity. Faced with the crowds flocking to the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of each month, her wish was to prevent her daughter from going to that place on those days. Only with great reluctance, and guided by the advice of people of authority, who counselled her to leave her daughter free to do as she pleased, did she bring herself to allow her to go. Fearing that her daughter was deceiving the people with false statements, although she did not take her for a liar, she severely reproached her for her conduct, threatening her several times with a beating, and on one occasion, in one of the first months of the apparitions, she even struck her with a slipper, calling her an impostor.

[…]

Lúcia's mother, when she was told that her daughter had been arrested, answered: "If it was from God, God will protect them; if they lied, they won't keep it up!...". And while many people wept with pity or indignation, she kept the serenity of a truly Christian soul.

As I told you, I examined, or rather questioned, the three separately. They all say the same without the slightest variation. The main point that I deduced from everything they tell me is “– that the apparition wants the devotion of the Rosary to be spread –”. All the little ones always say that the one who appears to them is the Lady. They do not know who she is... Only after the 6 times, on 13 October, will she tell them who she is and what she wants!!... The naturalness and ingenuousness with which they speak and tell what they saw is admirable and impressive.

Lúcia sees the Lady, speaks with her and hears her. Jacinta sees the Lady, hears her, but does not speak with Her. Francisco sees the Lady, but neither speaks to her nor hears her!!!... This difference is interesting, don't you think, Prazeres??... But besides being interesting it even has a great deal of the extraordinary about it!!... To hear the little ones, to see them in their simplicity, to examine them as a whole, impresses us in an extraordinary way, and leads me to conclude that in everything they tell me there is something supernatural. Being with them strikes us with great intensity... Today, Prazeres, it is my conviction that there is an extraordinary fact which our reason cannot reach. What is it?... With still greater anxiety I await the coming 13th. What is certain is that we feel at ease with the little ones and even lose the sense of time. There is an attraction that I do not know how to explain... One of the children's most intense impressions is that of the Lady's beauty. The boy, to express his admiration, told me she was “ever so pretty”!!!... I showed him your portrait and asked: is she prettier? “Much prettier!!...”. The Lady comes all in white with gold. She does not wear any blue sash as was said. Whether she is Our Lady of Peace.... Do you remember what she said at the 2nd apparition?... That they should learn to read... Little Jacinta told me “that she was already on the row of A's”!!...

[…]

The prayer they say the Lady taught them is simple; it is as follows:

“O my Jesus, forgive me.

Deliver me from the fire of hell

Take all the little souls to heaven, especially those most in need.”

Could anything be simpler? I found it interesting that the Lady should have taught it but not recommended that they pray it.

Maria do Carmo, aged forty-seven, a native of the hamlet of Arnal, in the parish of Maceira, municipality of Leiria, and married to Joaquim dos Santos, had for five years been suffering from a rather serious illness which showed all the characteristic symptoms of tuberculosis. In the first phase of the illness she felt pains from time to time, though not very strong ones, in the head, the stomach and the intestines. At the beginning of 1916 the pains grew extraordinarily worse. They were continuous and hard to bear. She then felt them in her back and, with even greater intensity, in her chest. At the same time she began to suffer from shortness of breath. Her hands, her feet and her belly swelled enormously. It was suspected that she had a tumour in the uterus. She was wasting away and growing thin before one's eyes. Three months later she did not look the same person, for from being well-nourished she had become extremely thin. She could not put any somewhat heavy object on her head because of the torments it caused her. She often felt like vomiting, though she did not vomit.

When she took any food, and while digestion lasted, the headaches increased. The stomach pains hardly let her sleep. So as not to be worse, she ate very little.

She lived exclusively or almost exclusively on milk.

A deep, dry cough tormented her chest ceaselessly. Her saliva often tasted of blood. All the neighbours were persuaded that the unfortunate woman was tubercular. She herself would not let her children come near her for fear of contagion. One individual who knew perfectly well the gravity of the illness, talking one day with some friends and seeing her pass close by, told them in a tone of voice that left no room for doubt that she was irremediably lost and would not live more than fifteen days. This was in the middle of July of last year. In vain did she seek relief for her ailments in the resources of medicine. Poor as she was, and there being no doctor except some kilometres away, at Batalha, she went there only once with her husband to consult the distinguished and skilful physician Dr. Padrão. The remedies this practitioner prescribed brought her no relief at all.

In these circumstances she harboured no illusions about the gravity of her condition and resignedly awaited death. At that time the consoling news was spreading from place to place, from one end of the country to the other, that since the previous May the Most Holy Virgin had been appearing every month on the thirteenth to some humble little children who grazed livestock at a place commonly called “Cova da Iria”, in the parish of Fatima, municipality of Villa Nova d'Ourem, seven leagues^* from Maceira. A gleam of gentle hope suddenly lit up her downcast and embittered spirit. Full of faith, she invokes the Mother of God and, to obtain through her intercession the cure she so longed for, vows to go to Fatima four times on foot, barefoot. She chose the thirteenth of August to begin fulfilling her vow. But her husband, though a God-fearing man, considered such an undertaking sheer recklessness and opposed her going. “We are poor,” he told his wife, “we haven't the means to hire a carriage in which you could make the journey without danger and with some chance of getting there alive. Be patient, but I won't let you go”.

Indeed, her state of weakness was so great that she grew enormously tired when she walked, however little. About two hundred metres from the house where they live she owns a small plot of land. For a long time she had rarely gone there, and when she did, she needed to sit down countless times by the side of the path to rest. Her daughters did all the housework, their mother directing and allotting the various tasks, unable to help them as she wished, for her strength was failing. She insisted so much with her husband, however, that he, seeing her unshakeable confidence, gave in to her persistent entreaties and made up his mind to go with her. At last the thirteenth of August came, so ardently awaited. At one o'clock in the morning of that day the sick woman sets out in the company of her husband, who continued to regard such a journey as recklessness and madness. She rested several times on the way.

It was nine o'clock in the morning when she reached the place of the apparitions. She was quite exhausted, she felt a great deal of pain; she was, in her own words, all one pain. A few moments later, to her great surprise, she felt notable relief.

She sat down in the shade of a large, leafy holm oak, where she took some food, and stayed there until three o'clock in the afternoon, then setting off again. On the way back the pains were less intense and she did not feel as tired as on the way there.

From day to day the improvement became more and more marked. Meanwhile she began to take solid food, but her main food continued to be milk. On the thirteenth of September she went back to Fatima for the second time, the journey not causing her as much discomfort as on the thirteenth of August. Each time she went there she prayed the rosary both going and coming back, neither talking nor paying attention to the conversations of the people who accompanied her.

From that day on she improved still more.

She was already doing a little work in the house and went with less difficulty to her plot of land. On the thirteenth of October she set out early in the morning as on the other occasions, but before she reached Fatima she was caught by the memorable torrential rain that marked that autumn day. Although she got completely wet, the rain soaking the clothes she wore, she felt perfectly well at the place of the apparitions. The pains disappeared never to return. The swelling of the belly and of the arms and legs likewise disappeared as if by magic. Since returning home that day she has eaten everything, at any hour of the day or night, and however indigestible the food may be, she does not feel the slightest discomfort. She has not felt short of breath again. She works hard and can carry heavy loads on her head as before her illness. She has never had a cough again. She is plump, feels strong and enjoys excellent health. She does not remember ever having been so well at any time in her life. On the thirteenth of November she went to Fatima again in order to give thanks for her cure to the Virgin of the Rosary⁴.

On the morning of the thirteenth of May 1917, a little boy and two little girls were pasturing, as was their custom, a small flock of sheep belonging to their families, on a property in the Serra de Minde hills, in the parish of Fátima, municipality of Vila Nova de Ourém, diocese of Leiria.

The eldest of the three children, named Lúcia de Jesus, was the daughter of António dos Santos, who died the following year¹, and of Maria Rosa dos Santos, and was ten years old. The boy and the other girl, who were brother and sister, were called Francisco and Jacinta, the former being nine years old and the latter seven. Their parents were Manuel Pedro Marto and Olímpia de Jesus Marto. They were Lúcia's cousins. The houses of the two families, which, though not rich, nevertheless possessed some means, stood close to each other in the hamlet of Aljustrel, about a kilometre from the parish church of Fátima. None of the children could read or write. Their religious instruction was still very rudimentary. Only Lúcia had made her first communion.

On that memorable day the hour of astronomical noon was approaching. Following their custom, the three children, after spending a good while in innocent games, began to pray the rosary^*, a devotion very dear to the inhabitants of that parish. They had only just finished reciting it when they suddenly saw the dazzling brightness of a flash of lightning shine in the air a short distance from them, and almost simultaneously there appeared, above the crown of a small holm oak, the radiant and enchanting figure of a woman of extraordinary beauty. Frightened by so unusual and unexpected an occurrence, they thought of running away, but they were at once completely reassured by the kindly attitude of the Apparition, who in a most sweet voice promised that she would do them no harm whatever.

The Apparition seemed to be no more than eighteen years old. Her dress was of the purest snowy whiteness, as was the mantle, edged with gold, that covered her head and most of her body. Her face, of an irreproachable nobility of line and with something supernatural and divine about it, appeared serene and grave and as if clouded by a slight shadow of sadness. From her hands, joined at the height of her breast, hung a lovely rosary finished with a gold cross, whose beads, ermine-white, looked like pearls. From her whole figure, surrounded by a splendour brighter than that of the sun, beams of light radiated, especially from her face, of a loveliness impossible to describe and incomparably superior to any human beauty.

A dialogue took place between the Apparition and Lúcia, which lasted about ten minutes.

Jacinta saw the Apparition and heard distinctly the words she spoke when addressing Lúcia, but she never spoke to her, nor did the Apparition address a word to her. Francisco only saw the Apparition, never hearing what she said to Lúcia, although he was at the same distance and had excellent hearing.

That day the Apparition invited the three little shepherds to return every month on the thirteenth, for six consecutive months, to that spot, commonly known by the name of Cova da Iria and situated a little more than two kilometres from the parish church of Fátima, beside the district road from Vila Nova de Ourém to Batalha.

[…]

The Apparition insistently recommended that everyone should do penance and pray the rosary. She communicated to the children a secret, which they could reveal to no one. She promised them Heaven.

She asked that a chapel be built in her honour on that spot and declared that on the thirteenth of October she would perform a miracle so that all the people would believe that she had really appeared there. On the thirteenth of August, moments before the hour of the apparition, the children were craftily abducted by the municipal administrator^*, who kept them in his house for two days, threatening them with death if they did not recant or at least reveal the secret the Apparition had entrusted to them.

That month the apparition took place on the nineteenth, at the spot called Valinhos, when the children no longer thought it would happen until the following month. On the thirteenth of October, with about seventy thousand people present from all classes and social conditions and from every part of the country, once the dialogue between Lúcia and the Apparition was over (the Apparition having declared to her that she was the Lady of the Rosary), the seer urged the bystanders to look at the sun.

The account of the apparitions is reproduced here in summary.

The Lady says that her place is Heaven, promises eternal happiness to the three children, tells them a secret that they may reveal to no one, teaches them a short prayer⁴, recommends to Lúcia that they learn to read, commands that everyone pray the rosary so that the war may end, announces the appearance of Our Lord, of St Joseph with the Child Jesus, and of Our Lady under the titles of the Rosary, of Carmel and of Sorrows, again recommends the recitation of the rosary, declares that the war would end soon, and on the last day states that Our Lord is very angry at the sins of men, begs that they offend Him no more, insists once again that they pray the rosary, declares that she is the Lady of the Rosary and orders that a chapel be built there in her honour. Jacinta's deposition confirms, in a general way, Lúcia's deposition, as does that of Francisco, who however only saw the Lady and heard nothing of what she said to his cousin.

But if I was relying on statements of the seers that I kept in my memory, it is utterly impossible for me to state precisely, after so many years, which of the children assured me that the cross of the rosary was, or looked like, gold. Was it Francisco? Was it Jacinta? I do not know. It must be stressed that Lucia, like her cousins, sometimes said that certain parts of the vision's body or certain items of its clothing were white because of the clear, brilliant light that surrounded it and almost blinded their eyes. Page 77, Lucia: "It's that she sometimes blinds". Page 94, Francisco: "I can look at her face, but only a little, because of the light".

Two little shepherd girls and a little shepherd boy asserted that a lady of incomparable beauty appeared to them on the thirteenth of each month from May to October of that year, making various communications to them, some of them secret. The Vision, according to the testimony of the three children, promised to say on the thirteenth of October who she was and to perform a prodigy that day so that everyone would believe her words, and at the same time asked for a chapel to be built in her honour at the place of the apparitions.

Several times she declared that God was greatly offended by the sins of men and that grave punishments threatened them; she recommended to all that they do penance, advised the frequent recitation of the rosary, and lastly said that she was the Lady of the Rosary.

On 13 May 1917, three children of the parish of Fátima, in the vicariate^* of Ourém, in this Diocese, were pasturing a small flock in a place called Cova da Iria, which was then deserted.

The eldest, Lúcia de Jesus, was 10 years old, Francisco nine and Jacinta six^a. The two younger ones were brother and sister, and the eldest was their cousin.

None of them could read or write.

It was getting on towards noon, and the children, according to the custom of their region, prayed the rosary^* of Our Lady.

The prayer finished, they were amusing themselves building a tiny house out of loose stones when, suddenly, a flash of lightning, of vivid and brilliant light, furrowed the sky. Although the sky was clear and cloudless, the children, fearing a thunderstorm, gathered the flock and were about to leave. But as they reach a point near the spot where the water fountains now stand, another flash of lightning blazes out and, a few paces away, standing on a small holm oak at the place where the tiny, humble Chapel of the Apparitions now stands, they see with amazement the figure of a Lady of incomparable beauty, clothed in a dress of the purest white; a mantle edged with gold covers her head and most of her body. Her face, of a heavenly, supernatural beauty, appeared serene, grave and clouded by a slight shadow of sadness. From her hands, joined at the height of her breast, hung a beautiful rosary ending in a cross.

From the whole figure, surrounded by a splendour brighter than the sun, beams of light radiated.

The children drew near, and a dialogue took place between the Lady and the eldest; the Lady invited them to come there on the 13th of each month until October.

According to the testimony of the children and of many people, there were six apparitions, all on the 13th of the month, except in August, when the apparition took place a few days later because the administrative authority^* was holding the children prisoner in Ourém.

The Lady told them that her place is in heaven, entrusted them with a secret that they may reveal to no one, taught them a short prayer, recommended the recitation of the Rosary, advised Lúcia to learn to read, insisted on the need for prayer and penance for the war to end, said that Our Lord is very angry at the sins of men and above all at the sin of the flesh, ordered a chapel to be built there in her honour, and declared that she is the Lady of the Rosary...

In all this, however, it seems that the very true saying quod volumus facile credimus^* had great influence on the people (which does not mean that I dare deny it, for I was not there, and I am very sorry about that), because some educated and level-headed people such as Mario Mourão, Poças and others from here told me that there was not sufficient proof of anything supernatural, and this ... so as not to say that they had seen nothing, which I also heard from other people.

And so it was: that wicked and cowardly man betrayed all those people, but in this there seems indeed to have been an intervention of God, because that place, where a great many people were constantly passing, was deserted, and the only witnesses de visu^* were the Parish Priest, the Vicar of Torres Novas¹⁹ and Fr. Manuel Poças²⁰, who were on his veranda

(the parish priest's), as they themselves told me afterwards.

Fr. Manuel Poças spoke with the children (they are 3 siblings²³), 1 boy of 10 and 2 girls of 6 and 8) and was delighted; he says that one cannot doubt the fact of the

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.

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.

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.

Why, what happened? I cannot tell you; many people, among them my maids, said they saw a lovely cloud right beside the sun which disappeared in moments.

On the 19th^* Our Lady appeared to the said children in another place, telling them that because they had been imprisoned the miracle had been more visible. That is exactly how I heard them put it.

Suddenly a man from Lapas (a place not far from Torres Novas), who had gone there only to please his wife and who did not believe the miracle possible, cries out bathed in tears: “I see, I see the Lady!!! Look, in this direction, between those two clouds, don't you see her?” We all looked in the direction indicated but... none of us saw anything more than the clouds. Nevertheless the man, full of faith, kept saying: “Arrest me if you like, but I shall always say what I saw”!

His wife saw nothing, but she was radiant that it was her husband who had seen, for he did not believe; she believed, she did not need to see.

What was it Lúcia said to the Lady?
– She asked her what she had come here to do.
14^th – Did you hear the Lady's answer?
– I didn't, but Lúcia waited a little while.
15^th – Did Lúcia ask more questions?
– She did. She spoke again, but I don't remember what she said, except for the last question, which was whether she would bring my Manuel back here.
16^th – Didn't Lúcia tell you afterwards what the Lady had said to her?
– She told me the same day near the holm-oak shrub, straight away on the way back, that if she had not been taken to the village (Vila Nova de Ourém) on the 13th, the miracle would not be so well known.

Sr^a D. Maria de Jesus Raposo has been here. She says she was at Fátima on 13 August 1917 (when the children were not there). The smoke was much greater, like a sort of globe that enveloped the holm oak.

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”.

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.

A short while before, a little man with whom I was talking had said to me: "Look, madam, the heavenly bodies are looking just as they did a month ago today."

We went on with the journey, and when we reached Fatima the Ex.^mo Mr Pedro asked after the little girls, who just then were coming out of school; then, at the schoolmistress's bidding, the girls came up to the carriage and spoke with other people who were there, and we asked them about Our Lady, and they always affirmed the same thing: that they saw her, heard her and spoke with her.

A. On page 11 I state that the apparition seems to be no more than 18 years old because once Lucia's mother, in the presence of her daughter and of other people, told me, when I asked how old the vision looked, that she looked like a girl from the hamlet of Aljustrel who was present and who was already 17. On page 90 I state that Lucia said the Vision seemed to be about 15 years old, because she really did say so, although she was a simple, uneducated little girl, only 10 years old, and incapable of judging a person's age accurately. Besides, the difference between about fifteen years and no more than eighteen years is not great, and the expression I use on page 90 not only does not contradict or exclude the statement on page 11 but actually completes it and brings us closer to the truth.

Franc. died on 4 April 1919. He received the last sacr. with great lucidity and piety And confirmed that he had seen a Lady at the Cova da Iria and Vallinho³.

Francisco – the seer – died at ten o'clock at night on the 4th of this April, the victim of a long, 5-month ordeal with the pneumonic influenza^*, having received the Sacraments with great lucidity and piety – And he confirmed that he had seen a Lady at the Cova da Iria and Valinho^*.