Other 1917 events

I went back to Fatima on 19 October; I went to see the children and speak with them. With us went a priest who had already interrogated them several times, those interrogations being most interesting.

Contrary to what had happened to some people, I liked the children immensely; they are robust, healthy, cheerful, frank and likeable, with an ease of manner proper to their age. They did not run away from us, but received us kindly. We were present at a lengthy interrogation, made of each child separately. They answer frankly, promptly, and with the greatest simplicity. Nevertheless one can see that they do not much like being interrogated, that it bores them, and that they answer only because they feel obliged to.

On 14 July 1917 Jacinta, aged 7, daughter of Manuel Pedro Marto, appeared before me; questioned about the vision, she said:

That she had seen a small woman 4 times, once in her house at night and three times at the Cova da Iria at midday; she says she was the size of Albina, daughter of António Rosa of Casa Velha²; at home she saw her at the edge of the attic trapdoor, not saying anything; her mother and brothers and sisters were asleep and it was night; at the Cova da Iria she saw her standing on top of a holm-oak shrub³; she was dressed in white stockings and clothes all of gold; she wore no shoes; the skirt was white and all gold and came down to her knees; the gold was in cords running across, and on the cords in little points; a white jacket all of gold; a mantle over her head was white and all gold; her hands raised to her waist, and they opened, parting them when she spoke to Lúcia; she did not hear her say anything, she heard her speak (now she says yes, now she says no); she did not hear her say how many times she would come here; on leaving, the sky opened and her feet stayed caught and her body already hidden; she heard a very pious voice and remembers only hearing that people (they) would go to heaven; she says she saw lightning, but now she says it was once, now more than once, now before, now after; she had some white beads in her hands, held between the thumb and forefinger of both hands; she did not see earrings; she wore a thin gold chain around her neck.

A lively lunch. I explained the reason for my visit. We exchanged impressions. The day before, the little girls had been at the parish priest's house for the priests to question them. They maintained all their usual statements, which, together with the little girls' attitude, impressed them. It was not sufficient reason for them to form a judgement, but they all agreed that there was something extraordinary. What?

Let us await the course of events, and may the will of God be made manifest. Lunch ended. The parish priest assigns his servant to us as our orderly, with the greatest and best recommendations to the mother of the little girls. An intense curiosity gripped me. The Mother of the two youngest, after the parish priest's message, receives me with the best of smiles. We went into the parlour. The mother, a lean little old woman, with brisk manners, every inch an active woman. She begins her explanations. Only Jacinta (aged 7) and Francisco (going on 9) were her children; Lúcia (going on 11) is her niece. Jacinta was at Lúcia's house. She sent for her at once.

Francisco had come back with the little flock and, while dinner was not yet ready, had gone to join his Father cutting brushwood. I am alone with the mother.

She tells me of her apprehensions on account of the stir the little girls have caused. “If only we were deserving!!!...”. “But just imagine, even my brother (Lúcia's father) does not care about the Church and is a man for wine!!!...”.

She told me about the visit of the Administrator and the imprisonment of the little girls. Well, she went on talking until Jacinta arrived. Lúcia had gone to take her Father his dinner and would be coming soon. The little mite did not want to come without her cousin (they are inseparable); her sister had to bring her piggyback. Very tiny, very shy, she came edging up to me. I was seated; to see her better I sat her on top of a chest, with me beside her. I then observed her quite at my ease. The Vicar had told me she was an Angel. I wanted to form my own opinion too. I assure you, Prazeres, she is an angel, but a very, very lovely angel!!!... Many times I thought, and a few times I said, that if my Prazeres saw her and spoke with her, she would not run off with her only if it were impossible!!!... A kerchief with a red floral pattern wrapped round her head with the ends tied behind. An oldish kerchief, already torn... A little jacket, which was not remarkable for its cleanliness either, a reddish skirt, but very full, in the fashion of the region.

There you have the dress of our little angel. I would like to describe her little face to you, but I really believe I shall not manage to tell you anything even approximate!!!...

The kerchief, the way she wore it, set off her features even more: eyes of an enchanting liveliness, an angelic expression, of a goodness that captivates us, in an extraordinary whole which, I do not know why, draws us.

Very bashful, we could hardly hear the little she said in reply to my questions. She was missing her Lúcia. She was not at ease!!... After I had entertained her for some time, talking and... (don't laugh!!) playing, Francisco arrived. Cap pulled down over his head, very short jacket, waistcoat showing his shirt, tight trousers, in short a man in miniature. A fine boy's face!... A lively look and an impish face!!... With a self-assured air he answers my questions. Jacinta begins to gain confidence. Shortly afterwards Lúcia arrives. You cannot imagine Jacinta's joy when she saw her!!... She laughed all over, ran to her and never let go of her again!!!... It was a lovely picture. Lúcia on one side, no, Lúcia in the middle, on one side Francisco and on the other, very close to her and with her little head right against her, Jacinta.

Lúcia does not have features that impress us. Only her look is lively. Her features are ordinary. The type of the region. At first she too was withdrawn. But soon I have them at their ease and then, without embarrassment, they answer and satisfy my curiosity. After convincing myself that my interrogation was complete, I ask them whether they would go with me to pray the rosary at the place of the apparition. If their mother lets them, they will go. I obtain the permission myself. No sooner had the mother given it than little Jacinta went off at once to make her toilette... She put on a clean kerchief, another jacket and a little apron!!!... You are anxiously awaiting my impression, aren't you?... Well, here it is, my little girl. 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”!!...

While the little girls had something to eat, I talked with the Father. They made me eat bread with cheese and grapes!!... So as not to disappoint them I did as they wished and in return offered him some of my cigarettes!!...

It also seemed interesting to me to hear the parents, so everything went splendidly. They only know what the children say; their knowledge today goes no further than mine!!!...

After their meal we went to the place with the little ones to pray the rosary. Only they accompanied us. It is still a good way from their house. On the way I asked them:

- Couldn't I get a leaf from the holm-oak shrub?
- It has nothing left now, but I have some at home, they tell me.
- And won't you get me one??...
- Yes, sir.

After we had seen who would go and fetch it, we waited for Francisco to go back home.

The two little mites were playing. They were playing “pontos”: throwing a stone towards a certain spot, the one who landed closest won. It was interesting to watch them play. They argued, but always without getting heated and with the greatest friendliness. Francisco arrives; he no longer had any, but he brought some of Lúcia's!!... (What joy for my little girl!!!!...). A little sprig with only two whole leaves. I kept it. My Prazeres will have her little leaf... If there had been nothing more, this would have been enough for me to be satisfied with the outing!!!...

On the way we laughed!!... The “little ones”, by now very much at their ease and like friends we had known for a long time, played with us all along the way!!... They would stay behind to see whether we knew the way, they laughed; in short we were already... friends!!!...

Thus, now at her ease, how... lovely Jacinta was... Lúcia, despite her less regular features, captivates us by her whole manner, which has a certain something that charms us...

We arrived at the place. Near the road, on a slope, in a magnificent spot, from which one can see very easily from a long way off. The holm-oak shrub (small holm oak) is reduced to its simplest expression. Around it a stone wall. Surrounding it an arch of greenery. On top of the wall, pots of sweet basil and other flowers. The three kneel. Lúcia, who is in the middle, begins to recite the rosary. The recollection, the fervour with which she prays, impresses us. The offering of the rosary is interesting. It is for the soldiers who are at war. With what devotion, Prazeres, the rosary is prayed there... I believe I have never prayed it with such attention!!!... At the end I asked the little girls' permission to keep a sprig of basil. Afterwards they all offered me a little piece!!... I kept the little sprig for you, Prazeres. I also kept another little leaf, which I will bring you later. Such keepsakes are too precious to entrust to the post, so your Carlos will be the bearer. 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 you want greater simplicity? I found it interesting that the Lady should have taught it but not recommended that they pray it.

With regret I saw that I had to leave the little ones. It was 6 o'clock. We had left the parish priest's house at 4!!!... After dinner the parish priest also read me the interrogation he had made of the children.

On the way back I also had for company the Vicar and a parish priest from around here. My haste in the morning, before speaking with the little girls, turned afterwards into leisureliness. It was 8 o'clock when we left Fátima.

On Saint Anthony's day (13 June). On this day there was a feast at Fátima which Lúcia's mother (and I do not know whether Francisco's and Jacinta's too) wanted them to attend, but in obedience to what she had recommended to them the month before, they left the feast to go to the place of the apparition, where they met some people unknown to them and only some 3 or 4 they knew. At more or less the same hour as the month before, the same vision appears to them in the same way, and this time she told them to keep going there in the following months; to learn to read; and she told them a secret, which she forbade them to reveal to anyone whatsoever. – Some days later, being near the place of the apparition with their flock, the three of them thought of going to pray the rosary at the place of the apparition, but for that it was necessary either to leave the flock, with the risk of its going and damaging the nearby crops, or for at least one of them to stay on guard and not go to pray the rosary; they decided all to go and pray the rosary and leave the flock, which immediately went into a field of maize, cabbages, chickling peas and other vegetables. A woman who was nearby, seeing the sheep in that field, calls the shepherds, who did not answer her, so she herself went to turn the sheep, which, as soon as she turned her back, immediately went back there. The rosary over, the three went to their flock, to turn it from the place where it was and see the damage it had done, but great was their amazement when they saw that nothing had been damaged, which was confirmed by the owner himself, who, being told that the flock had been in his field, went the next day to see the damage there, and found that no damage at all had been done to him.

"With the aim of completing the impressions gathered on the thirteenth of this present month of September, and of furnishing myself with the indispensable elements to found, as far as possible, a correct judgement on the events which in the last five months have been unfolding three kilometres to the south of the village of Fatima, at the place called Cova da Iria, I went for the second time last Thursday, the twenty-seventh⁴, to that picturesque village, gracefully perched on one of the spurs of the majestic Serra d'Ayre.

It was three o'clock in the afternoon when I alighted from the carriage that had brought me from Torres Novas by way of Villa Nova d'Ourem to the humble settlement whose name is today pronounced as a promise of heavenly blessings and graces by tens of thousands of lips from one end of Portugal to the other. The reverend Parish Priest, whom I sought out at once, was not at home: he had gone out of the parish and was not due back until night.

Sorry not to be able to exchange a few words with him on the subject that had brought me there, I resolved to go to the house of the children favoured with apparitions of the Most Holy Virgin and to hear from their own mouths the detailed account of the strange events, the news of which has day after day been attracting to Fatima countless people of all classes and social conditions.

Two kilometres from the parish church and the presbytery, in an insignificant little hamlet called Aljustrel, belonging to the parish, stand the modest dwellings of the seers' families.

The two younger children were away. I went to the house of the eldest, where the mother invited me to come in and sit down, an invitation I accepted. In reply to a question of mine about the whereabouts of her daughter, whom I was looking for, she told me that she was gathering grapes on a small property belonging to her, two kilometres away.

Someone at once offered to go and call her at the mother's bidding. Meanwhile the two younger children, who had come back from the fields, learning from the neighbours that I wished to speak to them, came to me.

They are brother and sister, a boy and a girl. The girl arrived first.

Her name is Jacinta de Jesus, she is seven years old and is the daughter of Manuel Pedro Marto and Olympia de Jesus. Rather tall for her age, a little slender without one being able to call her thin, with a well-proportioned face, a dark complexion, modestly dressed, her skirt coming down to her ankles, she has the look of a healthy child, showing perfect normality in her whole physical and moral make-up. Surprised by the presence of strangers who had accompanied me and whom she did not expect to find, at first she shows great embarrassment, answering in monosyllables and in an almost imperceptible tone of voice the questions I put to her. Moments later her brother appears, a boy nine years of age, who comes with a certain ease into the room where they were, keeping his cap on his head, no doubt because he did not remember that he ought to uncover. A sign his sister made to him to that effect went unnoticed by him. I invited him to sit on a chair beside me, and he obeyed immediately and without any reluctance.

[…]

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.

[…]

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.

With the aim of completing the impressions gathered on the 13th of this month of September and of equipping myself with the elements indispensable for grounding a judgement, as sound as possible, on the events that over the last five months have been unfolding three kilometres south of the village of Fátima, at the place called Cova da Iria, I went for the second time last Thursday, the 27th, to that picturesque village, gracefully perched on one of the spurs of the majestic Serra de Aire. It was three o'clock in the afternoon when I alighted from the carriage that had brought me from Torres Novas, by way of Vila Nova de Ourém, to the humble settlement whose name is today uttered as a sweet hope of heavenly blessings and graces by tens of thousands of lips, from one end of Portugal to the other. The Rev. Parish Priest, whom I sought out at once, was not at home: he had gone out of the parish and was not due back until the evening. Sorry not to be able to exchange a few words with him on the matter that had brought me there, I decided to go to the home of the children who say they have been favoured with apparitions of the Most Holy Virgin and to hear from their own mouths the detailed account of the strange events, the news of which has drawn to Fátima, day after day, countless people of every class and social condition.

Two kilometres from the parish church and the presbytery, in an insignificant little hamlet called Aljustrel, belonging to the parish,

--- the modest dwellings of the seers' families stand close to one another. The two younger children were away.

I went to the home of the eldest, where her mother invited me to come in and sit down, an invitation I accepted. To a question of mine about the whereabouts of the daughter I was looking for, she replied that she was out picking grapes on a small property belonging to her, two kilometres away.

Someone at once offered to go and fetch her at the mother's bidding. Meanwhile, the two younger children, who had come back from the fields, learning from the neighbours that I wished to speak to them, came to me. They were brother and sister, a boy and a girl.

The girl arrived first. Her name is Jacinta de Jesus, she is seven years old and is the daughter of Manuel Pedro Marto and Olímpia de Jesus³. Rather tall for her age, somewhat slender without being thin, with a well-proportioned face and a dark complexion, modestly dressed, her skirt coming down to her ankles, she has the look of a healthy child, showing perfect normality in her whole physical and moral make-up. Taken aback by the presence of strangers, who had accompanied me and whom she did not expect to find, at first she shows great embarrassment, answering the questions I put to her in monosyllables and in an almost inaudible voice. A few moments later her brother appears, a boy of nine, who enters the room where we were with a certain self-assurance, keeping his cap on his head, no doubt because he did not remember that he ought to take it off. A sign his sister made to him to uncover his head went unnoticed by him. I invited him to sit on a chair beside me, and he obeyed at once without any reluctance. I began without delay to question him about what he had seen and heard since last May at the Cova da Iria on the 13th of each month during the time of the apparition. The following short dialogue took place between him and me.

[…]

Half an hour after the interrogation of Jacinta de Jesus had ended, Lúcia de Jesus appears. She was coming, as I said, from a small property of her family's, two kilometres away, where she had been picking grapes. Taller and better nourished than the other two children, of fairer complexion, sturdy and healthy, she presents herself before me with an ease that contrasts singularly with Jacinta's bashfulness and excessive timidity. Simply dressed like her, her attitude does not betray, nor does her face express, any feeling of vanity or of confusion.

Sitting down, at a nod from me, on a chair beside me, she most willingly lends herself to being questioned about the events of which she is the chief protagonist, notwithstanding that she feels visibly tired and dejected, owing to the incessant visits she receives and the repeated and prolonged inquiries to which she is subjected.

Daughter of António dos Santos⁴, aged 50, and of Maria Rosa, aged 48, she has one brother and four sisters, all older than she: Maria⁵, 26, already married, Teresa⁶, 24, Manuel⁷, 22, Glória⁸, 20, and Carolina⁹, 15. She turned ten on 22 March of this year¹⁰.

---

She was eight years old when she made her first communion. Her mother, the type of the Christian woman and good housewife, devoted to her domestic chores, has always sought to instil in her children the holy fear of God and to bring them to fulfil all their moral and religious duties. Deeply preoccupied by the events that at every moment draw the attention of thousands of people to her poor dwelling, until recently unknown to the world, one notices at once that her mind wavers, in restless anxiety, between the hope that her daughter is really privileged with the apparition of the Virgin and the fear that she is the victim of a hallucination that will bring her sorrow and cover her whole family with ridicule.

To a question of mine about her Lúcia's piety, she replies that she notices nothing extraordinary about her in this respect, seeing her pray in the same way and with the same fervour as before the apparitions, exactly as her sisters do.

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.
- Does the dress have 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 the level of the middle of the body.
- Does she have a belt or a ribbon?
- She doesn't.
- Does she wear earrings?
- She wears small rings, yellow in colour.
- 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 recommend you and your cousins to say any prayers?
- She recommended 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 perplexed, and I thought I should not insist by repeating the question).
- It is said that, to rid yourself of the administrator's importunities, on the day you were arrested, you told him, as if it were the secret, something that was not, thus deceiving him and boasting afterwards 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, I, Jacinta and two more girls carrying one of them, and Francisco, with three more boys, the other, to the parish church. 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 is because she sometimes dazzles.
- 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 it

“On the heath, a few metres from the road, we caught sight of a rough arch, with a lantern on each side, and some women of the people saying the rosary; the chauffeur stopped and told us that was the place of the apparition; after a short stop, we went on to Fátima. We went to the house of the Parish Priest, who was not in; his sister came out to us (who is evidently of a humble family but very likeable); she told us that she too had seen the signs in the sun . We told her we would like to see the children and she sent a little boy to show us their house. We left Fátima [2], which seemed to us a very small place; the best house we saw was the Parish Priest's, which is very modest, with an old-fashioned porch. Shops, I don't even know whether there are any there!

As I told you, we left Fátima and went on on foot (because there is no road) to Aljustrel, the village of the 3 children. On the way we met a caravan, and walking beside one of the donkeys was the eldest of the little girls; we asked her to stop, but she, being a child, was eager to go on to Ourem. She spoke little with us; she kept telling us to go and see Jacintha (the smallest), who would tell us everything, and she pointed to the hamlet, which could already [2v] be seen from there. Some women who were there said that the smallest one never spoke, not even to them, but I, remembering Maria Delphina's inspirations and finding the little girl's insistence extraordinary, was convinced straight away that she would make an exception for us, and so it turned out.

When we were about to leave, little Jacintha appeared; she is 7 years old and an absolute darling; we sat there on the ground passing the little girl from lap to lap. We asked her what Our Lady looked like and how she was dressed: and the little girl, without the slightest hesitation and wanting to show it in person, stood up and said that Our [3] Lady was her own height; she drew her skirt in a little at the bottom to explain that Our Lady wore her dress a little narrower at the bottom, then with great efforts she tried to make her little skirt reach her feet, showing that the dress was long.

She then explained that Our Lady wore no veil, but a mantle that fell from her head down to, going by the little one's gesture, 3 or 4 fingers above the tunic; she was all in white (without the blue sash), her hands raised; the little girl, to explain better, took the rosary from my hands, threading it into her own little hand between the thumb, raised her hands imitating the gesture of Our Lady of Lourdes and, parting them a little, then [3v] said: when she spoke she was like this: She had on her head something of many colours. The eldest girl and the little boy whom we met later gave us the same explanation. A poor little woman asked her whether, among so many ladies as she saw on the 13th and among so many who have visited her, she had found any as beautiful as the lady from Heaven; the little girl said she had never seen any so beautiful, and the little boy, whom we later asked the same thing, said: that there was none so beautiful in the world. We asked her to tell us how the first apparition had been: The little one explained that they were minding the she-[4]ep that belong to the family of Lucia (the other seer) on Tio Abobora's land; suddenly they saw a flash of lightning and were afraid, very afraid; when they were on their knees praying, they saw the Lady on the Holm Oak, and at once another flash of lightning; the flock went into the chickling peas and the woman who owned them shouted from afar — “turn those sheep back for me” — but the lady said: (the little girl tried to make her voice sweeter) “don't turn the sheep back, for they won't eat anything.

Then Lucia asked: “Who are you?” — “I am the Mother of Heaven” — “What do you want of us?” - “That you come here on this day for 6 months; at the end of the 6 months I will say what I want. Say the rosary.” — [4v]

Then the owner of the chickling peas appeared, whom his wife had gone to fetch; he came to scold because he is very nasty, but he didn't scold at all because he saw that the chickling peas had not been eaten. And here you have what I find most admirable: something happens to three little children who were minding sheep; such a simple scene, that of the chickling peas, takes place in the hills in the middle of the heath. The children are from a tiny hamlet that could almost be called a cluster of farmsteads, where there are no shops or trade of any kind; this hamlet belongs to the parish of Fatima, but Fatima, as I have already said, is also a very small place; the road ends there [5], so it is not on the way to anywhere; certainly few people go there; no advertisements are put in the newspapers; and in 6 months the news spreads everywhere, and in spite of the rain and the lack of transport some 30:000 people gather there, according to some; 50:000 according to others! — but let us take up the thread again, — “ The little girl then speaks of the end of the war and of the end of the world if there were no faith (don't be alarmed, there is still plenty). It is these two points that I find doubtful; would Our Lady really have spoken of the end of the war and of the world, or were the children confused by so many questions as they have been asked? — Our Lady [5v] told them a secret. The mothers, poor things, ignorant as they are, have done everything possible to find it out. According to what they say, the administrator has already promised 20.000 if they told it to him, but there is no way of wresting the secret from them. I heard the little boy say that not even if they were given the whole world would they tell it. When they are asked whether it is bad, they say it is good for everyone. — On the last day Our Lady also said that she was the Virgin of the Rosary, and that she wanted the people to build her a chapel there — But this is far from being the most important part; imagine our impression when the little one, carrying on talking, [6] tells us that on the last day (13 October) St. Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to her!! So it was the Holy Family. Our first impression was one of doubt and alarm: was everything going to collapse from the foundations?! But some neighbours who were there told us that the 3 children had several times already spoken of St. Joseph and the Child Jesus. — The little one then explained that St. Joseph had come to give peace to the world, and with her hand she made the sign of the cross many times, imitating the gesture of Bishops when they walk along blessing the faithful. She told us that the Child Jesus and St. Joseph were just like some little holy images she had at home. There was [6v] someone who offered to go and fetch the image, but the little girl answered that she also had pictures on the wall. Remembering Maria Delphina once more, I seemed to understand that it would be a good idea for us to go to her house. I suggested it, and we went on to the tiny hamlet of Aljustrel. We arrived at the little ones' house; it is small and belongs to very humble but clean people — The little ones' mother came out to us, a woman of the people, very likeable and seeming very good. Neither she nor her husband accepts money; they think, and rightly, that people might judge there was some self-interest involved, and besides, thank God, we don't go [7] hungry” — we have (in her own words) potatoes for the whole year”. On the 13th someone put into the hand of one of the little ones a 500^rs coin; the child, not knowing what it was, as it was wrapped in a piece of paper, went and took it to the mother, who in distress asked aloud who would own up to having given the 500^rs. — Nobody answered; and the five tostões are still there wrapped in the same paper in the corner of the drawer. She won't touch it: that money is not hers.

She also told us that one day the little ones came into her house saying they had seen the Lady from Heaven; when she answered that they were dreaming and that they were not worthy [7v] of that, the little girl insisted and described to her Mother what she had seen, and told what she had already told us on the way! but let us return to the thread: the little one says she had some pictures at home, but she didn't even look at them: she went to a box and took out a group of the Holy family, saying: “see?” St. Joseph and the Child Jesus were as they are here: but here St. Joseph has his eyes closed, and there he had his eyes open. — Wanting to see whether she would get muddled, we told her that since St. Joseph and the Child were as they are there, Our Lady on the last day must also have been like that one, with a veil and a coloured mantle; we asked this several times, and she always answered that Our Lady was not like th-[fl. 8]at one, but in white and with the rosary. We further said that, being the Holy family, they must all have been together, to which she always answered no. Our Lady was on the holm oak, and St. Joseph and the Child Jesus near the Sun. — We made the same experiment with the little boy, who always answered like his sister. — It is therefore beyond doubt that the 6 apparitions of Our Lady can be confirmed without confirming that of the Holy Family. The eldest little girl, before leaving for Ourem, also spoke to us of St. Joseph and the Child Jesus. However, this is very little known, and we ourselves have told few people, because this being a much more extraordinary fact (which [8v] I think has not yet happened anywhere in the world)¹⁸, we are afraid that it will astonish many “people” and that they may not believe. Imagine therefore my astonishment when a girl who had been in Alemquer came here yesterday and told me told me that a man from Alemquer, very unbelieving and one of the worst there, having gone to Fatima, came back deeply impressed, describing to everyone the extraordinary things he saw, and that he states he saw the Child Jesus and St. Joseph. — Nobody believes him, poor man, because over there nobody knows that the Holy Family really appeared. — Can Our Lady have granted that man that great grace for his [9] conversion? — Emilio Infante²¹ and Nazareth²² were at Fatima on the 13th; Emilio fell to his knees weeping, and says that if he knew there was to be another apparition he would not miss it, even if he had to get as much rain as he got now! — The signs in the sun were seen in the surroundings of Leiria, Batalha, etc... In Leiria everyone believes.

We said the rosary at the place of the apparition with the children and some thirty people. The rosary was led by a man of the people; I have seldom heard anyone pray so well and with such devotion, and always with hands raised, as they say. — Then some women appeared with enormous bunches of heather, which they left at the place of the apparition: [9v] with what devotion they had been gathered! Our Lady must have liked them very much!

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 felt 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 much frequented on the other days too by pious people or by the curious?

– It is much frequented, above all on Sundays. The greatest concourse is 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.

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

– I came to know of that fact through the family of the other children, because Lúcia advised her companions to say nothing for fear they would be scolded. Only after being questioned by me 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.

On Friday we went to Thomar and from the windows of the Misses Mousinho⁷ we saw [2] carriages go by full of people, very quiet and thoughtful, and one could see they were in the grip of a serious feeling. Many people on foot and on donkeys were following the same road. Some must have been from the hills, from very far away; the men had hats like Father's, Alentejo-style, but bigger, and cudgels curled over at the top like those of the shepherds of old. We saw nothing more.

One doubt remained to us, however.

Was what we had seen in the sun something exceptional? Or would it be reproduced in analogous circumstances?

Now precisely this analogy of circumstances presented itself to us yesterday. We were able to see the sun half veiled by clouds, as on Saturday. And sincerely: — we saw the same successions of colours, the same rotary movement, etc.

Yesterday we went to interview the seers. Lucia, who is the only one who speaks with Our Lady, was in the church, where she had gone with her mother to hear

Mass and receive communion. She made her first communion at 7. She is very gentle. She told us — all the while playing with our hands or our lorgnettes — that Our Lady wants the rosary to be prayed every day; that we should ask much pardon for our sins, because Our Lord is very much offended; and that a little chapel should be raised to her in that place. She presents herself under the invocation of Our Lady of the Rosary. She is dressed in white; barefoot; a white mantle on her head and some beads, also white, in her right hand. She announced the end of the war as imminent — the seer says “today” — and that our soldiers are coming back soon. Our Lady told her a secret, which she has been urged to divulge but persists in not telling. She answered a man: — Our Lady told me not to tell anyone; and you are someone.

Now what did we say about the Fátima affair? That we, the obscure author of these lines, had not observed any fact that would lead us to suppose the supernatural. But not only is this a personal and unauthoritative point of view; we also have no wish whatever to dispute the observations, different from ours, that other people may have made.

We would desire nothing more than to witness facts to which no natural explanation could be fitted.

Great was our disappointment when on Sunday, as we said, we ascertained the emptiness of what had seemed marvellous to us the day before: all the more so as we had been greatly impressed by the coincidence of the rain, after three consecutive hours, stopping almost exactly at the hour when the children were praying, the sun then appearing among the clouds.

After midday I set off by motor car for Fátima by the road through Mendiga, Reguengo de Fetal and Porto de Mós. I reached Fátima at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. At the Cova da Iria, beside the holm oak of the apparitions, some pious country women, kneeling, are devoutly praying the rosary. The holm oak, reduced to its trunk, which is little more than a span high, is wrapped in branches of wild plants and flowers. The devotion of the pilgrims, who wished to keep a memento of the bush that served as a pedestal for the Virgin during the apparitions, has almost completely destroyed it. Everything else remained in the same state as it was seen on the 11th, two days before the last apparition. I then went to the house of Jacinta's family, where the three seers were, being subjected to an interrogation by Fr. José Ferreira de Lacerda, parish priest of Milagres and director of the Catholic weekly “O Mensageiro” of Leiria, and at present ensign-chaplain of the Portuguese expeditionary corps, who had come to his home district on leave and wished, before returning to France, to see and speak with the children of Aljustrel. Fr. Lacerda was accompanied by another priest from Leiria and by the parish priest of Fátima. The number of the children's visitors increases from day to day. They come at all hours, from the most distant and opposite parts of the country. The children feel quite worn down. Lúcia above all, because she is questioned at greater length, is profoundly exhausted, and it can be seen that her excessive tiredness forces her to answer the questions put to her without the attention and reflection that would be desirable. She sometimes answers almost mechanically, and it frequently happens that she does not remember certain circumstances of the apparitions well, contrary to what happened before 13 October. If care is not taken to spare the children the fatigue of frequent and lengthy inquiries, their health runs the risk of suffering a profound shock.

"Now what did we say about the Fátima affair? That we, obscure author of these lines, had not observed any fact that would lead us to suppose the supernatural. But not only is it a personal and unauthoritative point of view, but in no way do we wish to dispute the observations that other people may have made, different from our own".

The transcription is verbatim.

[…]

In my article of Tuesday, after narrating the second observation I had made, on the Sunday, of the appearance of the sun seen through clouds, I added the warning, given me by a doctor, that it was dangerous to stare at the sun, cases of blindness produced by that imprudence not being rare.

Germans is where they do not go, the heroic paysanos. They did not even dare to go to Fatima by day, the brave fellows.

"The miracle of Fátima – During last night some people who had themselves driven to Fátima in a motor car went to the place where the much-talked-of phenomenon of the thirteenth of this month took place, with which the press has been so much occupied, and, armed with an a-[22v]xe, cut down the oak tree under which the three children (shepherdesses) presented themselves on that day. They brought away the tree as well as a table on which some believers had set up a modest altar, on which were found the photograph of a religious image (Our Lady), an arch over it made of myrtle branches, two tin lanterns, and two crosses, one of wood and the other of cane wrapped in tissue paper. All these objects, as well as two pots with plants, entered this city at nine o'clock today and are on exhibition on a first floor in the largo do Seminário. The car, at the moment of leaving the said place, had a "breakdown", and the "chauffeur" and his companions had the fright of their lives, fearing to be found there. The case must have caused a great sensation in the minds of the believers and good Catholics of Fátima and its surroundings. It was rumoured that admission would be charged for viewing the branches of the tree and the images, and that the proceeds would go to benefit the School Canteens of this city, but we know that the board of this charitable institution refuses any sum coming from that source.

That the effects of the sun on the 13th seemed marvellous and strongly impressed the multitude, we already noted in the articles of the 16th and 17th.

And there we also pointed out the coincidence of the phenomenon taking place on the day and at the hour announced (with a difference of only a few moments), and of the rain, which until then had been falling for hours on end with a persistence fit to try one's patience, stopping at that moment.

[…]

Or are they even commonly observed, given certain favourable circumstances in the sky, as seemed to us to result from Sunday's observation?

Last night many common people organised a parade in the manner of a procession, with some drums at the front and, following, the branches of the famous tree of the apparition of the Virgin at Fátima. In the same parade were carried the myrtle arch, the lit lanterns, the cross and other objects that the believers had placed on the improvised altar. The followers chanted picturesque 'litanies' and, at a measured pace, went through the main streets of the city, dispersing in the praça Sá da Bandeira, from which it had set out, many of the demonstrators then gathering in front of a window in the rua Direita from which a bucket of water had been thrown, which caught some demonstrators and one of the policemen who had joined the parade, and they stayed there for some time in a hostile attitude towards the owner of the house, until a corporal and a guard of the civic police appeared, asking the demonstrators to disperse, which they then did.

To the Minister of the Interior – At nine o'clock last night a group of common people put on a parade through the three main streets of the city, some of them carrying, in procession, the objects brought a few days ago from Fátima, where the much-talked-of phenomenon of the thirteenth of this month took place. One of the men carried the holm-oak shrub, another, attended by two more dressed up as clerics, carried a cross under an umbrella, and finally some others carried the print of a religious image, topped by an arch of myrtle and flanked by two lanterns. To the ringing of a bell and the roll of a drum, about a hundred common people chanted a litany, and a [23] bucket of water was thrown over them and over a civil policeman as they were passing near the Lemos jeweller's shop.

The lady who threw the water was fined by the police, but her husband decided not to pay the fine and to make a scandal in court.

I received your letter just as I was getting into the automobile to leave for Fatima; so, passing through Torres Novas, I was able to receive the money, which I handed personally to the R^do Parish Priest of Fatima, not without strong protest on his part; he showed me an official letter containing all the instructions of the Ex^mo Archbishop of Mytilene on this matter, among them the express recommendation not to accept donations; that he should rather let [1v] persons of recognised probity keep them in their possession, but never himself.

After much arguing, and proving to him that it was nothing of mine, I left the money with him, telling him to hand it over to His Ex^mo Lordship the Archbishop if he thought fit, and I wrote its origin and provenance on the outside⁶. I am more and more favourably impressed by the simplicity and sincerity of that good Parish Priest, to whom I read Your Ex^a's letter, and he told me at once that the book he knew there was in the family's house was the "Missão Abreviada", where indeed in the 12^th instruction there is a short notice about the apparition of La Salette. The eldest little girl told me that it was only long after [2] Our L^y appeared to her that they had told her about it, and the other children knew nothing whatever of the matter. The mother reads a little; the little girl now goes to school and I could not get her to agree to come with us to the place without her mother's permission. The parish priest had to send to the house to ask for it. Lucia is worn out with audiences and questionings which begin at break of day and go on far into the night. The parish priest told me that if they had martyred him like that with questions he would already be mad. He says that the little girl, above all when she sees Priests, just wants to run away, so much do they batter her with questions and repetitions.

It was the little boy, who is the brother of little Jacintha and cousin of Lucia, [2v] who yesterday⁸ left me an excellent impression: a very bright look, a very cheerful face, very much at ease; he confirmed (he was interviewed by us alone) that Lucia had said at the moment of the miracle: Look at the Sun . But Lucia says, and maintained, that she did not remember either Our L^y having said it to her or her having repeated it. But the fact is that several other trustworthy people who were beside her affirm it. I believe the little girl gets confused, from being so exhausted and tired.

What she confirms is that Our L^y told her that the war would end that day when She reached Heaven and that very soon the soldiers would return to their families. [3] She says she is not quite sure whether Our L^y told her she was Our L^y of the Rosary or whether she wanted the Chapel to Our L^y of the Rosary; it was one of the two.

The secret: she did not tell her to tell it to anyone, and they continue as tenacious as ever in keeping it.

-79). The addition and former parish priest of Fatima is in the handwriting of the bishop of Leiria. We believe that this note refers precisely to the money handed to the parish priest of Fátima on 26 October 1917.

The little boy, when the people with me offered him everything they could think of, refused everything and ended by saying very enthusiastically: "Not even if you gave me the world". His father, who is also the little girl's father, is a firm believer; the Parish Priest says that if he sins, it is by excess; but Lucia's father is indeed an alcoholic and not very religious; the little girl says he prays sometimes, but he cares little about it, I believe.

[3v] It is certain that some Carbonários from Santarem went to Fatima on the night of the 22nd to the 23rd and brought back from there what remained of the holm-oak shrub, which I saw cut down¹²; and little Lucia even cut off for me, with a little penknife, a few small slivers from what remained of the stump, which is not even a span above the ground. They took the arch, the bench, the lanterns, in short everything they found there, and on the 24th they held a farce of a procession, which outraged all Catholics.

I acknowledge receipt of Your Ex^cy's Official letter of 29 October last, no. 1165, in which Your Ex^cy instructs me to inform you by whom the cutting of the holm-oak shrubs was done, one of them being the one they said served as a pedestal for Our Lady; of these said holm-oak shrubs, at the time of the cutting there was nothing left but the trunk, as a consequence of the great gathering of people who came together on the 13th of each month, and everyone wanted⁸ to take a relic, and so there was nothing left of them but the trunk, but that same trunk must have been 5 to 7 centimetres in diameter near the ground; they gave it the name of holm-oak shrub because it was a shoot from the root of the holm oak, still considered worthless today.

Is it true that once, when you were saying the rosary, the flock you were grazing went into the field where there was wheat and chickling peas already grown, without eating any of those plants?
– It is true.
- 18^th – When did that happen?
– I don't remember, but I think it was on a Sunday.
- 19^th – Didn't you see the flock eat the wheat and the chickling peas?
– I didn't.
- 20^th – But do you know for certain that it didn't eat them?
– I know, because one of the owners of the property said the flock had done no damage.
- 21^st – Did you drive the flock away from that place?

---

– We drove it away after saying the rosary.

22^nd – Whom did the property belong to?

23^rd – It belonged to José Matias and to Francisco António⁵, of Casa Velha. They are two adjoining plots.

24^th – Why didn't you drive the flock away as soon as you saw it going into the sown field?

– I didn't drive it away at once because I wanted to say the rosary.

25^th – Weren't you afraid it would eat what had been sown?

– I thought it was eating it, but I let it be.

26^th – So didn't you know that it was your duty to take the flock away immediately so that it would cause no damage?

– I have already confessed that fault.

What was it the Lady said the first time she appeared, in the month of May?

– Lúcia asked what she wanted of her and she said we were to go there month after month until it made six months, and that in the last month she would say what she wanted.

2^nd – Did Lúcia ask her any more questions?

– She asked whether she was going to Heaven and the Lady said yes. Then she asked whether I was going to Heaven and she said yes. Then she asked whether Francisco was going to Heaven and she said yes, but that he would have to say his beads.

3^rd – Did the Lady say anything else?

– I don't remember her saying anything else that day. It was that time that the flock went into the chickling peas.

On the 6th the Ex.^mo Mr Pedro invited me to go to the place where they say Our Lady appeared in the Parish of Fatima; I accepted the favour with great satisfaction because for 9 years I have not left my house because of my illness and being unable to walk, and so the Ex.^mo Mr Pedro himself drove me in his carriage, where I was accompanied by my husband and by Snr.^a Gertrudes; all of them gave me the best of help; when they left my house we went in the direction of the hill of the woods, where I passed the chapel of S. Bernardo, which gave me great satisfaction, because for 9 years I had not passed those places or any others; then Sobral, where I saw the chapel of Our Lady of Grace; at Bairro I also saw the chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes; a little further on we saw Mr Manuel Pereira and his wife too, who came up to the carriage, where they greeted us and offered us a little glass of wine. 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, and then, on the Sn.^a schoolmistress's orders, the girls came up to the carriage and spoke with other people who were there, where we asked them about Our Lady and they always affirmed the same thing, that they saw her, heard her and spoke with her: after we heard what they said, the Ex.^mo Mr Pedro invited them to go in the carriage as far as opposite the hamlet of Ajustrel, where they went, accompanied by my husband, to ask, in obedience to their parents, for leave to go in our company to the place where the little girls say Our Lady appeared, where there was a little stretch where the carriage could not go, but I, because I wanted it so much, and with the help of the Most Holy Virgin Mary and with the efforts of Snr.^a Gertrudes and of my husband, got there with great difficulty. I cannot explain what I felt inside my heart when I found myself in that place. My tears ran down one after another. However much I wanted to hold them back it could not be. Then the three little ones arrived, in the company of the Ex.^mo Mr Pedro and some other people who came with us, and then the girl Lucia said the rosary in public with a faith and devotion that I cannot explain. Then the prayer for Peace was said and another to the Most Holy Virgin. I, in remembrance of my journey, left there an image of Our Lady of Lourdes; from there we went to the carriage, which was a little way off; the Ex.^mo Mr Pedro had all three children go in the carriage as far as opposite the hamlet of Ajustrel, and when they got there they said goodbye to us with many kisses and greetings. On the way back, when we reached Fatima, we got down from the carriage, and I went into that Church, which I had not entered for 15 years; I was accompanied by Snr.^a Gertrudes, and we prostrated ourselves in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for a few minutes; then we came out, and the Rev.^mo Parish Priest Manoel Marques Ferreira and his sister too came up to us and greeted us, which we also did with great pleasure; then we got into the carriage, continuing the journey, and we got home at 17 hours, all well. For my part, I did not come back with my sufferings increased, thanks be to God for ever.

I acknowledge receipt of Your Ex^cia's letter No. 1233, in which Your Ex^cia tells me that the agricultural regent told you that it was nine and not one holm-oak shrub that were cut down; I had had enquiries made, and was told that it was one, but now I went personally to check and really saw that it was the nine and not one, as I had informed Your Ex

Questioned about the cutting of the holm-oak shrubs or holm oaks, he declared: That on his property at the Cóva da Iria, at the spot where his daughter Lucia said a Saint had appeared to her, three small holm oaks were cut, two of them cut with a saw or handsaw, and the third with an axe or billhook, they not having been cut on the \_\_\_\_\_ thirteenth of October last but some days later⁶, he being unaware, however, of the exact day, and not knowing either who was the person or persons who cut them⁷. That the loss he suffered is reckoned at two or three escudos. That he has no witnesses of the fact.

Smiling at the tonsured one's ridiculous trick, the excursionists went on to the Cova da Iria, the theatre chosen for the miracle. Despite the great distance and the difficulties of transport, and despite the priest's trick as well, there was no lack of people to listen to the speakers, Messrs. Augusto José Vieira, Conceição Vasques, Machado Toledo and Artur Santos, who reported a telegram of adherence from the Democratic Republican Centre of Leiria. All the speakers stressed that they had not come there to offend or disrespect the sincere beliefs of anyone whatever, but only to castigate the clerical speculation of the swindlers of the people and to convince the people that whoever talks to them of miracles and apparitions has no other aim than to dupe them the better to enslave them. Warm cheers for the Republic, enthusiastically returned, were raised beside the crude contraption built there of wooden laths, for show. In the distance, poor fanaticised women were singing the *Bemdito!

[…]

The return was made by way of Aljustrel, with the aim of seeing the miracle-working children, above all the seer Lucia, which was not achieved, as she had gone with the priest to Ortiga, and the others were refused by their mother, naturally coached to do so by the priest.

The next day they went in two carriages to Fátima, accompanied by troops (such was their fear!) and civic guards, and there, at the very place where the apparitions seem to have occurred, and before the numerous audience (14 people, including the speakers!), it seems they said little or nothing, for lack of a quorum, having closed the session without needing to put their hats on, because they already had them on their heads before they began. And so, consigned to contempt, the best slap in the face the people could give them, they went back to Villa Nova crestfallen and rancorous, with little desire to get into another such venture, which might cost them dearer, since this time they only got a few stones thrown at them, which did them no harm.

The case of the apparition of the Virgin to the three shepherds at the place of Vale da Iria is causing our free-thinkers serious qualms. A trio of them took it into their heads to come to Vila Nova de Ourém to see whether they could get some followers, and, in comradeship with the administrator of the council, the master tinsmith, they appeared on the first, after much advertisement, at the Republican Centre, to speak to the crowds against the miracle of Fátima. Both this lecture and a rally were advertised in some newspapers of the capital and in leaflets distributed in this town and throughout the council on market day and already on the previous Sunday. What is known, however, is that for the miracle, or whatever they care to call it, no invitations were needed, and at the place of the apparition of the Virgin, on the thirteenth of October, upwards of fifty [24] thousand people gathered, with no need for the intervention of the authorities to keep order, nor for military force, despite the great number of motor cars, carriages of various kinds, bicycles, etc., etc., and without the slightest accident. Consider now the much-advertised rally at the place of the apparition of the Virgin, which never took place, because only the famous speakers turned up, accompanied by the administrator of the council and by six more individuals from here, and guarded by a detachment of the republican guard from this town and others come from Tomar and Torres Novas, who were obliged to go to the place at Fátima, given the speakers' awareness of the seriousness of the role they were about to play! So then, Ministers of the Interior and of War, are the republican troops diverted from their duties to guard the backs of the republican gentlemen? It was a real fiasco, already the lecture at the Centre, and much greater at the place at Fátima, where the speakers had to give up, since the people of the council, out of contempt, did not go to the place, despite all the invitations made to them, for only eight people turned up there to hear them, apart from a great number of women who, on their arrival, struck up the Bendito and at once turned their backs on them. Here, then, is the parallel between the thirteenth of October and the second of December. That is why we say to them: try another trade, you and whoever invited you, after the flop you suffered and the fright, when on the way back to this town you were treated to a few stones, for which reason the sergeant commanding the detachment had to open fire."

It was in this frame of mind that, on the 13th of October last, I went for the first time to the place of the apparitions. I was curious; I was not a pilgrim. On the day before and the day before that, and even during the night, I saw an enormous multitude pass through this town on their way to Fátima. From far-off lands came bands of country people, most of them barefoot, who, full of faith and devotion, passed through this town singing religious hymns such as the "Bendito" and the "Queremos Deus". Some I spoke with had already come fourteen leagues, dying of hunger and fatigue, but they seemed hopeful and happy. These were certainly the pilgrims. Vehicles of every kind, from the rickety cart to the perfumed "limousine", also passed through the town in an endless line. These latter were perhaps for the most part the curious, the "onlookers". I was informed that on the Torres Novas and Leiria roads the throng was the same. As I said above, on the 13th I set off for the place of the apparitions early in the morning, at about eight o'clock. I was accompanied by my brothers António and Fernando.

As soon as we left here, the rain began to fall copiously, turning the roads into one continuous quagmire. The wind blew hard, especially on the heights of the serra of Fátima. On the roads there was still an enormous throng. We passed through the village of Fátima and went on along the road connecting that village with the town of Batalha. The rain went on falling in torrents. At a distance of about one kilometre we saw a multitude of many thousands of people, crowded mostly on the hillocks. Were there thirty thousand people, fifty thousand? No one could say for certain. We stopped. Hundreds of carriages and motor cars completely blocked the muddy road. At the bottom of the valley, amid the crowd, I managed to make out some rough posts of light-coloured wood resembling a trapeze, topped by a small cross, as I later observed from closer up. The rain was now less heavy. The sun was still hidden among thick greyish clouds. Around the trapeze I mentioned was gathered a large group. It was the spot indicated by the shepherd girls, on which all attention was concentrated. The landscape at that point is wild and has nothing of interest. Hills for the most part covered with stone and heather. A few small oaks and holm oaks alternate with a sparse pine wood lying towards the east. Here and there, low walls of loose stone, almost collapsed, mark some boundary. On that occasion I met a good many people of my acquaintance, both from Lisbon and from various places far from here. Almost all of them asked my opinion, perhaps with particular interest, knowing that I lived in this region. To all of them I answered, smiling incredulously, that it was all a "blague". "That as a Catholic I had no objection to believing in the possibility of a miracle, but that precisely because I was a Catholic I did not believe, so long as that miracle was not worked in an evident, unmistakable way. That the clergy of the council themselves were also doubtful, so I understood". Among other people, I remember that I said this to the wife of Mr Emílio Infante da Câmara³, of Vale de Figueira, and to her sons Emílio⁴ and José⁵, to Dr. Gualdim de Queirós⁶, of Cernache de Bonjardim, to Mr José Rino⁷ of Alcobaça and to his wife, Dona Capitolina Guimarães Rino⁸. I tried to get close to the spot where the shepherd girls were, which was next to the trapeze I mentioned earlier, some two hundred metres from the road, but I could not, so compact was the circle of people formed around them. So I was not able to see or hear them on that occasion; I could only make out that they were praying. I went back up to the road, and approached Mr José Rino and his wife, who were by their "limousine" talking with various people. It was then that these good friends of mine, who have known me since

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I was a child asked my opinion, which I gave them in the way I have set out above. They were almost indignant and told me "that for them there was not the slightest doubt that it was a miracle, since they had already been there before, on the 13th of September last, and had witnessed extraordinary luminous phenomena in the sun, precisely at the hour indicated by the little shepherds; that the clergy were not well informed and that, if I doubted, I should wait". As insisting would have been unseemly, I kept quiet, but I remained absolutely convinced that I would see nothing. I then recalled, as I had already recalled several times, that principle of Gustave Le Bon which comes down to the hypnotic current that dominates it. I had to be on my guard, not let myself be influenced. This friend of mine, taking out his watch, said to me: there are five minutes to go; at one o'clock look at the sun, that was the hour announced by the little shepherds, then you can tell me.

This surprised me, for where I intended to look, and where I thought everyone would look, was at the spot where the shepherd girls were. I had heard that they had said that on that day something would happen after which no one could doubt. The sky at that moment was leaden in colour. The rain had stopped. The sun could not be seen, covered by the clouds, and no one would have said it would appear again on that day, so rainy and so harsh. At one o'clock precisely, I hear a great clamour. These friends of mine shout to me: look, look, but at first I saw only clouds racing lightly and leaving the sun uncovered. Suddenly I see an intensely rose-coloured rim encircle the sun, which resembled a disc of dull silver, as someone has already said, while at the same time it gave me the impression that it was moving from its original position. Diaphanous, vaporous clouds, somewhat purple, somewhat orange, drifted past. At various points along the horizon, contrasting with the leaden colour of the sky, I also saw rose-coloured and yellow patches. The clamour grew ever louder. This did not last seconds: it lasted perhaps minutes. On observing these manifestations, which I did not doubt for a moment were due to the Infinite Omnipotence of God, an indescribable feeling took hold of me. I know only that I shouted, I believe, I believe, I believe, and that the tears fell from my eyes, amazed, enraptured, before this demonstration of Divine Power. I know too that I did not feel the slightest shadow of fear or terror. Had I not been a Catholic, I would have been converted at that moment. I also remember that I did not kneel, but most of the people fell to their knees, heedless of the enormous mire. So these phenomena escape the foresight of science, yet do not escape the foresight of some little shepherd girls of the serra, who announce them with a truly mathematical precision?!... And besides, being so dazzling, so marvellous?!

I went to look for my brothers, who told me they had witnessed the same, as did the other people I met, their descriptions of what they had observed in the sun varying somewhat. To the people to whom I had described the case as a "blague" I told what I had seen and that I was now absolutely convinced we were facing a miracle. The king of stars was now shining intensely and did not stop shining again that day, nor did it rain again.

Some weeks later I went back to the place of the apparitions to interview the shepherd girls. I wished to meet these children. I was accompanied by my mother, the Baroness of Alvaiázere⁹, my sister, Maria Celeste¹⁰, and my close friend the Count of Juncal¹¹, and his Ex.^ma Wife, who were then our guests. Near the Church of Fátima we stopped and asked to be told where the little shepherd girls were. We were told they must be at the place of the apparitions and that the little shepherd boy who went with them, and to whom the Virgin also appeared, was close by and that they would go and call him. A little later he appeared. He was a child of ten to twelve, dressed in country fashion, quite cheerful and carefree, it seemed. We invited the boy to come with us, which he at once agreed to, jumping, smiling, into the motor car that was taking us. We asked him several questions, but he smiled more than he spoke, appearing much dazzled by the various parts of the car. Near the spot, in front of a rather old wooden table on which a Crucifix had been placed, several people were praying. There was the trunk of the cut-down holm oak and the wooden posts I mentioned, from which hung two tin lanterns. We knelt and prayed too.

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Little Lúcia, the one to whom the Virgin appeared, was talking some distance away with some strangers. We waited for them to leave her and went up to her. She was a child of about twelve, with coarse features and a very sallow complexion. She was poorly dressed, in country fashion, with a small red paper flower on her breast and in her hands a small box in which some coins jingled. They had a sad and sombre air. She told us of the apparition of the Virgin in the way already known to all. That the Virgin had told her "that we had greatly offended God and that we should amend our lives". "That we should build a little chapel there and that it should be given the name of the Lady of the Rosary". "That the war would soon end". When my sister asked her what she had seen in the sun at the time of the miracle, she answered "that she had seen St. Joseph". I also asked her whether she had not feared that the miracle would not happen, since the people might kill her thinking she was deceiving everyone; she told me with some energy "that she knew the miracle would happen and that for that reason she had not even thought of such a danger". She also told us she had previously heard tell of the miracles of Our Lady of Lourdes. A woman who said she was her aunt helped her at times with the answers and made various remarks about a secret they had and revealed to no one, although they had already been made various tempting promises and had even been threatened that they would be thrown into a well or burned if they did not reveal it. They also told us that the alms they received were for building a chapel and that another woman who was there was the custodian of these alms. We were also told there that the little girl was extremely tired by the constant series of questions that everyone asked her. The said little girl sometimes seemed to me absorbed, at other times distracted. I must state that the impression she left on me was not good, or at least was very different from what I had expected. A child full of logic, coherence and perspicacity would also have been cause for suspicion. Whether, despite these appearances, there stood a creature chosen by God for so astounding a revelation, I cannot say. On the way back, we stopped again near the Church of Fátima; there we managed to speak to the other little girl, whose name I do not remember. She climbed onto the running board of the motor car that was taking us, but we could not get a word out of her, however hard we tried. She had a very jovial look and expressive eyes. She must have been seven or eight years old.

Maria do Carmo, forty-seven years of age, a native of the place of Arnal, parish of Maceira, council of Leiria, 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, from time to time, pains, 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 there was spreading from place to place, from one end of the country to the other, the consoling news that the Most Holy Virgin, since the previous month of May, had been appearing every month on the thirteenth to some humble little children who pastured livestock at a place commonly called “Cova da Iria”, belonging to the parish of Fatima, council of Villa Nova d'Ourem, seven leagues away 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, she makes a vow to go to Fatima four times on foot, barefoot. She chose the thirteenth of August to begin fulfilling her vow. But her husband, a God-fearing man for that matter, considering such an undertaking sheer recklessness, opposed her going. “We are poor,” he said to his wife, “we haven't the means to hire a carriage in which you could make the journey without danger and with a 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 the farm. On the thirteenth of October she set out early in the morning as on the other occasions, but before reaching 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 upper and lower limbs likewise disappeared as if by enchantment. Having returned home, from that day until today she eats everything, at any hour of the day or night, and however indigestible the food may be, she feels not the slightest discomfort. She has not again felt shortness of breath. 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. Never at any time in her life does she remember having been so well. On the thirteenth of November she went to Fatima again in order to give thanks for her cure to the Virgin of the Rosary

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 to my presence Maria do Carmo, my parishioner, married to Joaquim dos Santos, who deserves my entire confidence and who declared the following: That she had been ill for five years and without hope of improving, for from day to day she felt her strength failing, she was very thin, she had a bad cough, spending whole nights coughing, for which reason she was thought to be tubercular, and she too was convinced of it; convinced to the point of removing the children, her daughters⁴, from her side, 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 the thirteenth of four consecutive months on foot, 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 way cost her less coming back than going there.

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She went on continually feeling better, and on the thirteenth of November of the year nineteen hundred and seventeen, the day on which she completed her vow, she found herself completely well, attributing her cure to a miracle of Our Lady of Fatima.

On one occasion – 21 August – I went to her parents' house accompanied by 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... Jacinta came, who was alone, and on seeing the unexpected visitors she was embarrassed, as is natural in a child of the people and one who a few days earlier had been returned to her parents from the abduction carried out on her. After a few words of encouragement, I said to her:

– Look, Jacinta, see whether it was one of these ladies that you saw at the Cova da Iria, or whether there is one here like Her whom 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, obtaining an identical answer.

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 [2v] 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; first my father said that we would go on foot; but the Administrator told us to get into the carriage again saying that going 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 [3] Lady had confided to us; and so three days went by threatening us with various punishments and promising us some gold coins but they got nothing out of us. Then they came and put us at the Parish Priest's house.

For 12 years I had suffered from my stomach; I vomited everything I ate. I consult the best doctors in the hope of being cured by medicine, but I do so in vain... I have been given up, but the Lisbon hospitals still remain to me as my only resource. I go to the hospital of S. José and am examined by Dr. Damas Mora, director of the Emergency Department of that hospital. As my condition was hardly satisfactory, the same gentleman had me admitted to the Desterro hospital, where he operated on me on 18 December 1917, having as assistants (though I do not remember well) Drs. Hermano Medeiros and Balbino do Rego. Because of the great cold I caught a chill and, whether for that or some other reason, the next day I was burning with fever and had pneumonia.

The doctor on duty is called and, after examining me well, he says that I am irremediably lost. Both my lungs are affected; the fever is always above 40 degrees. They have cupping glasses applied to me, one after another, but it was necessary to take medicines to fight the fever and that is impossible, because nothing can go into my stomach. The operation was one of the most delicate, and consequently I could only expect death. I was almost always delirious, but in the short intervals when I was lucid I thought about my situation and saw that it was critical. I see that I am dying in a hospital without the comfort that the ministers of a religion bring to souls in dark and troubled hours; without seeing at the head of my bed a mother, brothers, sisters, family and friends to encourage and strengthen me. Before I go down into a grave in a cemetery, I want still to write to my mother telling her that I am dying, that she should pray and have prayers said for me, for here I have no one to do it.

That request was made by the reverend parish priest of Santa Catarina, I believe on Christmas Day at the Mass of the Souls. From the world I can expect nothing, and then everything that happened in that blessed Cova comes to my mind, that Virgin who said she was the Consoler of the afflicted.

I know well that I must die, but it is sad not to have the consolation of seeing, in that agonizing moment and painful trance, around my bed, someone to pray and give comfort. Then, encouraged by a great faith, I ask Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima that, if it were possible for me still one day to go to my home village to see my family, I would hold a feast in her honour and have a sermon preached, and go to the place to say a rosary. The next day I no longer had fever, and two days later my lungs were completely cured. To the doctors it seemed like a dream: when they thought me dead I appeared to them cured. Was it medicine? No, because I took no medicines. So pneumonia and a fever of 40 degrees are cured in three days, and by chance? Has anyone ever survived who, operated on for the stomach, was attacked by pneumonia? Let whoever knows answer.

On the thirteenth of August he went to the field to fetch maize, intending to go to the place at the proper hour, and learned, when he was already on the threshing floor, from Florinda³, that the administrator had meanwhile arrived at his house. It was not yet ten o'clock. He went straight back home and found the administrator and a priest⁴ whom he did not know. The administrator asked: “Well, Mr Marto, do you know why I've come here today? I want to go up there to the Cova da Iria, to the Miracle, I want to go and see. I'm like Saint Thomas: seeing is believing”. Manuel Marto said: “You do well, Mr Administrator”. The latter declared that he would take the children in his carriage. They were still out with the cattle. Marto asked his wife to call them, because it was time. She did not get to call them, but they came with the cattle. Lúcia, learning that the administrator was at her uncle and aunt's house, went there at once, and he, as soon as he saw her, told her that he would take them in the carriage, to which she replied that they would not go by carriage. The little girl went back home and then came with her father. On that occasion there was talk of a secret. As the road had not been built, the carriage waited at a crossroads. The administrator said that in that case he would wait for them at Fátima to ask them some questions at the house of the parish priest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In September he hastened his coming because he was anxious to find out properly and to witness what was happening. On the thirteenth of September he went to the Cova da Iria, but saw nothing except a great many people, whom many reckoned at fifty thousand. He was more or less seven metres away from the children, whom he saw arrive in the midst of a great crowd accompanying them, and he saw them kneeling by the holm oak praying the rosary. At a certain moment the people nearby said that everyone should uncover their heads, because the children had ordered it, Our Lady being present. Where he was, everyone uncovered respectfully. Some were standing, others kneeling. Almost everyone knelt when they gave the order. Some people said they had seen a star. Others lamented that they had seen nothing. Afterwards he went to the children's houses, and first to Jacinta's. There he found many people. Some ladies were questioning Jacinta and asking her to pray that the war might end. So he went to Lúcia's house. She and her parents were there. He spoke with the mother. The house too was so full of people that hardly anyone could move there. He then asked the mother about the outcome. The mother answered that her daughter, after the first apparition, came home at night and told her that she had seen Our Lady at the Cova da Iria. She would not believe it, because her daughter was not what she wished her to be, with merits enough to see Our Lady. She wanted to beat her. Lúcia, afraid of her, began to tell people outside what was happening and would not tell her mother anything more. When her mother found out, she said to her: “So you go around telling people outside that Our Lady appears to you, and you tell me nothing?” The little girl answered: “Well, mother, you wanted to beat me!” Then she asked her daughter how big the Lady was. She said she compared her to a girl from there of fifteen. She was of such beauty that she had never seen the like. A priest from far away asked the father's permission to speak to his daughter, and he said he would not allow it, because he did not believe in the apparitions and they were wearing his daughter out; she was by her father's side, very dejected. He heard that in the end the priest had managed to speak to her after all. Then the deponent went with the father to the house of an aunt of his named Teresa, with whom he wanted to speak, the father accompanying him to show him where she lived. The aunt asked him whether he had seen anything at the Cova da Iria. He answered that he had seen nothing but a white butterfly, to which she said: “There are plenty of those around here; and then, Mr Manuel,” she added, “what will become of us?” “Why?” asked the deponent. “Because people have been passing by here making their comments, threatening and saying that the little ones and their families ought to be prosecuted, because they were deceiving the people.” The deponent spoke to her in this way: “don't worry, because if it is the work of God or of Our Lady, there is no reason to be frightened, because there was not and could not be anything against her”. The father was somewhat worked up, and so he did not speak to him about anything further.

Were you there on the thirteenth of the following month? She answered: "On the thirteenth of June it was the feast of Saint Anthony and my mother was not very willing to let me go to the Cova da Iria, because she wanted me to go to the feast of Saint Anthony, but some people who had heard of the Apparition came to fetch me and Jacinta and went with us to the holm-oak shrub, at around noon. Jacinta told her mother that at the Cova da Iria she had seen something very beautiful and, at her mother's insistence, told her what it was; I only told what had happened eight days later, when my mother asked me. That is how it became known.

When we reached the holm-oak shrub, we prayed; and, the prayer over, I saw a flash of lightning, though it was a very hot day, and then the Lady appeared on top of the holm-oak shrub, dressed in the same fashion. I asked her: "What do you want of me?" Her answer was: – "I want you to keep coming here in the other months, to say the rosary every day and to learn to read". As I had been asked to, I asked the Lady to cure a cripple, and she answered that, if he was converted, he would be cured within a year. Then she rose towards the east and disappeared among the clouds and the blue of the sky".

– "Did the people present also see the Lady?" She answered: "The people asked me and I said what I saw, but I do not know whether anyone else saw; afterwards we said the rosary, sang, and went to the feast".

– "After that Apparition were you visited by people who questioned you about it?". She answered: "I was visited by many people, and among them some priests, who pressed me hard with questions and scolded me a great deal, and people in my family said that I was lying, and my mother even beat me with a broom handle".

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, 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 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".

Regarding persecutions, I remember only – 1st - That one night there were stolen at the Cova da Iria a picture, 2 lanterns and some holm-oak branches cut from various trees – passing them off as the one on which Our Lady appeared – this was taken to Santarém, where it was put on Exhibition, and where they went parodying it through the streets in procession. It seems Artur de Oliveira Santos was not unconnected with this. – 2nd - A rally, which was decided upon in Vila Nova de Ourém, to be held in Fátima at 11 o'clock, on the way out of the parish Mass, of propaganda against the Apparitions and against the faithful going to the Cova da Iria – having learned of it two or three days beforehand, I forewarned the people – I announced, and had it announced at the morning Masses, that the Mass of the day would be at Ortiga, where I went to celebrate it. When the rally-mongers arrived at the time of the Mass, finding no one except the odd

--- onlooker or someone sent by me, they stormed about, asking for me; they had the residence watched by guards, and because I did not go back home that day, they did not find me nor did I see them; – it seems that the house where I took shelter that night was also prowled around at night, by order or with the connivance of Francisco da Silva, who was the local Democrat, and I believe regedor (parish magistrate) too. I do not remember whether at that time Artur de Oliveira Santos was administrator; I believe he was. – 3rd - I received an anonymous letter, from a friendly person, warning me that it had been decided at the political den in Santarém (or, I do not remember, in Torres Novas) to abduct me by night, and the seers too, for which reason I gave notice that I would not go out at night, on account of the traps that were being laid for me, except in extreme cases, when called by persons of recognised trust; and I forewarned the parents of the seers to be on their guard and not to hand over their children to unknown persons or to persons not accompanied by me, or sent on my instructions.

to each of the little girls I gave a skirt with little white dots, a light-coloured blouse, a kerchief and an apron. It is in this simple clothing, but without the apron, that a portrait was taken of the little shepherdesses which is going around, widely circulated"

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.

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.

On jumping down, after a long journey, at about sixteen hours yesterday, at the station of Chão de Maçãs⁵, where religious people who had come from distant parts to attend the “miracle” also alighted, I asked point-blank a young lad from the regular “char-à-banc” service whether he had already seen the Lady. With his sardonic smile and sidelong look, he did not hesitate to answer me:

— All I ever saw there was stones, carts, motor cars, beasts of burden and people!

Of all these, only the Pintos Coelhos raise doubts or exaggerated prudence, Domingos even coming out and writing in the "Ordem" that the following day he saw the same thing in the sun!

The Ordem [1v] shows doubt about the Apparition, suspects the children of suggestion, and declares that on the following day it saw the same phenomenon in the sun, in order to remove from the public mind any idea of a miracle!

My Parents and Zinha also went to Fatima yesterday to see them close up and speak with them. They say they are very likeable, but not pretty⁶; it is the little boy who is a real treat. They are [5v] very poor, and the Mother is a holy woman who has put up with all sorts of trials from her husband, a drunkard of the first order. Neither she nor the Parish Priest has been willing to take charge of the alms, but another little woman has taken that on and they already have well over 100,000.

Dr. Pinto Coelho asserts that on the following day he saw (at Cascaes) the same phenomenon that 50 thousand people witnessed in the hills of Fátima amid the greatest emotion. But it is singular that only the illustrious lawyer should see the repetition of the phenomenon (which he says is natural) anew, in contradiction with the astronomer Oom, who denies that it is natural, and that nobody else there should have noticed the sensational occurrence.

One of these days a gentleman from here went with his wife, people of standing and good sentiments, to visit the place of the Apparition. There were a good many people there praying, and little Lucia was there, but it made a bad impression to see her with a money box asking for alms.

The same family from here who told of the money box also said that the little girl had not impressed them well in answering the questions put to her, saying everything like [2v] a barrel organ or a repeater watch.

She seemed to be repeating a lesson she had been taught, without a certain feeling of piety, and without a real awareness of the grace received.

This displeasure of those who believe in the revelations to the children and in the miracle of the sun — and they are almost all of those who were at Fátima on the 13th of October last, at one in the afternoon — was not escaped by Mr Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, a man of the noblest character, a Catholic of indisputable authority and prestige, because he came forward loyally to confess that he saw the same phenomena in the sun on the following day, and to explain the Catholic attitude to be observed in cases of this kind: prudence, study and expectation.

The Bishop of Portalegre and Sr^a D. Maria de Jesus Raposo report that, being with other people in Torres [2] Novas, on the 20th of October last, at about \_\_\_\_? o'clock in the day, they saw the rotating movement of the sun and change of colours.

The same Lady says that these manifestations of the sun were very different from those of Fátima and did not have the importance of the 13th of October last.

Maria Francesca Aloisi Fitipaldi, 57 years old, a native of Naples, Italy, and resident for more than nineteen years in Leiria, suffered horribly from various illnesses which made her life almost unbearable (dyspnoea, heart lesion, stomach ulcer, albumin, etc.). She could neither speak, nor lie down, nor leave the house. On 12 October 1917, at night, she saw from one of the windows of her house the crowds heading for Fátima and was very sorry not to be able to go too. Full of faith, she asked Our Lady of Fátima at least to improve her condition so that she could rest a little. Feeling sleepy, she went to bed and slept the whole night. The next morning, when she woke, she found herself perfectly well.

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.

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 [28v] 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.

In the inquiry to which she was subjected when she was a pupil at the Asilo de Vilar, in Porto, Lúcia de Jesus declared that, after the first apparition, she was visited by many people, and among them some priests, who pressed her with questions and scolded her a great deal, the people of her family telling her that she was lying and [22] her own mother even beating her with a broom handle. She also declared, at another point in the interrogation, that after the thirteenth of August some priests who went to her house to speak to her called her a humbug.

A learned primary-school teacher⁶ who, even before the end of the month of October, attended at the place of the apparitions the recitation of the rosary led by Lúcia, declared that he had been unfavourably impressed to see the child's distraction, as he expected her to be recollected and absorbed in an almost ecstatic detachment from all the things of the world at the place where she had had the incomparable good fortune of contemplating the Queen of Heaven.

A gentleman of high standing who visited the Cova da Iria in the same month stated that he had been surprised to hear Lúcia answer the questions put to her about the apparitions, telling everything without a certain feeling of piety and without being fully aware of the grace received.

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.

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, then deserted, called Cova da Iria.

The eldest, Lúcia de Jesus, was 10 years of age, Francisco nine and Jacinta six^a. These two were brother and sister and the first 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 (five decades) 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,

^a Jacinta was already seven years old. Jacinta's official date of birth is 11 March 1910.

furrowed the sky. Although the sky was clear and cloudless, the children, fearing a thunderstorm, gathered the livestock and were about to go away. When they reached a point near the spot where the water spouts now stand, however, another flash of lightning blazes and, a few paces away, standing upon a small holm oak at the place where the tiny, poor Chapel of the Apparitions now stands, they see, with amazement, the figure of a Lady of incomparable beauty, wrapped in a dress of the purest whiteness; 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, there 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 inviting them to go there every 13th day of each month until October.

As appears from the testimony of the children and of many people, the apparitions were six, all on the 13th day of each month, except in August, when it 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 heaven, entrusted to them a secret that they may reveal to no one, taught them a short ejaculatory 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, stated that Our Lord is very angry at the sins of men and above all at the sin of the flesh, ordered that a chapel be built there in her honour, and declares that she is the Lady of the Rosary...

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 situated in the parish of Fátima, council 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 five decades of 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 [8] 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 five decades of 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 administrator of the council, 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.