INTRODUCTION

In books about Fatima, the narration of the apparitions and the conversations of Our Lady with the seers are usually not the primary focus; instead these are intermixed with other related events and aspects of the story, such as the local repercussions of the apparitions, the interrogations of the seers and witnesses, the cures and extraordinary conversions that followed, the fascinating details of the spiritual progress of the privileged children, and numerous associated episodes. All of this is perfectly natural and understandable.

Nevertheless, after reading these books, many feel a desire for a text that would devote special attention to the contents of the apparitions. They seek to more fully grasp the meaning of the message Our Lady came to communicate to men and thus heed her admonitions.

To satisfy this legitimate desire, we have attempted to put together a story centred on what occurred between the Virgin and the seers; and between the Angel of Portugal and the seers. The numerous edifying and picturesque facts interwoven with the story of Fatima have been set aside in order to focus attention on this essential part.

The accounts of the apparitions of the angel in 1916 and Our Lady in 1917 are followed by private revelations received by the seers, especially Sister Lucia. Since they complement the apparitions at Cova da Iria, they could not be omitted here.

The first edition of this work in 1967 was based primarily on two well-known works, which we recommend to those who are anxious to read more about the story of Fatima. One is William Thomas Walsh's Our Lady of Fatima; the other, Era uma Senhora mais brillante que o sol by Father John M. de Marchi, I.M.C. (See bibliography).

Father De Marchi spent several years in Fatima, questioning witnesses of the events and carefully recording their remarks. He interviewed Sister Lucia and was able to examine her manuscripts, which we shall discuss further on.

In 1946, William Thomas Walsh also went to Portugal to interview witnesses and do research. He spoke with Sister Lucia and relied extensively on her four memoirs in the writing of his book.

The works of Father De Marchi and Walsh are well researched and in essential agreement in most details. Nevertheless, further care was taken to compare them with books of other authors, who complete and clarify certain facts and details. These are pointed out in their proper places. Unfortunately, it was then impossible to examine the authoritative sources themselves, the manuscripts of Sister Lucia. Those manuscripts had not yet been published, save for a few excerpts reproduced by several authors who had been able to examine them.

When the first edition was published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions, we expressed the desire to see the complete text of those precious manuscripts brought to light for the edification of all those who are devoted to Our Lady of Fatima. Today it behoves us to acknowledge the fulfilment of this desire. The manuscripts were at last published in 1973 by Father Antonio Maria Martins, S.J. in Memórias e Cartas da Irmã Lúcia.

However, we are still eagerly awaiting a complete work¹ that, in addition to the memoirs and letters already published, contains all the interrogations to which Sister Lucia was subjected, the documents of the canonical investigation, ² and all the seer's correspondence that still exists. ³ The importance of the Fatima message certainly warrants such a meritorious effort.

The four accounts Sister Lucia wrote are usually designated as Memoirs I, II, III, and IV. (The remaining parts of Father Antonio Maria Martins' book are referred to here simply as Memoirs.)

Memoir I is a collection of Sister Lucia's reminiscences for a biography of Jacinta. On 12 September 1935, the mortal remains of the little seer of Fatima, who died in 1920, were exhumed. Her face was found to be incorrupt. The Rt. Rev. José Alves Correia da Silva, Bishop of Leiria, sent Sister Lucia a photograph taken on this occasion. In her letter of thanks, she referred to the virtues of her cousin. The prelate then ordered her to write all she knew about the life of Jacinta. Thus, the task of writing the first manuscript began. It was finished around Christmas 1935.

In April of 1937, Father Ayres da Fonseca told the Bishop of Leiria that Sister Lucia's first account suggested the existence of yet unknown facts related to the apparitions. This prompted a new order from the bishop for Sister Lucia to write the story of her life, a task she accomplished between 7 and 21 November of the same year. In this account she also speaks, although very briefly, of the apparitions of Our Lady and, for the first time, officially discloses the apparitions of the Angel of Portugal. Until then, she had remained silent about them for several reasons: She had been advised to do so by the archpriest of Olival, Father Faustino José Jacinto Ferreira (to whom she had narrated the apparitions), later reinforced by the same recommendation from the Bishop of Leiria; additionally, the criticism and mockery resulting from her account of the three apparitions of the angel in the spring and summer of 1916 and the severe reprimands of her mother always prompted her to great caution and discretion. But Sister Lucia's great reluctance to talk about herself and, therefore, about the apparitions in her memoirs still mystifies the reader.

In 1941, the Bishop of Leiria again ordered the seer to provide, to the best of her ability, a detailed narrative of Jacinta's life for a book being written by Canon José Galamba de Oliveira about the youngest seer. "This order," writes Sister Lucia, "touched the depth of my soul like a beam of light telling me that the time had come to reveal the first two parts of the secret...." ⁴ Thus, Sister Lucia began her third manuscript by revealing the currently known parts of the secret of Fatima. Following this, she recorded the impression these revelations had made on Jacinta. This account is dated 31 August 1941.

Surprised by such revelations, Canon Galamba de Oliveira concluded that Sister Lucia had not told everything in her previous accounts and urged the Bishop of Leiria to command her to write the complete story of the apparitions. "Your Excellency… give her the order to write everything, and I mean everything. She will have to wander a while in purgatory for staying silent about so many things." Sister Lucia excused herself, saying that she always acted out of obedience. Canon Galamba de Oliveira insisted that the bishop order her "to tell everything, everything; she should hide nothing". (He was apparently alluding to the third part of the secret.) The bishop, however, chose not to become involved. "That I shall not order. In secret matters, I shall not meddle." Instead, he simply told the seer to make a complete narration of the apparitions. ⁵ Then she wrote the fourth manuscript, which bears the date of 8 December 1941. In this memoir, Sister Lucia, for the first time gave a systematic and ordered account of the apparitions, stating in the conclusion of the narrative that nothing of all that she could remember had been "knowingly" omitted, save, evidently, the third part of the secret, which she had not been ordered to reveal. ⁶

In June 1943 Sister Lucia fell ill with pleurisy that lasted for several months, during which time she would sometimes improve and sometimes have relapses. This was further complicated by the side effects of the medicine she was taking.

Fearing the worst, the Bishop of Leiria, after much hesitation, in the middle of September of that year, asked the seer to write the third part of the Secret. It was a request and not an order. As a result, the seer was left in a state of perplexity, because she did not feel moved to do this by any interior grace. In mid-October, the Bishop of Leiria gave the explicit order she had requested, but, nonetheless, the seer was unable to overcome her interior anguish.

Having been consulted about this, Bishop Antônio Garcia, apostolic administrator of Tuy and Archbishop-designate of Valladolid, suggested she explain her difficulties to the Bishop of Leiria. But the Superioress of Sister Lucia retained his letter to the seer, dated early December, until mid-January.

However, before the letter was delivered to Sister Lucia, Our Lady dispelled all of her doubts on 2 January 1944. Our Lady appeared to her in the infirmary of the House of the Doretheans in Tuy and ordered her to write what was requested of her. The seer did so the very next day. ⁷

This document’s long itinerary of having been given to the Bishop of Leiria five months later until its revelation in the year 2000 will be dealt with in detail in Chapter II of this work.

In the first edition of this work in 1967, we tried to reconstruct the development of the apparitions with the greatest possible fidelity, using the principal bibliographical sources then available. Unfortunately, discrepancies among the best authors were found. Many doubts were settled with the publication of the manuscripts of Sister Lucia, but some still linger. Accordingly, a consultation with the surviving seer is still desirable so that she may clarify the ambiguities wherever possible.

In offering this latest edition to the public, we hope to contribute toward making the message of Our Lady of Fatima more widely known, loved, and observed.