On May 13, 1917, in a field called Cova da Iria near the Portuguese village of Fatima, "a beautiful lady from Heaven", shining like the sun and standing on a cloud over a beech tree, appeared to three children: Lucia Dos Santos (age 10) and her two cousins, Francisco (9) and Jacinta Marti (7). Lucia saw and heard the Madonna and spoke with her. Jacinta also saw and heard her, but did not speak, and Francisco only saw the Virgin. The radiant being spoke with the children for several minutes, and asked them to meet her again at the same place on the 13th of each month until October. Then, she promised, she would identify herself. (4, 9, 13, 14)

The Madonna reappeared six times in all, and the reports of the events drew increasing crowds of spectators. About 50 persons attended on June 13, and nearly 70,000 were present on October 13. Many witnesses saw a bright cloud over the beech tree, but only the three children could see and hear the woman.

At the behest of a group of political activists and doubters who wished to "put an end to the nonsense," the civil prefect of Outrem seized, interrogated and threatened the children for two days in the hope of forcing a confession of fraud from them. Though the children had been prevented from meeting the Madonna on August 13, she appeared to them on August 19 at Valinhos, near the site of her first appearance. The Madonna then told them that she would appear a final time on October 13, and then produce a miracle.

On that day the Madonna transmitted the prophecy known as the Secret of Our Lady of the Rosary. It was a rainy day, but newspaper journalists who were eyewitnesses reported that the rain stopped suddenly and the sun reappeared. In the words of A. Garret, a professor at Coimbra University, the sun looked like "a burnished wheel cut out of mother of pearl. This disc spun dizzily around... It whirled upon itself with mad rapidity, then advanced, blood red, towards the Earth, threatening to crush us with its weight." Terrified spectators fell to their knees in prayer. The sun returned to normal, then twice again repeated the prodigy. In addition, the rain-soaked clothes of the audience dried out during the brief time of the solar phenomenon.

The Secret of Our Lady of the Rosary is a three-part prophecy that she ordered to be kept secret for 25 years or until the death of Lucia, whichever came first. Francisco and Jacinta died in the influenza pandemic that ravaged Europe in 1918 and 1919. Lucia became a Dorothe Sister, and in 1948 she became a Barefoot Carmelite in a closed convent at Coimbra. Lucia learned to write, and recorded the text of the secret prophecy. This was kept in the Bishopric of Leiria until 1943, when Pope Pius XII revealed the first two parts through the agency of Cardinal Schuster. The final, secret part of the prophecy was opened by Pope John XXIII and several cardinals in 1960, according to the Madonna's directions, but it was not revealed to the public. The first section is a vision of Hell. The second part predicts World War II. The following segment was published with Papal approval:

"If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and we shall have peace. The war is coming to an end; but it does not cease to offend the Lord, and another, more terrible one will break out. When you see a night lit up by an unknown light, you will know that it the great sign that God gives you of the next punishment of the sins of the world with war, famine, and persecution against the Church and against the Holy Father.

"In order to prevent this, I have some to intercede for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the communion of the first Sabbaths.

"If you carry out my demands, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. Otherwise the errors will be spread around the world, provoking war and persecution against the Church; many good people will become martyrs, the Holy Father will suffer much; many nations will be suppressed...

"But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia for me, which will be converted and the world will be granted a period of peace..."

The "great sign", "a night lit up by an unknown light," occurred on January 25, 1938. It has been explained as an unusual aurora borealis. World War II began soon afterward.

The secret section of the prophecy of Our Lady of the Rosary was leaked by Pope John XXIII to certain Roman Catholic officials and world leaders of the USA, USSR, and Britain. On October 15, 1963, the German journal News Europe published the alleged text of the secret portion of the Fatima Prophecy. The text cannot be verified, but it is widely accepted as being genuine:

"Have no fear, little one. I am the Mother of God who speaks to you and asks you to publish the message I am going to give you to the whole world. You will find strong resistance while you do so. Listen well and pay attention to what I tell you.

"Men must be set on the right road once more. With suppliant humility, men must seek forgiveness for sins committed already and for sins which will be committed. You wish me to give you a sign, so that everyone will accept My Words, which I am saying through you, to the human race. I have seen the Prodigy of the Sun and all believers, unbelievers, peasants, countrymen, wise men, journalists, laics and priests, all have seen it. And now I proclaim in my name: A great punishment shall fall on the entire human race, not today and not tomorrow, but in the second half of the 20th century! I have already revealed to the children Melanie and Maximime at La Salette, and today I repeat it to you for the human race has sinned and has trampled down the Gift which I have made. In no part of the world is life in order, Satan rules in the highest position, laying down how things should be done. He will effectually succeed in bringing his influence right up to the top of the Church; succeed in seducing the spirits of the great scientists who invent thearms. And if humanity opposes me I shall be obliged to free the arm of My Son. Now I see that God will punish man with a severity that has not been used since the Flood.

"The time of times will come and everything will come to an end if humanity is not converted, and if things remain as they are now or get worse, the great and powerful men will perish just as will the small and weak.

"For the Church, too, the time of its greatest trial will come. Cardinals will oppose cardinals and bishops against bishops. Satan will march in their midst and there will be great changes at Rome. What is rotten will fall, never to rise again. The Church will be darkened and the world will shake with terror. The time will come when no king, emperor, cardinal or bishop will await Him who will, however, come, but in order to punish according to the designs of my Father.

"A great war will break out in the second half of the 20th century. Fire and smoke will fall from heaven, and waters of the oceans will become vapors, the scum will arise in a confused manner, and everything will sink down. Millions and millions of men will perish while this is going on and those who survive will envy the dead. The unexpected will follow in every part of the world, anxiety, pain and misery in every country. Have I seen it? The time is getting ever nearer and the abyss is getting wider without hope. The good will perish with the bad, the great with the small, the Heads of the Church with their faithful, and the rulers with their people. There will be death everywhere as a result of the mistakes of the unfeeling and the partisans of Satan, but when those who survive all these happenings are still alive, they will proclaim God once again and His Glory, and will serve Him as in the time when the world was not so perverted.

"Go, my little one and proclaim it. For that purpose I shall always be at your side to help you."

The following version of the third prophecy of Fatima has been in circulation since about 1985, and published in various newspapers and magazines :

"A great plague will befall mankind in the year 2000. Nowhere in the world will there be order, and Satan will rule the highest places, determining the way of things. Satan will even succeed in asserting himself at the top of the Church.

"He will succeed in seducing the spirits of the great scientists who invent arms, with which it will be possible to destroy a large part of mankind in a few minutes. Satan will have in his power the leaders who command the people and who will incite them to produce enormous quantities of arms.

"God will punish man more thoroughly than with the Flood. There will come the time of all times and the end of all ends. The great and the powerful will perish together with the small and weak.

"Even for the Church, it will be the time of its greatest trial. Cardinals will oppose cardinals, bishops will oppose bishops. Satan will walk in their midst and in Rome there will be great changes. The Church will be darkened and the world will be shaking with terror.

"A huge war will erupt: fire and smoke will fall from the sky. The waters of the ocean will become mist, and the foam will rise to tremendous heights and everyone will drown.

"Millions and millions of men will die from hour to hour. Whoever remains alove will envy the dead. Everywhere one turns one's glance there will be anguish and misery, ruins in every country.

"The time draws nearer, the abyss widens without hope. The good will perish with the bad, the great with the small, the princes of the church with the faithful, the rulers with their people.

"There will be death everywhere because of the errors committed by the crazed and the followers of Satan, who will then and only then rule the world.

"At the last, those who survive will at every chance newly proclaim God and His glory and they will serve Him as when the world was not so perverted."

On her death-bed (February 1920), Jacinta told Mother Godinho:

"There is a secret of Heaven and one of earth, and the latter is terifying. It will seem as though it were already the end of the world. And in this cataclysm everything will be separated from the sky, which will turn white as snow."

Since 1970, Our Lady has been appearing to Veronica Lueken, "The Seeress of Bayside" (NY), who transmits the Madonna's messages. On June 8, 1974, Jacinta also channeled a message through Veronica:

"It is true that I gave a final message [to Mother Godinho], but I, too, could not give the date --- only to warn the world that a great Warning would come to mankind. It would be a great cataclysm Warning, and then there would be a great Miracle. And after that, if nothing changes and man continues to offend the Father, He would have to start this terrible, terrible trial. For there will be a great War and there will be a great, terrible chastisement."

Our Lady also sent the following prophetic messages through Vronica Leuken:

"All who remain in the light of grace will have no fear. They will pass through this great Warning without suffering." (April 5, 1975)

"There will be a tremendous explosion, and the sky shall roll back like a scroll. This force shall go within the very core of the human. He will understand his offenses to his God." (June 12, 1976)

"As the day follows night, so shall this Warning follow soon. Beware of the sunrise! Do not look up to the sky --- the flash! Close your windows; draw your shades; remain inside. Do not venture outside your door, or you will not return... Keep blessed candles, water, food within your homes. The candles of those who have remained in the state of grace shall not be extinguished, but the candles in the homes of those who have given themselves to Satan shall not burn!"

The Madonna's comment about sacred candles repeats the same notion in the prophecies of Sister Palma Maria, Marie Dehenny, Anna Taigi, and Marie Jehannet.