First Appearance
On one cool day in 1916, three young shepherds, Lucia dos Santos, age 9, and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, ages 8 and 6 respectively, took their parents’ sheep to pasture in a place not far from their homes in the mountain village of Fatima, Portugal, about 120 kilometres north of Lisbon. It started to drizzle, and the children sought shelter in a nearby cave. When the skies cleared, they stayed on the spot to play. Suddenly across the field a white globe of light appeared, moving over the open space towards the cave. The three children stared in awe as they saw in the centre of the light a beautiful young man in flowing white garments.
He approached them and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the angel of Peace. Pray with me”. Kneeling on the ground, he bowed down until his forehead touched the earth, and recited this prayer three times:
“O my God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I ask pardon of Thee for all those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee”.
Led by a supernatural impulse, the children did the same thing and repeated the words, which they heard the Angel say. After reciting the prayers three times, the Angel rose and said: “Pray thus; the Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications”. Then he disappeared.
Second Appearance
About two months after the first apparition, while the children were playing near the well behind Lucia’s house, the same Angel suddenly appeared beside them.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Pray! Pray very much! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High”.
“How are we to make sacrifices?” Lucia asked.
“Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. You will thus draw down peace upon your country. I am its Angel Guardian, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission, the suffering which the Lord will send you”. After saying these words the Angel disappeared. The words left a deep impression on the children. From then on they frequently recited the prayer which the Angel had taught them in his first appearance, and began to offer many sacrifices to God.
Third Appearance
A few months later in that same year, 1916, the young shepherds were, one day at Loca de Cabeco, the spot where the first appearance of the Angel had taken place. They said their Rosary there and the prayer the Angel had taught them at the first apparition.
While they were reciting the Angel’s prayer, lying on the ground, all of a sudden they were wrapped in light. They lifted their eyes. The Angel was there. He was holding a Chalice in his left hand, with the Host suspended above it, from which some drops of blood fell into the Chalice. Leaving the Chalice suspended in the air, the Angel knelt down beside the children and asked to repeat three times the following prayer:
“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore you profoundly. I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. Through the
infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of you the conversion of poor sinners”.
Then, rising, he took the Chalice and the Host in his hands. He gave the Sacred Host to Lucia and shared the Blood from the Chalice between Jacinta and Francisco, saying as he did so:
“Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men! Make reparation for their crimes and console your God”.
Once again, he prostrated on the ground and repeated with the children three times more, the same prayer: “Most Holy Trinity...”, and then disappeared.
Such was the prelude to the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima.