On May 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary first appeared to three shepherd children, Lúcia dos Santos, Francisco Marto, and Jacinta Marto, at the Cova da Iria outside the village of Aljustrel, near Fatima, Portugal. In the months that followed, the children would see Mary five more times. On the sixth and last appearance, the Virgin told the children her name: The Lady of the Rosary. Throughout these appearances, the children received prophetic messages and thousands witnessed the Miracle of the Sun.
The children were prepared for Our Lady’s apparitions by an angel. The angel taught the children to deepen their love of prayer. In 1916, the angel exhorted them: “Pray! Pray a great deal! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs for you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High… With all your power offer a sacrifice as an act of reparation for the sinners by whom He [the Lord] is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners.” The angel taught them a prayer in reparation for sacrileges against the Most Holy Eucharist: “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly and offer Thee 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 by which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.”
When Our Lady began to appear to the children, she taught them that prayer and penance were the means to bring about the conversions necessary to end World War I and prevent future wars: “The war [World War I] is going to end. But if sinners do not stop offending God, another and worse one will begin [World War II]. To prevent this, I come to ask the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays. If they listen to my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will scatter her errors through the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.” This prophecy, which predicts succeeding events with remarkable accuracy, was accompanied by a reassuring message of hope: “In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
Throughout her apparitions, Mary’s message was consistent: she asked people to pray and entrust their lives to God, because only in God would their hearts, and the world, find peace. The prayer she asked people to take up especially was the Rosary: “Say the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain the peace of the world and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it… God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.”
At this time in history, when world peace remains elusive and families face so many pressures, let us rely on the means of peace given to us by God through Mary: the recitation of the daily Rosary.