Our Lady then explained to the children, "You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go."
In the Jubilee year, the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco, the two little shepherds of Fatima, Portugal, was a landmark event. These two children, aged 10 and 11, are the youngest non-martyrs ever to be beatified in the history of the Catholic Church, proving that no matter how young you are, you can still become a saint.
Beginning at a young age, the two children accompanied their cousin Lucia Santo to the fields each day to watch the families' sheep. One day in 1916, they saw an Angel, who told them he was the angel of peace and the guardian angel of Portugal. The angel taught the amazed children a prayer to say in reparation for sins: "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You!"
The angel appeared to the children three times in all, reminding them to pray and make sacrifices. During the third visit, the angel appeared holding a chalice and a host, and taught them another prayer: "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and 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. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners."
He gave Lucia, who was the only one who had made her first Communion, the host, and gave Jacinta and Francisco the blood in the chalice to drink. These apparitions filled the children with a sense of peace and the presence of God, preparing them for the apparitions of Mary which were soon to take place.
The first apparition of Our Lady took place on May 13, 1817, an event which would change their lives forever. In this first of the several apparitions at Fatima, Our Lady asked the children to say the Rosary and to make sacrifices, offering them for the conversion of sinners.
Seven-year-old Jacinta especially took this request very seriously, even though it had earlier been her idea to save time in reciting the Rosary by only saying the first two words of every prayer! She was particularly struck by the Blessed Virgin's request to pray for sinners, especially after seeing the vision of Hell which Mary showed to the three children.
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The Message of Fatima contains clear indications that the Church is expected to promote this Message. Our Lady, when asked what should be done with the money left at the Cova da Iria, asked for a chapel to be built on the site, and that a procession in Her honor be made. These requests indicate that Our Lady wished Fatima to be an established site of pilgrimage and prayer, and that the people’s devotion extend beyond Her short cycle of visits.
Furthermore, Our Lady of Fatima reminded the clergy and the world of the power of the Rosary and the Scapular, which are two of the greatest means of saving souls. She indicated that these devotions should be vigorously promoted. The Message of Fatima also recalled to the Church and to the world some fundamental responsibilities of the individual, such as performing one’s daily duty and keeping the Ten Commandments.
Our Lady asked for an increase of prayer and sacrifice, and the abandonment of sin. She asked that we offer our prayers and sacrifices for the Holy Father, for poor sinners, and in reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are things that the Church should actively promote anyway, but with even more diligence since Our Lady of Fatima reminded all of us in the Church of this obligation.
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The Secret imparted to the three shepherd children at Fatima on July 13, 1917 had three parts. The first part was fully revealed in Sr. Lucy’s Third and Fourth Memoirs, written at the command of her bishop, in 1941. This first part of the Secret of Fatima describes what Lucy, Jacinta and Francisco saw on that day.
We quote from Sister Lucy’s memoirs: She [Our Lady of Fatima] opened Her hands once more, as She had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls [of the damned] in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me).
The demons could be distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, Who had already prepared us by promising, in the first apparition, to take us to Heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror. Our Lady then explained to the children, "You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go."
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From that time on until her death little Jacinta could not pray and sacrifice enough for 'poor sinners' so that souls would not have to experience what she saw in the vision of hell. The most important thing in life is to remain in a state of grace.