Fátima ao detalhe | 13 setembro 1917 | Aliança de Santa Maria

SEPTEMBER 13TH, 1917
FÁTIMA IN DETAIL

Sr. Maria Benedita Costa, asm
Sister of the Covenant of St. Mary

September 13, 1917 [1]

Contrary to what many expected - both among the civil authorities and among the family of the Little Shepherds and the inhabitants of Aljustrel - after the kidnapping and imprisonment of the Little Shepherds in August - and the disclosure of the fact that, even in extreme circumstances, they had not revealed the secret received from Our Lady - the influx of devotees and onlookers continued to grow uninterruptedly, to the point that on September 13, there were around 30,000 people in the Cova da Iria[2].

Referring once again to Sister Lucia's account in her Memoirs[3] - where he dispenses with a large part of the account of the Apparition in order to concentrate on the circumstances surrounding it - we once again turn to the sources of the time for a more detailed view of the events.

A synoptic reading of the account given of this Apparition in three of the main sources of the time - the parish priest's interrogation of September 15, 1917[4]; Lucia's first writing on the Apparitions, dated January 5, 1922[5]; and Lucia's testimony at the Canonical Process on July 8, 1924[6] - highlights the absence of one of Our Lady's best-known statements in this Apparition, which is nevertheless included in the account of the Memories - «God is pleased with your sacrifices, but he doesn't want you to sleep with the rope; only bring it during the day»[7] - something that, bearing in mind that the sacrifice of the use of the rope by the Little Shepherds was not known to the public, it is nothing less than “natural” that it was “silenced” by the Seers.

The same synoptic reading allows us, however, to “dive” into the intimacy of the dialogue between Lucia and Our Lady who, together with the request for various cures and conversions that she had been recommended to make, repeats the request, already made, for a miracle so that everyone would believe: «I asked you again to make a miracle so that the people would believe, because they said I was a trespasser who should be hanged and burned»[8] and, with the childlike candor that was his hallmark at the time, he passed on the “messages” and “presented the gifts” that had been recommended to him:

«- People would love a little chapel here.

- “Half of the money you've collected so far, make the floats and give them to Our Lady of the Rosary; the other half is to help the little chapel.”.

I offered him two cards and a glass of scented water.

- They gave me these, if you want them.

- “That's not convenient in heaven”.[9]

This apparition has also become known in the memory not only of those who witnessed it, but also of those who listened to its testimony, for the various “extraordinary phenomena” that accompanied it, such as the “rain of roses”, because «in the old and more recent accounts, the witnesses often affirm the fall of white flowers from the sky, which faded as soon as they hit the ground on that day of September 13, 1917»[10], For example, the parish priest of Santa Catarina da Serra, who, «a little way off on a small rise, watching the crowd, saw this shower of roses. He was so amazed that, forgetting that the ecclesiastical authority had ordered him to remain uninvolved, he also began to chant the rosary...».[11]

[1] For the sake of accessibility of sources for those who wish to delve deeper into the subject, we cite them from the work of Luciano Coelho Cristino (CRISTINO, L. C., The Apparitions of Fatima: a reconstruction based on documents(Fátima, Santuário de Fátima, 2017, 1st ed.), in which each Apparition was treated individually from the point of view of the documentary sources.

[2] CRISTINO, L. C., The Apparitions..., p. 86.

[3] JESUS, Lúcia de, Memories of Sister Lucia I, Fátima, Secretariat of the Little Shepherds, 2007, 13th edition, p. 179-180.

[4] CRISTINO, L. C., The Apparitions..., p. 79-80.

[5] DOCUMENTATION Critical of Fatima: Selection of Documents (1917-1930). Text setting, introductions and notes by Luciano Coelho Cristino. Fatima: Shrine of Fatima, 2013, Doc. 82, p. 320.

[6] DOCUMENTATION Critical of Fatima: Selection of Documents..., Doc. 82, p. 320.

[7] JESUS, Lúcia de, Memories..., p.180.

[8] DOCUMENTATION Critical of Fatima: Selection of Documents..., Doc. 82, p. 320.

[9] CRISTINO, L. C., The Apparitions..., p. 79-80.

[10] CRISTINO, L. C., The Apparitions..., p. 85.

[11] CRISTINO, L. C., The Apparitions..., p. 86.

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