May 13th - Our Lady of Fátima's Day
Today is a very special day. 98
years ago, three shepherd children experienced the apparition of Our Lady, the
Virgin Mary, at Fátima. The three children were Lúcia Santos and her cousins
Jacinta and Francisco Marto. The apparitions at Fátima were officially declared
worthy of belief by the Catholic Church. Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI,
John Paul II and Benedict XVI voiced their acceptance of the supernatural
origin of the Fátima events. John Paul II credited Our Lady of Fátima with
saving his life following an assassination attempt on the Feast of Our Lady of
Fátima, 1981. He donated the bullet that wounded him to the Roman Catholic
sanctuary at Fátima, Portugal and it was placed in the crown of the Virgin's
statue.
On May 13, 1917, Lúcia described
seeing a lady "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and
stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced
by the burning rays of the sun". While they had never spoken to a…
