Our Lady of Fatima and the Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Hell, Where Poor Sinners Go

On July 13, 1917, Our Lady exhorted the three children of Fatima to make sacrifices for sinners.

Reaching out her hands, she let fall rays of light on the earth. 

We saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell 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 fright... You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go...

But Heaven immediately gave the remedy for the evils afflicting souls in the shadows of darkness: “To save them, God wishes to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”

On August 13, at the Cova da Iria, the Blessed Virgin insisted: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.”

“Make sacrifices for sinners,” she gently insisted, and say often, but especially when you make a sacrifice, “O Jesus! It is for the love of you and for the conversion of sinners.”

On October 13, she insisted again, “Do not offend the Lord Our God any more, He is already so much offended.”

Sister Lucia later explained that these were the words of the apparition that were the most deeply engraved upon her heart: “Do not offend the Lord Our God any more, He is already so much offended.”

And on the same day, October 13, 1917, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God gave the reason for her apparitions:

I have come to ask men to repent of their sins, to change their lives, to stop offending Our Lord who is already offended so much, and to recite the Holy Rosary.

Heaven's Requests

After the first two secrets – the three children’s vision of hell and the request that Russia be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart – came the third secret that was transmitted to the Vatican to be revealed in 1960. But the Holy See did no such thing; it was too busy preparing Vatican Council II and hushing up the voices of the “prophets of doom”, to quote John XXIII in his speech for the opening of the Council.

At the same time, the pressing request of Our Lady of Fatima was not yet answered:

I shall come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturday of the month. If my requests are heard, Russia will convert and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church.

Even today, the First Saturday devotion is still not as widespread as it ought to be. The consecration to Russia by the pope and all the bishops of the Catholic world has never been accomplished in due form. After the failed attempt to assassinate him on May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II did something similar but without a formal act including the other bishops, and a second time without explicitly mentioning Russia. Although Communism was officially defeated in 1991, Russia still has not converted to the Catholic Faith.

The recitation of the Holy Rosary and the practice of the First Saturdays are certainly connected to the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but so is the peace of the nations. Sister Lucia insisted often upon this aspect of the plan of Divine Providence:

War or peace in the world depend on the practice of this devotion, united with the consecration (of Russia) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That is why I desire so greatly to see it spread, especially since it is the will of God and of Our Mother in Heaven...

The Text of the Third Secret

The third secret, committed to writing by Sister Lucia on January 3, 1944, at the request of the bishop of Leiria, was revealed to her by the Blessed Virgin in Fatima on July 13, 1971. It was revealed by Pope John Paul II on May 13, 2000. The text reads as follows:

After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!'

And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'.

Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.

Trying to claim that this apocalyptic vision referred to Ali Ağca’s attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in 1981 is unconvincing. The vision describes a true generalized persecution that ends in the death of the Church authorities, consecrated souls, and the faithful, at the foot of a great Cross.

Do Not Lose Hope

Heaven’s requests come with the promise of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that will at last overturn the unleashed henchmen of Satan.

The popes of our days, imbued as they are with novelties that destroy the Faith, the cult and morals, nonetheless visit Fatima. For the one-hundredth anniversary of the apparitions, Pope Francis personally went to pray to the Blessed Virgin on May 13, 2017. Before an ocean of votive candles that seem to recreate the embers of the sea of fire that so frightened the children when they saw hell, the pope’s only hope and help is the Mother of God whose requests he will one day have to fulfill, with humility, prayer and penance.

The Society of St. Pius X has launched several Rosary Crusades to pray for the authorities of the Church to fulfill Heaven’s requests. Without taking the place of the hierarchy, it tirelessly invites faithful Catholics to do everything in their power to spread the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and hasten her triumph.

Today, it seems that only a miracle could enlighten the minds that have been led astray by a modernist theology and a conciliar religion that has imported Protestantism and all sorts of heresies into the very heart of Catholicism.

The realization of God’s plans for the world and the Church depends upon the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the consecration of Russia by the pope and bishops. Sister Lucia even repeated these words of our Lord recalling the fate of the French monarchy, that was overturned by the Revolution after refusing to consecrate itself to the Sacred Heart: 

Make it known to My ministers, given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My command, they will follow him into misfortune. It is never too late to have recourse to Jesus and Mary. Like the King of France, they will repent of it, and they will do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread its errors in the world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer.

After the example of the children of Fatima, we must pray very much for the pope, the bishops, priests and consecrated souls, and make sacrifices for the love of Jesus and the conversion of poor sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.