The Three Little Shepherds, After the Apparitions

Deeply transformed by the apparitions and the heavenly messages, the three little shepherds began to reflect on their faces the depth and gravity of the revelations entrusted to them.

Photos from that time show us their serious and sorrowful expressions, a testament to a life of intense prayer and constant sacrifice for the conversion of sinners and reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

During the second apparition, Lucia had asked the Virgin of Fátima to take them to Heaven...

“Yes, I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon.

But you will stay here a little longer to make Me known and loved.”

That was Our Lady’s reply.

Jacinta and Francisco thus awaited the fulfillment of the promise that the Virgin Mary would soon take them to Heaven.

During the short time they spent on earth, they were also graced with some private visions.

The Last Days of Jacinta and Francisco

A little over a year after the apparitions at Cova da Iria, Francisco and Jacinta fell seriously ill with bronchopneumonia, and they realized that this illness would lead them to Heaven.

They continued to offer sacrifices and penances with great fervor.

It was then that the Virgin appeared and told them that she would soon come to take Francisco, and that it would not be long before she took Jacinta as well.

Telling Lucia about it, Jacinta said:

“Our Lady came to see us and said she would come to take Francisco to Heaven very soon.

And she asked me if I still wanted to convert more sinners. I told her yes.

She told me I was going to a hospital, where I would suffer greatly.

That I should suffer for the conversion of sinners, in reparation for the sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and out of love for Jesus.

I asked if you were coming with me. She said no. That’s what hurts me the most.

She said my mother would take me there, and then I’ll be there all alone!

If only you were coming with me! What hurts me most is going without you!

Maybe the hospital is a very dark place where you can’t see anything, and I’ll be there suffering all alone!

But it doesn’t matter: I’ll endure everything for the love of Our Lord, to make reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the conversion of sinners, and for the Holy Father.”

God grants us graces through the Heart of Mary

Jacinta was consumed and elevated by her ardent desire to make reparation to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Before leaving for the hospital, she addressed Lucia with these edifying words:

“I am very close to going to Heaven.

You are to stay here to tell everyone that God wishes to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

When you go to tell this, do not hide; tell everyone that God grants us graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that they should ask Her for them, and that the Heart of Jesus wishes the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated alongside His own.

Let them ask the Immaculate Heart of Mary for peace, for God has entrusted it to her.

If only I could put into everyone’s heart the fire that burns inside my chest, making me love the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary so much!”

On another occasion, Jacinta said:

“Look, you know what?

Our Lord is sad because Our Lady told us not to offend Him anymore—that He was already very offended—and no one paid any attention; they keep committing the same sins!”

In July 1919, Jacinta was taken to the Hospital in Vila Nova de Ourém.

The worsening of her illness kept her there for two months.

She was then transported to Lisbon to undergo a risky and painful surgery.

She remained for some time at an orphanage and was later taken to Dona Estefânia Hospital.

Mother Maria da Purificação Godinho, the orphanage’s director, impressed by the girl’s wisdom and virtue, recorded her final words.

Jacinta spoke about sin, about priests and rulers, and about Christian virtues, surprising everyone with her accurate analyses, which are prophetically so relevant to our own times.

Our Lady came to take Jacinta on February 20, 1920. Francisco had gone to Heaven on April 4, 1919.

Jacinta was buried three days later in the cemetery of Vila Nova de Ourém.

In September 1935, her remains were laid to rest in a new white-stone tomb in Fátima, bearing the simple epitaph: “Here rest the remains of Francisco and Jacinta, to whom Our Lady appeared.”

In 1951, Jacinta’s venerable remains were transferred to the Basilica of Fátima, where they currently rest.

In 1952, Francisco’s remains were also transferred there.

Lucia’s Long and Painful Journey

The sole survivor of the three little shepherds traveled a long and painful path before becoming a Discalced Carmelite at the Carmel of St. Joseph in Coimbra.

Before that, she spent time at the House of the Dorothean Sisters in Pontevedra, Spain.

Sister Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart remained at the Carmelite convent for fifty-eight years, passing away on February 13, 2005, at the age of ninety-seven.

She was transferred from the Carmel of Saint Teresa in Coimbra, where she had been buried for a year, to the Basilica of Fátima on February 19, 2006.

Her remains rest beside Jacinta’s.

Her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco, were beatified on May 13, 2000.

Sister Lucia’s tombstone bears the inscription, below her name: “To whom Our Lady appeared.”

Reparatory Communion on the First Five Saturdays

On December 10, 1925, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Sister Lucia, with a Child at her side in a luminous cloud.

She showed Lucia a Heart she held in one of her hands, surrounded by thorns.

And the Child said to her:

“Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, which is covered with thorns that ungrateful men constantly drive into it, with no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.”

Then the Blessed Virgin spoke:

“Look, my daughter, at my Heart surrounded by thorns that ungrateful men drive into it at every moment with blasphemies and ingratitude.

You, at least, try to console Me, and tell everyone that those who, for five months, on the first Saturday of each month, go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, pray a Rosary, and spend fifteen minutes in My company meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary in order to make amends to Me—I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of those souls.”

On February 15, 1926, the Child Jesus appeared again to Sister Lucia and asked her if she had already spread devotion to His Most Holy Mother.

Sister Lucia replied that her Mother Superior was willing to spread it, but that the Mother Superior’s confessor had stated that she alone could do nothing.

And Jesus said:

“It is true that your superior, on her own, can do nothing; but with My grace, she can do everything.”

Sister Lucia mentioned the difficulty some souls had in going to confession on Saturday and asked that an eight-day confession be considered valid.

Jesus replied:

“Yes, it can cover many more [days] still, provided that, when they receive Me, they are in a state of grace and have the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

“And what if people forget to form that intention?” Sister Lucia asked.

“They can form it at their next confession, taking advantage of the first opportunity they have to go to confession.”

Four years later, in the early hours of May 29–30, 1930, Our Lord revealed to Sister Lucia in an interior vision another detail regarding the reparatory Communions of the first five Saturdays.

Sister Lucia asked whether those who could not fulfill all the conditions on Saturday could make up for them on Sundays.

Jesus replied:

“The practice of this devotion will also be accepted on the Sunday following the first Saturday, when my priests, for just reasons, grant this to the souls.”

The Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

There was also a supplement to Our Lady’s request during her third apparition.

On June 13, 1929, Sister Lucia had a vision of the Most Holy Trinity and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Our Lady addressed the following words to Sister Lucia:

“The time has come when God asks the Holy Father to consecrate Russia to my Immaculate Heart, in union with all the bishops of the world, promising to save it by this means.

There are so many souls whom God’s justice condemns for sins committed against Me that I have come to ask for reparation: sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray.”

Several consecrations of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary were made throughout the successive pontificates beginning in 1929.

None of them, however, fully met the requirements expressed by Our Lady to Sister Lucia.

Since mid-1989, however, she has recognized the validity of the Consecration made by Pope John Paul II on March 25, 1984.

The visionary herself presents this recognition as an expression of a personal opinion, not of a supernatural revelation.