Apparitions of the Mother of God. Orthodox attitude to the Fatima phenomenon
The Virgin Mary is one of the most revered personalities and the greatest of Christian saints. There is probably not a single person in the world (with the exception of babies, perhaps) who has not heard of her. Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and atheists know about Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ.
The veneration of the Virgin Mary is based on the truth of Her Motherhood, and it is to this truth that the Roman Catholic Church dedicated the first day of the new year. On January 1, Catholics around the world celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - the holiday that completes the Christmas octave.
Well, on this day we will remember the most famous appearances of the Virgin Mary to the people. However, let us make a reservation that not all of these phenomena are officially recognized by the Catholic Church. Some are still waiting in the wings and are being carefully studied. In addition, there are many times more apparitions of the Blessed Virgin than seven.
The first appearance. Baptizing Latin America.
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Residents of Latin America sacredly honor the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, who is considered the patroness of both Americas and is respectfully called “Our Lady of Guadalupe.” And the cult of veneration of the Virgin of Guadalupe began with the modest Indian Juan Diego, who lived near Mexico City. On December 9, 1531, as a Catholic convert, he hurried past Tepeyac Hill to attend morning mass at church, but unexpectedly heard beautiful singing. Deciding to be curious about where this voice (or voices) was coming from, he climbed to the top of the hill and saw a shining cloud. In the cloud, Juan Diego saw a beautiful young woman who looked more like the girls of his tribe than a white-skinned Spanish woman.
The lady called herself the Virgin Mary and asked to build a temple at the site of her appearance so that everyone could honor her Son, Jesus Christ. But bad luck! The priests did not believe Juan, deciding that the Mother of God could not appear to some Indian without a soul (previously, the Spaniards believed that the indigenous population of Latin America did not have a soul, which means that Indians could be killed without a twinge of conscience).
But the Mother of God did not retreat. One day, when Juan Diego went to find a priest for his sick uncle, the Virgin Mary once again appeared to the unfortunate Indian and ordered him to collect all the flowers that he could find on the hill. The young man obeyed, although nothing grew on the hill. But suddenly he saw a rose bush growing on a rock. “Here is My sign,” said the Virgin Mary. “Take these roses, wrap them in your cloak and take them to the bishop.” This time he will believe you."
Arriving at the bishop, Juan Diego unwrapped his cape, where there were roses, and everyone saw on the cloth the Virgin Mary standing on the new moon, surrounded by stars and the Sun. After this, the priests repented of their unbelief, and Juan Diego's uncle, who was dying, was miraculously healed.
All this convinced the indigenous people of Mexico, who continued to worship their gods, that Christianity was the true faith. And after the appearance of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, almost 6 million Indians independently converted to Catholicism. Thus the baptism of Latin America took place.
The second phenomenon. The Virgin and the Shepherdess.
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In 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to a simple village girl from the French town of Lourdes. 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, who did not shine with intelligence, actually became the messenger of the dogma of the Catholic Church about the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On February 11, 1858, Bernadette and her other children were sent by her parents to fetch branches for kindling. To get to the grove, where they could collect these same branches, the children had to cross a small stream. Bernadette's friends quickly completed this task, but the girl was left standing undecided whether to cross the stream or not.
Without waiting for her decision, the children left Bernadette alone. When the girl finally decided to cross the cold stream, she suddenly saw a golden cloud that floated out of the cave on the other side of the stream. A woman of unearthly beauty stood on a cloud...
The first time Bernadette did not dare to follow the beautiful lady, but for all the other 18 appearances the shepherdess not only followed the stranger, but also talked to her. At first, the girl thought that this was the soul of one of the village residents who had died a year earlier, but later she realized that the Virgin Mary herself was talking to her.
Bernadette, who passionately wanted to know the name of her interlocutor, once voiced her question at one of the meetings, and then the Mother of God answered: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The girl conveyed these words to her confessor, who remembered that literally 4 years earlier the church had accepted the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Of course, the uneducated Bernadette could not know about this. So, all the residents of nearby villages believed that the young shepherdess from Lourdes communicated with the Virgin Mary.
Bernadette later became a nun, but did not live long. She died at the age of 35 from backbreaking work, the envy of other nuns and worries associated with the enormous attention of pilgrims to a modest girl. In 1933, Bernadette Soubirous was canonized as a saint of the Catholic Church.
The third phenomenon. Fatima secrets.
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It is believed that the Virgin Mary appeared to three children from the Portuguese town of Fatima in 1917, but some researchers claim that these apparitions continued from 1915 until the end of 1917.
The Virgin Mary left three predictions for three children - two sisters Lucie and Jacinta and their brother Francisco - that were not immediately revealed. Firstly, the children were not believed at first. When Jacinta told her parents about her meetings with the beautiful Virgin, she was ridiculed, and Lucia was even beaten. The headman, interrogating the children together and separately, could not get a confession that all these meetings and predictions were an invention of the children themselves.
Thirteen years later, after a thorough investigation, the appearance of the Virgin Mary at Fatima was recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as a genuine miracle. However, skeptics are still confident that there is nothing supernatural in the Fatima apparitions. Some scientists believe that the “dance of the sun,” which was observed by 70 thousand pilgrims who came to Fatima on October 13, 1917, with children and 70 thousand pilgrims who came to Fatima, is easily explained by the laws of physics, while others are sure that a UFO is to blame.
Nevertheless, three predictions, three secrets that the Mother of God revealed to three children came true. The first concerned the beginning of World War II, the second concerned the fate of Russia, and the third concerned the fate of the Pope.
About Russia, the Virgin Mary said this: “... Another war will begin... (we are most likely talking about the October Revolution and the Civil War - author’s note) To prevent this, I will ask for the dedication of Russia to My Immaculate Heart... If my requests are responded to, Russia will convert and peace will come; if not, then she will spread her errors throughout the world, sowing wars and persecution against the Church; the righteous will become martyrs... many nations will be destroyed. But in the end My Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, which will convert, and peace will be granted for a while.”
By the way, in 1952, Pope Pius XII, with a special apostolic letter, dedicated the peoples of Russia to the Most Pure Heart of Mary. A similar ceremony took place 12 years later, when the next Pope, Paul VI, dedicated the people of Russia and other countries of the “socialist bloc” to the Heart of Mary for the second time.
The third prediction of the Virgin Mary was revealed relatively recently. It concerned an attempt on the life of the Pope. Indeed, in 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot by a Turkish terrorist. However, the hierarch of the Catholic Church remained alive, and a year later he visited Fatima, placing a bullet taken from his body on the altar of the temple built in honor of the appearance of the Virgin Mary.
The fourth phenomenon. Virgin Mary in Japan.
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The Most Pure Mother of God appeared to people not only in Europe. In the early 70s of the last century, the Virgin Mary appeared in Japan, in the small town of Akita. The Mother of God was seen by the deaf nun Agnes Sasagawa Katsuko.
At the age of 19, after an unsuccessful operation, she lost her hearing and was bedridden for 16 years. The doctors just shrugged their shoulders. They were powerless to help the girl.
The deaf patient was transferred from the hospital. And in one of the hospitals, she met with a Catholic nurse who told the unfortunate woman about the Christian faith. Thanks to the nurse, Agnes's condition improved, and in 1969 she decided to enter a monastery and devote herself to God. True, 4 months after the tonsure, the woman’s condition worsened again, and only holy water from a source in Lourdes helped the nun get back on her feet.
The first time Agnes saw the Virgin Mary was on June 12, 1973 during prayer. Brilliant mysterious rays came out of the Monstrance. Agnes saw these rays for several days, and then a stigmata in the shape of a cross formed on her left palm.
The pain was unbearable, but the nun held firm, answering the sisters who consoled her that the wound on the hand of the Blessed Virgin Mary was much deeper. The amazed sisters decided to go into the chapel and discovered the same wound on the statue of the Virgin Mary... But the miracles in Akita did not end there.
That same evening, Agnes, praying to the image of the Mother of God, heard the first message. The Virgin Mary told the nun that she would soon be healed and called on all the sisters to pray for people in order to atone for their sins and stop the wrath of the Heavenly Father.
The Mother of God appeared to Agnes several more times, calling her to patience and perseverance. She predicted the nun not only her future fate, which included persecution and ridicule, but also the fate of the Japanese people, in particular the deadly tsunami in March 2011.
10 years after the appearance of the Virgin Mary, Agnes’s hearing returned and she finally recovered. After humiliating examinations of the sisters who witnessed the miraculous phenomenon, the Roman Catholic Church nevertheless recognized this fact as genuine, although before the investigation, more than 500 people, including both Christians and Buddhists, saw the statue of the Virgin Mary in the Akita monastery exuded blood, sweat and tears.
Fifth phenomenon. The Most Pure One in Zeitoun.
Sometimes the appearance of the Mother of God can last for years. So, in Egypt, the Virgin Mary was seen starting from April 2, 1968 and ending in August 1969. The Zeytun phenomenon is noteworthy in that the Mother of God was seen not only by Christians and photographs of this phenomenon remained.
The first to see the Virgin Mary in the Cairo suburb of Zeitoun were... Muslims. The three mechanics saw a woman dressed in white robes standing on top of the church. Unfortunately, the men were never able to see their faces due to the blinding light emanating from the figure. But someone suggested that it was the Virgin Mary, and immediately the figure in white confirmed this assumption with an affirmative tilt of her head.
The people who observed the appearance of the Virgin Mary immediately rushed to the priest who lived nearby, demanding that he explain this vision. The priest decided to look at the phenomenon, opened the window - and a wonderful Light poured into his room. He saw the Most Pure Virgin in a halo of radiance, however, the vision did not last long. The figure rose into the night sky and disappeared into the darkness.
The number of people wishing to see the Blessed Virgin grew exponentially. Crowds of 250 thousand people gathered at the church where the first apparition took place. Christians, Jews, Muslims, and atheists chanted: “We believe in You, Holy Mary! We bear witness to You, Holy Mary!” And the Virgin Mary appeared to a crowd of thousands...
At first, these phenomena happened two or three times a week, but over time, the Mother of God appeared before the eyes of people less and less often. But each time Mary appeared in different guises - now as the Queen of the World, now as the Virgin grieving for all nations, now with the Baby Jesus in her arms, now kneeling before the Cross.
There are known cases of miraculous healing during these phenomena. Once, photographer Vagih Rizk Matta, trying to photograph the Virgin Mary on film, slightly opening the camera shutter, discovered that his sore arm, which had been bothering him for a long time, suddenly healed.
The appearance of the Virgin Mary in Zeitoun became a kind of bridge between East and West. For the first time in the history of mankind, people of different faiths prayed together, without any division into nationalities and races.
The sixth phenomenon. Savior of Budennovsk.
On June 14, 1995, at noon, Shamil Basayev’s gang broke into the city of Budennovsk, Stavropol Territory. The militants destroyed everything in their path, taking the staff and patients of the central hospital hostage. According to Basayev himself, he did not plan to stop in Budennovsk at all, his goal was the airport in Mineralnye Vody, where he and his people wanted to hijack a plane to go to Moscow. But the militants did not have enough money to get to Mineralnye Vody - they all spent it on bribes to police patrols. Realizing that there was a catastrophic lack of funds, Basayev decided to carry out a terrorist attack in Budennovsk.
As a result, more than 1,500 people were taken hostage by the bandits. For six days, medical staff, elderly people, children and pregnant women ready to give birth lived in anticipation of a miracle. And the miracle happened. The Virgin Mary hastened to the aid of the hostages.
Residents of Budennovsk, as well as militants, have repeatedly seen a grieving woman in dark clothes standing near a cross made of clouds. Moreover, the Mother of God was seen not only the night before the seizure of the hospital, but also the night before the terrorists left the city. There is an opinion among local (and not only local) residents that it was the appearance of Mary that was decisive in Basayev’s desire to leave Budennovsk, since some of the terrorists were shocked and demoralized by the appearance of the Mother of God. On the fortieth day of commemoration of the victims of this tragedy, at the behest of Metropolitan Gideon of Stavropol, the Holy Cross Icon of the Mother of God was painted. It shows Mary near a cross on a blue background. The saint's hands are folded in prayer. True, the Mother of God, contrary to the descriptions of witnesses, is depicted in purple clothes, not dark ones. The color red became a symbol of the blood of innocent victims in 1995 in Budennovsk.
Holy Mother of God in Tskhinvali.
Photo: marshruty.ru
With the advent of the 21st century, the Virgin Mary did not leave the inhabitants of the Earth, continuing to appear to those who most needed protection. In 2008, residents of burning Tskhinvali saw the Mother of God walking through the streets of the city torn apart by shells. When Georgian troops attacked South Ossetia on August 8 of that year, some residents were able to watch as the beautiful Virgin descended from the dome of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and walked towards the Russian soldiers, despite gunfire and explosions.
Bishop George of Alania at first did not believe the witnesses of this miracle, believing that some residents of Tskhinvali saw the Virgin Mary out of fear, but then he himself saw the Mother of Jesus Christ leaving the church, and all doubts disappeared like smoke. The Mother of God was seen precisely in those places where the bloodiest battles took place.
Incredible, but true: the bombs destroyed many churches, but spared the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from where Mary descended. Shells fell into the cathedral courtyard, but they did not cause any damage to the building.
By the way, the paper icons of the Mother of God and the Savior, which were distributed to the soldiers of the Russian Army by a local resident, helped warrant officer Alexander Shashin stay alive. He put the icons in his chest pockets, and the sniper’s bullet, flying straight into the chest, suddenly turned sideways and hit Alexander flat on his knees. After this incident, the ensign provided all his colleagues with the icons that he had taken in reserve. No one died from Shashin’s unit...
History does not know many cases when the Blessed Virgin appeared to ordinary people. Apparitions of the Mother of God also occurred in the 20th century. Some of them were even captured on film or video camera. We have selected three of the most impressive stories that will not leave anyone indifferent.
History of the Painted Image on Mount Athos
September 3 in the Orthodox calendar is marked by the feast of the unusual image of the Mother of God, called the Light-Painted. On it the Blessed Virgin is depicted with a loaf of bread in her hands. The name “Painting with Light” is no coincidence: “painting with light” is a literal translation from the Greek word “photography.” And it is with photography that his story is connected.
The events that we will talk about took place in 1903 on Holy Mount Athos and are considered, perhaps, one of the most famous apparitions of the Mother of God of our time. The monks of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery then had a tradition - every week they distributed alms to the nomadic monks on Athos, called Siromakhs, and others in need. The necessary provisions for these purposes were brought to them from the Russian farmsteads of the monastery.
However, this year the Holy Kinot, the main governing body on Mount Athos, decided to stop the distribution of alms, since it corrupts those asking. It was on this day, September 3, 1903, that the monks decided to distribute the last alms, after which they read out the resolution of Kinot.
At the time of the distribution of alms, a certain monk named Gabriel took a photograph with beggars who received alms in the form of flatbread - chereks. However, no one expected that during the development of the negative, the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary would appear in the photograph, standing with the poor and receiving alms. It is clear that after this, charity in the Russian monastery on Athos, pleasing to God and His Most Pure Mother, continued.
At the site of the described event in 2011, a chapel was built and a source was drawn to it, and a temple was erected in honor of the Icon of Light. For a long time, the original negative of the photograph itself was lost due to many events that befell the monastery. And only last year it was found again in the archives of the monastery.
The longest apparition of the Mother of God in Zeitoun
Unfortunately, very little is known about this phenomenon in our country. The reason for this is that it happened in Soviet times, when atheistic propaganda tried to hush up such news. At the same time, the phenomenon in Zeitoun is the longest and most documented miracle, which, in addition, was witnessed by the maximum number of people.
The first phenomenon occurred on April 2, 1968 in the city of Zeitoun, which is considered a suburb of the Egyptian capital Cairo. That evening, two car park workers noticed a translucent luminous figure of a Woman on the dome of a temple belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church.
At first, one of the workers thought that she had decided to commit suicide and began to shout, persuading Her not to do this. Soon they called the priest of this church and realized that this was not an ordinary woman, but the Most Holy Theotokos. She prayed in front of the cross on the dome, which also glowed.
The phenomenon in Zeitoun repeated a week later, and then occurred at varying intervals until May 29, 1971. It lasted for different periods of time: from several minutes to two hours. During this time, crowds of thousands of people of different faiths and even non-believers gathered to see the miracle. Many of them subsequently converted to Christianity.
Also, this appearance of the Mother of God was marked by various miracles and healings. The first of these happened to the same car park worker who first noticed Virgo. The next day, his finger was supposed to be amputated, but the doctor stated that this was no longer necessary, since the finger was healthy.
How the Blessed Virgin looked and behaved was captured on many video and photo cameras. She was wearing long clothes with a covering on her head. A halo shone around the head, behind which it was impossible to distinguish facial features. Sometimes She was seen holding the baby Jesus in her arms. Sometimes She held an olive branch in her hands.
Glowing doves often appeared around the Most Holy Theotokos; it happened that they formed a cross, and then gathered together and seemed to melt into the air. Often the Mother of God turned and blessed people. Moreover, no projectors or lighting devices that could simulate this miracle were found.
However, one must understand that this miracle could also be a phenomenon of a different, opposite nature, as Professor A.I. Osipov, for example, treats it with caution.
The Blessed Virgin resurrected a Muslim in Damascus
The next story is very different from the previous two, as well as from everything you can imagine. Any novelist or screenwriter could envy her plot. But the most amazing thing in the story, perhaps, is that all this actually happened. And although the appearance of the Mother of God was witnessed by one person, himself a participant in the events, the incredible consequences of the miracle were confirmed by many, including medical staff.
This incident is best known as the “miracle in Syria.” It was publicized by some media in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Palestine in 2004, first on television, then on radio, through newspapers and magazines. Its participant and protagonist of the events is a certain sheikh from Saudi Arabia. Sometimes sources mention his name: Shahid D.
Shortly before the events described, he successfully married. The marriage of a young wealthy family was marred by only one thing: they had no children. The parents even advised their son to marry another woman, since polygamy is permissible in Islam, and to give birth to an heir from her. Instead, Shahid went with his wife on a trip to Damascus, Syria, to relieve his grief.
There they hired a limousine with a driver-guide who took them to all the sights of the city. The guide sensed their sad mood and soon learned the reason for it. Then the guide advised us to visit the Seydnaya Orthodox monastery, famous for its miraculous icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There was an interesting tradition there: believers ate part of the wick from the lamp standing in front of the image of the Most Pure One, in front of which they prayed, and after that their useful petitions were fulfilled.
The sheikh and his wife, inspired by what they heard, immediately wanted to visit this place. At the same time, they promised that if their problem was resolved favorably, they would generously reward the driver with twenty thousand dollars and donate four times as much to the monastery itself.
And a miracle happened! Soon after returning from the monastery, the sheikh's wife became pregnant, and nine months later they had a son. But this was only the beginning of the benefits that the Most Holy Theotokos provided to the non-Christian. Shahid did not forget about his promise and warned the driver that he would soon come to Damascus to thank him and make a donation to the monastery.
However, the guide decided to rob the generous Muslim and take all his money. To do this, he persuaded two more partners to meet the sheikh at the airport with him. On the way, Shahid tried to persuade the criminals, promised to pay each of them ten thousand, but, blinded by greed and anger, they took him to a wasteland and killed him, taking all the money and jewelry.
But the desperation of the attackers did not end there: they dismembered the corpse, cutting off the head, legs and arms. However, for some reason, they did not leave the body here, but put it in the trunk, intending to bury it in another deserted place. But then God’s providence unexpectedly intervened. On the way on the highway, the criminals' car broke down.
One driver passing by offered them his help, to which the attackers rudely refused. The driver was alarmed by their behavior. In addition, he accidentally noticed traces of blood pouring from the trunk. Therefore, soon the police were already at this place. After much argument, the criminals had to open the trunk...
But what was everyone’s surprise when a living sheikh came out of the trunk with the words: “The Most Holy Theotokos just gave me the last stitch here!” He pointed to his neck. The three attackers immediately lost their minds, which led them to admit that they had killed this man. They were placed in a prison for the insane.
Doctors confirmed an extraordinary incident: the stitches turned out to be completely fresh. Moreover, even the thinnest and most delicate vessels were connected, which was impossible to accomplish using conventional medical means. The sheikh, brought back to life, in gratitude for this, donated ten times more to the monastery than he had previously promised.
He himself said that he saw everything that happened to him, the appearance of the Mother of God and his healing, as if from the outside. After this incident, the Muslim sheikh and his entire family converted to Orthodoxy. The believer tries to talk about the miracle that happened to him in Syria as often as possible, although the Arab media try to hush up about it, fearing the conversion of even more Muslims to Christianity.
You will learn more about one of the described miracles from the video:
FATIMA
The greatest miracle of the twentieth century was the appearance of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children in Fatima (Portugal), from May 13 to October 13, 1917.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the miracle of Fatima is miraculously woven into the entire world history of the 20th century (not only in religious terms) and, most importantly, that now, on the threshold of the 21st century, it is acquiring special significance for the future of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, moreover, and for the future of multinational Russia. There are three reasons why the miracle of Fatima had and still has to do with Russia.
1. The Revelation of July 13, 1917 concerned specifically Russia and the danger it faces from the power of atheist-god-fighters. By the way, this revelation was given immediately after the July events in Petrograd, when the Bolshevik action was crushed and no one perceived them as a serious political force. Let us also note that the last appearance of the Virgin Mary in Fatima was on October 13, 1917. It is striking to the Orthodox that October 13 is the eve of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos! More precisely, at the same time when the last miracle of Fatima was ending in Portugal, in Russia (due to the time difference) the liturgical day of the Intercession began, and all of Russia sang: “Today we brightly celebrate people of good faith, overshadowed by Your coming, O Mother of God...” As Maria Stakhovich (author of the only Orthodox book about Fatima) accurately noted, “THIS HOLIDAY OF THE INTEGRATION WAS THE LAST BEFORE THE SEIZURE OF POWER BY THE Atheists AND THE BEGINNING OF GOLGOTHA OF RUSSIA...” But although the Intercession is a holiday for all Orthodox Christians, it is a Russian holiday par excellence, since nowhere, as in Russia (and Serbia), is it celebrated, nowhere are there so many churches, cathedrals and monasteries of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos as in Russia.
2. Russia, which must undergo formidable trials in the twentieth century, must again be dedicated to the heart of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary herself told the children of Fatima about this in her miraculous apparitions from May 13 to October 13, 1917, also telling them the entire future tragic history of the twentieth century. Since the summer of 1917, thousands of people have already witnessed the miracle in Fatima; on October 13, more than 50,000 witnesses saw miracles. Leading newspapers in Portugal, England, and other Western countries reported about him in the same 1917. It is known that in October 1917 (even before the Bolshevik revolution) in exile in Tobolsk, Nicholas II learned from the newspapers about this miracle and attached the highest importance to it... The Virgin Mary then repeatedly repeated this wish for Russia in new miraculous apparitions to the nun Lucia on throughout her life, until the 1980s 3. Surprisingly, one of the most revered icons in the history of Christian Russia - the icon of the Kazan Mother of God - was connected with Fatima. This icon was miraculously found in Kazan in July 1579, and then in 1612 it was the main revered shrine in the people's militia of Minin and Pozharsky, during the liberation of Moscow from the Poles. It was revered as the main shrine of Rus' by Peter I and all subsequent autocrats and military leaders of Imperial Russia. On the night of June 28-29, 1904, the shrine was stolen from the Kazan Mother of God Monastery. The thieves were found quickly, but there was no icon with them. In 1950, her revered list surfaced, the history of whose wanderings abroad we described above. In 1982, after an assassination attempt on the Pope, the shrine was transferred to the Vatican to John Paul II. It must be said that he connected his deliverance from certain death on May 13, 1981 precisely with the patronage of the Mother of God and the miracle of Fatima. Ali Agca fired in St. Peter's Square from a distance of just a few meters, the fourth bullet jammed in the barrel of the pistol he had checked the day before - it is truly a miracle that John Paul II was not killed then. He was also saved by the fact that a second before the shot, the pontiff leaned down to examine the medallion on the little girl’s neck. The medallion depicted three shepherd children to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in Fatima in 1917!…
Let us briefly recall known facts (according to the book "Fatima", Brussels, 1991). Those who wish to better understand the miracle of Fatima and the confusion that it brought to both Catholicism and Orthodoxy should also read the brochure by M.A. Stakhovich “Should we trust the Vatican?”(ed. Sretensky Monastery, 1997), published with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II. My book was published in 1998 "Russian Magi, Messengers, Seers", a separate chapter of which is devoted to the history of the miracle of Fatima. All dates in this chapter are given in the new style.
APPEARANCE OF THE VIRGIN
On Sunday May 13, 1917 ten-year-old Lucia and her cousins Jacinta (9 years old) and brother Francisco (7 years old) were tending sheep and playing in a field near the village of Fatima. It was a clear sunny day, when suddenly bright lightning flashed. The children thought that a thunderstorm was coming and began to gather the sheep. New lightning made them turn around... and freeze. Over a green oak tree in the middle of a field, they saw a shining vision. Subsequently, Lucia described him as shining in the light and standing on a light cloud almost on the branches of an oak tree, of indescribable beauty "A girl of about 18"(Lucia's words), or "Beautiful Lady"(Jacinta and Francisco), and She began to talk to the children. That first time, She calmed their natural confusion and asked if they agreed to become the chosen ones of the Lord and atone for the insults and blasphemies inflicted on the Most Holy Theotokos - the children agreed with fervor and delight. "Beautiful lady" ordered the children to pray the rosary daily for the peace of the whole world and for the salvation and conversion of sinners; She told them to come to this field on the 13th of every month until October, and began to move away to the east, and soon disappeared in the rays of the sun. The phenomenon lasted 10 minutes.
Amazed by what they saw and heard, the children decided not to tell anyone what happened to them, but little Jacinta could not resist and told her family about everything, for the first time calling the vision the Blessed Virgin. Soon the whole village knew about this, but no one believed the children. Nevertheless, on June 13, the parents released the children to that field; Up to sixty curious people gathered at the scene of the vision. The Mother of God appeared to the children around noon. No one from the crowd saw anything, they only heard Lucia's words. This time "Beautiful lady" said that she would soon come for Francisco and Jacinta to take them to heaven, and as for Lucia, she would have to remain on earth to testify to the Virgin Mary and spread love for her among people. She promised Lucia never to leave her and to appear to her in the future. She also told the children to keep her future predictions about the fate of the world secret until she herself allowed Lucia to reveal them to the world... When this meeting ended, everyone present saw how the branches of the oak tree suddenly came together and bent down, as if under the weight of some cover. They, who had also heard Lucia's words, now believed the children.
Soon the rector of the church in Fatima became interested in the visions of the children. When July 13th arrived, five or six thousand people gathered in the field near the village. Exactly at noon, lightning flashed, and everyone noticed that the branches of the oak tree bent down, as if someone was standing on them. However, this time the children hardly spoke, but only listened to the words of the Virgin Mary. These words only became fully known from Lucia in 1942, when she received permission to publish them. This is what the children heard on July 13, 1917, after the Mother of God showed them a vision of the fiery sea of hell and sinners:
To save them, the Lord wants to establish veneration of My Most Pure Heart in the world. If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and peace will come. The war\1914-1918\ is coming to an end. But if people do not stop insulting the Lord, then under the next pope a new war will begin, worse than this one... To prevent this, I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Most Pure Heart and for communion on the first Saturday of every month for the atonement of sins. If people obey My words, Russia will convert and there will be peace on earth; otherwise she will spread her false teachings throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church; many righteous people will suffer torment; The Holy Father will suffer a lot; some nations will perish. In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph: the Holy Father will entrust to Me the fate of Russia, which will be converted and the time of peace will be given to the world. Portugal will preserve the treasure of faith.
But all this became known only later, and on that day, July 13, people, although they did not hear these words, but, seeing the reverent attention of the children and the bowed branches of the oak tree, still realized that some kind of miracle was happening. However, soon after this, the children faced persecution from secular district authorities who were anti-religious. The children were interrogated with threats and partiality, they stubbornly stood their ground: it was the Mother of God and She did not allow them to reveal Her words to people. On August 13, when the miracle was about to happen again, the children were taken by deception and force to the district prison.
August 13, 1917. By noon, up to eighteen thousand people had gathered on the field. Everyone was waiting for the children to arrive, but they were not there. There were rumors that they were detained by force. Unrest and disturbances began. At exactly noon, a terrible clap of thunder rang out in the blue, cloudless sky, and bright lightning cut through the air. After this, a cloud descended onto the tree over which the Mother of God appeared to the children, stayed there for about ten minutes and then dissipated. A deep, reverent silence reigned in the crowd. The people dispersed peacefully, many left money, a lot of money, under the tree.
The next occurrence was on August 19, when there were only children in the field. They asked "Beautiful Lady" asked what to do with the money, and received the answer that they could use it to build a small chapel here. She also said that because of the proud resistance of evil people who separate themselves from God, the great miracle She previously promised in October would be much less significant. Then She disappeared, as always surrounded by radiant light.
September 13, 1917 - fifth phenomenon. It was grape harvest time, but a crowd of up to thirty thousand people had gathered in the field. This time there were many visitors, many threw themselves on their knees in front of the children and begged them to bring their prayers to the Most Pure Virgin for healing and deliverance from other troubles. There is a lot of documentary evidence left about this phenomenon, including from people who did not believe, who came only out of curiosity, as well as from very famous people in Portugal. Arriving at the scene of the vision, Lucia asked everyone to pray. At noon the air took on a warm golden color. The Most Pure Virgin again appeared only to children, but everyone saw a sign of Her arrival: under a cloudless sky in the air, a luminous radiant ball slowly and majestically floated from east to west. When the Most Pure One’s conversation with the children ended, the same ball floated in the opposite direction. Then, in front of everyone, a white cloud enveloped the green oak tree, and the sky began to rain white petals, which slowly fell and melted in the air without reaching the ground. This latter phenomenon was observed several times later, during the pilgrimages to Fatima, and was photographed. At that time, the Mother of God promised the children a quick end to the war and a new meeting on October 13.
THE LAST APPEARANCE OF THE VIRGIN
October 13, 1917. "Dance" Sun. Already two days before, all the roads to Fatima were crowded with people and carts. Many slept on the bare ground. Lisbon newspapers sent their best reporters to the village. According to various estimates, by noon on October 13 there were from fifty to seventy thousand people on the field. It had been raining non-stop for three days, and everyone was wet to the bone. The children with difficulty made their way to the oak tree, of which only a stripped trunk remained: all the branches and leaves had long been torn off by people as precious relics... A lot of evidence and reports have been preserved about everything that happened then. At noon everyone knelt down in the mud and rain. Lucia shuddered and exclaimed: "Here she is! Here she is!" Those around saw how the children near the tree were enveloped in a white cloud, then rose into the air and dissipated. The whole time Lucia was talking to "Beautiful Lady", this phenomenon repeated three times. Now She, as she promised at the first meeting, revealed to the children her real heavenly name - Mother of God, [in the original Portuguese this phrase goes like this: "sou a Senhora do Rosario"- Madam "Rosary". The Rosary is an ancient Catholic prayer rule that briefly deals with the main events of the Gospel. approx. SE]- and confirmed what she had said earlier, that the war would soon end and the soldiers would return home. She was, as Lucia later recalled, completely imbued with deep sadness, and Her last words were: “Let people stop insulting the Lord. He has already suffered too many insults.”. Before hiding from the children, She spread her arms, and Her hands were reflected in the sun, as if She wanted to attract the children’s eyes there. And at the very moment when the Virgin Mary spread her hands, Lucia cried out: "Look at the sun!"
Many eyewitness accounts have been preserved, among whom were well-known people in Portugal, and not only from Portugal, believers and atheists, some of whom came to Fatima that day specifically just to "debunk" sensational newspaper publications about previous miracles on this field "Cova da Iria"(that’s what it was called in the village). What did they see? Everyone talked about it in approximately the same way, as follows.
Suddenly the rain stopped and the clouds, impenetrable since the morning, suddenly cleared. The sun shone overhead, but its appearance was amazing. It was like a silver circle that you could look at without squinting. At the same time, the disk was surrounded by a sparkling corona, so bright that the disk itself now seemed darkened, as happens during a solar eclipse. And suddenly the sun itself began to tremble, spinning like a fiery wheel, throwing sheaves of bright light in all directions, which alternately took on different colors. The sky, earth, trees, rocks, children, a huge crowd of people and each individual - everything was painted in turn in all the colors of the rainbow, becoming red, then yellow and orange, then green, blue, purple. This phenomenon lasted for several minutes. Believers threw themselves on their knees and prayed, others watched in silence, amazed at what was happening. Many cried and repented of their sins, thinking that the last hour had come... For a moment the heavenly body stopped, but then resumed its dance of light. It stopped again, and again the heavenly fireworks shone with extraordinary power. And suddenly everyone saw that the sun seemed to separate from the sky and rushed towards them in zigzag leaps, emitting intense heat. People shouted, prayed, cried out to God: “Have mercy on me, God!”, - soon this cry began to dominate. Meanwhile, the sun, suddenly stopping during its dizzying fall, rose in a zigzag pattern into the sky and, little by little, began to shine with its usual light among the bright sky. The crowd rose to its feet. "Sun Dance" lasted about ten minutes. Everyone saw it: believers and non-believers, peasants and townspeople, people of science and the ignorant, ingenuous witnesses and professional journalists...
An investigation carried out later by church authorities established that such an unprecedented movement of the sun was observed five or more kilometers from Cova da Iria. Another amazing fact was also established: people who were wet to the skin noticed that immediately after the cessation of the phenomenon, their clothes turned out to be dry, absolutely dry! And so it was with everyone.
About the unprecedented "sun dance", which was witnessed by at least 50 thousand people, was published in all significant Lisbon newspapers, regardless of their direction. There are many photographs left of this phenomenon. Interestingly, those atheists and anti-religious people who observed the events at Fatima were at least swayed. while those representatives of the Catholic press who were not eyewitnesses continued to exercise extreme caution. However, in general, the general initial skepticism of many was broken... Lucia later said that during "sun dance" she (as well as Jacinta and Francisco) saw the Holy Family in heaven: the betrothed Joseph, and the Mother of God, and the Child Christ. Then Lucia once again saw the Mother of God, dressed in white, with a blue veil...
Here it is necessary to quote the very exact words of Maria Stakhovich from the brochure “Should we trust the Vatican?” mentioned at the beginning of this chapter:
If for Catholics it is important and convincing that May and October in their Church are months dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos, then the Orthodox are struck by the fact that the amazing final day of October 13 is, after all, the eve of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos! More precisely, at the very time when Portugal was ending "miracle of the sun", in Russia (due to the time difference) the liturgical day of the Intercession began, and all of Russia sang: “Today we brightly celebrate people of good faith, overshadowed by Thy, Mother of God, coming...” THIS HOLIDAY OF THE INTEGRATION WAS THE LAST BEFORE THE SEIZURE OF POWER BY THE Atheists AND THE BEGINNING OF GOLGOTHA RUSSIA...
For another reason, an Orthodox person cannot help but feel that the events in Fatima are the great mercy of the Most Holy Theotokos to Russia, which fervently prays to Her, a manifestation and confirmation of Her love and care, which She reminds us of before the beginning of the terrible trials of our homeland. After all, although the Intercession is a holiday of all Orthodox Christians, it is a Russian holiday par excellence, since nowhere, as in Russia (and Serbia), is it celebrated, nowhere are there so many churches, cathedrals and monasteries of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, as in Russia. And this despite the fact that the appearance of the Intercession of the Mother of God occurred in Constantinople in 910, when the Russians, pagans at that time, were on the side of the enemies of Constantinople... The Russians, shocked by the protection provided by the Most Holy Theotokos to the Orthodox, did not convert this miraculous protection could have forgotten and began to celebrate it along with the twelve holidays. Wasn’t the Mother of God expecting a similar sincere approach, a similar manifestation of selfless love and joy from the Catholic West, appearing to defend "poor Russia"(Lucia's words) before attacking her "fierce atheists"? - these are the words of Maria Alexandrovna Stakhovich.
Did you read the newspapers about the Fatima events (not only the Portuguese press reported about the miracle) in 1917? in Russia, did the prisoner in Tobolsk know about all this? "Citizen Nikolai Romanov", former emperor? What did he think about it? - We will talk about this later, but for now we will trace the fate of Fatima’s children.
THE FATE OF FATIMA'S CHILDREN. NUN LUCIA.
In the fall of 1918, little Francisco fell ill "Spanish flu", which then raged throughout Europe, adding its countless victims to the ten million killed in that First World War. They tried to cure Francisco, to save him, but in vain. As Our Lady predicted to the children during the second apparition on June 13, 1917, Francisco and Jacinta were soon to go to heaven with Her. The boy died on April 4, 1919. His last words were: “Look, mom, what a wonderful light there is at the door!” The epidemic did not escape Jacinta either. She fell ill shortly after her brother. Just like him, she steadfastly endured the illness, because when saying goodbye to her dying brother, she gave him "order" to heaven: “Tell the Lord and the Mother of God that I will endure whatever They please.”. Jacinta even predicted - referring to her communication with the Virgin Mary - the course of her illness, transfer from one hospital to another and even predicted to the doctors that they would perform a successful operation on her, but she would soon die from "something else". And so it happened: in February 1920, she underwent successful surgery for purulent inflammation in the lung, but on February 20, for reasons unclear to doctors, the girl died. 15 years later, on September 12, 1935, by order of the Bishop of Leiria, the body of little Jacinta was transferred to the cemetery in Fatima in a small crypt built for her. Before this, the coffin was opened for a short time, and in the presence of many witnesses they saw Jacinta’s face completely preserved. A photograph of that miracle has been preserved. In May 1951, the small crypt was abolished, and Jacinta's body, again with her face intact, was solemnly transferred to the Fatima Cathedral. In April 1952, Francisco's remains were transferred there.
On June 13, 1917, Lucia was predicted by the Mother of God to have a long life. It wasn't easy. The clergy, soon after those events, decided to remove her from the places of vision: both benevolent and hostile people were too annoying with their curiosity. In 1921, she was sent to study in the city of Oporto, at the monastery boarding school of the Sisters of St. Dorofei.
Before leaving, the bishop called her:
- You will not tell anyone where you are going.
- Okay, Master!
- At the boarding house you will not tell anyone who you are.
- Okay, Vladyka.
“You will never talk to anyone about the apparitions in Fatima.”
- Okay, Master!
This silence lasted for fifteen years, and only in 1935 did the bishop allow Lucia to reveal who she was. Until 1931, the Catholic Church was very cautious about the miracle of Fatima; there were even attempts to ban "new cult", but the annual pilgrimage of ordinary people and the light of spiritual revival, miracles of healing and conversion of non-believers to God gradually broke the ice of mistrust of the clergy. On May 3, 1922, the local bishop began an official investigation into all the events that took place in Fatima. A special commission was appointed, its work ended only in 1930. On May 13, 1931, Portuguese bishops visited Fatima for the first time officially and conciliarly. There were three hundred thousand pilgrims! Then the episcopate solemnly dedicated Portugal to the Most Pure Heart of the Mother, - while the full revelation of the Mother of God to the children, Lucia still remained unknown - Lucia remained silent!
Meanwhile (as it became known much later), on June 13, 1929, this modest silent nun was honored with a mystical vision of the Holy Trinity on Calvary. The mother of Jesus stood at the cross with her Heart bleeding. She told Lucia: “The time has come when God willed that the Holy Father, in unity with all the bishops of the world, would consecrate Russia to my heart, promising to save her in this way.” Six years later, Lucia would write to her confessor:
I regret that this was not done, but the Lord himself, who expressed this wish, allowed everything to remain this way/.../ It was given to me to talk internally with the Lord, and recently I asked Him why He does not convert Russia without special dedication from the Holy Father. “Because I want,” answered the Lord, “that my whole Church recognize in this consecration the triumph of the immaculate Heart of Mary and spread this veneration along with the veneration of my Divine Heart.” “But, my Lord, the Holy Father will not believe me unless You yourself prompt him to do so.” - “Pray fervently for the Holy Father, he will do it, but it is too late, and yet the Most Pure Heart of Mary will save Russia. Russia is entrusted to Him. »
Of course, the question arises: why was she silent for so many years? If little Jacinta had not told everything to her parents, many of the words of the Virgin Mary would not have been known for a long time. But let us remember that the Mother of God told the children to keep Her words secret. She said she'll let you know when it's time to open. That's why she was silent and sought solitude herself. Therefore, for a long time the clergy did not know what was revealed by the Mother of God and were probably confused by everything that happened in 1917 in the village of Fatima. Lucia herself later wrote why she decided to reveal the old secrets in 1935\37:
It seems to me that I can say this because I received permission from above to do so. And God’s representatives on earth also allowed me to do this several times. In 1917, God commanded me to remain silent - and this command was then confirmed to me by those who - for me - were his representatives... It will be as God pleases. It would be great happiness for me to remain silent.
And still not everything written by Lucia has been published. But let's continue in order. In May 1936, fearing a godless revolution in Spain, where churches were being set on fire, the episcopate vowed to organize a national pilgrimage to Fatima if Portugal avoided the turmoil. Two months later, civil war began in Spain. In 1938, the episcopate and many pilgrims gathered in Fatima and brought thanks to their heavenly Patroness, who protected the country from unrest. Meanwhile, only in 1940, from Lucia’s notebooks, did the bishops become aware of the Mother of God’s desire to dedicate Russia to Her heart.
Between 1937 and 1941 Lucia wrote several "notebooks" about the events of 1917, testifying to the remarkable accuracy of her memory. A letter written by her in early February 1939 said: “The war predicted by the Mother of God is approaching closely; Those nations who tried to destroy the Kingdom of God will suffer the most; Spain has already received punishment, but it is not quite over yet... Portugal will suffer a little from the last war, but thanks to the dedication of Portugal by the bishops to the Most Pure Heart of Mary, the Mother of God will preserve it.” In 1940, having asked for special permission from the Portuguese episcopate, Lucia Santos addressed a letter to the Holy Father (from March 2, 1939 he became Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII) in Rome:
In 1917, with those words that we called “mystery,” the Most Pure One predicted for us the end of the war that was darkening Europe at that time, predicted another war and said that she would come again to insist on the dedication of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart./.../ In 1929, in a new appearance, She expressed the wish that Russia should be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart, promising thereby to prevent the spread of false teachings from Russia and the conversion of Russia./.../ Through various secret suggestions, the Lord does not cease to insist on this wish, promising recently that If Your Holiness deigns to dedicate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with special mention of Russia, He will shorten the days of sorrow by which He was pleased to punish the nations for their crimes.
PILGRIMAGE OF MIRACLES AND THE FUTURE MIRACLE OF OVERCOMING THE SCHIPT
In May 1947, the world pilgrimage to the Fatima statue of Our Lady began, which Pope Pius XII later called "a pilgrimage of miracles around the world". Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Africa, Asia and Australia, then the USA, Canada, South America - everywhere, in all cities, crowds of hundreds of thousands greeted her. In France, Russian Orthodox emigrants worshiped her along with Catholics. Not only they, but also Protestants (who generally reject the veneration of the Virgin Mary) took part in all the celebrations. In many African and Asian cities, Muslims joined the worship of Christians - after all, Mohammed called Her "the holiest of all women in heaven" and the Koran speaks of a miraculous birth "the greatest prophet Isa from Miriam". Muslim choirs took part in processions, mosques and even entire Muslim neighborhoods and villages were decorated in a festive way...
Now is the time to briefly take a break from the history of Fatima and remember the beginning of our research, chapter (second) about the Baptism of Rus' and the previously identified historical sacred calendar rhythms, and the main cycle of 960 years. - Exactly 960 years have passed from the beginning of the history of Christianity in Rus', from the baptism of Princess Olga in 957 to the fatal year for Russia and Christianity in Russia in 1917. When we then looked at the baptism of Prince Vladimir (this is 987) and the Baptism of Rus' (989), did the question arise in your mind: how are these years related to the cycle of 960 years? Now we can answer it: after all, 987 + 960 = 1947 is the year of the beginning of the worldwide procession of the miracle of Fatima, the main Christian miracle of the twentieth century. We in the USSR knew nothing about this, and even now, in 2004, it’s unlikely that many Russians, even believers, know about it. Such is the sad power of the division of the Church in 1054 - and only in 2013-2014 can we hope to overcome the almost thousand-year schism. But there is no doubt that a noticeable movement towards overcoming will begin soon, and in many ways this will be facilitated by the appearance of Fatima. Of course, two questions remain. Why was it in Portugal that the greatest Revelation was given to three illiterate children? Why should the head of the Catholic Church and its bishops dedicate Russia to the Mother of God with prayers? It seems to me that we can answer the first question only with the words of the apostle "The spirit breathes where it wants", - and we cannot know the will of God in its entirety. The answer to the second question, it seems to me, is this: nevertheless, it was the throne of St. Peter in Rome that was in time the first Church, therefore, first in Rome (in the Vatican) this dedication had to be accomplished. It is possible that this order is also connected with the need for the Vatican to be the first to admit its guilt for the division of the Church in 1054. In 1996, John Paul II already did this. Now it’s the turn of the Russian Orthodox Church. After such repentance, she probably should also commit the consecration of Russia to the Heart of the Mother of God. The Orthodox thinker Vladimir Zelinsky wrote about it this way: “We do not know all the hidden threads connecting the divided Churches, which at the depths remain the one Church, and Fatima for a moment reveals this unity to us... And through this revelation of the West of Russia, it is true that we should there will also be a counter revelation - from Russia to the West... Fatima is the news of a mystical and providential meeting that is still ahead of us and which will take place under the protection of the Mother of God.” ( "Russian Thought", May 17, 1991). Well, we will continue the story about Fatima.
In 1950, the question of consecrating Russia to the Most Pure Heart of the Mother of God was raised in Rome by a group of Russian Catholic pilgrims. They made this request to the Holy Father. Since ancient times, they wrote, Russia has been called the HOUSE OF THE HOLY VIRGIN, and the main Kremlin Cathedral is dedicated to Her glorious Dormition. They could add that the first main church in Rus' in Kyiv, consecrated in 996, was also the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God. In 1950, the papal college supported this request, and Lucia, having learned about it in her monastic seclusion, also supported their request and wrote a letter to the Russian pilgrims. It said, in particular:
Our Heavenly Mother loves this (Russian) people... No one can and should fulfill this great calling better than the people of your country themselves... This is not a task for one day, but for many years of work and prayer. But in the end, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph! Do not stop doing everything you can to save your people and your Fatherland.
Pope Pius XII heeded these urgent requests and ordered to study this issue. On July 7, 1952, on the day of remembrance of the first Slavic teachers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, he addressed a special apostolic letter to the peoples of Russia.
The message ended with a prayer of dedication of the Russian peoples to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God. However, we recall that in a revelation on June 13, 1929, Lucia was told that the Pope should do this "in unity with all the bishops of the world", - the Catholic bishops were not ready for this and many of them repeatedly expressed doubts about Lucia’s correct understanding of the words of the Lord.
VATICAN AND FATIMA
Pope Pius XII paid attention to this letter. Some mysterious connection existed between the apparitions of the Mother of God at Fatima and his ministry: he was consecrated bishop at noon on May 13, 1917, the very day and hour when the Blessed Virgin first appeared in Cova da Iria. On October 31, 1942, he read the prayer of dedication on the radio, addressing the Portuguese people, and on December 8 of the same year, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the solemn dedication of the world to the Immaculate Heart took place - on the day of the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin by the Latin Church - however, words about Russia was not yet included in this dedication... Having learned about this dedication, Lucia was happy, but she again began to assert that the Blessed Virgin still desires a special dedication to RUSSIA, performed by the Holy Father in unity with all the Catholic bishops of the world.
One can imagine the confusion this statement caused in Catholic (and even more so in Orthodox) circles. Some prominent Catholic priests then began to doubt not only these words of hers, but also the reliability of other testimonies: since Russia is a non-Catholic country, they said, the Blessed Virgin could not express such a desire. Lucia probably did not understand her words well, not being sufficiently literate and knowledgeable in history, not knowing about the division of the Churches. But the future showed that their doubts were in vain.
In 1942, the veneration of Our Lady of Fatima received official approval from the Pope (Pius XII). It must be said that miraculous healings in Fatima continued every year: by 1942, there were more than eight hundred truly miraculous healings that had officially passed through the control of a very strict special commission! After the end of World War II, the miracle of Fatima became worldwide. At the beginning of May 1947, an international congress of Catholic women's youth was organized in Fatima. Sister Lucia turned to him with a request to pray for Russia. To fulfill her wish, a special prayer to Our Lady of Fatima for Russia was compiled. It was translated for pilgrims and read on the porch of the basilica. In May of the same year, a representative of the Catholic Youth of Russia received permission from the local bishop to meet Lucia Santos at the monastery in Oporto, where she had lived since 1921, when she was then about 40 years old. This is what a woman from Russia then said (I quote again from the book "Fatima", ed. Brussels, 1991):
I really want to know about the future of Russia, and she, as if guessing my thoughts, tells me that Russia will be saved thanks to her great love for the Blessed Virgin; Russia must be dedicated to the Most Pure Heart of the Lady of the World; The Mother of God is waiting for this, and then the turmoil in the world will calm down. She talks about Russia with love, as if it were her homeland, and sometimes, when she talks about the suffering of our people, her eyes become moist... We still need to pray a lot, she says, we need to sacrifice ourselves to save the world and Russia. Tell this to the Russians who can understand you... they can save Russia, and if she is saved, the world will be saved with her...
Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, did a lot for Fatima. There were not only objective reasons for this (Fatima became a popular symbol of faith in Catholic countries), but also purely personal, one might say mystical. We have already mentioned that some milestones in his life were connected with Fatima, such as his consecration as a bishop on the day and hour of the first appearance of Our Lady to children on May 13, 1917, at noon. 33 years later, in 1950, the Virgin Mary appeared to him four times in visions in heaven, he wrote about this; in December 1954, during his illness, he saw Jesus Christ at his bedside and talked with Him. In the last years of his reign, under the influence of Fatima, he attached great importance to the exaltation of the image of the Virgin Mary in the world. In 1950 he proclaimed the dogma of the bodily ascension of Mary, and in 1954 he proclaimed Her "queen of heaven" and crowned Her icon with the royal crown. Pius XII died at the end of 1958, at the age of 72.
Those who followed him, John XXIII (1958-1963), Paul VI (1963-1978) and John Paul I (reigned for less than a year), took less official part in the fate of Fatima, although, as can be seen from the letters and documents they left behind, they thought a lot over this, as well as over the fate of Russia in the Christian world. During the official visit of a number of Polish bishops to Paul VI in 1967 (among whom was then Karol Wojtyla, the future John Paul II), they turned to Paul VI with a request “on the collegial consecration of Russia to the Most Pure Heart of Mary” in unity with all the bishops of the world. But the Pontiff did not dare to do this, knowing that not all bishops were ready to take part in it. John Paul I, while still a cardinal, led a pilgrimage to Fatima in 1977 and had a long conversation with Sister Lucia in the Carmelite monastery in Coimbra, where she had been staying since 1948. In January 1978 he published an article "One Bishop's Thoughts on Fatima", where he convincingly answered various doubts that existed among Catholic bishops regarding the revelations given to Lucia Santos.
In October 1978, after the mysterious death of John Paul I, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, a Slav, the Pole Karol Wojtyla (born May 18, 1920), was elected to the papal throne, choosing the name John Paul II. He became the 265th Pope and the youngest in the last 150 years. The full title of the spiritual and temporal ruler is “Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Monarch of the Vatican, Servant of the Servants of God.” He inscribed the name of the Mother of God on his episcopal coat of arms in 1967. In 1981, exactly 64 years later (the full Avestan cycle) from the first apparition in Fatima, on May 13, 1981, a Turkish terrorist from the sect "Gray wolves" Ali Agca, from a distance of several meters, shot the Pope three times in St. Peter's Square, seriously wounding him in the stomach; the fourth bullet stuck in the barrel of his previously specially selected and tested pistol. In fact, the assassination attempt was planned for the next day, and on May 13, Agca carried out the first "reconnaissance" in the square, but, seeing that the circumstances allowed, Agca decided to shoot right away. However, the Pope survived and, convinced that only the intercession of the Mother of God saved him from an untimely death, he made a pilgrimage to Fatima in May 1982. At the liturgy on May 13, 1982, he said: “I arrived here on the anniversary of the day when an assassination attempt took place in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, which mysteriously coincided with the anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima on May 13, 1917. I came to this place, as if chosen by the Mother of God, to thank Divine Providence...”
On those same days, Karol Wojtyla met and had a long conversation with Sister Lucia, who came to Fatima for this occasion. This conversation and new petitions from many believers prompted the Pope to make a new dedication to the world and Russia on Annunciation 1984 together with all the Catholic bishops and in unity with the flock. The Vatican cardinals made known the desire of John Paul II to carry out this collegial consecration of all Catholic bishops, asking them to join with their flock on the day of the Annunciation (March 25) in the consecration of the world and Russia made earlier (July 7, 1952) by Pope Pius XII. It is known, however, that not all bishops agreed to take part in this dedication to Russia. In addition, in the prayer-dedication itself there was again no direct address about Russia, there was not even a word "Russia", but instead there were words about “the peoples most in need of this dedication”. However, this time, at least, all those praying knew for sure that we were talking about Russia.
As time went. In 1988, for the first time in history, the Pope delivered an apostolic letter "Euntes in mundum" to the Russian Orthodox Church on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus'. In general, Karol Wojtyla, this first Slav on the Papal Throne, is doing many things for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church. Perhaps he made the main and most dramatic decision in 1995, when in his annual message "to the city and the world", then called "As we approach the third millennium", he, on his own behalf and on behalf of the entire Catholic Church, for the first time in its entire existence, brought repentance for its grave sins. John Paul II listed the four sins of the past as: "breaking the unity of Christianity"(in 1054), and also "religious wars", "courts of the Inquisition", "Galileo's case". This act of repentance, unprecedented in the history of not only the Catholic, but also all other Christian churches and denominations, opens, one might assume, a new history of Christianity on the eve of the 21st century, before the coming Apocalypse. Let us remember that "Revelation" John the Evangelist begins with a letter to the seven churches, in which they are called to repentance for their sins: repentant churches and flocks will be saved during the judgments of the Apocalypse. Many scholars believe that this prologue to John's Revelation, a letter to the seven churches, represents the history and future of Christ's church on earth.
However, let's return to the story of Fatima (according to the book "Fatima", Brussels, 1991). Although the collegiate episcopal consecration of Russia took place on March 25, 1984, Lucia remained silent in the Carmelite monastery. Only her cousin Maria do Fetal visited her there, once a month. Devotees of Fatima began to contact her, wanting to know whether, in Lucia's opinion, this dedication was final, corresponding to the revelation of the Virgin Mary (the vision of Golgotha) on June 13, 1929.
In May 1991, John Paul II again, after 10 years, made a pilgrimage to Fatima. He called her "spiritual capital of the world". In March 1998, in a Rome newspaper "Il Messagero" An open letter from 20 bishops and 1,200 priests of the Catholic world to the Pope was published, where they ask their Head to reveal to the world the last, third prophecy of the Mother of God (the first was about the Second World War, the second about the collapse of the USSR in 1991). This third prophecy is still known to only two people on earth - the nun Lucia and from her - John Paul II... M.A. Stakhovich in the brochure “Should we trust the Vatican?” suggests that this third prophecy refers to a coming crisis in the Vatican itself - justifying this assumption by the fact that the last words of the Virgin Mary on July 13, 1917, after the words about Russia, were the words “Portugal will preserve the treasure of faith”...
On May 13, 2000, in the Portuguese village of Fatima, John Paul II revealed to the world "the third secret of Fatima". According to him, "third secret" concerned events that had already passed: the attempt on his life on May 13, 1981. Many commentators, including some Catholics, immediately expressed doubts about the Pope's sincerity. It is known, however, from the words of the Turk Agji, who then shot at the Pope, that he allegedly shot "in fulfillment of the third prophecy". It is clear that before the shots were fired on May 13, 1981, the Vatican did not want to make this third secret public - it would cause too much excitement in the Catholic world. However, why did John Paul II not make the prophecy public for 18 years after the assassination attempt? There are other mysteries in the history of the Fatima miracle that still concern believers around the world. After all, the Vatican is in no hurry to reveal all its secrets: for example, the details of one of the most sensational predictions concerning the fate of Russia will remain secret, at least until 2014. In any case, according to the official statement of representatives "Holy See", access to the diary of nun Lucia, who witnessed the appearance of the Virgin Mary, who told her about the future, will be opened no earlier than this time.
As you can see, the history of the recognition of the miracle of Fatima and the steps in the West and East towards the embodiment of the call of the Mother of God is very complex. It is clear that revelations to Portuguese children in 1917 about the fate of the world and the future calling of Russia aroused great distrust in the Vatican; Only in the 1930s was the very fact of the miraculous appearances and revelations of the Mother of God about the destinies of the world (which had already begun to come true) recognized. But since the late 1940s, the movement of Fatima pilgrims has acquired a huge, international scope and remains so to this day. Hundreds of thousands of people take part in the Fatima pilgrimage every year. Alas, there are extremely few Russian Orthodox among them. Until very recent years, the Orthodox Church believed that the appearance of Fatima was only an attempt by the Vatican on her independence. It appears that this attitude is beginning to change. But this is very important not only for Orthodox Christians, but also for Muslims in Russia, for better harmony between them.
It is very important to note that the miracle of Fatima is recognized and worshiped not only by Christians, but also by Muslims. The Muslim name Fatima, surprisingly preserved since the 12th century in Catholic Portugal, probably has some significance. But the main thing for Muslims is that the Koran in relation to the Holy Virgin Mary (Mariam) completely agrees with Her veneration by Christians. It can be said quite definitely that the Holy Mariam of the Koran, the Virgin Mary of Western Christians, the Most Holy Theotokos of the Orthodox are the indisputable object of veneration and admiration that reconciles and unites Christians and Muslims. Half a century of international experience in venerating the miracle of Fatima has shown that the Mother of God can and is gradually uniting believers of all faiths in the world.
Of course, it is difficult for the West to recognize the revelation about the chosenness of Russia (and until now, the request of the Mother of God for a joint prayer for the calling of Russia by all Catholic bishops has not been fully fulfilled). It is no less difficult for the Moscow Patriarchate to accept such a revelation from the hands of the West. The bad thing is that in Russia very few people still know anything about Fatima. In October 1991, our TV showed a teleconference "Moscow-Fatima", but it was an isolated action, soon forgotten by everyone in the prevailing still "the evil of the day". The miracle of Fatima is still waiting for its full recognition and deep understanding by Catholicism and Orthodoxy. It will have an impact not only on Christianity, on the removal of the schism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but also on the entire course of history at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. Analysis of historical rhythms shows that the split between Catholicism and Orthodoxy of 1054 will be overcome in 2013-2014. These are 960 years from 1054 and 96 years from 1917 - the large and small systemic rhythms of history. The time has come in Russia to remember about 1917 not only what we knew until now, but also the miracle and call of Fatima.
NICHOLAS II AND THE MIRACLE OF FATIMA
Did they know about the miracle of Fatima in Russia in 1917? Did Nicholas II, who was in custody of the Provisional Government in Tobolsk that summer, know about this?
In 1975, the memoirs of the former teacher of the royal children, Charles Sidney Gibbs, were published in English in New York, entitled "House of Special Purpose", prepared for publication by his great-nephew. Gibbs was with the imperial family until it was sent from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. Then he fled to the whites, then worked in Yekaterinburg with the investigative commission of Nikolai Sokolov; then returned to his homeland, England. There he converted from Anglicanism to Orthodoxy, became a monk under the name of Father Nicholas, and until his last days led the Orthodox community in Oxford. He died in 1963 at the age of eighty-seven. During his lifetime, he did not like to talk about what he had to endure in Russia, but after his death an extensive archive was discovered in his house. American journalist J. Trevin, with the help of relatives of his late father Nikolai, published this book. From Gibbs' memoirs it follows that Nicholas II received quite a lot of newspapers in Tobolsk, including foreign ones, but they arrived a month late. Below I present (with minor abbreviations) excerpts from the book (based on the publication of I. Bunich in his book "Dynastic Rock"):
“In mid-October, some newspapers that had been published in June and July arrived. His Majesty gave me a look at several newspapers, where, under different headings, a description of the Fatima miracle was given... All the newspapers spoke in detail about the extraordinary phenomena at the oak tree in the field of Cova da Iria, and at the same time noted that illiterate peasant children from a remote Portuguese village had some idea about Russia. It was simply incredible! - “THE LORD HAS FIRMLY DECIDED TO PUNISH RUSSIA, AND ITS DISASTERS WILL BE UNCOUNTABLE AND THE SUFFERING OF THE PEOPLE WILL BE TERRIBLE. BUT THE LORD'S MERCY IS LIMITLESS, AND ALL SUFFERING WILL COME TO A DATE. RUSSIA WILL KNOW THAT THE PUNISHMENT IS OVER WHEN I SEND A BOY TO ANNOUNCE THIS BY APPEARING IN THE HEART OF RUSSIA. YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO SEARCH FOR HIM. HE WILL FIND EVERYONE AND DECLARE ABOUT HIMSELF." - Looking ahead, I note that this was all the information about the Fatima miracle that we managed to obtain in Tobolsk. After the Bolshevik coup, the newspapers simply stopped coming. Most Russian newspapers were closed, and foreign ones were not allowed into the dying country... The Emperor, having read these messages, was shocked:
“It’s all God’s will,” he said. - The Lord cursed Russia. But tell me, Mr. Gibbs, for what? Is Russia worse than others? Is she more to blame for this war than Germany or France, who could not divide Alsace and Lorraine?
“If I were Your Majesty,” I noted cautiously, “I would not attach much importance to these newspaper reports.” You know newspaper men and their eternal penchant for exaggeration. In Catholic countries, cases like the Fatima miracle are far from uncommon. Over the past two hundred years, at least a dozen have occurred in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. And in Spanish America...
- Oh no! - The Emperor interrupted me. - Not a single Portuguese newspaperman would have thought of putting prophecies about Russia into the mouth of this girl. Why do they need Russia? I also know about similar cases in the past. But it all came down to this - if we deny the Divine essence of what was happening - to attract pilgrims to a certain place or to obtain subsidies and donations for some nearby monastery. In Portugal, not only this illiterate girl, but also the majority of newspaper owners know as much about Russia as we do about them, even less. Who could put words about Russia into the mouth of a girl, probably a future saint? Well, imagine, Mr. Gibbs, that in our country, say, Seraphim of Sarov would begin to prophesy about Portugal, France or your country? Who would have heard him?..”
***
In conclusion, I return to the question: why the Vatican does not want to open it to the world "prophecies about Russia" before 2014? Let me clarify that we are not talking about those prophecies that were published earlier (about the fate of Russia after 1917, and about the Second World War), but about the so-called. "The Third Secret of Fatima"- in the part that concerns prophecies about the fate of Russia in the 21st century.
On the one hand, the answer is almost obvious: probably because these prophecies contain something that, if published before 2014, could (according to the Vatican) affect the situation in Russia - and, obviously, the Vatican does not want to be accused of that he "trying to interfere" into the internal affairs of our country.
But the main question remains: what is written in these prophecies that the late nun Lucia, as she claimed (and as the Vatican admitted), received from the Virgin Mary?
05/13/1917 (new art). - The first appearance of the Mother of God to three shepherdesses in the Portuguese village of Fatima
"The third secret" in Fatima
First, let us recall the history and meaning of the Fatima apparition of the Virgin Mary.
On May 13, 1917 (April 30, Old Style), the Mother of God appeared to three shepherdesses near the Portuguese village of Fatima; this phenomenon was repeated six times on the 13th day of each month (that is, on the last day of each previous month according to the old style) until October with an ever-increasing crowd of people. The latter phenomenon was accompanied by a “sun dance”, witnessed by tens of thousands of people and reported by all Portuguese newspapers. (All these phenomena occur between arrival in Russia in April and.)
First, the Mother of God showed the children the torment of sinners in hell as a warning and a call to repentance, which was later called the “first secret” of Fatima. The "second secret" was a prediction if people would not repent; To prevent war, She called for “dedicating Russia to the Mother of God.” This is precisely why some Orthodox Christians do not believe in the authenticity of the Fatima apparition, believing that the Mother of God would not entrust this matter to Catholic heretics; however, Her words, conveyed by the children according to their own understanding, can also be understood in such a way that Catholics should give Russia to the Mother of God as Her inheritance and not lay claim to our conversion to Catholicism. Further, the Mother of God informed the Western peoples through these children that only Russia’s conversion to the true path will bring salvation to the world, otherwise Russia “will spread its false teachings throughout the whole world, and this will cause wars and persecution of the Church.”
In essence, this was an attempt to open the eyes of Western people to the unique role of Russia as a “holder” (in the sense of the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Thess. 2) with a call to help its restoration - for the whole world.
However, the Vatican interpreted the words of the Mother of God as the need to convert Russia to Catholicism. The Pope even tried to take advantage of the Bolshevik destruction of the Church to conclude an agreement with the Soviet authorities to establish Catholic structures on the ruins of Orthodoxy. Cardinal d'Herbigny showed particular zeal in this direction. And the Russian exarch of the Catholic Church of the Eastern Rite, L. Fedorov, stated in 1923 that “Catholics breathed freely when it happened... Russian Catholics felt happy” (see: Protod. German Ivanov-Thirteenth. "Russian Orthodox Church facing the West").
The Vatican took the fall of the communist regime in Russia in the same spirit, starting expansion on Russian soil. In 1996–1997 Catholics took the statue of the Mother of God of Fatima to their parishes in Russia - all with the same goal of spreading Catholicism...
And now a new stage has begun in the history of the Fatima message.
On June 26, 2000, the Vatican announced the publication of the “third secret” of the Mother of God, which was recorded in 1944 by nun Lucia, the last surviving girl to whom the Mother of God appeared. For some reason this secret was kept secret by the Vatican until recently.
The finally published text describes the ascent of bishops, priests and monks to a mountain with a crude cross installed on its top. At the same time, “The Holy Father walked through a large city, which was dilapidated, and trembling, with unsteady steps, suppressed by pain and worries, he prayed for the souls of people whose corpses he met along the way. Having climbed the mountain, he knelt at the cross. Here he was killed by a group of soldiers who shot at him with firearms and arrows. In the same way, one by one, other bishops, priests, monks and various secular persons, men and women of various classes and social positions died...”
In the interpretation of this painting by representatives of the Vatican, its eschatological significance was rejected; they attributed this vision to the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981 (“Fatima Ruft”, 2000, Nr. 166, 167), for which a special press conference was convened. It is not clear why the Vatican kept this “secret” under wraps for so long after its “realization”? And where in Italy in the twentieth century could one see a dilapidated city with the corpses of Christians of different classes killed for their faith?
It is unlikely that this vision is generally suitable for any Western European country in the twentieth century. The main country discussed in the previous part of the Fatima message was Russia. And the picture described is quite consistent with what the Bolsheviks did to (most likely he was poisoned) and to the Russian clergy, nobility, officers, and strong religious peasantry in the 1920-1930s.
At the same time, of course, we must take into account that divine warnings and prophecies can be applied to different events at different times, being fulfilled progressively. In Russia in the twentieth century there was a “dress rehearsal” for the Apocalypse. But we know that sooner or later the predicted events of the end of history will occur when humanity loses the opportunity to replenish the Kingdom of God with worthy people and thereby loses the right to exist in the eyes of God - then the continuation of history will become meaningless. Fatima's "third secret" undoubtedly relates to these last times, in which fierce persecution of Christians is again predicted for us.
Let us also note that many ordinary lay Catholics do not share his proposed interpretation of the “third secret” of Fatima, believing that it may relate to future times (“Fatima ruft”, Nr. 167, S. 5).
And the fact that the Vatican does not want to think about this, profaning the Fatima message to please the ecumenical pope and his liberal entourage, who have already reached the point of a “common messiah” with anti-Christian Jews, is yet another deviation of the Vatican from the spiritual meaning of the Fatima call.
"Let no one deceive you in any way"
In some Orthodox publications one could find sympathetic opinions about the so-called Fatima apparitions of 1915-1917, which took place in Portugal in the town of Cova da Iria. This sympathy is based on the fact that in the context of the Fatima events Russia is mentioned, “the conversion of Russia.” But what is the context itself? Does he leave us any reason to sympathize with these references? How justified are the hopes for any kind of “mutual understanding” with Catholicism regarding Fatima, which already had some public resonance (Fatima-Moscow teleconference October 13, 1991) What really happened? What are the signs of the Fatima apparitions? Let's try to figure it out. ...
people don’t believe it, it’s scary, they don’t repent, I judge by myself, so don’t you judge by yourself?
We are talking about the activities of the Vatican to transform Little Russia into Ukraine and a split with Russia and the expulsion of the Russian Orthodox Church from the territory of Ukraine. Russia is the holy land, the House of the Mother of God, that is, the property of the Son. To sanctify means to separate, to stop stealing from God, to split the country, to promote brotherly hatred, for the sake of their own goals, blaspheme the Will of God and Himself. Who doubts, study history and read the Constitution of Ukraine, Article 35
I think, in particular - based on reading the sources indicated below - that the phenomenon in Fatima is a demonic delusion.
All these are purely demonic tricks.
A little later, something similar happened on the territory
Yugoslavia and elsewhere. But the papists did not promote it.
They decided that the Fatima phenomenon was enough.
M.V. Nazarov does not provide any arguments in favor of the truth of this phenomenon.
It seems his logic is this: among Catholics, and especially Old Catholics, there are “good people”
so the phenomenon may well be true,
and, therefore, it is true.
This is how dark one can reach if, despite obvious documentary facts, one continues
to venerate the heretic and apostate false patriarch Tikhon (Belavin) as a “saint”.
If Tikhon is “holy,” then there is nothing to be surprised that the “Mother of God” also addresses the Anchichrist, the Pope of Rome, who, of course, is not a simple errant, but a seasoned heretic and enemy of Christ.
Be careful not to fall into delusion. The Fatima phenomenon is not a deception (the facts do not confirm this), deception is the Catholic interpretation of this phenomenon. Therefore, how can you not, together with them, fall into blasphemy against the Mother of God. Before the blasphemy against St. Patriarch Tikhon has already arrived...
I think that in connection with the signs of recent times and subsequent persecutions, the Roman Church may return to Orthodoxy (Orthodox communities of the Western Rite have existed in some of our Local Churches for a long time), and the Pope may once again take the place of the first of his holy predecessors. among equals. Yes, it will be too late then, the time of great martyrdom will come...
This is by no means a prediction, these are just thoughts that came to mind.
I think, based on many sources I have read, that most of those who wrote above have already fallen into delusion, into the delusion of their own pride and infallibility in their beliefs. How ossified you are, blinkered, self-confident PEOPLE. Not wanting to believe in anything other than what is written on paper, I note written by people. I think the Fatima apparitions are worthy of being paid attention to by believers of ANY denomination, because they lead to universal peace and equality - you are dividing the world with such judgments. I only agree with the first comment, everything else is the ossified beliefs of bigots and religious fanatics.
It is truly painful to read the comments of convinced followers of the Sergian heresy. But the dawn is near - Russia WILL BECOME a Catholic country, as the Blessed Virgin Mary wished. All that is needed is to correctly dedicate Russia to her immaculate heart. This task, however, has already been failed by 5 Holy Fathers, no other than the machinations of the evil one.
Pray and consecrate your hearts to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary!
Rome. 12 May. INTERFAX - Pope Francis and Catholic pilgrims from all over the world will arrive on Friday in the Portuguese city of Fatima on the occasion of the centenary of the appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children, Vatican Radio reports.
On Saturday, May 13, in front of the Fatima sanctuary, the pope will celebrate a mass with the rite of canonization of two witnesses to the apparitions of the Mother of God - Francisco and Jacinta.
The essence of the History of mankind is expressed clearly and on the verge of genius:
"...sooner or later, the predicted events of the end of history will occur when humanity loses the opportunity to replenish the Kingdom of God with worthy people and thereby loses the right to exist in the eyes of God - then the continuation of history will become meaningless"
FROM:
Note: the spelling of the word “meaningless” is APPLIED according to the rules of pre-revolutionary spelling - and not in the mocking form BES... (before voiceless consonants, prefix (used to form adj. and noun))
Gentlemen commentators Nikolai (from 2014-01-24), DeusVult (from 2015-06-18) and anonymous * * * (from 2017-05-12) - Catholicism has long plunged into the cesspool and you want the same for Orthodoxy.
Dear brother Artyom (from 2014-10-11), you got a little carried away about the author of the article... God forbid!
Perhaps I'm wrong. But based on what is happening in the Catholic Church (I mean the legalization of same-sex marriage), a conclusion arises. In the Catholic Church for a long time, even before the time of the Inquisition, in all services there was and is more politics than holiness and worship of God. Throughout their existence, they sought to subjugate everything that moved to their will. In order to become the sole rulers of everything and everyone. If you pay close attention to their actions, then in everything you can see a program similar to the protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The third secret has been 100% proven, but not everyone can understand... According to the Bible and Nostradamus, Russia will be the chosen one - the leader on the planet for 7 zodiac months (consider that the Jews are no longer in business...) If the secret is revealed, then the Catholic Church will be left without parishioners, income. Not everyone knows about the dedication of Russia to the Mother of God by some Popes... Persecution of Russia as well as of Jesus.... Crucify, crucify... And catastrophes will constantly increase on the planet, no one will connect the events in advance, and some will refuse. But it's not as simple as some people think...
The greatest miracle of the twentieth century is the appearance of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children in Fatima (Portugal), from May 13 to October 13, 1917.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the miracle of Fatima is miraculously woven into the entire world history of the 20th century (not only in religious terms) and, most importantly, that now, on the threshold of the 21st century, it is acquiring special significance for the future of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, moreover - and for the future of multinational Russia. There are three reasons why the miracle of Fatima had and still has to do with Russia.
1. The Revelation of July 13, 1917 concerned specifically Russia and the danger it faces from the power of atheist-god-fighters. By the way, this revelation was given immediately after the July events in Petrograd, when the Bolshevik action was crushed and no one perceived them as a serious political force. Let us also note that the last appearance of the Virgin Mary in Fatima was on October 13, 1917. It is striking to the Orthodox that October 13 is the eve of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos! More precisely, at the same time when the last miracle of Fatima was ending in Portugal, in Russia (due to the time difference) the liturgical day of the Intercession began, and all of Russia sang: “Today we brightly celebrate people of good faith, overshadowed by Your coming, O Mother of God.. .” As Maria Stakhovich (the author of the only Orthodox book about Fatima) accurately noted, “THIS HOLIDAY OF THE INTEGRATION WAS THE LAST BEFORE THE SEIZURE OF POWER BY THE Atheists AND THE BEGINNING OF GOLGOTHA OF RUSSIA...” But although the Intercession is a holiday of all Orthodox Christians, it is a Russian holiday par excellence, since nowhere is celebrated as in Russia (and Serbia), nowhere are there so many churches, cathedrals and monasteries of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos as in Russia.
2. Russia, which must undergo formidable trials in the twentieth century, must again be dedicated to the heart of the Mother of God, - the Virgin Mary herself told the children of Fatima about this in her miraculous apparitions from May 13 to October 13, 1917, also telling them the entire future tragic history of the twentieth century. Since the summer of 1917, thousands of people have already witnessed the miracle in Fatima; on October 13, more than 50,000 witnesses saw miracles. Leading newspapers in Portugal, England, and other Western countries reported about him in the same 1917. It is known that in October 1917 (even before the Bolshevik revolution) in exile in Tobolsk, Nicholas II learned from the newspapers about this miracle and attached the highest importance to it... The Virgin Mary then repeatedly repeated this wish for Russia in new miraculous apparitions to the nun Lucia on throughout her life until the 1980s
3. Surprisingly, one of the most revered icons in the history of Christian Russia - the icon of the Kazan Mother of God - was connected with Fatima. This icon was miraculously found in Kazan in July 1579, and then in 1612 it was the main revered shrine in the people's militia of Minin and Pozharsky, during the liberation of Moscow from the Poles. It was revered as the main shrine of Rus' by Peter I and all subsequent autocrats and military leaders of Imperial Russia. On the night of June 28-29, 1904, the shrine was stolen from the Kazan Mother of God Monastery. The thieves were found quickly, but there was no icon with them. In 1950, her revered list surfaced, the history of whose wanderings abroad we described above. In 1982, after an assassination attempt on the Pope, the shrine was transferred to the Vatican to John Paul II. It must be said that he connected his deliverance from certain death on May 13, 1981 precisely with the patronage of the Mother of God and the miracle of Fatima. Ali Agca fired in St. Peter's Square from a distance of just a few meters, the fourth bullet jammed in the barrel of the pistol he had checked the day before - it is truly a miracle that John Paul II was not killed then. He was also saved by the fact that a second before the shot, the pontiff leaned down to examine the medallion on the little girl’s neck. The medallion depicted three shepherd children to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in Fatima in 1917! ... The Pope several times expressed his desire to transfer the Russian shrine to Moscow, to the Russian Patriarchate, but this has not yet happened for various reasons. The main reason, of course, is the known and still unresolved differences between the Churches. Negotiations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican have been going on since 2000. And finally, they were crowned with success this year!
Let us briefly recall the well-known facts (based on the book “Fatima”, Brussels, 1991). Those who wish to better understand the miracle of Fatima and the confusion that it brought to both Catholicism and Orthodoxy should also read the brochure by M.A. Stakhovich “Should we believe the Vatican?” (ed. Sretensky Monastery, 1997), published with the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus'. In 1998, my book “Russian Magi, Messengers, Seers” was published, a separate chapter of which is devoted to the history of the miracle of Fatima.
All dates in this chapter are given in the new style.
APPEARANCE OF THE VIRGIN
On Sunday May 13, 1917 ten-year-old Lucia and her cousins Jacinta (9 years old) and brother Francisco (7 years old) were tending sheep and playing in a field near the village of Fatima. It was a clear sunny day, when suddenly bright lightning flashed. The children thought that a thunderstorm was coming and began to gather the sheep. New lightning made them turn around... and freeze. Over a green oak tree in the middle of a field, they saw a shining vision. Subsequently, Lucia described him as shining in the light and standing on a light cloud almost on the branches of an oak tree, of indescribable beauty, a “Girl of about 18” (Lucia’s words), or a “Beautiful Lady” (Jacinta and Francisco), and She began to talk to the children. That first time, She calmed their natural confusion and asked if they agreed to become the chosen ones of the Lord and atone for the insults and blasphemies inflicted on the Most Holy Theotokos - the children agreed with fervor and delight. The “Beautiful Lady” ordered the children to pray the rosary daily for the peace of the whole world and for the salvation and conversion of sinners; She told them to come to this field on the 13th of every month until October, and began to move away to the east, and soon disappeared in the rays of the sun. The phenomenon lasted 10 minutes.
Amazed by what they saw and heard, the children decided not to tell anyone what happened to them, but little Jacinta could not resist and told her family about everything, for the first time calling the vision the Blessed Virgin. Soon the whole village knew about this, but no one believed the children. Nevertheless, on June 13, the parents released the children to that field; up to sixty curious people gathered at the place of the vision. The Mother of God appeared to the children around noon. No one from the crowd saw anything, they only heard Lucia's words. This time, the “Beautiful Lady” said that she would soon come for Francisco and Jacinta to take them to heaven, and as for Lucia, she would have to stay on earth to testify to the Virgin Mary and spread love for her among people. She promised Lucia never to leave her and to appear to her in the future. She also told the children to keep her future predictions about the fate of the world secret until she herself allowed Lucia to reveal them to the world... When this meeting ended, everyone present saw how the branches of the oak tree suddenly came together and bent down, as if under the weight of some cover. They, who had also heard Lucia's words, now believed the children.
Soon the rector of the church in Fatima became interested in the visions of the children. When July 13th arrived, five or six thousand people gathered in the field near the village. Exactly at noon, lightning flashed, and everyone noticed that the branches of the oak tree bent down, as if someone was standing on them. However, this time the children hardly spoke, but only listened to the words of the Virgin Mary. These words only became fully known from Lucia in 1942, when she received permission to publish them. This is what the children heard on July 13, 1917, after the Mother of God showed them a vision of the fiery sea of hell and sinners:
“To save them, the Lord wants to establish veneration of My Most Pure Heart in the world. If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and peace will come. The war \1914-1918\ is coming to an end. But if people do not stop insulting the Lord , then under the next pope a new war will begin, worse than this one...To prevent this, I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Most Pure Heart and for communion on the first Saturday of every month for the atonement of sins. If people listen to My words, Russia will turn and come peace on earth; otherwise she will spread her false teachings throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church; many righteous people will suffer torment; the Holy Father will suffer a lot; some nations will perish. In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph: the Holy Father will entrust the fate of Russia to Me, which will be converted and the time of peace will be given to the world. Portugal will preserve the treasure of faith."
But all this became known only later, and on that day, July 13, people, although they did not hear these words, but, seeing the reverent attention of the children and the bowed branches of the oak tree, still realized that some kind of miracle was happening. However, soon after this, the children faced persecution from secular district authorities who were anti-religious. The children were interrogated with threats and partiality, they stubbornly stood their ground: it was the Mother of God and She did not allow them to reveal Her words to people. On August 13, when the miracle was about to happen again, the children were taken by deception and force to the district prison.
August 13, 1917. By noon, up to eighteen thousand people had gathered on the field. Everyone was waiting for the children to arrive, but they were not there. There were rumors that they were detained by force. Unrest and disturbances began. At exactly noon, a terrible clap of thunder rang out in the blue, cloudless sky, and bright lightning cut through the air. After this, a cloud descended onto the tree over which the Mother of God appeared to the children, stayed there for about ten minutes and then dissipated. A deep, reverent silence reigned in the crowd. The people dispersed peacefully, many left money, a lot of money, under the tree.
The next occurrence was on August 19, when there were only children in the field. They asked the "Beautiful Lady" what to do with the money, and received the answer that they could use it to build a small chapel here. She also said that because of the proud resistance of evil people separating themselves from God, the great miracle She had previously promised in October would be much less significant. Then She disappeared, as always surrounded by radiant light.
September 13, 1917 - fifth phenomenon. It was grape harvest time, but a crowd of up to thirty thousand people had gathered in the field. This time there were many visitors, many threw themselves on their knees in front of the children and begged them to bring their prayers to the Most Pure Virgin for healing and deliverance from other troubles. There is a lot of documentary evidence left about this phenomenon, including from people who did not believe, who came only out of curiosity, as well as from very famous people in Portugal. Arriving at the scene of the vision, Lucia asked everyone to pray. At noon the air took on a warm golden color. The Most Pure Virgin again appeared only to children, but everyone saw a sign of Her arrival: under a cloudless sky in the air, a luminous radiant ball slowly and majestically floated from east to west. When the Most Pure One’s conversation with the children ended, the same ball floated in the opposite direction. Then, in front of everyone, a white cloud enveloped the green oak tree, and the sky began to rain white petals, which slowly fell and melted in the air without reaching the ground. This latter phenomenon was observed several times later, during the pilgrimages to Fatima, and was photographed. At that time, the Mother of God promised the children a quick end to the war and a new meeting on October 13.
THE LAST APPEARANCE OF THE VIRGIN on October 13, 1917. "Dance" of the Sun.
Already two days before, all the roads to Fatima were crowded with people and carts. Many slept on the bare ground. Lisbon newspapers sent their best reporters to the village. According to various estimates, by noon on October 13 there were from fifty to seventy thousand people on the field. It had been raining non-stop for three days, and everyone was wet to the bone. The children with difficulty made their way to the oak tree, of which only a stripped trunk remained: all the branches and leaves had long been torn off by people as precious relics... A lot of evidence and reports have been preserved about everything that happened then. At noon everyone knelt down in the mud and rain. Lucia shuddered and exclaimed: “Here She is! Here She is!” Those around saw how the children near the tree were enveloped in a white cloud, then rose into the air and dissipated. All the time that Lucia was talking to the "Beautiful Lady", this phenomenon was repeated three times. Now She, as she promised at the first meeting, revealed to the children her real heavenly name - the Mother of God - and confirmed what she had said earlier, that the war would soon end and the soldiers would return home. She was, as Lucia later recalled, completely imbued with deep sadness and Her last words were: “Let people stop insulting the Lord. He has already suffered too many insults.” Before hiding from the children, She spread her arms and Her hands were reflected in the sun, as if She wanted to attract the children’s eyes there. And at the very moment when the Virgin Mary spread her arms, Lucia cried out: “Look at the sun!”
Many eyewitness accounts have been preserved, among whom were well-known people in Portugal, and not only from Portugal, believers and atheists, some of whom came to Fatima that day specifically just to “debunk” sensational newspaper publications about previous miracles in this field is Cova da Iria (as it was called in the village). What did they see? Everyone talked about it in approximately the same way, as follows.
Suddenly the rain stopped and the clouds, impenetrable since the morning, suddenly cleared. The sun shone overhead, but its appearance was amazing. It was like a silver circle that you could look at without squinting. At the same time, the disk was surrounded by a sparkling corona, so bright that the disk itself now seemed darkened, as happens during a solar eclipse. And suddenly the sun itself began to tremble, spinning like a fiery wheel, throwing sheaves of bright light in all directions, which alternately took on different colors. The sky, earth, trees, rocks, children, a huge crowd of people and each individual - everything was painted in turn in all the colors of the rainbow, becoming red, then yellow and orange, then green, blue, purple. This phenomenon lasted for several minutes. Believers threw themselves on their knees and prayed, others watched in silence, amazed at what was happening. Many cried and repented of their sins, thinking that the last hour had come... For a moment the heavenly body stopped, but then resumed its dance of light. It stopped again and again the heavenly fireworks shone with extraordinary power. And suddenly everyone saw that the sun seemed to separate from the sky and rushed towards them in zigzag leaps, emitting intense heat. People shouted, prayed, cried out to God: “Have mercy on me, God!” - soon this cry began to dominate. Meanwhile, the sun, suddenly stopping during its dizzying fall, rose in a zigzag pattern into the sky and, little by little, began to shine with its usual light among the bright sky. The crowd rose to its feet. The “sun dance” lasted about ten minutes. Everyone saw it: believers and non-believers, peasants and townspeople, people of science and the ignorant, ingenuous witnesses and professional journalists...
An investigation carried out later by church authorities established that such an unprecedented movement of the sun was observed five or more kilometers from Cova da Iria. Another amazing fact was also established: people who were wet to the skin noticed that immediately after the cessation of the phenomenon, their clothes turned out to be dry, absolutely dry! And so it was with everyone.
The unprecedented “sun dance”, witnessed by at least 50 thousand people, was published in all major Lisbon newspapers, regardless of their direction. There are many photographs left of this phenomenon. Interestingly, those atheists and anti-religious people who observed the events at Fatima were at least swayed. while those representatives of the Catholic press who were not eyewitnesses continued to exercise extreme caution. However, in general, the general initial skepticism of many was broken... Lucia later said that during the “sun dance” she (as well as Jacinta and Francisco) saw the Holy Family in the sky: the betrothed Joseph, and the Mother of God, and the Child Christ. Then Lucia once again saw the Mother of God, dressed in white, with a blue veil...
Here we must quote the very exact words of Maria Stakhovich from the brochure “Should we trust the Vatican?” mentioned at the beginning of this chapter:
“If for Catholics it is important and convincing that May and October in their Church are months dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos, then the Orthodox are struck by the fact that the amazing final day of October 13 is, after all, the eve of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos! More precisely, at the same time when the “miracle of the sun” was ending in Portugal, in Russia (due to the time difference) the liturgical day of the Intercession began, and all of Russia sang: “Today we brightly celebrate the faithful people, overshadowed by Your coming, the Mother of God. ..” THIS HOLIDAY OF THE INTEGRATION WAS THE LAST BEFORE THE SEIZURE OF POWER BY THE Atheists AND THE BEGINNING OF GOLGOTHA OF RUSSIA...” For another reason, an Orthodox person cannot help but feel that the events in Fatima are the great mercy of the Most Holy Theotokos to Russia, which fervently prays to Her, a manifestation, confirmation of Her love and care, which She reminds us of before the start of the terrible trials of our homeland. After all, although the Intercession is a holiday of all Orthodox Christians, it is a Russian holiday par excellence, since nowhere, as in Russia (and Serbia), is it celebrated, nowhere are there so many churches, cathedrals and monasteries of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, as in Russia. And this despite the fact that the appearance of the Intercession of the Mother of God occurred in Constantinople in 910, when the Russians, pagans at that time, were on the side of the enemies of Constantinople... The Russians, shocked by the protection provided by the Most Holy Theotokos to the Orthodox, did not convert this miraculous protection could have forgotten and began to celebrate it along with the twelve holidays. Wasn’t it a similar sincere approach, wasn’t it a similar manifestation of selfless love and joy that the Mother of God expected from the Catholic West, appearing to defend “poor Russia” (Lucia’s words) before the attack of the fierce atheists?” - these are the words of Maria Alexandrovna Stakhovich.
Did you read the newspapers about the Fatima events (not only the Portuguese press reported about the miracle) in 1917? in Russia, did “citizen Nikolai Romanov,” the former emperor, then imprisoned in Tobolsk, know about all this? What did he think about it? - We will talk about this later, but for now we will trace the fate of Fatima’s children.
THE FATE OF FATIMA'S CHILDREN. NUN LUCIA.
In the fall of 1918, little Francisco fell ill with the Spanish flu, which was then raging throughout Europe, adding its countless victims to the ten million killed in that First World War. They tried to cure Francisco, to save him, but in vain. As Our Lady predicted to the children during the second apparition on June 13, 1917, Francisco and Jacinta were soon to go to heaven with Her. The boy died on April 4, 1919. His last words were: “Look, mom, what a wonderful light there at the door!” The epidemic did not escape Jacinta either. She fell ill shortly after her brother. Just like him, she steadfastly endured the illness, because when saying goodbye to her dying brother, she gave him an “instruction” to heaven: “Tell the Lord and the Mother of God that I will endure whatever they please.” Jacinta even predicted - referring to her communication with the Virgin Mary - the course of her illness, transfer from one hospital to another, and even predicted to the doctors that they would perform a successful operation on her, but she would soon die from “something else.” And so it happened: in February 1920, she underwent successful surgery for purulent inflammation in the lung, but on February 20, for reasons unclear to doctors, the girl died. 15 years later, on September 12, 1935, by order of the Bishop of Leiria, the body of little Jacinta was transferred to the cemetery in Fatima in a small crypt built for her. Before this, the coffin was opened for a short time, and in the presence of many witnesses they saw Jacinta’s face completely preserved. A photograph of that miracle has been preserved. In May 1951, the small crypt was abolished, and Jacinta's body, again with her face intact, was solemnly transferred to the Fatima Cathedral. In April 1952, Francisco's remains were transferred there.
On June 13, 1917, Lucia was predicted by the Mother of God to have a long life. It wasn't easy. The clergy, soon after those events, decided to remove her from the places of vision: both benevolent and hostile people were too annoying with their curiosity. In 1921, she was sent to study in the city of Oporto, at the monastery boarding school of the Sisters of St. Dorothea.
Before leaving, the bishop called her:
- You won't tell anyone where you're going.
- Okay, Vladyka!
- At the boarding house you will not tell anyone who you are.
- Okay, Vladyka.
- You will never talk to anyone about the apparitions in Fatima.
- Okay, Vladyka!
This silence lasted for fifteen years, and only in 1935 did the bishop allow Lucia to reveal who she was. Until 1931, the Catholic Church was very cautious about the miracle of Fatima; there were even attempts to ban the “new cult,” but the annual pilgrimage of ordinary people and the light of spiritual revival, miracles of healing and conversion of non-believers to God gradually broke the ice of mistrust of the clergy. On May 3, 1922, the local bishop began an official investigation into all the events that took place in Fatima. A special commission was appointed, its work ended only in 1930. On May 13, 1931, Portuguese bishops visited Fatima for the first time officially and conciliarly. There were three hundred thousand pilgrims! Then the episcopate solemnly dedicated Portugal to the Most Pure Heart of the Mother, - while the full revelation of the Mother of God to the children, Lucia still remained unknown - Lucia remained silent!
Meanwhile (as it became known much later), on June 13, 1929, this modest silent nun was honored with a mystical vision of the Holy Trinity on Calvary. The mother of Jesus stood at the cross with her Heart bleeding. She said to Lucia: “The time has come when God willed that the Holy Father, in unity with all the bishops of the world, should consecrate Russia to my heart, promising to save her in this way.” Six years later, Lucia would write to her confessor:
<<Я сожалею о том, что это не было сделано, но ведь сам Господь, выразивший это пожелание, позволил, чтобы все оставалось так /.../ Мне было дано внутренне беседовать с Господом и недавно я спросила Его, почему Он не обратит Россию без особого посвящения святого Отца. "Потому что Я хочу, - ответил Господь, - чтобы вся моя Церковь признала в этом посвящении торжество пренепорочного Сердца Марии и распространила это почитание наряду с почитанием моего Божественного Сердца". - Но, Господь мой, святой Отец не поверит мне, если Ты сам не побудишь его к этому. - "Усердно молись за святого Отца, он сделает это, но слишком поздно, и все же Пречистое Сердце Марии спасет Россию. Россия вверена Ему>>.
Of course, the question arises: why was she silent for so many years? If little Jacinta had not told everything to her parents, many of the words of the Virgin Mary would not have been known for a long time. But let us remember that the Mother of God told the children to keep Her words secret. She said she'll let you know when it's time to open. That's why she was silent and sought solitude herself. Therefore, for a long time the clergy did not know what was revealed by the Mother of God and were probably confused by everything that happened in 1917 in the village of Fatima. Lucia herself later wrote why she decided to reveal the old secrets in 1935\37:
“It seems to me that I can say this because I received permission from above to do this. And God’s representatives on earth also allowed me to do this several times. In 1917, God ordered me to remain silent - and this command was then confirmed to me by those who - for me - they were his representatives... It will be as God pleases. It would be a great happiness for me to remain silent.” And still not everything written by Lucia has been published. But let's continue in order.
In May 1936, fearing a godless revolution in Spain, where churches were being set on fire, the episcopate vowed to organize a national pilgrimage to Fatima if Portugal avoided the turmoil. Two months later, civil war began in Spain. In 1938, the episcopate and many pilgrims gathered in Fatima and brought thanks to their heavenly Patroness, who protected the country from unrest. Meanwhile, only in 1940, from Lucia’s notebooks, did the bishops become aware of the Mother of God’s desire to dedicate Russia to Her heart.
Between 1937 and 1941, Lucia wrote several "notebooks" about the events of 1917, testifying to the remarkable accuracy of her memory. A letter written by her at the beginning of February 1939 said: “The war predicted by the Mother of God is approaching closely; those peoples who tried to destroy the Kingdom of God will suffer the most; Spain has already received punishment, but it is not quite over yet... Portugal will suffer a little from the last war, but thanks to the dedication of Portugal by the bishops to the Most Pure Heart of Mary, the Mother of God will preserve it." In 1940, having asked for special permission from the Portuguese episcopate, Lucia Santos addressed a letter to the Holy Father (from March 2, 1939 he became Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII) in Rome:
“In 1917, with those words that we called “mystery,” the Most Pure One predicted for us the end of the war that was darkening Europe at that time, predicted another war and said that she would come again to insist on the dedication of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. /... / In 1929, in a new appearance, She expressed the wish that Russia should be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart, promising thereby to prevent the spread of false teachings from Russia and the conversion of Russia. /.../ Through various secret suggestions, the Lord does not cease to insist on this wish, having recently promised, that if Your Holiness deigns to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with special mention of Russia, He will shorten the days of sorrow by which He was pleased to punish the nations for their crimes.”
VATICAN AND FATIMA
Pope Pius XII paid attention to this letter. Some mysterious connection existed between the apparitions of the Mother of God at Fatima and his ministry: he was consecrated bishop at noon on May 13, 1917, the very day and hour when the Blessed Virgin first appeared in Cova da Iria. On October 31, 1942, he read the prayer of dedication on the radio, addressing the Portuguese people, and on December 8 of the same year, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the solemn dedication of the world to the Immaculate Heart took place - on the day of the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin by the Latin Church - however, words about Russia was not yet included in this dedication... Having learned about this dedication, Lucia was happy, but she again began to assert that the Blessed Virgin also desires a special dedication to RUSSIA, performed by the Holy Father in unity with all the Catholic bishops of the world.
One can imagine the confusion this statement caused in Catholic (and even more so in Orthodox) circles. Some prominent Catholic priests then began to doubt not only these words of hers, but also the reliability of other testimonies: since Russia is a non-Catholic country, they said, the Blessed Virgin could not express such a desire. Lucia probably did not understand her words well, not being sufficiently literate and knowledgeable in history, not knowing about the division of the Churches. But the future showed that their doubts were in vain.
In 1942, the veneration of Our Lady of Fatima received official approval from the Pope (Pius XII). It must be said that miraculous healings in Fatima continued every year: by 1942, there were more than eight hundred truly miraculous healings that had officially passed through the control of a very strict special commission! After the end of World War II, the miracle of Fatima became worldwide. At the beginning of May 1947, an international congress of Catholic women's youth was organized in Fatima. Sister Lucia turned to him with a request to pray for Russia. To fulfill her wish, a special prayer to Our Lady of Fatima for Russia was compiled. It was translated for pilgrims and read on the porch of the basilica. In May of the same year, a representative of the Catholic Youth of Russia received permission from the local bishop to meet Lucia Santos at the monastery in Oporto, where she had lived since 1921, when she was then about 40 years old. This is what a woman from Russia then said (I quote again from the book “Fatima”, published in Brussels, 1991):
“I really want to know about the future of Russia, and she, as if guessing my thoughts, tells me that Russia will be saved thanks to her great love for the Most Pure Virgin; Russia must be dedicated to the Most Pure Heart of the Lady of the world; the Mother of God is waiting for this, and then the unrest in world. She speaks about Russia with love, as if it were her homeland, and sometimes, when she talks about the suffering of our people, her eyes become moist... We still need to pray a lot, she says, we need to sacrifice ourselves for salvation peace and Russia. Say this to the Russians who can understand you... they can save Russia, and if she is saved, the world will be saved with her..."
A PILGRIMAGE OF MIRACLES and the FUTURE MIRACLE of overcoming the schism.
In May 1947, the world pilgrimage to the Fatima statue of Our Lady began, which Pope Pius XII later called “a pilgrimage of miracles throughout the world.” Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Africa, Asia and Australia, then the USA, Canada, South America - everywhere, in all cities, crowds of hundreds of thousands greeted her. In France, Russian Orthodox emigrants worshiped her along with Catholics. Not only they, but also Protestants (who generally reject the veneration of the Virgin Mary) took part in all the celebrations. In many African and Asian cities, Muslims joined the worship of Christians - after all, Mohammed called Her “the holiest of all women in paradise” and the Koran speaks of the miraculous birth of “the greatest prophet Isa from Mariam.” Muslim choirs took part in processions, mosques and even entire Muslim neighborhoods and villages were decorated for the holiday...
Now is the time to briefly take a break from the history of Fatima and remember the beginning of our research, chapter (second) about the Baptism of Rus' and the previously identified historical sacred calendar rhythms, and the main cycle of 960 years. - Exactly 960 years have passed from the beginning of the history of Christianity in Rus', from the baptism of Princess Olga in 957 to the fatal year for Russia and Christianity in Russia in 1917. When we then looked at the baptism of Prince Vladimir (this is 987) and the Baptism of Rus' (989), did the question arise in your mind: how are these years related to the cycle of 960 years? Now we can answer it: after all, 987 + 960 = 1947 is the year of the beginning of the worldwide procession of the miracle of Fatima, the main Christian miracle of the twentieth century. We in the USSR knew nothing about this, and even now, in 2004, it’s unlikely that many Russians, even believers, know about it. Such is the sad power of the division of the Church in 1054, and only in 2013-2014 can we hope to overcome the almost thousand-year schism. But there is no doubt that a noticeable movement towards overcoming will begin soon, and in many ways this will be facilitated by the appearance of Fatima. Of course, two questions remain. Why was it in Portugal that the greatest Revelation was given to three illiterate children? Why should the head of the Catholic Church and its bishops dedicate Russia to the Mother of God with prayers? It seems to me that we can answer the first question only with the words of the apostle, “The Spirit breathes where it will,” and we cannot know the will of God in its entirety. The answer to the second question, it seems to me, is this: nevertheless, it was the throne of St. Peter in Rome that was in time the first Church, therefore, first in Rome (in the Vatican) this dedication had to be accomplished. It is possible that this order is also connected with the need for the Vatican to be the first to admit its guilt for the division of the Church in 1054. In 1996, John Paul II already did this. Now it’s the turn of the Russian Orthodox Church. After such repentance, she probably should also commit the consecration of Russia to the Heart of the Mother of God. Orthodox thinker Vladimir Zelinsky wrote about it this way: “We do not know all the hidden threads connecting the divided Churches, which at the depths remain the one Church, and Fatima for a moment reveals this unity to us... And through this revelation of the West of Russia, it is true that we should there will also be a counter revelation - from Russia to the West... Fatima is the news of a mystical and providential meeting that is still ahead of us and which will take place under the protection of the Mother of God." ("Russian Thought", May 17, 1991). Well, we will continue the story about Fatima.
In 1950, the question of consecrating Russia to the Most Pure Heart of the Mother of God was raised in Rome by a group of Russian Catholic pilgrims. They made this request to the Holy Father. Since ancient times, they wrote, Russia has been called the HOUSE OF THE HOLY VIRGIN, and the main Kremlin Cathedral is dedicated to Her glorious Dormition. They could add that the first main church in Rus' in Kyiv, consecrated in 996, was also the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God. In 1950, the papal college supported this request, and Lucia, having learned about it in her monastic seclusion, also supported their request and wrote a letter to the Russian pilgrims. It said, in particular: “Our Heavenly Mother loves this (Russian) people... No one can and should fulfill this great calling better than the people of your country themselves... This is not a task for one day, but for many years of work and prayer. But in the end, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph! Do not stop doing everything you can for the salvation of your people and your Fatherland." Pope Pius XII heeded these urgent requests and ordered to study this issue. On July 7, 1952, on the day of remembrance of the first Slavic teachers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, he addressed a special apostolic letter to the peoples of Russia.
The message ended with a prayer of dedication of the Russian peoples to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God. However, let us recall that in a revelation on June 13, 1929, Lucia was told that the Pope should do this “in unity with all the bishops of the world” - Catholic bishops were not ready for this and many of them repeatedly expressed doubts about Lucia’s correct understanding of the words of the Lord .
VATICAN AND FATIMA. Continuation.
Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, did a lot for Fatima. There were not only objective reasons for this (Fatima became a popular symbol of faith in Catholic countries), but also purely personal, one might say mystical. We have already mentioned that some milestones in his life were connected with Fatima, such as his consecration as a bishop on the day and hour of the first appearance of Our Lady to children on May 13, 1917, at noon. 33 years later, in 1950, the Virgin Mary appeared to him four times in visions in heaven, he wrote about this; in December 1954, during his illness, he saw Jesus Christ at his bedside and talked with Him. In the last years of his reign, under the influence of Fatima, he attached great importance to the exaltation of the image of the Virgin Mary in the world. In 1950 he proclaimed the dogma of Mary's bodily ascension, and in 1954 he proclaimed Her "Queen of Heaven" and crowned Her icon with the royal crown. Pius XII died at the end of 1958, at the age of 72.
Those who followed him, John XXIII (1958-1963), Paul VI (1963-1978) and John Paul I (reigned for less than a year), took less official part in the fate of Fatima, although, as can be seen from the letters and documents they left behind, they thought a lot over this, as well as over the fate of Russia in the Christian world. During the official visit of a number of Polish bishops to Paul VI in 1967 (among whom was then Karol Wojtyla, the current John Paul II), they turned to Paul VI with a request “for the collegial consecration of Russia to the Most Pure Heart of Mary” in unity with all the bishops of the world . But the Pontiff did not dare to do this, knowing that not all bishops were ready to take part in it. John Paul I, while still a cardinal, led a pilgrimage to Fatima in 1977 and had a long conversation with Sister Lucia in the Carmelite monastery in Coimbra, where she had been staying since 1948. In January 1978 he published an article, “One Bishop’s Thoughts on Fatima,” in which he convincingly answered various doubts that existed among Catholic bishops regarding the revelations given to Lucia Santos.
In October 1978, after the mysterious death of John Paul I, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, a Slav, the Pole Karol Wojtyla (born May 18, 1920), was elected to the papal throne, choosing the name John Paul II. He became the 265th Pope and the youngest in the last 150 years. The full title of the spiritual and temporal ruler is “Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Monarch of the Vatican, Servant of the Servants of God.” He inscribed the name of the Mother of God on his episcopal coat of arms in 1967. In 1981, exactly 64 years later (the full Avestan cycle) from the first apparition in Fatima, - on May 13, 1981, a Turkish terrorist from the Gray Wolves sect, Ali Agca, shot three times at the Pope in St. Peter's Square from a distance of several meters, heavily wounding him in the stomach; the fourth bullet stuck in the barrel of his previously specially selected and tested pistol. In fact, the assassination attempt was planned for the next day, and on May 13, Agca conducted the first “reconnaissance” on the square, but seeing that the circumstances allowed, Agca decided to shoot right away. However, the Pope survived and, convinced that only the intercession of the Mother of God saved him from an untimely death, he made a pilgrimage to Fatima in May 1982. At the liturgy on May 13, 1982, he said: “I arrived here on the anniversary of the day when an assassination attempt took place in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, which mysteriously coincided with the anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima on May 13, 1917. I arrived in this place, as if chosen by God Mother, to thank Divine Providence..."
On those same days, Karol Wojtyla met and had a long conversation with Sister Lucia, who came to Fatima for this occasion. This conversation and new petitions from many believers prompted the Pope to make a new dedication to the world and Russia on Annunciation 1984 together with all the Catholic bishops and in unity with the flock. The Vatican cardinals made known the desire of John Paul II to carry out this collegial consecration of all Catholic bishops, asking them to join with their flock on the day of the Annunciation (March 25) in the consecration of the world and Russia made earlier (July 7, 1952) by Pope Pius XII. It is known, however, that not all bishops agreed to take part in this dedication to Russia. In addition, in the prayer-dedication itself there was again no direct address to Russia, there was not even the word “Russia”, but instead there were words about “the peoples who most need this dedication.” However, this time at least all those praying knew for sure that we were talking about Russia.
As time went. In 1988, for the first time in history, the Pope addressed the apostolic letter “Euntes in mundum” to the Russian Orthodox Church on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus'. In general, Karol Wojtyla, this first Slav on the Papal Throne, is doing many things for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church. Perhaps the main and most dramatic decision he made was in 1995, when in his annual message “to the city and the world,” then called “As we approach the third millennium,” he, on his own behalf and on behalf of the entire Catholic Church, for the first time in her entire existence, she brought repentance for her grave sins. John Paul II listed the four sins of the past as: “breaking the unity of Christianity” (in 1054), as well as “religious wars”, “inquisition courts”, “the case of Galileo”. This act of repentance, unprecedented in the history of not only the Catholic, but also all other Christian churches and denominations, opens, one might assume, a new history of Christianity on the eve of the 21st century, before the coming Apocalypse. Let us recall that the “Revelation” of John the Theologian begins with a letter to the seven churches, in which they are called to repentance for their sins: the repentant churches and flock will be saved during the judgments of the Apocalypse. Many scholars believe that this prologue to John's Revelation, a letter to the seven churches, represents the history and future of Christ's church on earth. You can read more about all this in my book “Astro-Byblos” (1997); There I tried to explore the chronology of the coming Apocalypse; its timing is determined by the Neptune cycle (about 165 years), from 2008 to 2173.
However, let's return to the story of Fatima (based on the book "Fatima", Brussels, 1991). Although the collegiate episcopal consecration of Russia took place on March 25, 1984, Lucia remained silent in the Carmelite monastery. Only her cousin Maria do Fetal visited her there, once a month. Devotees of Fatima began to contact her, wanting to know whether, in Lucia's opinion, this dedication was final, corresponding to the revelation of the Virgin Mary (the vision of Golgotha) on June 13, 1929.
In May 1991, John Paul II again, after 10 years, made a pilgrimage to Fatima. He called it the "spiritual capital of the world." In March 1998, the Roman newspaper “Il Messagero” published an open letter from 20 bishops and 1,200 priests of the Catholic world to the Pope, where they asked their Head to reveal to the world the last, third prophecy of the Virgin Mary (the first was about the Second World War, the second is about the collapse of the USSR in 1991). This third prophecy is still known to only two people on earth - the nun Lucia and from her - John Paul II... M.A. Stakhovich in the brochure “Should we believe the Vatican?” suggests that this third prophecy refers to an upcoming crisis in the Vatican itself, justifying this assumption by the fact that the last words of the Virgin Mary on July 13, 1917, after the words about Russia, were the words “Portugal will preserve the treasure of faith”...
On May 13, 2000, in the Portuguese village of Fatima, John Paul II revealed to the world the “third secret of Fatima.” According to him, the “third secret” concerned events that had already passed: the attempt on his life on May 13, 1981. Many commentators, including some Catholics, immediately expressed doubts about the Pope's sincerity. It is known, however, from the words of the Turk Agji, who then shot at the Pope, that he allegedly shot “in fulfillment of the third prophecy.” It is clear that before the shots were fired on May 13, 1981, the Vatican did not want to make this third secret public - it would cause too much excitement in the Catholic world. However, why did John Paul II not make the prophecy public for 18 years after the assassination attempt? There are other mysteries in the history of the Fatima miracle that still concern believers around the world.
As you can see, the history of the recognition of the miracle of Fatima and the steps in the West and East towards the embodiment of the call of the Mother of God is very complex. It is clear that revelations to Portuguese children in 1917 about the fate of the world and the future calling of Russia aroused great distrust in the Vatican; Only in the 1930s was the very fact of the miraculous appearances and revelations of the Mother of God about the destinies of the world (which had already begun to come true) recognized. But since the late 1940s, the movement of Fatima pilgrims has acquired a huge, international scope and remains so to this day. Hundreds of thousands of people take part in the Fatima pilgrimage every year. Alas, there are extremely few Russian Orthodox among them. Until very recent years, the Orthodox Church believed that the appearance of Fatima was only an attempt by the Vatican on her independence. It appears that this attitude is beginning to change. But this is very important not only for Orthodox Christians, but also for Muslims in Russia, for better harmony between them.
It is very important to note that the miracle of Fatima is recognized and worshiped not only by Christians, but also by Muslims. The Muslim name Fatima, surprisingly preserved since the 12th century in Catholic Portugal, probably has some significance. But the main thing for Muslims is that the Koran in relation to the Holy Virgin Mary (Mariam) completely agrees with Her veneration by Christians. It can be said quite definitely that the Holy Mariam of the Koran, the Virgin Mary of Western Christians, the Most Holy Theotokos of the Orthodox are the indisputable object of veneration and admiration that reconciles and unites Christians and Muslims. Half a century of international experience in venerating the miracle of Fatima has shown that the Mother of God can and is gradually uniting believers of all faiths in the world.
Of course, it is difficult for the West to recognize the revelation about the chosenness of Russia (and until now, the request of the Mother of God for a joint prayer for the calling of Russia by all Catholic bishops has not been fully fulfilled). It is no less difficult for the Moscow Patriarchate to accept such a revelation from the hands of the West. The bad thing is that in Russia very few people still know anything about Fatima. In October 1991, our TV showed the “Moscow-Fatima” teleconference, but this was an isolated action, soon forgotten by everyone in the still prevailing “spite of the day.” The miracle of Fatima is still waiting for its full recognition and deep understanding by Catholicism and Orthodoxy. It will have an impact not only on Christianity, on the removal of the schism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but also on the entire course of history at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. Analysis of historical rhythms shows that the split between Catholicism and Orthodoxy of 1054 will be overcome in 2013-2014. These are 960 years from 1054 and 96 years from 1917 - the large and small systemic rhythms of history. The time has come in Russia to remember about 1917 not only what we knew until now, but also the miracle and call of Fatima.
FATIMA AND NICHOLAS II
Did they know about the miracle of Fatima in Russia in 1917? Did Nicholas II, who was in custody of the Provisional Government in Tobolsk that summer, know about this?..
In 1975, in New York, the memoirs of the former teacher of the royal children, Charles Sidney Gibbs, entitled “House of Special Purpose”, prepared for publication by his great-nephew, were published in English. Gibbs was with the imperial family until it was sent from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. Then he fled to the whites, then worked in Yekaterinburg with the investigative commission of Nikolai Sokolov; then returned to his homeland, England. There he converted from Anglicanism to Orthodoxy, became a monk under the name of Father Nicholas, and until his last days led the Orthodox community in Oxford. He died in 1963 at the age of eighty-seven. During his lifetime, he did not like to talk about what he had to endure in Russia, but after his death an extensive archive was discovered in his house. American journalist J. Trevin, with the help of relatives of his late father Nikolai, published this book. From Gibbs' memoirs it follows that Nicholas II received quite a lot of newspapers in Tobolsk, including foreign ones, but they arrived a month late. Below I present (with minor abbreviations) excerpts from the book (based on the publication of I. Bunich in his book “Dynastic Rock”):
“In mid-October, some newspapers arrived that had been published in June and July. His Majesty gave me to look at several newspapers, where, under different headings, a description of the Fatima miracle was given... All the newspapers spoke in detail about the extraordinary phenomena near the oak tree in the field of Cova da Iria , and at the same time noted that illiterate peasant children from a remote Portuguese village had some idea of \u200b\u200bRussia. It was simply incredible! - “The Lord firmly decided to punish Russia, and its disasters will be innumerable and the suffering of the people will be terrible. But the Lord’s mercy is limitless, and all suffering will come to an end. Russia will know that the punishment is over when I send a youth to announce it by appearing in the heart of Russia. You won't have to look for him. He himself will find everyone and declare himself." - Looking ahead, I note that this was all the information about the Fatima miracle that we managed to receive in Tobolsk. After the Bolshevik coup, the newspapers simply stopped coming. Most Russian newspapers were closed, and foreign ones were not allowed through to a dying country... The Emperor, having read these messages, was shocked:
“It’s all God’s will,” he said. - The Lord cursed Russia. But tell me, Mr. Gibbs, for what? Is Russia worse than others? Is she more to blame for this war than Germany or France, who could not divide Alsace and Lorraine?
“If I were Your Majesty,” I noted cautiously, “I would not attach much importance to these newspaper reports.” You know newspaper men and their eternal penchant for exaggeration. In Catholic countries, cases like the Fatima miracle are far from uncommon. Over the past two hundred years, at least a dozen have occurred in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. And in Spanish America...
- Oh no! - The Emperor interrupted me. - Not a single Portuguese newspaperman would have thought of putting prophecies about Russia into the mouth of this girl. Why do they need Russia? I also know about similar cases in the past. But it all came down to this - if we deny the Divine essence of what was happening - to attract pilgrims to a certain place or to obtain subsidies and donations for some nearby monastery. In Portugal, not only this illiterate girl, but also the majority of newspaper owners know as much about Russia as we do about them, even less. Who could put words about Russia into the mouth of a girl, probably a future saint? Well, imagine, Mr. Gibbs, that in our country, say, Seraphim of Sarov would begin to prophesy about Portugal, France or your country? Who would have heard him?.."
That's all there is to Charles Gibbs' memoir of the miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, a small village in Portugal that became famous around the world in 1917. In 1991, John Paul II called it the "spiritual capital of the world." Many people in Russia would probably disagree with this. But John Paul II probably did not mean the “spiritual capital” of people (or ideas), but the place on earth on which the spiritual light of the revelation of the Mother of God was shed in the twentieth century. It is probably not at all by chance that this turned out to be the small village of Fatima in Portugal, and it is not at all by chance that the path of recognition and acceptance of the revelation of the Mother of God on July 13, 1917 is so difficult for everyone, and especially for those who continue the confrontation between the Eastern and Western Churches. It is not easy for the West to recognize Her choice and faith in Russia, but the Vatican has already taken the first steps on this path.
On January 24, 2002, a new step was taken on both sides: in Italy, in the city of Asis, a joint prayer of representatives of twelve Christian denominations, including the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) for peace for the whole world took place. This is a very important step. But maybe this is God’s providence, so that we take these main steps in the history of spiritual development and faith of entire nations towards each other?
Boris Romanov
August 2004
Nun Lucia died in Fatima on February 15, 2005, on Orthodox Candlemas, when the lines of the Gospel about Elder Simeon and the Prophetess Anna are read in churches.
John Paul II died on April 2, 2005.
