After the Miracle of the Sun, the apparitions came to an end. But the message of Fatima was only beginning to spread through the world. Our Lady had entrusted the children with a secret in three parts, a secret that would touch the history of a whole century. For many years those words were kept in silence, and the world wondered what Our Lady could have said. Lucia wrote them down and revealed them only little by little, with the Church's permission. And when the world finally came to know the secret, it was astonished.

The First Secret: The Vision of Hell

On July 13, 1917, Our Lady showed the children something terrifying. The earth seemed to open before them, and the three saw hell. Lucia described it this way: "We saw a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls, as if they were transparent embers, black or bronze, with human form. They floated in the blaze, lifted by the flames, amid cries and groans of pain and despair."

The vision lasted only a moment, but it marked the children forever. They were so frightened that Lucia later said they would have died of fear if Our Lady had not promised, from the very first apparition, to take them to Heaven.

After the vision, Our Lady spoke words that explained everything:

"You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace."

Having shown the danger, Our Lady showed the way: her Immaculate Heart, a safe refuge.

The Second Secret: The Consecration of Russia

Our Lady then made surprising predictions about the future:

"The war is going to end. But if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI."

She was speaking of the Second World War, which did in fact begin in the days of Pope Pius XI, more than twenty years after that afternoon. And she gave one more warning, and one request:

"If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. I have come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart."

In July 1917, Russia was not yet communist. It was only in October of that same year that the revolution came that would change the country, exactly as Our Lady had foretold.

And the second secret ended with a promise:

"In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."

Lucia asked for this consecration many times, and several Popes made partial consecrations. On March 25, 1984, Pope John Paul II solemnly consecrated Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Lucia confirmed that this consecration had been accepted by Heaven. Five years later, in 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Communism crumbled across Eastern Europe, and in 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved. For the devotees of Fatima, Our Lady's promise had been fulfilled.

The Third Secret: The Bishop Dressed in White

The third part of the secret was the most mysterious, kept for decades in the archives of the Vatican. People imagined all sorts of things: that it spoke of the end of the world, of terrible wars, of things too frightening to be known. Finally, in the year 2000, Pope John Paul II authorized its full revelation. And the secret spoke of a Pope being attacked.

Lucia described the vision: "We saw a Bishop dressed in white — we had the feeling that it was the Holy Father." This bishop passed through a great city half in ruins, trembling, with halting step, full of sorrow, praying for the souls of the people he found along the way. Then he climbed a steep mountain, and at its top stood a great cross. "Having reached the top of the mountain, kneeling at the foot of the great Cross, he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him."

It was a painful vision, and for a long time no one knew what it meant.

When this secret was revealed, John Paul II recognized his own story in it. On May 13, 1981 — the very anniversary of the first apparition of Fatima — he was in Saint Peter's Square, blessing the pilgrims, when a man named Mehmet Ali Agca shot him. The Pope fell, gravely wounded in the abdomen. The doctors said afterward that he had escaped by the narrowest of margins, because the bullet passed within millimeters of vital organs.

"It was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path," John Paul II said.

Some time later, John Paul II visited Agca in prison, spoke with him quietly, and forgave him personally, because Jesus tells us to forgive. The Pope explained that the third secret spoke of the sufferings the Church would pass through in the twentieth century: persecutions, martyrs, wars. But it also showed that, even in the midst of those sufferings, Our Lady protects the Church. The vision ended with angels gathering up the blood of the martyrs, a sign that suffering offered to God bears fruit.

The Central Message of Fatima

And what, in the end, is the message of Fatima for us today? It fits in a few words, as simple as the children who received it. Our Lady asked us to pray the Rosary every day — she asked for this in all six apparitions. She asked for penance and small sacrifices offered for sinners, as the little shepherds used to make. She asked for conversion: to stop offending God and to live close to him, with a clean heart. And she asked for devotion to her Immaculate Heart, a safe refuge for difficult times.

The First Saturdays

Our Lady asked in a special way for the devotion of the Five First Saturdays: on the first Saturday of five months in a row, to go to confession, receive Holy Communion, pray the Rosary, and spend fifteen minutes meditating on its mysteries, all in a spirit of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And she made a beautiful promise: to all who did this, she promised to be present at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation.

The Legacy of Fatima Today

More than a hundred years later, the message of Fatima is still timely. The world still knows war, and many people live far from God. But Our Lady left us a hope that does not change: "In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph." Every Rosary prayed helps. Every small sacrifice offered saves souls. Every heart that turns back to God brings joy to Heaven.

The three little shepherds spent their whole lives living out this message. Francisco died at ten years old, and Jacinta at nine, both of them offering their sufferings for sinners. Lucia lived to be ninety-seven, spreading the message throughout the world. Francisco and Jacinta were canonized in 2017, one hundred years after the apparitions, and Lucia's cause is also making its way in the Church. They are models for us: simple children who helped change the world through prayer and sacrifice.

For the hours of sacrifice, Our Lady taught the little shepherds this prayer: