On May 13th 1917, the Blessed Virgin appeared to three children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, as they were tending their sheep at the Cova da Iria, near Fatima in Portugal. They had recited the rosary, as was their custom each day, when they were startled by a flash of lightning. Looking up, the children beheld the Mother of God, who assured them they had nothing to fear.

She asked them to come to the same spot the 13th of each month until October. The apparitions continued, as Our Lady foretold, and on October 13th a crowd of 70,000 witnessed the miracle she had promised in confirmation of her message. The sun, with quick, abrupt movements, began to spin around like a wheel of fire, throwing out great shafts of coloured light which flashed and fell upon sky and earth. While this was happening, the children saw successive tableaux of the Holy Family, Our Lord as a young Man blessing the people, Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Soon after, Francisco and Jacinta died. Lucia entered the convent of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in 1925, where she became known as Sister Maria Lucia of the Dolors. Submitting to the mandates of Church authorities, she later disclosed many of the details revealed to her for the spread of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sister Lucia died on February 13th 2005, less than two months short of her 98th birthday. Pope Francis canonized the children Jacinta and Francisco on his visit to Fatima to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first apparition, on May 13th 2017.

The message of Fatima may be summed up in these words. Our Lady asked for penance, which she explained as fidelity to our everyday duties... for an offering of our sacrifices and sufferings for the conversion of sinners... daily recitation of the rosary... the devotion of the five first Saturdays... and consecration to her Immaculate Heart.

During the apparition of July 13th 1917, the Blessed Mother referred to the Communion of Reparation to be made on the first Saturday of each month. On December 10th 1925, Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucia at Pontevedra in Spain to relate the specific requirements about the first Saturday devotions.

“I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months will go to Confession, 1) receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the rosary, and keep company with me during a quarter of an hour, meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the rosary, 2) with the intention of making reparation to my Immaculate Heart for all the offences and outrages it receives from ungrateful men.”