About these experiences, Lucia wrote (1998, pp. 161–162): “The force of the presence of God was so intense that it absorbed us and almost completely annihilated us. It seemed to deprive us even of the use of our bodily senses for a considerable length of time. During those days, we performed all our exterior actions as though guided by that same supernatural being who was impelling us thereto. The peace and happiness which we felt were great but wholly interior, for our souls were completely immersed in God. The physical exhaustion that came over us was also great.”
On May 13, 1916, the children, out with their sheep, were playing on a slope at a place called the Cova da Iria. Suddenly they saw a flash of light. “We’d better go home,” said Lucia. “That’s lightning; we may have a thunderstorm.” The children took their sheep down the slope. As they were going, they saw another flash of light near a large holmoak tree. “We had only gone a few steps further,” said Lucia, “when, there before us on a small holmoak, we beheld a Lady all dressed in white. She was more brilliant than the sun, and radiated a light more clear and intense than a crystal glass filled with sparkling water, when the rays of the burning sun shine through. We stopped, astounded before the Apparition. We were so close, just a few feet from her, that we were bathed in the light which surrounded her, or rather, which radiated from her” (Maria Lucia 1998, p. 164).
The lady said to the children, “Do not be afraid. I will do you no harm.” Lucia asked, “Where are you from?” The lady replied, “I am from heaven” (Maria Lucia 1998, pp. 165–166). She told the children she wanted them to come on the same day and hour for the next six months. She said, “Later on, I will tell you who I am and what I want.” Lucia asked if she (Lucia) would go to heaven. The lady said yes. In response to further questions from Lucia, she said Jacinta would also go, and so would Francisco. The lady asked if they were willing to offer themselves to God and, for the sake of the sinners of the world, bear all the troubles He would send to them. The children replied that they were willing. The lady said the grace of God would be their comfort. Then, said Lucia, the lady “opened her hands for the first time, communicating to us a light so intense that, as it streamed from her hands, its rays penetrated our hearts and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in God, Who was that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors” (Maria Lucia 1998, p. 166). The lady asked the children to pray the rosary every day, to end World War I and bring peace. “Then she began to rise serenely,” said Lucia, “going up towards the east, until she disappeared in the immensity of space. The light that surrounded her seemed to open up a path before her in the firmament.”
On the spot, at Lucia’s urging, the children agreed to keep silent about the apparition. But that very night Jacinta spoke about it to her family. Once the word was out, they all found themselves speaking. Lucia experienced a lot of opposition from her family, particularly her mother. Lucia said, “My mother was getting worried, and wanted at all costs to make me deny what I had said. One day, before I set out with the flock, she was determined to make me confess that I was telling lies, and to this end she spared neither caresses, nor threats, nor even the broomstick. To all this she received nothing but a mute silence, or the confirmation of all that I had already said. . . . She warned me that she would force me, that very evening, to go to those people whom I had deceived, confess that I had lied and ask their pardon” (Maria Lucia 1998, pp. 32–33).
On June 13, the children waited at the appointed time and place for the lady to appear. Once more they saw a flash of light, and then the lady appeared again in the same holmoak tree as before. This time about fifty villagers were present, but they saw nothing. Lucia said to the lady, “I would like to ask you to take us to heaven.” The lady replied, “Yes, I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon. But you are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved.” The lady assured Lucia that she would not be alone. Then the lady opened her hands, and light streamed forth. Lucia said, “We saw ourselves immersed in this light, as it were, immersed in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light which rose towards heaven, and I in that which was poured out on the earth” (Maria Lucia 1998, p. 169). The revelation that Jacinta and Francisco would soon be taken to heaven was the first of three famous secrets of Fatima, later revealed by Lucia. In 1918, both Jacinta and Francisco were struck by influenza. Francisco died in 1919, and Jacinta died in 1920. Before her death, Jacinta had some personal visions of the lady.
Although no one else saw the figure of the lady on June 13, some of the people present did notice some paranormal phenomena. Reverend V. Dacruz, a Spanish priest who studied the history of the Fatima events very deeply, noted: “The day was bright and hot as it usually is in Portugal in the month of June. Now, during the entire period of the apparition the light of the sun was dimmed in an exceptional manner, without any apparent cause. At the same time, the topmost branches of the tree were bent in the form of a parasol, and remained thus as if an invisible weight had come to rest upon them. Those nearest the tree heard quite distinctly Lucy’s [Lucia’s] words, and also perceived in the form of an indistinct whispering, or the loud humming of a bee, the sound of the Lady’s answer, alternating regularly with the girl’s voice. At the end of the apparition, there was heard near the tree a loud report which the witnesses compared to the explosion of a rocket, and Lucy cried: ‘There! She is going away.’ At the same time the onlookers saw rise from the tree a beautiful white cloud which they could follow with their eyes for quite a while as it moved in the direction of the East. Further, at the Lady’s departure, the upper branches of the tree, without losing the curved shape of a parasol, leaned towards the East, as if in going away the Lady’s dress had trailed over them. And this double pressure which had bent the branches, first into a curve and then towards the East, was so great that the branches remained like this for long hours, and only slowly resumed their normal position” (Rogo 1982, pp. 224–225). After this second apparition, news of the strange happenings began to circulate all over Portugal.
On July 13, a much larger number of people, four or five thousand, gathered with the children to await the scheduled apparition. The lady appeared in the same way as before. Once again, onlookers, although they could not see the lady herself, saw the sun become dimmer, saw an orb of light over the tree where the lady was apparently standing, and heard a whispering voice reply indistinguishably to Lucia (Rogo 1982, p. 225). Lucia put a request to the lady: “I would like to ask you to tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that everybody will believe that you are appearing to us.” The lady replied, “Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.” The lady also asked the children to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the world’s sinners. Then the lady, light streaming from her hands, gave the children a terrible vision. Lucia said, “The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers.” Lucia added, “It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me” (Maria Lucia 1998, p. 170). The lady explained to the children that what they saw was the hell where sinners go and that if they followed her instructions they could prevent many souls from going there. This would also insure peace in the world. The lady told them, “The war [World War I] is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.” The lady said she would later come to ask for the conversion of Russia, saying that otherwise Russia “will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions” (Maria Lucia 1998, pp. 170, 174). The lady specifically said: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world” (Maria Lucia 1998, p. 110). The lady asked that this revelation be kept secret. This is the famous second secret of Fatima.