Our Lady of Fatima 100 Years -- May 13, 2017

Attributed to Joshua Benoliel - http://www.santuario-fatima.pt in Ilustração Portuguesa no. 610, 29 October 1917, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6785257

100 years ago today, on 13-May-1917, three children tending sheep near the Portuguese village of Fatima saw a woman in white who asked them to pray the rosary and ask for an end to the war. Lúcia Santos and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, saw the lady on other occasions and came to believe that she was Mary the Mother of God.

As is always the case with apparitions, there was controversy.  The government of Portugal had a strong anticlerical element. 

On 13-July-1917, the lady gave three secrets to the children.  I remember when the third secret was released in 2000.  Some people claimed that the Vatican did not release the full text.

Jacinta and Francisco died in the influenza epidemic.  Lúcia became a nun.  I remember when she died in 2005.