Our Lady of Fatima – Fourth and Fifth Apparitions of the Virgin Mary

July 3, 2022

Note to reader: It is suggested that you read the previous posts in this Our Lady of Fatima series before moving on to this one.

Fourth Apparition: August 15, 1917

On August 13, when the fourth apparition should have taken place, Lucy, Francisco, and Jacinta were not able to be at Cova da Iria because they had been carried off by the Administrator of Ourem who wanted to force their secret from them. However, the children stayed silent. At the customary hour at Cova da Iria, thunder was heard, followed by lightning. The spectators noticed a small white cloud that soared for several minutes over the ilex tree. They also observed phenomena of coloration on the faces of the people, the clothing, the trees, and the ground. Our Lady had certainly come, but she had not found the three children.

On August 15, Lucy was with Francisco and another cousin at a place belonging to her uncles called Valinhos. At around 4:00pm the atmospheric changes that preceded the apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria began to occur: a sudden drop in the temperature and a fading of the sun. Lucy, feeling that something supernatural was coming and was about to surround them, asked her cousin to run and call Jacinta, who arrived in time to see Our Lady. As with the previous occasions, she was announced by a flash of light and appeared over an ilex or holm-oak tree a bit larger than the one in Cova da Iria.

LUCY: “What is it that you want of me?”

OUR LADY: “I want you to continue to go to Cova da Iria on the thirteenth day and to continue to recite the Rosary every day. In the last month I will perform the miracles so that all shall believe.”

LUCY: “What do you want me to do with the money that the crowd left in Cova da Iria?”

OUR LADY: “Let them make two portable stands. Carry one of them with Jacinta and two other girls dressed in white, and let Francisco carry the other one with three other boys. The money on the two portable stands is for the feast of the Lady of the Rosary and that which is left over is for the support of the chapel which they are going to have built.”

According to the declarations of Sister Lucy to the prior of the parish of Fatima on August 21, 1917, which are confirmed by the replies to the canonical inquiry on July 8, 1924, this last statement belongs in the fifth apparition, where de Marchi places it. (Cf. de Marchi, p. 127).

LUCY: “I want to ask you to cure some sick people.”

OUR LADY: “Yes, I will cure some during this year.”

And then, in a sadder way, the Lady again recommended the practice of mortification, saying lastly: “Pray, pray a great deal and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because they have no one to sacrifice and pray for them.”

And, as usual, the Lady began to rise toward the east.

The three children cut branches off the trees over which Our Lady had appeared to them and carried them home. The branches gave off a uniquely sweet scent. (Cf. Memoirs II, p. 150; IV, pp. 342 and 344; de Marchi, pp. 127-129; Walsh, pp. 109-110; Ayres da Fonseca, pp. 61-62; Galamba de Oliveira, p. 89).

Fifth Apparition: September 13, 1917

As on the other occasions, a series of atmospheric phenomena was observed by the onlookers, whose number was estimated at between 15 and 20 thousand people, or perhaps more than that. There was the sudden cooling of temperature, the dimming of the sun to the point where stars could be seen, and a kind of rain resembling iridescent petals or snowflakes that disappeared before reaching the ground. This time in particular, a luminous globe was noticed, and it moved slowly and majestically through the sky, from the east to the west, and, at the conclusion of the apparition, in the opposite direction. Lucy, Francisco, and Jacinta saw, as usual, a flash of light, and immediately afterward they saw Our Lady over an ilex tree.

OUR LADY: “Continue to say the Rosary to bring about the end of the war. In October, Our Lord will come also, and Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus, to bless the world. God is content with your sacrifices, but He does not wish you to sleep with the ropes; wear them only during the day.”

LUCY: “They have begged me to ask you for many things: the cure of some sick persons, of a deaf mute.”

OUR LADY: Yes, some I will cure, others not. In October, I will perform the miracle so that all will believe.”

And then Our Lady began to rise and disappeared in the same manner as before. (Cf. Memoirs II, p. 156; IV, pp. 346 and 348; de Marchi, pp. 138-139; Walsh, pp. 115-116; Ayres da Fonseca, pp. 70-71; Galamba de Oliveira, p. 93).

Doubts Concerning Dates

Some doubt exists regarding the 15th of August, 1917. Sister Lucy herself did not remember it for certain. In Memoirs II and IV, she says that it was on this day. But in a letter to Dr. Goulvan, she gives the date of the 19th, writing in the margin: “I am more inclined to this date, because in order for it to be the 15th, we could not have been in prison more than one whole day, and I remember that were were there longer.” (Cf. Sebastiao Martins dos Reis, p. 43).

In the canonical inquiry on July 8, 1924, Sister Lucy gives an account, circumstantiated day by day, of her imprisonment (together with the other seers), and says that the three of them returned from Ourem on the 16th. Thus, the majority of the authors give the date of August 19, which corresponds to the subsequent Sunday, with certainty, since Sister Lucy remembers that the apparitions took place on a holy day.

But in her Memoirs II and IV, as well as in the canonical inquiry, Sister Lucy affirms decisively that the apparition of Valinhos occurred on the same day as her return from Vila Nova de Ourem. Snice the children were taken away on the 13th, if the apparition had actually occurred on the 19th, they would have had to remain imprisoned six days, which also seems excessive.

Thus, Galamba de Oliveira (p. 83) picked the 15th after having weighed the fact that there could have been an error in the counting of one day and one night in Sister Lucy’s narrative before the canonical commission in 1924. Besides, for this sort of error to have occurred would be perfectly understandable in light of the great tension that imprisonment induced in the three children.

The next post in this series will be about the sixth and last apparition that took place on October 13, 1917.