Three Little Shepherds meet Our Lady of the Rosary; Chapter Four: The Lady Who came from Heaven

CHAPTER FOUR
THE LADY WHO CAME FROM HEAVEN

As Lucia left the Church after Mass that Sunday, May the thirteenth 1917, her eyes anxiously scanned the crowds milling around. A woman caught her eye.

"Morning Aunt Olimpia," she called, "Where are Francesco and Jacinta?"

Her aunt, dressed in deep black and wearing a mantilla, smiled humorously.

"Looking for you, of course, Lucia. Where else would they be? Where is your mother? I want to see her."

"Mother is still praying in Church, Aunt," Lucia answered absently.

Then her face brightened as she caught sight of her cousins. Swiftly she ran towards them.

Smiling and shaking her head, Aunt Olimpia gazed after the three friends. Lucia's mother, coming down the Church steps, also regarded the retreating backs of the cousins and winked at Olimpia. Then the two women chuckled together.

"What's their attraction for each other, Maria Rosa?" Olimpia asked her sister-in-law.

"I'm blest if I know," the latter replied, "but they seem to be good for each other. Have you noticed how they never quarrel among themselves lately?"

"Yes I have," Aunt Olimpia affirmed, "Even my little Jacinta seems to be growing up at last. Thanks goodness for that . . . Oh, bu the way, Maria Rosa, please just come and look at that shawl I'm knitting her from that pattern you explained to me. It looks all right bu . . ." and slowly the two women walked off together.

"See you at the Pool," Lucia called to her cousins before running indoors. Once inside the bedroom she shared with her sisters, she quickly removed her Sunday clothes and changed into a skirt and blouse. Then she pinned a thick veil on to her long hair to protect her head from the blazing Portuguese sun. She picked up the lunch basket which her mother had prepared for her before Mass and ran out to the shed. Having rounded up her sheep, she drove them to the Pool. A minute later, panting and out of breath, her cousins arrived.

"Hah! Beat you this time!" Lucia laughed gleefully, "Where would you like to go today?"

For a moment her cousins considered. Then Jacinta, in her new, diffident way, suggested:

"I'd like to go to the Cova da Iria today. That is unless you two would prefer to go elsewhere, of course."

"Yes, the Cova is lovely," Lucia nodded, "don't you agree, Francesco?"

"Of course we will! Let's go then."

Calmly and peacefully the three cousins herded their sheep to the Cova. Having reached it, they opened their lunch baskets and had their meal. Then they knelt down and together recited their Rosary. Then at last it was time to drive their flocks to the top of the Cova and start building their house. Francesco was the builder and Lucia and Jacinta liberally plied him with materials. Soon their house was in progress. As the three children industriously worked away at their project, they could not dream that a few years later the biggest Church in Portugal would be built on that very spot, to honour the Mother of God.

In the midst of their activity they were disturbed by a startling light, similar to a flash of lightning.

Abandoning their house, they fearfully gazed at the sky. Not a cloud could be discerned. Uncertainly theyr first regarded earch other, then gazed up at the sky again.

"Do you think there could be a storm brewing behind the mountains?" Lucia asked her cousins uneasily.

Then, taking a swift decision, she added: "We'd better go home quickly."

Her little cousins agreed nervously and they hurriedly collected their flocks and drove them down the hill. Halfway down, they observed another blinding lightflash cleaving the sky.

Too scared to utter another sound, the children hastened their steps. They had reached the bottom of the Cova when they suddenly stopped sharply, rooted to their tracks in wonderment.

There, to the left of them, above a leafy oak, only about a metre in height, stood a lady of great beauty, bathed in the most radiant light. So close were the children to her that they stood partly within the aura of light that surrounded her. Their hearts were pounding with fear and they wanted desperately to flee, but a Voice that filled the atmosphere while remaining soft and gentle, spoke to them with infinite kindness and warmth:

"Don't be frightened. I am not going to harm you at all."

As they timidly moved closer, their eyes drank in the heavenly beauty of the Lady.

She looked young, only about eighteen years old. Bathed in light, she was dressed in a snow white robe which hung to her feet. At her throat, the robe was trimmed with a golden cord, the ends of which reached down to her waist. A white veil, its edges decorated with gold embroidery, covered the Lady's head and reached down to her feet, which were bare and rested on a white cloud. Her lovely hands were clasped prayerfully, the right one holding a rosary of which the beads shimmered as gems. The most powerful impression the Lady's appearance conveyed to the children was one of the most radiant light.

The Lady looked at the children with an expression of such unutterable tenderness that their little hearts turned soft within them. Lucia, who seldom spoke unless spoken to first, now made an exception.

"Where does Your Excellency come from?" she asked.

"I am from Heaven."

"And what is it you want of me?"

"I have come to ask you to come here for six months in succession, on the thirteenth day at this same hour. Then I shall tell you Who I am and what I want. Afterwards I shall return a seventh time."

"You come from Heaven!" Lucia said, "And I, shall I go to Heaven?"

"Yes, you will."

"And Jacinta?"

"Also."

"And Francesco?"

"Also, but he will have to say many Rosaries!"

Although he saw the Lady's lips move, Francesco could not hear what She said. He was beginning to feel rather worried, for from the corner of his eye he had noticed their flocks entering a neighbour's pea field. He knew only too well what Papa Marto would do to the seat of his trousers if their sheep were to do any damage there. Should he just go and chase them quickly, he wondered.

"Tell Francesco to stay here quietly," the Lady instructed Lucia, "The sheep are doing no harm."

Lucia obeyed and Francesco relaxed.

Then the Lady, looking intently at the three shepherds, asked:

"Do you wish to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the sufferings that He may be pleased to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and to ask for the conversion of sinners?"

"Yes we do."

"Then you will have much to suffer but the grace of God will be your comfort."

Uttering these last words, the Lady opened her hands, showing them an even greater light than before. In this light they beheld themselves, bathed in the grace of God. Overawed, the children went down on their knees, inwardly repeating:

"Oh Most Holy Trinity, I love Thee. Oh my God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament."

A few moments later Our Lady added:

"Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and an end to the war."

Then the Lady ascended eastward and the light which surrounded her went on ahead of her as though to open the way to heaven for her and the children watched her departure until she disappeared in the light of the sun.

Photograph by Catherine Nicolette of wall art taken with permission, and thanks to the wall artist