Lucia Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto (aged 9 and 7) would see these apparitions on the 13th of each month from May until October.
The lady who appeared to the children called herself the "Lady of the Rosary."
This Lady of course was the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary told the children many things over those 6 months. Most importantly, she told the children to pray to Jesus for the sins of the world. It is from these messages that the Catholic Church has added these words to the rosary: "O my Jesus, pardon us, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need."
Mary revealed 3 secrets to the children that have since been published by the Church. These secrets are somewhat open to interpretation and I won't go into detail. They can be read in their entirety online. Probably the two most fascinating revelations concern the conversion of Russia and a great violent persecution of the Church.
Mary promised a miracle would take place on October 17th, her final apparition at Fatima, so that all would believe. Tens of thousands of people came to see a miracle. What they saw was the sun appearing to "dance in the sky." Even skeptical journalists writing for secular newspapers reported this amazing event. This phenomenon has since been explained as a "visual artifact" (an optical illusion) caused by looking at the sun too long. However, those gathered would not have been looking at the sun but at the tree where the 3 children said the vision of the Lady had always appeared.
So, what are we to make of all this?
The Catholic Church regards Marian apparitions as private revelations and so Catholics are not bound to believe them. The Church spent some time enquiring into the events at Fatima and in 1930 the apparitions were deemed "worthy of belief." Again, the faithful are not obligated to believe in the apparition. There have been thousands of reported Marian apparitions over the centuries, but only a small handful have been deemed "worthy of belief" by the Church.
God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.
St. Paul's 1st Letter to the Corinthians 1:27-29
Let's start with the Blessed Virgin Mary. Of all the women in the world in which to become incarnate as a man, God chose Mary, a young woman living in a dusty provincial town at the edge of the mighty Roman Empire. This young woman's womb was to hold God himself.
As Mary sang to her cousin Elizabeth, "My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour. He looks on his servant in her lowliness; henceforth all generations will call me blessed . . . He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly . . ." (Luke 1:46,52).
The House of the Virgin by Guillaume Dubufe
Next, the children. It usually happens that Marian apparitions are reported by children or simple people (farmers, shepherds, housewives, etc.) Go back and read the passage from Paul's letter to the Corinthians above. So many of us are too sophisticated to be open to the miraculous. This partly explains why Christian culture is decaying in the jaded western countries of Europe and North America but growing vibrantly in Africa and Asia. And most importantly, in all Marian apparitions deemed legitimate by the Church, Mary speaks again and again of Jesus Christ and of repentance. Mary, like all the saints, continually points to Jesus. All the saints are mirrors of the Light of Jesus Christ, of God.
In this way Mary and all the saints show us how to live. As Saint John the Baptist said in regards to Jesus, "He must increase; I must decrease." (John 3:30)
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