Fatima: A Miracle of Which None of Us Have Known

It is an astounding story which goes back 563 years, and 463 years before the Miracle of Fatima took place on 13 May 1917.

It starts on October 19, 1454 in the Dominican Convent in Alba, Italy. On her deathbed a nun, Sister Filippina, had a prophetic vision. Blessed Marguerite of Savoy, the founder and mother superior of the convent was witness. Part of it concerned the future trials of the ruling House of Savoy. But it also included a terrible prophecy, which has been recognized as that of atheistic Soviet Russia.

The prophesy envisioned:

               “A monster coming from the East, and bringing great suffering to humanity; this monster however, will be defeated by Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Fatima if all mankind will invoke her with great contrition.”

And it ended with:

               “Satan will cause a dreadful war but in the end he will lose because our Most Holy Lady, Mother of God and of the most holy Rosary of Fatima, stronger than an entire army ready to fight will defeat him forever.”

And what is so astounding about these prophecies?  Well, the year was 1454, in a Europe with very poor communication and very little education, when the Iberian Peninsula was still not entirely free of Islamic occupation. It is really doubtful that anyone in Alba, Italy had ever heard about a poor small village named Fatima in Portugal. 

Four and a half centuries before the apparition at Fatima, it was foretold to a dying nun in Italy. Most miracles are recognized only after they have happened. This amazing story, this miracle, was recognized only so many years after it happened, because it only became public when it was disclosed to the public by the convent in the year 2000. The Lord does, indeed, work in strange and mysterious ways.