Oceania [Fiji], May 18: In May 1917, three Portuguese children declared that they had seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a meadow.
The prophecies they claimed to receive would later be used to bolster anti-communist sentiment during the Cold War, with believers linking the visions to the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1992, an eyewitness recalled the events for the BBC.
On 13 May 1917, 10-year-old Lúcia dos Santos and her younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, were tending sheep in a field in Fatima, Portugal, when they claimed to see a shining figure in an oak tree.
They said the apparition was the Virgin Mary, who told them to return to the same spot on the 13th day of the month for the next five months.
The children also stated that they received three revelations. Two of these secrets-which included a vision of hell and a request for the "conversion of Russia" from totalitarianism-were eventually made public and heavily utilized by anti-communist movements.
However, the "Third Secret of Fatima" was written down and kept hidden in the Vatican until the turn of the millennium. Speculation surrounding these secrets helped fuel the global phenomenon of Fatima, turning a rural shrine into an unlikely Cold War landmark.
Thousands of pilgrims gathered for the apparition's final predicted appearance on 13 October 1917. What they reported witnessing became known as the "Miracle of the Sun."
Francisco Ferreira Rosa, who was a child in the crowd that day, told the BBC's Newsnight in 1992: "All I saw was the planets in the sky in many colours. It was a miracle."
"Then there seemed to be a shower of flowers falling from the sky. It was like a snowfall. And then the Sun started spinning faster and faster like a wheel of fire. It lasted for about half a minute. By the end, it was going very fast."
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation
