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The Three Secrets of Fátima consist of a series of apocalyptic visions and prophecies which by some are believed to have been given to three young Portuguese shepherds, Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, starting on 13 May 1917. The three children claimed they were visited by a Marian apparition six times between May and October 1917. The apparition is now popularly known as Our Lady of Fátima. According to the official Catholic interpretation, the three secrets involve Hell, World War I and World War II, and the attempted assassination by gunshot of Pope John Paul II. On 13 July 1917, around noon, the Virgin Mary is said to have entrusted the children with three secrets. Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in a document written by Lúcia, at the request of José Alves Correia da Silva, Bishop of Leiria, to assist with the publication of a new edition of a book on Jacinta.〔Zimdars-Swartz, Sandra L., ''Encountering Mary'' (1991), pg. 199〕 When asked by the Bishop in 1943 to reveal the third secret, Lúcia struggled for a short period, being "not yet convinced that God had clearly authorized her to act."〔Zimdars-Swartz, Sandra L., ''Encountering Mary'' (1991), pg. 203〕 However, in October 1943 the Bishop ordered her to put it in writing.〔Zimdars-Swartz, Sandra L., ''Encountering Mary'' (1991), pg. 204〕 Lúcia then wrote the secret down and sealed it in an envelope not to be opened until 1960, when "it will appear clearer."〔Zimdars-Swartz, Sandra L., ''Encountering Mary'' (1991), pgs. 208–209.〕 The text of the third secret was officially released by Pope John Paul II in 2000, although some claim that it was not the entire secret revealed by Lúcia, despite repeated assertions from the Vatican to the contrary. According to some believers, the purported prophecies and their actual realization were dependent on the personal request by the Blessed Virgin Mary to "consecrate Russia" to the Immaculate Heart. To this date, the formal consecration of Russia is widely disputed as incomplete among some Fátima devotees. Some claim the varying consecrations made by recent Popes are insufficient in fulfilling the specific request that the Virgin Mary allegedly made. Others consider the issue irrelevant due to the finished actualisation of the Second Vatican Council and World War II. == First secret == The first secret was a vision of Hell: Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.〔Santos, ''Fatima in Lucia's Own Words I'' (2003), pg. 123.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Three Secrets of Fátima」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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