It was 1916 in Portugal near the village of Ajustrel, Portugal. Europe was in the middle of World  War I. Contrary to Pope Benedict XV plead, Portugal had just entered the war and the church in Portugal, especially in large cities, was dominated by the free mason anti-Church policies and politics when the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima took place. And it first started with the three apparitions of the Angel of Peace.

“… it was summer again but nothing notable occurred until one fine clear warm day when the  three shepherds, according to their custom, guided their flocks slowly toward a place known as Couza Velha. In the middle of the morning, when the sky became suddenly overcast and a fine mist scudded quickly down on one of those stiff, cold breezes from the invisible ocean to the northwest. They remembered of a half-cave at the Cabeço, near the rocky crest of the slope on which the sheep were grazing; and as quickly as possible they prodded them up the gradual
incline until seeing them huddled peacefully in the shelter of some trees; they themselves took refuge in the cave.

Not much of a cave for only a little bit of it is roofed. It was, however, the best to be found and the three continued their games as gaily as before. After a while they became hungry and ate their lunch. Then they knelt and recited the Rosary. Lúcia doesn’t remember whether they said all of it, or merely the skeletonized version “Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary …” She doesn’t recall but when they finished, the rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun and the sun was shining again. She and the others began throwing stones into the valley below.

They had enjoyed this sport only a few moments when, without warning, a strong wind began to blow across the tops of the pines, which swayed and moaned as never before. Startled by this, the three left off casting stones and looked about to see what the cause might be. Then they saw a light far over the tops of the trees. It was moving over the valley from east to west and coming in their direction. And though the illumination itself was unlike any they had ever seen, Lúcia recognized in it the strange whiteness of that “somebody wrapped in a sheet” that she had witnessed the previous year with the three other girls. It seemed indeed to be wholly made up of a radiance whiter than snow; and this time it drew nearer than when it was just over a small rock at the entrance of the cave, it became distinguishable as the form of “a transparent young man” of about fourteen or fifteen years of age, “more brilliant than a crystal, penetrated by the rays of the sun”, as Lúcia describes it – or “like snow that the sun shines through until it becomes crystalline.” And now they could see that he had features like those of a human being, and was indescribably beautiful.

Stupefied, speechless, they stood regarding him. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.” And kneeling on the ground, he prostrated himself until his forehead touched it, saying:

“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You!
I beg pardon of You for those who do not
believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You!”

Three times he spoke the same words while the children, as in daze, repeated them after him. Then, arising, he said: “Pray thus. The hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.” With that, he disappeared, as if he had been dissolved in sunlight.

The second apparition was a few weeks after the first. It was one of the hottest days of that summer. They had taken their sheep home at noon to enclose them during the blazing hours of the siesta, and were spending time at the well in the shade of the fig trees behind the Abóbora cottage, apparently with no thought of what was about to happen, when they looked up and saw him there beside them.

“What are you doing?” he demanded. “Pray! Pray a great deal! The hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs for you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High.” “How must we sacrifice?” asked Lúcia.

“With all your power offer a sacrifice as an act of reparation for the sinners by whom He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners. Thus draw peace upon your country. I am its Guardian Angel, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and endure with submission the suffering which the Lord will send you.”

He was gone. And again the children remained for a long time in a sort of ecstasy or exultation of spirit, adoring the Lord God whose messenger had been revealed to them. When this gradually fell away and they began to feel more like their ordinary selves, Lúcia discovered that Francisco had heard nothing of what the Angel had said, although, as before, he had seen him plainly. This must have been in July or August of 1916.

As nearly as Lúcia can estimate, it was probably late September or October 1916 when he appeared for the third and last time. Again they had been playing in the cave at the Cabeço, while the sheep strayed on the slope below; and after saying the Rosary, they were reciting the prayer in unison:

“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You!
I beg pardon of You for those who do not
believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You!”

They had said the prayer but a few times when they saw the same crystalline light come swiftly over the valley, and there he was, beautiful, resplendent, dazzling, hovering in the air before them. This time he held in one hand a Chalice, and in the other, over it, a Host. These he left suspended in the air while he prostrated himself on the ground and said:

“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly and offer You the most precious Body, Blood and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the earth, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences with which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.”

This he said three times. Then, rising up, he took the Chalice and the Host, and kneeling on the flat rock, held the white disk before him, saying:

“Take and drink the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly insulted by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.”

They could see drops of Blood falling from the Host into the Cup. He placed It on the tongue of Lúcia. To Jacinta and Francisco, who had not received first Communion, he presented the Chalice, and they drank of it. At the end he once more prostrated himself on the ground and said the same prayer thrice. The children repeated it with him, Francisco following the others, for he had not heard the words. Then, for the last time, the Angel of Peace faded away into the shimmering sunlight.

The sense of the presence of God on that occasion was so intense, according to Lúcia, that it left them weak and abstracted and almost with the sensation of being out of their bodies. It was Francisco, again, who was the first to return to ordinary reality…, … yet under their weakness they felt an infinite peace and felicity for which there were no words.

This curious sense of happy debility lasted for days and weeks. It was a long time before Francisco would venture to speak of what he had seen and felt. Finally he said:

“I like very much to see the Angel, but the worst of it is that afterwards we can’t do anything. I can’t even walk. I don’t know what the matter is with me.”

A few days later, when he had recovered his normal energy and spirit, he said: “The Angel gave you Holy Communion. But what was it that he gave me and Jacinta?” “It was also Holy Communion,” said Jacinta before Lúcia could reply. “Didn’t you see that it was the Blood that fell from the Host?”

“I felt that God was in me,” he said, “but I didn’t know how it was.” Then prostrating himself in the ground, he remained there a long time, repeating the second prayer of the Angel:

“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly and offer You the most precious Body, Blood and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the earth, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences with which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.” Such is Lúcia’s account of what happened to her and her cousins when she was nine, and they were eighth and six respectively.”

Excerpt from Our Lady of Fátima by William Thomas Walsh.