Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine to “the Immaculate Heart of Mary” on Friday, drawing on a prophecy-laden request that Our Lady of Fatima is said to have made in 1917 regarding Russia, war, and the end of the world.
“The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world,” Our Lady of Fatima is said to have prophesied to three children.
The consecration took place on the Catholic feast of the Annunciation in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy, as the pope asked all the bishops, priests, and faithful around the world to join with him.
His prayers specifically ask Mary to “free us from war” and to “protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons,” the Catholic News Agency reported.
The move holds great significance for Catholics around the world, for it draws on the Marian warning that the world would greatly suffer under Russia if the country was not “converted.”
In 1917, three children tending sheep in Fatima, Portugal, described seeing visions of Mary requesting that Russia be consecrated to her “Immaculate Heart.”
Most faithful Catholics believe that these apparitions truly were Mary, the mother of God, and the Catholic Church recognized the apparitions as a miracle in 1930.
PopeFrancis leading Mass with rank of dedication🇺🇦&🇷🇺 to ImmaculateHeart of VirginMary according to Revelation in Fatima in 1917, when She asked to consecrate🇷🇺 in intention to convert it&prevent from doing bad things. So today’s rank is another attempt🇻🇦defend🇺🇦from devil’s🇷🇺war pic.twitter.com/sO32IhB1k2
— Andrii Yurash (@AndriiYurash) March 25, 2022
The church has since beatified two of the children, Jacinta and Francisco, who passed away at young ages from illness. This means they are in the process of being declared saints within the Catholic Church.
Lucia, one of the children who described seeing the visions of Our Lady of Fatima and later became a religious nun, said that Mary showed the children a terrifying vision of hell during one of her apparitions.
After this startling vision, Lucia said, Our Lady of Fatima told the children:
You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
The site where the children described seeing the Marian apparitions was Cova da Iria in Portugal, a field that has now become a pilgrimage destination that draws millions of visitors every year, the National Review reported.
Devotion to Our Lady of Fatima greatly increased by the end of the Second World War, which many Catholics believe Our Lady of Fatima had prophesied.
In a third “secret” that was not made public by the Catholic Church until the year 2000, Lucia said that Mary prophesied that a bishop, or pope-like figure, would pass through a ruined city praying for those he met along the way before he would be martyred with other religious:
After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’. And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father’. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.
Some have attributed these comments to the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, who has since been sainted by the Catholic Church.
The late pope credited Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life when a Turkish gunman attempted to kill him on May 13, 1981 — the anniversary of the Fatima apparitions.
He was reportedly hit by a bullet in his stomach, right elbow, and the index finger of the left hand, and that bullet was later placed in the golden crown adoring the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the village where she appeared.