Sister Lucia will go down in history as one of the most persevering in fulfilling her mission to spread devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When it comes to the First Saturday Communions of Reparation, she never wavered in her efforts to spread the devotion especially as the signs of war approached. As the 100th anniversary of the request for the First Saturdays approaches on Dec. 10, 2025, signs of a possible world war are looming from multiple areas. Sister Lucia said in 1993 that this devotion is still very necessary to combat atheism and to help maintain peace and avoid another destructive world war as we await the full unveiling of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
From 1925 to 1938, Sister Lucia wrote numerous letters to her confessors and spoke ardently to her superiors about the necessity of this devotion of reparation. Recalling the July 13 apparition at Fatima when the Blessed Mother foretold a second “worse” war, famines, persecution and annihilation of whole nations, she said, “to prevent this,” I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communions of reparation on First Saturdays.
Lucia was given the First Saturday devotion on Dec. 10, 1925, in the chapel at the Dorothean convent in Pontevedra, Spain. Mary and the Child Jesus appeared to her and the Child spoke first, acknowledging the thorns that pierces His Mother’s heart and imploring us to have compassion and make reparation to remove them. The Child Jesus appeared to Lucia again two months later and asked what was being done to spread the devotion requested by His Mother.
As the signs of a second world war approached, Lucia increased her efforts to spread the First Saturday devotion, telling her confessor in several letters, “Our Lady promises to postpone the scourge of war if this devotion is spread and practiced.” And later, “Whether we have war or peace depends on this devotion.” Many priests began to spread it around Portugal, and on September 13, 1939, Bishop of Leiria Correa da Silva endorsed the devotion after seeing that the Fatima prophecy of war was coming true. Other bishops around the world followed suit and began to promote the devotion.
The Post-Consecration Era and the First Saturdays
On Oct. 11, 1993, Sister Lucia was interviewed by two cardinals, Ricardo Vidal of the Philippines and Antony Padiyara from India. She disclosed to them that in 1985 in the convent in Coimbra, Our Lady appeared to her and told her the consecration carried out by Pope John Paul II (March 25, 1984) saved the world from a nuclear war. Lucia warned, however, of the dangers that still existed because the devil does not sleep.
John Haffert writes about the interview in his book, Too Late?, “She delineated three phases of Fatima: the first was the apparitions; the second was to obtain the consecration of Russia so that it would turn away from atheistic Communism and persecution of religion; the third was to obtain the era of peace, while at the same time avoiding further use of atomic weapons. She said that in the first phase, fulfillment of the basic requests ‘would have prevented all the wars which took place at that time.’ In the second phase, ‘adding the First Saturday devotion to the basic requests can prevent the annihilation of several entire nations.’” (p 15)
Throughout the 1990s, John Paul II acknowledged these same sentiments and warned repeatedly of the dangers we still face. In his May 1,1991, encyclical Centessimus annus, he indicated a false conception in human nature and society which seeks solutions in political and economic spheres. He stated that atheism is the root of evil, the prime source of a false ideology.
On May 13, 1991, at Fatima, he renewed the consecration of the whole human race to Our Lady at Fatima aware that the “spirit of Communism” was still alive, despite the collapse of the Soviet Union. In his homily that day, he warned that Marxism could shortly be replaced by a new version of atheism, one that would advocate freedom on the one hand while striving to destroy the very roots of human and Christian morality. Later in Rome, he continued this theme in his general audience. The errors that Mary warned of at Fatima were being spread throughout the world in the 20th century and were still a danger, as they were turning people away from the Creator, cutting Him off from humanity and building a godless society, even one that was anti-God.
The First Saturday Devotion is Still More Necessary
Sister Lucia stated to cardinals Vidal and Padiyara in 1993 that we are in the “third day of the week of Fatima” – the post-consecration era – and Our Lady’s requests, especially the First Saturday devotion, are necessary to maintain peace in the world as we make our way to the fulfillment of the triumph. By peace, she was not referring to civil conflicts that will always erupt, but world wars that can annihilate whole nations. “To promote the Communion of Reparation is the means to combat atheism,” she said, fully aware of the atheistic ideologies aimed at the destruction of marriage, family and faith. She encouraged people to pray the Rosary with scripture meditations, work on our own personal conversions and do what Our Lady requested – including the First Saturday devotion.
In a letter of Oct. 13, 1997, John Paul II harkened again to the message of Fatima as the solution to our times. He said that Fatima was one of the greatest signs of our times not so much because of the miracle, but because it brings us face to face with the great alternative facing the world – peace or destruction – the outcome of which “depends on our response.” Our Lady of Fatima came with her specific requests “to save mankind from itself.”
Sister Lucia echoed this message, calling our response to Fatima, “a formula for holiness.” We are asked every day to live a consecration to her Immaculate Heart, make a morning offering, pray a rosary and do the First Saturday devotion. In these times especially, when so many Catholics have walked away from belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament or are indifferent and even sacrilegious while receiving Holy Communion, those who do make the First Saturday Communions of Reparation console the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and help garner grace and mercy for the conversion of sinners.
“For me, [the First Saturday] “is a great reason for hope,” Lucia told the cardinals in 1993, a hope that must be patient. “People expect things to happen immediately within their own time frame. The triumph is an ongoing process. But Fatima is still in its third day. The Fatima week has not yet ended.”
John Haffert speculated that when enough people do the First Saturday devotions, and when the Church fulfills what our Lord promised Lucia in 1930, that after the collegial consecration is made and the persecution of religion ends in Russia, “the [Holy Father ] will approve and recommend the practice of the reparatory devotion,” we will enter the fourth day of Fatima.
Barb Ernster is the National Coordinator/Communications Manager/Editor for the World Apostolate of Fatima USA.
