The Third Secret
On 13 July 1917, Our Lady of Fatima revealed to the young seers, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta three secrets or a secret in three parts, only later to be revealed at the appointed time. The first secret is the vision of Hell which Our Lady showed to the children, and which, though lasting only a moment, was graphic and terrifying.
The second part of the secret is Our Lady’s warning of a chastisement to come if her requests were not heeded.
Both secrets were revealed by Sister Lucia in 1941.
The third secret the seer omitted in her memoirs.
She only wrote about this third secret in January 1944 at a request of the Bishop of Leiria, Dom José Alves Correia da Silva. On 26 June 2000, in accordance with specific instructions from His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released the text of the third secret.
This is the Vatican’s official English translation of the text of the third secret as published on the Vatican Website:
J.M.J.
The third part of the secret revealed at the Cova da Iria, Fatima, on July 13, 1917:
“I write in obedience to you, my God, who commands me to do so through his Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your Most Holy Mother and mine.
“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 before it,’ a bishop dressed in white, ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father’. [We saw] other bishops, priests, men and women religious climbing a steep mountain, at the top of which was a large Cross…Before reaching this point, the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins. He trembled with a halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, praying 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 large 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. Tuy, Spain, 3-1-1944”.