Joseph Pronechen - The Fruits of Fatima: A Century of Signs and Wonders

Joseph Pronechen

The Fruits
of Fatima

A Century of
Signs and Wonders

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2019 by Joseph Pronechen

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Cover by LUCAS Art & Design, Jenison, MI.

On the cover: Statue of Our Lady of Fatima (2858426) Antonio Jorge Nunes / Shutterstock.com.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Quotations from English translations of papal documents are from the Vatican website (w2.vatican.va) Libreria Editrice Vaticana. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
1-800-888-9344

www.SophiaInstitute.com

Sophia Institute Press is a registered trademark of Sophia Institute.

ePub ISBN 978-1-622828-159

For the three most important women in my life:

Our Blessed Mother, Mary, who has always been at my
side with her motherly concern and ever-present help;

My wife, Mary, who is by far the best loving helpmate
a husband could have, a tower of constant love, and the
model woman described in Sirach 26:14, 1318;

My mother, Pauline, who sacrificed much and was
a constant example of prayer and trusting in Jesus.

Contents

1. Appendix:

Introduction

The Miracle of the Sun, which took place in Fatima on October 13, 1917, is likely the greatest miracle since the ones recorded in the New Testament.

Between the occurrences in the New Testament and those at Fatima, there have been other miracles of magnificent scale. One that immediately comes to mind happened at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. The victory of the greatly outnumbered ragtag Holy League naval force, hastily formed by Pope St. Pius V to defend against a massive invasion of ships heading toward Europe, was immediately attributed to Our Lady and the Rosary. The result was that October 7 was declared the feast of Our Lady of Victory, soon to be renamed the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

But then came October 13, 1917, and the Miracle of the Sun. Thanks be to God, it startled more than seventy thousand people who were witnesses at the Cova da Iria that day. Many had come as pilgrims, others as scoffers. Many of the pilgrims had their faith strengthened. As for the scoffers, a number of them became believers. Even the secular newspaper reporters who came with a jaundiced eye, surely ready to prove the young seers to be frauds, reported in amazement what took place.

It was the miracle that Our Lady of Fatima had promised in July, when she told the children, In October I will tell you who I am and what I want. I will then perform a miracle so that all may believe. In August, she repeated, In the last month I will perform a miracle so that all may believe. Again, in September she reminded them, In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.

Our Blessed Mother had appeared every month, beginning in May 1917, and that October 13, during her final appearance, she performed the miracle she had spoken of. She also identified herself as Our Lady of the Rosary, repeating what she told the children during each apparition: pray the Rosary daily for peace a message she meant for every single person.

Along with the Miracle of the Sun, there are many fascinating, surprising, and little-known facts connected with the Fatima apparitions. The extraordinary events, which continued for years after the apparitions, further reveal and support the messages Our Lady conveyed not only to the children but to every one of us.

These surprising, forgotten, or little-known facts, from the obscure to the significant, will help us to understand the Fatima apparitions better, to see how others were affected by them, and to weave together amazing providential occurrences, adding more layers of meaning and proof of heavens plan and maybe even give us a chuckle or two.

If we are Marys children and we are then its time to learn more about Fatima. May the little-known facts and incidents in these pages give us new insights into Fatima and help us to discover and respond to the requests of our Mother.

Fatimas Wonders and Post-Apparition Phenomena

Lets begin with the biggest wonder of all the Miracle of the Sun, which was foretold by our Blessed Mother. The phenomenon not only reached the seventy thousand people at the Cova, but it has also reached across the decades to all of us. Father Ignacio Lorenco was, at the time, a nine-year-old in a village eleven miles away. He described how the village children were outside and witnessed the great Miracle, which one could see quite distinctly from the top of the hill where my village was situated. The sun, he said, suddenly seemed to come down in a zigzag, menacing the earth. Terrified, I ran and hid myself among the people, who were weeping and expecting the end of the world at any moment.

Many nonbelievers converted that day. Father Lorenco noted, Near us was an unbeliever who had spent the morning mocking the simpletons who had gone off to Fatima just to see an ordinary girl. He now seemed to be paralyzed, his eyes fixed on the sun. Afterwards he trembled from head to foot and, lifting up his arms, fell on his knees in the mud, crying out to Our Lady.

Father Lorenco said that people were asking God to forgive their sins. We all ran to the two chapels in the village, which were soon filled to the point of overflowing. During those long moments of the solar prodigy, objects around us turned all the colors of the rainbow. We saw ourselves blue, yellow, red, etc.... When the people realized that the danger was over, there was an explosion of joy, and everyone joined in thanksgiving and praise to Our Lady.

Of course, most of the observers were at the scene armies of eyewitnesses at the Cova da Iria, tens of thousands of them, fourteen times the population of the city of Leiria (which would be reestablished as a diocese three months later). Lets take a quick look at a few descriptions that set the scene.

Jacinta and Franciscos father, Ti Marto, said it was most extraordinary that the sun didnt hurt their eyes. Everything was still and quiet, and everyone was looking up. Then at a certain moment, the sun appeared to stop spinning. It then began to move and to dance in the sky until it seemed to detach itself from its place and fall upon us. It was a terrible moment.

Dr.

Looking at the horizon, Garret reported seeing everything and everybody appearing the color of amethyst.

He also said, Fearing impairment of the retina, which was improbable because then I would not have seen everything in purple, he turned around and, with his back to what he had witnessed, opened his eyes and saw that the landscape and the air retained the purple hue.

As the moments went on, he heard a peasant nearby say, This lady looks yellow. As a matter of fact, everything far and near had changed now. People seemed to have jaundice. He looked at his hands, and they, too, looked yellow.

More than the color change was the change in so many hearts, something even the somewhat anticlerical Lisbon newspaper couldnt help but report. It described the event with respect, even awe at times, mentioning how the spectators were shouting, A miracle! A miracle! The account also recalled the reverence of an elderly man: With his face turned to the sun, he recited the Credo in a loud voice.... I saw him afterwards going up to those around him who still had their hats on and vehemently imploring them to uncover before such an extraordinary demonstration of the existence of God.