History of the Consecration and Related Events

History of the Consecration and Related Events

July 13, 1917 (Cova da Iria, Fátima)

In the apparition of July 13, 1917, Our Lady reveals as the object of her visits the will of God to establish in the world devotion to her Immaculate Heart. By this means, souls will be saved from falling into hell, peace will reign, and war as punishment for sin averted. As proof, as it were, she prophecies the end of World War I, but warns that if sin does not cease an even greater war will result - one that will begin with a "strange and unknown light". She then tells them that to prevent this war, she will come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.

You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. It is to save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.

This war will end, but if men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light [this occurred on January 28, 1938], you will know it is the sign God gives you that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.

To prevent this, I shall come to the world to ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that on the First Saturday of every month Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins-of the world. If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and the world will enjoy a period of peace. In Portugal, the faith will always be preserved...

June 13, 1929 (Dorothean Novitiate House, Tuy, Spain)

While the now Dorothean Sister Lúcia de Jesus made a Holy Hour between 11 pm and Midnight, Our Lady returned as she had promised in July 1917.

The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. So numerous are the souls which the justice of God condemns for sins committed against Me, that I come to ask for reparation. Sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray.

Whereas in July 1917 the Blessed Mother foretold the rise of a great evil in Russia, at a time when no one could have imagined it, in 1929 that evil was beginning to spread outside its borders. At the Sixth World Congress held in Moscow from July 17 to September 1, 1928, it was determined to take under Soviet Communist Committee authority the nascent communist movements in other countries as chapters of itself, and oppose not only capitalism, which in 1928 it saw as being in its death throes, but also socialism, which it judged as fascist in character. Thus, it was at the beginning of the push for the internationalization of this ideological and social evil that Our Lady returned to Lúcia to ask for the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.

The Two Circumstances of the Consecration 

1929 

As Our Lady stated the Consecration of Russia has as its purpose: to save it by this means. Or, as put in the original 1917 preview, Russia would be converted. As a result of this conversion there would be peace. Hence, at that point in the 20th Century, when the internationalism of militantly atheistic Soviet communism is beginning, Heaven offers the remedy. 

After receiving this request from Our Lady, Sr. Lúcia immediately informed her confessor, Fr. José Bernardo Gonçalves, as well as the Bishop of Leiria, Dom José Alves Correia da Silva, in whose diocese the Fátima apparitions took place. By May 1930 Bishop da Silva had forwarded the written account of the request to Pope Pius XI. 

Already by 1931 the Blessed Mother complained about inaction on the part of the pope and bishops, saying,

“They have not chosen to heed my request … they will regret it and then will do it, but it will be too late. Russia will already have spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer.”

Sr. Lucia would herself directly write the next Pope, Pius XII, in 1940. While he would make effective use of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart during the Second World War (see the timeline below), he did not seek to fulfil the request to consecrate Russia until 1952, and then he did so by himself, without the participation of the bishops of the world. 

Post-WW II

“If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated.” 

In the aftermath of World War II, communism born in Russia was firmly in grasp of its own nation, as well as the satellite nations it had acquired as a victor of World War II. The errors of Russia were spreading, and soon China would be added to the list. By 1949 Russia, communism's principle “apostle,” had acquired nuclear weapons, precipitating the Cold War. Nations would indeed be annihilated, at least in the political sense, as they fell to communism, though the Cold War held out the possibility of actual annihilation, as well. The danger of a future nuclear age was likely indicated by Our Lady in her prophecy of "an unknown light", one whose characteristics had no natural equivalent, but was later found to be like those of a high-altitude nuclear explosion. 

In all the places communism took hold the Church suffered terribly, producing what has been accounted as more martyrs than all other persecutions combined. Almost included in this total was Pope John Paul II, who barely survived an attack on the Fátima anniversary of May 13, 1981 - an attempt which the evidence suggests was orchestrated by the Soviet Union. 

It was in surviving this attack that the Pope was set on the path to consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart. Attributing his survival to the hand of Our Lady he investigated the details of Her request regarding Russia, resolving to satisfy it. This he would do as a personal act in Fátima on May 13, 1982, and as corporate act from St. Peter's Square on March 25th, 1984, having the bishops join in from their own cathedrals. The historical events which followed this Consecration are given in the below timeline. 

The Conversion of Russia

Por fim o Meu Imaculado Coração triunfará. O Santo Padre consagrar-me-á a Rússia, que se converterá, e será concedido ao mundo algum tempo de paz. 

In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, which will be converted, and the world will be granted some time of peace.

What does it mean for Russia to be converted? Does it mean to become Catholic, or does it mean something more general? In both Latin and Portuguese, to convert is a general term: convertere (L) and converter (P), both mean to turn around. Similarly, the July 13, 1917, version provides a general promise to save them by means of the Consecration.

The people of Russia have had a tremendous devotion to Our Lady for hundreds of years, as well as an Apostolic Faith going back to Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 9th Century. They lack today only communion with the Roman Pontiff. This apostolic faith was persecuted under communism and its laws for over 70 years. That persecution ended in the wake of the 1984 Consecration, freeing Russians, and the peoples of the Soviet satellite nations, including millions of Catholics, other Orthodox, and non-Catholic believers, to publicly practice their faith in God once again, as well as ending the threat that the evil of atheistic persecution would be extended to new countries by the Soviet Union.

However, that evil had already spread under many guises into the institutions of the non-communist world. Today we see in the West that the militant atheism formerly found in Russia is now ascendant in our own countries, both in communist and socialism economic forms, but also in the secularism, humanism, scientism and practical atheism of many of the cultural, academic and political elites. 

As a result, the de-Christianization of the West is progressing rapidly. The remedy is the same as it was for Russia, the message of Fátima - a message of corporate and personal consecration, and prayer and reparation for souls. The remedies for persecution available within our cultural and political institutions are necessary, and should be utilized, but in the end they will be ineffective without recourse to the Blessed Mother, who by the Divine Will has been sent in our time to assist her Son's people in their trials.

Consecration Timeline

Letter of Sr. Lúcia to Pope Pius XII Requesting the Consecration of the World and Russia to the Immaculate Heart

December 2, 1940

Most Holy Father,

Humbly prostrated at your feet, I come as the last sheep of the fold entrusted to you to open my heart, by order of my spiritual director.

I am the only survivor of the children to whom our Lady appeared in Fátima (Portugal) from the 13th of May to the 13th of October 1917. The Blessed Virgin has granted me many graces, the greatest of all being my admission to the Institute of Saint Dorothy. (To here this is copy of the sketch the Bishop sent me.)

I come, Most Holy Father, to renew a request that has already been brought to you several times. The request, Most Holy Father, is from our Lord and our good Mother in Heaven.

In 1917, in the portion of the apparitions that we have designated "the secret," the Blessed Virgin revealed the end of the war that was then afflicting Europe, and predicted another forthcoming, saying that to prevent it She would come and ask the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart as well as the Communion of reparation on the first Saturday. She promised peace and the conversion of that nation if Her request was attended to. She announced that otherwise this nation would spread her errors throughout the world, and there would be wars, persecutions of the Holy Church, martyrdom of many Christians, several persecutions and sufferings reserved for Your Holiness, and the annihilation of several nations.

Most Holy Father, this remained a secret until 1926 according to the express will of our Lady. Then, in a revelation She asked that the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months be propagated throughout the world, with its conditions of doing the following with the same purpose; going to confession, meditating for a quarter of an hour on the mysteries of the Rosary and saying the Rosary with the aim of making reparation for the insults, sacrileges and indifferences committed against Her Immaculate Heart. Our good Heavenly Mother promises to assist the persons who practise this devotion, in the hour of their death, with all the necessary graces for their salvation. I exposed the request of our Lady to my confessor, who tried to have it fulfilled, but only on the 13th of September 1939 did His Excellency the Bishop of Leiria make public in Fátima this request of our Lady.

I take this opportunity, Most Holy Father, to ask you to bless and extend this devotion to the whole world. In 1929, through another apparition, our Lady asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, promising its conversion through this means and the hindering of the propagation of its errors.

Sometime afterwards I told my confessor of the request of our Lady. He tried to fulfill it by making it known to Pius XI.

In several intimate communications our Lord has not stopped insisting on this request, promising lately, to shorten the days of tribulation which He has determined to punish the nations for their crimes, through war, famine and several persecutions of the Holy Church and Your Holiness, if you will consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with a special mention for Russia, and order that all the Bishops of the world do the same in union with Your Holiness. I truly feel your sufferings, Most Holy Father! And, at much as I can through my humble prayers and sacrifices, I try to lessen them, close to our Lord and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Most Holy Father, if in the union of my soul with God I have not been deceived, our Lord promises a special protection to our country in this war, due to the consecration of the nation by the Portuguese Prelates, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; as proof of the graces that would have been granted to other nations, had they also consecrated themselves to Her.

Now, Most Holy Father, allow me to make one more request, which is but an ardent wish of my humble heart; that the feast in honour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary be extended throughout the whole world as one of the main feasts of the Holy Church.

With the deepest respect and reverence I ask for the Apostolic Blessing. May God protect Your Holiness.

Tuy, Spain, 2nd of December of 1940.
Maria Lúcia de Jesus

[Texts from Novos Documentos de Fátima, Fr. Anthony Mario Martins, SJ (Oporto: 1984).
English edition:  Documents on Fátima & Memoirs of Sr. Lúcia.  (Alexandria, SD: Fátima Family Apostolate, 1992)]