Fatima, the First Hundred Years

On October 13th, 1917, some seventy thousand spectators in Fatima’s Cova de Iria bore witness to what Pio Scatizzi, former professor of astronomy at the Gregorian University, would describe as the “most obvious and colossal miracle of history”—the vision of the sun “dancing” in the heavens. In Fatima, the First Hundred Years, Barry R. Pearlman provides an invaluable theological and historical framework for understanding this “Miracle of the Sun,” the apparitions that preceded it, and their implications for the present day. 

Drawing extensively from the personal testimony of seer Lucia dos Santos and others, this book reveals the story of three young shepherd children and the “beautiful lady from Heaven” who visited them as they tended their flocks. While many books have been written concerning these events, Fatima, the First Hundred Years is unique in that it highlights an often-overlooked feature of the apparitions: the centrality of the Lady’s emphasis on her Immaculate Heart, which she described to Lucia as “your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” By properly placing this devotion at the heart of the Fatima message, Pearlman grants his readers not only a detailed overview of the 1917 visions, but a concrete method for carrying out Our Lady’s mission in a troubled world. Newly revised to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the apparitions, Fatima, the First Hundred Years is at once a comprehensive guide for the uninitiated and an invaluable resource for the historian, the skeptic, and the believer.